Most impactful cinema moment
 

I was watching The Empire Strikes Back last night with the kids and I had an incredibly strong memory of the first time I saw this film and how it changed me.

Spring 1980 - Suburban Northern Virginia
I was 10 years old and already a rabid Star Wars fan. I had known the second film was coming for months, but when the opening weekend grew closer I realized I wasn't going to get to see it on opening day. My folks were planning on taking to visit some friends in Raleigh that weekend - OH NO!!!

As I was panicking I get a birthday invitation. My neighbor John D**** was having an Empire Strikes Back birthday party...on a Thursday night...to see the sneak preview...in Downtown Washington D.C... the night before the film opened wide!!!!

I was in heaven until dad said "you aren't going out late on a school night, and especially not into the city." D.C. was the murder capital of the U.S.A. at that point and my folks were waaay paranoid (and rather racist at that) they claimed it was for my own good.

I was crushed. After many tears and two days of deep depression, my mother finally convinces my dad to let me go.

The night is amazing. I'd been into the city plenty to visit the memorials or the Smithsonian, but never at night, and never without my parents. We get to the theater - six ten year-olds with a divorced mom watching over us - and the ushers hand out Empire Strikes Back programs (I still have mine - even if it is a little ratty.) We're bugging out, it has concept art and character bios...And then the film starts.

It's dark, there's so much more menace than in the previous installment. It's like Star Wars is growing up with me. Degobah is creepy, Han gets frozen - :eek: Totally didn't see that coming. And then the words that broke my brain

I AM YOUR FATHER

no...no way...it's a trick, a lie, anything but the truth...it can't be!

I had never been so deeply enthralled in a film, so completely in awe of a cinematic experience. We walk out of the theater in a daze, like we'd experienced a prepubescent equivilent of a whole body orgasm.

And then Return of the Jedi comes out three years later and the films stopped growing up with me. In fact the've grown more childish and simplistic with each installment. But that moment - amazing.



The next closest approximation was seeing Pulp Fiction on opening night - the needle in the heart...you could feel the entire audience being sucked into the screen.

How about you guys?

Anyone else have a transformative cinema event?

I still remember seeing "The Land Unknown" on TV in the early 70's. I was VERY small. Maybe four years old? A helicopter is flying through an arctic region shrouded in heavy fog, trying to find its way home. While the occupants discuss what they're going to do, a pterosaur, as big as the helicopter, swoops out of the fog. No warning whatsoever. This is a moment of total, jaw-dropping shock and I clearly remember my reaction.

Completely out of left feld. The pterosaur flies out of the fog, squawks, accidentally bumps into the helicopter and damages it. The helicopter is forced to land on a mysterious island, and suddenly we're in a dinosaur movie.

For years it was just a memory of that scene and a couple of others and I had no idea what the film was called. Then I finally saw it again around '95. Ah, THAT was the film!

Oddly enough, Jedi was a similar experience for me as Empire was for rod.

It wasnt opening night, but i was 7 so that wasnt really a consideration back then. We lived in Indiana, and i had been dying to see it. By that point i had seen the first two several times (An advantage of growing up on military bases was that you sometimes got to see movies that had been out for years in the theater) and was dying to find out what happened to Han. When i saw Empire the first time, i think it was the very first time i had ever seena movie where at the end i thought "There is going to be another one, there has to be".


I had already seen adds for toys, we had the dixie cups in the bathroom for when we brushed our teeth. i had even seen a little bit of behind the scenes stuff on Entertainment tonight or somethign like that.


My parents got my sister and I in the car and drove out to Peru, whihc was about 20 minutes away. We got dinner at mcdonalds, then ended up in a crappy looking theater parking lot. We waited for a while, then my parents got us out of the car and told us we were going to see a movie. Now i have been a movie buff ever since i saw my first (For your Eyes only, at a drive in, but that is another story), so i was excited anyway. The theater was a little scary, the ticvket booth had a bullet hole in the window if that is any indicator, but we got our tickets and went in.

They never made a peep about what we were going to see, but once that music started up, i godamn near jumped out of my skin. the next 2 hours were nothing but lightsabres, dogfights and Carrie Fisher in a metal bikini.

That night always stuck with me, and i get those same goose bumps when i go to a theater to this day. My reaction was quite a bit less excited by the end of the last movie i saw in a theater (Doom....)

you need to go to the theater...like today! ditch work early or call in sick tomorrow and catch a matinee. Don't even tell the wife!

You really need to go to the cinema!!!!!!!!

Actually, the mother in law is going to be here on friday, and we are planning on hending her the baby and going out. We usually have dinner, but we have been considering just seeing a movie (although, i would love to see a movie then go to dinner...)

