Which book/movie affected you the most?

[Naama]

Ok, so, that'll be part of my entrance exam, but I think that's really a good question, and I had to think a lot about it. First, not really anything came to my mind, but now, I think it must be "on the road". Soemhow this book changed my whole way of thinking. It made me want to go out, do something, change something about my boring life, made me want to get free. Well, sure, when I read the book I was like 16 or so and to this day I never did anything crazy or so, but the thought of wanting to do that is still there......... Only thing, I quit school for art school..... But who knows, maybe one day Maybe it sounds insane, but I think this book changed me, or strengthened something that was already there.
So I wonder, am I the only one who was so affected by a book/movie/story/..... whatever.....

Naama

 

[pablocham]

Pale Fire by Nabokov.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'd have to say the movie that affected me most deeply was "Broken Blossoms" (1919). This was one of the first silent films I ever saw -- and I was only seven years old when I saw it, but it was and remains the most intense emotional reaction I've ever had to a movie.

For a book, "Huckleberry Finn" had a tremendous impact on me, making me realize that there were going to be times in my life when I'd have to choose between things I'd been taught to believe and things I knew to be right, and I never forgot that lesson.

 

[scotrace]

Opened My Eyes

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. - Dee Brown

 

[jake_fink]

Book: Narziss and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse

Movie: Lawrence of Arabia

Both when I was in my teens.

 

[Polyhistor]

For me it was On the Road too. Read it at about the same age, fifteen or sixteen, that seems to be the age you´re most sensitive to that novel, I think.
Needless to say, I didn´t jump a train or do anything unusual, but the book´s given me another perspective and a certain feeling of wanderlust that´s lingering on till today.
Who knows, maybe someday I´ll take the plunge.

Regards, A.

 

[VintageJess]

Books:

Survival In Auschwitz, Primo Levi
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe
The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw

Movies:

The Band of Brothers mini-series
The Civil War documentary by Ken Burns
Saving Private Ryan
We Were Soldiers

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

So I wonder, am I the only one who was so affected by a book/movie/story/..... whatever.....

Naama

Movie "It's A Wonderful Life" - makes me aspire to live at least somewhat of a more 30s-40s vintage lifestyle when done w/ school & time/money permits. (And, do all the TLC shows like "Trauma: Life in the ER" count?)

Swing High,
- Cousin Hepcat

 

[Mr. Jason]

Catcher in the Rye I read this book my senior year in college. I hadn't read a novel since I was about 9, yes I just scraped by in high school English. In the space of about a week 2 different people compared me to Holden, the main character in the book, so I figured why not. They were about 87% right.

I don't really have a movie in mind but The Outsiders really spoke to me in some way.

 

[Pilgrim]

I think that Robert Heinlein's examinations of the role of religion, personal independence and the military affected me a great deal. His books like Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land have meanings on more than one level, and they're worthy of repeated reading. They also carefully avoid providing pat or simplistic answers.

 

[Rosie]

Two movies that get the most emotional reaction from me are: The color Purple and The Joy Luck Club.

Books that have affected me most and I've re read these books over and over through the years because as I get older I understand them differently, they change for me:

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth by Monica Sjoo
and the one I've re read the absolute most

The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker which thus far is the best I've ever read.

A single line that has affected me most:

Nothing, no thing is more important than love- Gordon Parks.

 

[Hondo]

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. - Dee Brown

I second that, re-read from time to time, also a collection of short stories from John Steinbeck

 

[jake_fink]

The single line that has had the most influence is from Death of a Salesman.

Willy Loman's brother tells Willy, "The world is your oyster, but you can't crack it open on a mattress."

 

["Doc" Devereux]

The book was Neuromancer by William Gibson, which I read when it came out (I would have been about 12 at the time). The movie... Hmm. I think it might be Lawrence of Arabia, although Star Wars hit me pretty hard as a small boy, too.

I think that Heinlein's examinations of the role of religion, personal independence and the military affected me a great deal. His books like Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land have meanings on more than one level, and they're worthy of repeated reading. They also carefully avoid providing pat or simplistic answers.

I love Heinlein to pieces, and keep coming back to the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in Time Enough for Love. Some of the points he makes are excellent, even if I don't necessarily agree with them all.

 

[colleency]

I'd have to say the movie Star Wars affected me the most, although not personally. DH is such a huge Star Wars fan, that it has really changed my life. Similarly, the Indiana Jones movies. DH didn't have a good male role model, so he selected an amalgam from these movies as his role model.

It's a Wonderful Life is my favorite movie. I'm not sure that it changed my life, but I do try to keep its message in my mind throughout my life. "No man is a failure who has friends."

Some of the Heinlein novels had a great affect on me. I read them when I was 18, and I needed a great deal of reassurance in my life. They helped me get through a difficult time.

Please excuse any incorrect use of affect/effect I may have made. No matter how much I study it, I always have difficulty with those words.

 

[Paisley]

Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self Reliance." It gave me a lot of self confidence.

 

[Lady Day]

Book, movie, and score.

Beloved by Toni Morrison, movie by Jonathan Demme, score by Rachael Portman.

Im not a big Toni Morrison fan at all. I find her a real difficult read, and most of the time I have to read her two to three times to at least think I get it. But reading the book, with the striking visuals of the film and the ancestral sensation of the score affected me.

The characters have such depth and I felt connected to them in so many ways, especially the living daughter, Denver.

Hmmm its been a few years since I read Beloved, maybe Ill try it again.

LD

 

[Dixon Cannon]

One author - two books...

I certainly could add a whole long list of books that have affected my life, my thinking and my awareness - and in a later post I will compile a list and share it. But without any doubts the one author and the two books that most effected me and gave me a whole new awareness that is the central theme of my life now and is the basis of my core values, is the following:

LOOKING OUT FOR #1 --and-- RESTORING THE AMERICAN DREAM
by Robert J. Ringer

The principles outlined in these two books should be central to the coming of age of any child. They are witty, easy and uncomplicated, yet contain essential truths that seem to have been lost by our bureaucratic education system - thus, even the best of parents often fail to pass them on.

I personally have given away perhaps a hundred copies of these books to people I've met over the past thirty years. If you haven't read either, they're available at any used bookstore, in paperback, for less than five bucks.

-dixon cannon

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

It's a Wonderful Life is my favorite movie. I'm not sure that it changed my life, but I do try to keep its message in my mind throughout my life. "No man is a failure who has friends."

2 thumbs up

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Having had to answer this very question...*twice*

For the book anyway: once for my Literature AP exam in high school, once for a college application essay.

For both I chose <u>Atlas Shrugged</u> by Ayn Rand. I can't say that I still am an avid fan of her writing or philosophy but to a great extent her writing has shaped who I am.