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How Movies Have Ruined My Life | Libby Edwards
How Movies Have Ruined My Life
It was at the age of four that I saw my first R-rated movie, Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Ever since then I have been completely obsessed with films. I currently own over 200 dvds and have watched almost any movie you can imagine. I am still traumatized from watching “Juno” when I was 7, a film about a pregnant teenager who has an unhealthy obsession with Sunny-D (Trust me when I say that watching “Juno” with your parents is not a good idea). It’s through these movies that I have gained so much knowledge and perspective on the world itself.
As much as I love these movies, the truth is, movies have ruined my life!!! It’s true, movies have given me such high expectations for my life. When I was little, I would watch “Halloweentown” every year and recite all of the spells that I heard. I was just waiting for the day that I turned 13 and became a witch, little did I know, that day would never come. I soon moved from kid movies to Rom-Coms. I started watching all the John Hughes movies and Molly Ringwald became my inspiration. I watched “Sixteen Candles” when I was 13 and I was so looking forward to my 16th birthday, where I would meet my own “Jake Ryan” and end the night blowing out the candles of my birthday cake in a bridesmaids dress. That day was a real bummer.
I have now moved on to the classics, my current favorite being “Good Will Hunting,” a movie that combines math, boston accents, and Robin Williams’s unlimited sweater collection, what’s not to like? This movie brings me to a whole new level of sadness. While it is much more realistic than most of the movies I have watched, it’s so close to being real that I can’t use the excuse “that only happens in the movies.” Yes, a secret math genius living in Boston may not be that realistic, but the relationships between the characters is what makes it so realistic and makes me so sad. The relationship between Matt Damon and Robin William’s characters alone is a bond strong enough to make anyone jealous.
I guess I’ve learned that our lives will never be like the movies, I mean how could the be? Movies are perfectly scripted, the people make perfect speeches and no matter what mistake they made, they are always forgiven. The thing that’s so different about life and movies is that movies end, yes so does life, but they end when everything is going great, when the couple ends up together and is unbelievably and disgustingly happy. They never show you what happens ten years later when the couple could be divorced or just plain miserable. “La La Land” got it right. (SPOILER ALERT) Mia and Sebastian didn’t end up together because they knew that if they did, their dreams wouldn’t come true. That’s real life, making tough decisions and not marrying Ryan Gosling (unfortunately). Every now and then though, try and live like you’re in a movie. Go do something crazy and adventurous, make your boyfriend/girlfriend put a boombox on their shoulder outside your window or sing a high school musical song to you. If your life isn’t as exciting as a movie, make it be. “It’s funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you watch them on a screen.” -Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Below is my list of 150 movies that I recommend you see (in no specific order):
The Godfather (film series)
Scarface
Top Gun
Goodfellas
Kill Bill
Roman Holiday
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Casablanca
Cast Away
Whiplash
Big
The Da Vinci Code
Philadelphia
Jaws
Catch Me if You Can
Django Unchained
Good Will Hunting
Dead Poet’s Society
Taxi Driver
The Graduate
It’s a Wonderful Life
Singin’ in the Rain
The Shining
Almost Famous
Chinatown
Lawrence of Arabia
Some Like it Hot
Apollo 13
Spotlight
Psycho
American Psycho
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
The Birds
Rear Window
Misery
Malcolm X
Groundhog Day
Schindler’s List
The Shawshank Redemption
Sense and Sensibility
Pulp Fiction
The Usual Suspects
Fargo
Saving Private Ryan
American Beauty
Fight Club
The Matrix
The Sixth Sense
Brokeback Mountain
The Hurt Locker
The Exorcist
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original)
Dawn of the Dead (original)
American Hustle
A Nightmare on Elm Street (original)
Halloween
E.T.
The Goonies
Wolf of Wallstreet
Die Hard
Beverly Hills Cop
Airplane!
Caddyshack
Boyz n the Hood
Annie Hall
American Graffiti
Rocky
12 Years a Slave
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Strangers on a Train
The Pursuit of Happiness
The Dark Knight
Inglorious Bastards
The Silence of the Lambs
Room
No Country for Old Men
Million Dollar Baby
Prisoners
Memento
Boyhood
Sunset Boulevard
Frankenstein (original)
Zero Dark Thirty
Moneyball
Slumdog Millionaire
Boys Don’t Cry
The Breakfast Club
Beetlejuice
Seven
Sound of Music
Forrest Gump
Footloose
Grease
Titanic
Pretty Woman
Poltergeist (original)
Back to the Future (film series)
Argo
Ghostbusters (original)
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Wizard of Oz
Raging Bull
Inside Out
12 Angry Men
The Lion King
Star Wars (original trilogy)
Bridesmaids
Rain Man
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Stand by me
The Green Mile
Terminator 1 & 2
The Departed
Gladiator
Apocalypse Now
Alien
Reservoir dogs
Braveheart
A Clockwork Orange
To Kill a Mockingbird
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Jerry Maguire
Risky Business
Gone with the Wind
Mary Poppins
Shrek
Birdman
Planet of the Apes(film series)
Star Trek(film series)
Dirty Harry
The Professional
Moulin Rouge!
All About Eve
Die Hard(film series)
A Few Good Men
As Good as It Gets
Avatar
Gone with the Wind
The Sandlot
Rocky
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Color Purple
A Christmas Story
Gladiator
West Side Story
The Artist
Rebel Without a Cause
Mr. Holland’s Opus
The Social Network