Mark Boone Mr. PajeauCOM 101-01128 February 2005 Movies That Touch the Heart In the movie Garden State, Natalie Portman’s character is trying to get Zach Braff’s character to do something really stupid and silly, and says “This is your one opportunity to do something that no one has ever done before and no one will copy through-out human existence. And if nothing else you ” ll be remembered as the one guy who ever did this… this one thing.” It’s movies like this, movies that are written with great meaning, that I walk away from with just this warm unexplainable feeling. Movies that have the creator’s blood, sweat, and tears in the soul of the movie, not just thrown together at the end just to make the quick buck are the ones worth seeing. Movies that are made up from filmmakers not money hungry producers, like Garden State, Cool Hand Luke, and The Last Samurai are the ones you remember.
These movies to me were movies made with a particular purpose and not just to make as much money as possible, even though they did. Garden State is a movie that is about a troubled twenty-something-year-old kid coming back home after the tragic death of his mother. He hasn’t been home in nine years, because of some fallout’s with his parents. While he is home, he runs into old friends from high school and meets this girl he eventually falls in love with. Now that’s the typical Hollywood storyline and typical movie formula, but the purpose of this movie is underneath the sheets. Zach Braff directed this movie and had the lead role.
It was his first doing both. And it was independently produced, so all the Hollywood big shots didn’t want to take a shot. The movie is about finding inner self, finding purpose in what you do, and what others do. It inspired me to make every moment something unique. You know, try and be yourself and whatever becomes of yourself.
Don’t worry about other opinions or other people’s prejudiced judgments. If I could take one thing away from Garden State it would have to be: You are what you are for a reason, whatever that reason is, it shouldn’t be because others want you to be that way. Another example of a movie that has inspired me would have to be one of the greatest movies of all time, and in that I mean Cool Hand Luke. This movie is a movie I can watch time and time again.
Paul Newman gives a hell of a performance, playing Luke. The whole story of this rebellious inmate, part of a southern chain gang, who goes against all rules was magnificent. He would try to escape time and time again even after getting the shit kicked out of him, he would do it again and again. Someone bet him that he couldn’t eat 50 eggs in an hour. He did it just to prove them wrong, even though it made him violently ill. But the scene that gave me that feeling of “wow” was when he was boxing one of the inmates and he didn’t fight back.
He got the fuck knocked out him. And kept standing right back up each time it became more difficult. But he kept on fighting to get up until his opposition stopped fighting. This movie makes me wish I was more like Luke, to be able to go against the rules and not care, to do what you want when others say you can’t or shouldn’t. Just to take a chance once in awhile. The Last Samurai is a classic epic about an American soldier displeased with what he has become who disagrees morally with his country’s actions.
He becomes a drunk and out of work, wishing to just die, until he is nearly killed in the battlefield against the Japanese Samurai. He is instead captured and held prisoner. He develops this friendship with the samurai and their families. He also takes a liking to their way of life and what their priorities are. The samurai took pride in everything.
They would die before they let somebody take their pride away, even if they had to take their own life. When I was watching this movie I couldn’t leave the television screen. I was so wrapped up in the movie waiting to see what was going to happen next. This movie inspires me to do what I feel is right, to believe in what I wish to believe in, and do whatever it takes to do that, fight to the very end for what I believe in. There are many movies that have touched me and many more that haven’t.
Some inspire me to become a filmmaker, some inspire me just become a better person. Either way it’s because of the movies that I feel this remarkable feeling as I watch the credits roll. Film to me is more than just things blowing up, or naked teenagers getting slashed in the woods. It’s more than the soldier leaving his love as he goes off to war, to just return when she has already loved again. Yes, these are what make up a great portion of our film and are all artistic, and that’s the great thing about film. Film can be expressed in so many different ways.
But I go to the movies to watch and hope that this one will be the one I will be talking about for the rest of my life. That somewhere in the next two hours of my life I will be blown away by the talent and effort put into making the gem, not the quick instant coffee approach that so many people are taking in just about everything they do these days.