This actually ties into a conversation in a different topic. Mine is very recent: Children of Men. The climactic scene; the 7 Minute Shot, the long walk, up until that one explosion. It's the only time I've ever been close to tears during a movie when it wasn't from something being really depressing.

It was 1984, and I was six. I knew we were going to see a movie called Dune, but that's all. Pizza with mum, dad, my brother, and his friend (both of whom are named Josh).

I sat in that theatre entranced by that film. Of course I couldn't possibly take all of it in at that time in my life. However, I got a good deal of what was going on, and man was it cool for me. The whole idea of these worlds, these women who use this terrible voice, the character Paul and who he was, the relationship between his mum and his dad (she was his concubine, because that's what she was supposed to be, but he was gonna marry her, but died first, right?). I guess for a six year old kid... It just blew my mind.

Jaws literally kept me out of the ocean for awhile....I know how cliche that is but its true.

The final fifteen minutes of the Godfather are simply devastating. Watching Michael change from a warm-hearted vet who just wants to do what's right by his family into a cold-blooded monster is one of the more chilling experiences I've had watching a film. This was the film that turned me into an avid cinephile.

My dad made the mistake of taking me to see Life force, that was a hell of an expierience, I was embarrased to watch most of it and he felt bad for taking me.

what's it about?

I love that movie,didn't have to watch it with my dad though.

it's vampires from outer space, but the lead vampire was a smoking-hot babe who walks around the film nude

I saw it with my dad too and we both loved it.

were all the vampires naked?

were you high-fiving each other?

just trying to get a funny father/son relationship in my head going.

Dad's a movie lover and it was a cool movie. Nudity never made either of us uncomfortable. My mother would have squirmed a little, but the old man taught me to be cool in any situation. It was a great lesson that has served me well, and as a result I really don't have too many hang-ups about anything.

Trying to do the same with my kids. I keep them away from the more extreme violence (cartoony shit is fine) and porno, everything else is fair game. They ask questions and I then have an opportunity to have an open dialogue with them.

WOW....this is like the third time in a couple of months where I could use this pic.:)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../lifeforce.jpg

I never had a problem with nudity in movies. I don't think you could like horror and be adamantly opposed to nudity in movies at the same time. Watching movies with family always sucked though, I remember my mother ranting for 15 minute during titanic about it being smut. ugg maybe that's why I'm kind of the opposite. If there's a bunch of random naked people in a movie I get a bit of a kick out of it. Like I get a kick out of the idea of a movie about naked vampires in space. They probably should have called it "Naked Vampires in Space" if they wanted tons of people to watch it. :p Was it popular?

newb: she's pretty.

read the reviews on imdb
"it's so bad it's almost great"

I don't even like the "so bad it's good movies" though. How serious could someone make a movie about naked vampires in space? I think a serious hollywood director needs to take on a project like this. haha

Well I've been misinformed! :mad:

Is it a popular movie among people not on this forum?

Mine was most definately ET.
The only movie to ever make me cry.

Mathilda May is very hot in "Lifeforce" and she looks great in"The Jackal"1997 too.

Do you have the unrated version of Lifeforce?You can see a lot more of her in it.

this thread got a little hmm distracted?

The point of my post is I was young and embarresed.I wanted to watch but...........

Cinema moments, hmm, probably when I woke up at the end of the 6th sense, and didn't see what all the fuss was about.

I've mentioned this before, but I saw Fatal Attraction when I was nine. I don't know, and my mum doesn't know why she took me. I understood the film, which says a great deal about me. Whether that says good or ill is out for debate.

Little Flayed, setting in the theater watching Conan the Destroyer. When the scene with the purple monster in the mirrored room came on, I was in awe. Still one of my favorite movies and one of my favorite scenes.

I don't neccesarily remember specific instances in the films that rocked me, but some films that, overall, just blew me away the first time I saw them were....

Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Dawn of the Dead
The Matrix
Scarface
Reservoir Dogs
The Terminator




I once took a girl out on a first date to see Boogie Nights. It ended up being a good way to learn she was pretty conservative & let's just say there was no second date.

That's great! I used to take dates to see Pink Flamingos (which played every Friday at Midnight at the Biograph Theater in DC) as a litmus test. The ones who liked it were awesome, and the ones who hated it never wanted to see me again. Perfect.

Scenes in movies that really impact me are usually scenes of extreme bad assness. like in the Hill have Eyes remake when the dude is praying for his life, then lashes out and kicks everyones ass, that had me on my seat screaming "YEAH! GET THAT MOTHERFUCKER!!"

also some really emotional scenes get to me too. like when Deniro is smashing his head up against the jail cell in Raging Bull.

I suppose I could add Kids, Memento & Run, Lola, Run to my list too. They all pretty much rocked my world in completely different ways.

oh...who felt the chills run up thier spine when that kid vampire was
tapping on his brothers hospital window to let him in ..
on Salems lot ..