Which book/movie affected you the most?

[skinnychik]

Book: Guns, Germs. & Steel by Jared Diamond
My life will never be the same.

Movie: Crash
How disturbing. It should be required viewing though.

 

[kampkatz]

book/movie

"To Kill a Mockingbird" Both the book and movie(which was as faithful to the book as any film I have ever seen). Atticus Finch(played by Gregory Peck) was the model of integrity that I have thought of over the years for inspiration in the face of overwhelming odds. Peace to all.

 

[Miss Dottie]

So many choices, but I think I'll have to say:

Movie: Rushmore
I love how it celebrated misfits and how friendship goes beyond one's own generation/class, etc. Something about Wes Anderson's work just gets me.

Book: Too many! But I love the Anne of Green Gables series
It's the equivilant of hot chocolate in book for for me. So comforting and celebrates a lifestyle that is completely gone now, but so missed!

Oh, and To Kill A Mockingbird is wonderful. Plain and simple.

 

[GateXC]

Books:

"A Hero of Our Time" by Mikhail Lermentov

"Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh


Movie:

"Chariots of Fire"

 

[Steve]

Books:

The Bible
The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien. I find Tolkien's poetry very deep also.

In addition to those, I love all the books by the following authors:
Rudyard Kipling
Jules Verne
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Robert Louis Stevenson
H. G. Wells
H. Rider Haggard
Clive Staples Lewis
E. D. E. N. Southworth
G. A. Henty

These writers' books taught me the full potential of the written word.

Movies:

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
What else can I say? The films are moving in so many ways.

Finding Neverland
As I'm trying to become a writer myself, I loved the depiction of an author taking everything he saw and turning it into a masterpiece.

Raiders of the Lost Ark
That film ignited so many surging, raging emotions in me. It was instrumental in awakening my love of archaeology and history. I've never been the same since I first saw it.

 

[Lady Day]

Book: Guns, Germs. & Steel by Jared Diamond
My life will never be the same.

Movie: Crash
How disturbing. It should be required viewing though.

There have been two movies by that name in the modern time. You mean the 2005 version, right?

LD

 

[ITG]

Book: The Bible (life changing)

Movie: Maybe the Indy trilogy or Star Wars trilogy, as they both have brought me tonss of friends via online forums and/or going to sci-fi conventions, not to mention my fondness for those 2 things drew my fiance to me. Movies dealing with the holocaust also have a big impact on me internally.

 

[Samsa]

It's impossible for me to pick just one book. There are several that are responsible who I am and what my interests are. They are:

The Bible (with deuterocanonical books)
The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)
Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (translated by Paul Schmidt)
The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake

The first one is obvious; the last three are responsible for my longstanding interest in poetry/literature.

Movies affect me much less than books do. I can't think of a movie that has changed my life or significantly altered my perspective.

 

[Novella]

Books:
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen- Fanny Price is my heroine.

I haven't read the book yet, but the Fanny Price of the movie version is one of my heroines! (She comes after Cassandra Mortmain of "I Capture the Castle" and June Forsyte of "The Forsyte Saga" though so I didn't put "Mansfield Park" in my post.) I think I really need to head to the library now.

 

[harmonslide]

I'd venture to say that a few of the 20th century dystopian novels prompted me to do a good deal of thinking...

Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
1984 -- George Orwell
Fahrenheit 451 -- Ray Bradbury


I am a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut's writing, my favorite book of his probably being Slaughterhouse Five.


As of right now, the book that influenced my views most profoundly was Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I agree a good deal with what she puts forth. For the first four hundred pages I was in total disagreement and hated the book (but felt compelled to finish it)... my views changed severely in the next six hundred or so pages.

 

[Lauren]

I haven't read the book yet, but the Fanny Price of the movie version is one of my heroines! (She comes after Cassandra Mortmain of "I Capture the Castle" and June Forsyte of "The Forsyte Saga" though so I didn't put "Mansfield Park" in my post.) I think I really need to head to the library now.

Yay!

The Fanny Price of the book is different- much more outspoken and "liberal" almost, but I love them both. In the movie they were incorporating some of Jane Austen's early works and her letters into the story as well. I think most Austen fans hate it- but I really do love the interpretation they took.

Samsa- I love William Blake. His poetry is so rich in undertones. I took a class of my own free will in college of English Literature and he was one of my favorites.

 

[skinnychik]

There have been two movies by that name in the modern time. You mean the 2005 version, right?

LD

Yeah, I meant the 2005 movie. I didn't know there was another. :eusa_doh: Please excuse the ignorance.

 

[Fred G.]

Books: The Bible, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Success Principles by Jack Canfield (The Chicken Soup for the Soul guy)

Movies, none really come to mind...

The first Rocky was great...

 

[Rosie]

Yeah, I meant the 2005 movie. I didn't know there was another. :eusa_doh: Please excuse the ignorance.

Rent the other Crash and you'll see why whe asked you that. lol

 

[skinnychik]

I'll put it in my netflix queue...I take it they're nothing alike?


Wait...um...after reading the summary I think I'll skip it. Yes, I meant the 2005. Geez the other one sounds...different.

 

[Robert Conway]

'1984' and 'The Animal Farm' by George Orwell.

I read it in 1984, when I was rather young and have re-read it several times since. It scared the living daylights out of me, because it isn't just fiction, but a unbelievably accurate and true analysis of how totalitarian regimes control the masses by manipulating the actual language (Newspeak) and controlling the media, thus controlling recorded history itself.

I believe it may be among the most important books ever written.

'!984' is a flashing red warning sign to all of humanity. It should be required reading in every school.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Next: Same author; two books

Ayn Rand

The Virture of Selfishness

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

-dixon cannon

 

[scotrace]

I found "Crash" SO disturbing I didn't make it past the first 30 minutes. Maybe I'm a wimp, but seeing so much mistreatment of others brought out my self-protective instinct and I stopped it. The film just solidified my long-time dislike for Matt Dillon.









.

 

[Sachet]

I found "Crash" SO disturbing I didn't make it past the first 30 minutes. Maybe I'm a wimp, but seeing so much mistreatment of others brought out my self-protective instinct and I stopped it.

.

I stopped it as well. I couldn't comprehend the need to embrace so many negatives aspects of life and when I started flinching in anticipation of someone's pain, that was it.

 

[Weston]

Well, as you might imagine, the Bible. The only book that ever REALLY, really changed my life. My life, my vocation, my entire outlook on things.

Movie? It's gonna sound cheesy, but Return of the Jedi. Saw it as a kid, and was the child of divorced parents. Seemed to be made for me - yeah, I was kinda dorky and scrawny, and I had some issues with my dad, but if Luke could save the universe, maybe I could too. And at the end of the day, Dad still had some good in him after all. I really think my generation has more of a connection to these movies than other previous generations can realize. For some of us anyway!