Films that Changed Your Life

I think I made a thread with this exact title a while back haha. No biggie, it's been dormant a couple years, let's start fresh.

Batman (1989)
I can tell you exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first watched the opening scene. I was a little kid, couldn't have been more than 6, and I saw on the TV Guide station that Batman was playing 5 minutes later. I only knew of Batman because they played the Adam West show continuously so I was pretty excited to watch. Instead I watched the 'I'm Batman' scene and was floored. This wasn't Batman, this was something new, something awesome. It became the movie that really did bring me out of the childhood bubble of Aladdin and Mary Poppins. It was the first 'adult' movie that I really remember watching and made me excited to watch movies. About a year later Batman Returns came out and I begged and pleaded to watch it. Unfortunately my mom was being a total bitch that year and refused to take me. She did however rent it on VHS immediately after it came out which made no sense but I saw how Michael Keaton was still Batman, it was the first time I noticed who the director was and I started to notice things that carried over from the first one. A couple years later when I heard that Michael Keaton was no longer Batman I was pretty floored but Batman Forever is another conversation. Batman really was instrumental in my growing up and introduction to what movies do and that's what makes me pretty partial to it as you all know perfectly well.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Like Batman, Terminator 2 opened even more doors into what movies could do. I watched as big rigs flew off freeways, helicopters crashed into SWAT vans and liquid metal villains materialize from a tile floor. It introduced me to Arnold, to swearing, to hard violence and mature adult themes (mainly saying the F-word). James Cameron became my go-to guy since I recognized his name from Aliens, the first R-rated movie Doomsday ever watched. T2 was on constant rotation in my room after I snuck my family's portable TV/VCR into my room so I could watch movies after my parents went to sleep. Much of the effect it had on me was similar to Batman's but it was taken to another level. 'People can make this' was a thought that went through my head and only made me more curious to see what was out there. It's also a great damn movie which doesn't hurt either.

Frankenstein (1931)/Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
I didn't post about it in the other thread but these are especially personal for me.  My grandma died when I was eight and it was pretty devastating for me.  To cheer me up my uncle took me to Warehouse Video and rented James Whale's Frankenstein.  I thought it was really cool, he told me some neat trivia about it and it served as my introduction into classic films as well as horror films.  Six weeks after my grandma died, my grandpa also passed away.  My same uncle flew back out to Californian and we rented Bride of Frankenstein.  I was equally impressed and maybe it's because my grandparents had just died, maybe it's because I was having trouble processing it but it kind of triggered this sense of the macabre.  I didn't kill animals or dig up graves or anything, I just started to gravitate toward books, television and movies that had that grim and dark aesthetic.  It didn't last too long because I'm not much of a horror guy these days but those movies helped get me into old films, they introduced me to the Universal monsters legacy and frankly helped get me through a pretty tough time in my life.  On a side note, although I was getting into those movies it didn't register with me that other kids my age probably didn't give a shit.  I went to a friend's birthday party and when they were deciding on a movie to rent I said 'let's rent The Mummy' which I wanted to see but hadn't at that point.  We rented it and a room full of kids hated it so much the mom went back out to the video store to get something else.  I had to deal with some shit for a while after that.  Life lessons I guess.  

Star Wars (1977)
As cliche as it may be, the truth cannot be denied.  Star Wars was the first movie I ever saw in a theater that wasn't strictly kiddie fare.  Before then, my Mom would take my little brother and I to Charlie Brown movies, Disney's live-action films like Freaky Friday and The Shaggy D.A., plus any Disney animated re-release, but that was about it.  I asked my parents to see Star Wars because I appeared to be the only kid in school who hadn't seen it.  They reluctantly agreed, despite being concerned that all the "ugly monsters" would scare my little brother.

My childhood is to my mind divided into two halves, before Star Wars and after Star Wars.  Admittedly, the advent of Star Wars in my life coincided with a number of other important milestones, but it's the part that's had the most lasting impact.

His Girl Friday (1940)
I caught this film for the first time while channel surfing at about 2am in my late teens.  I had watched plenty of black & white movies over the years, but they were mostly monster movies or Tarzan flicks.  They were fun but nothing that required my undivided attention.  I was immediately pulled in, even though I'd missed the entire first act of the film.  The characters were funny, quick witted and determined to get what they want regardless of the cost.  I was so impressed with everything about it that I sought His Girl Friday out at the video store at my earliest opportunity in order to see the complete movie.  I'd never avoided black & white movies before, but I'd never actively sought them out, either.  I'd mostly just accepted them as part of the TV landscape as something to watch if there wasn't anything else on.  I even watched all the other adaptations of The Front Page that were made before and afterward, but none of them even come close to His Girl Friday.

I began to seek out more black & white movies playing late night.  After going off to college and finally gaining access to cable television, Turner Movie Classics immediately became a go-to channel for me.