Painful Movies

[Usagi]

Ugh.  I forgot Life is Beautiful.  Never Again... will I watch that movie.

[BigDave]

I should have mentioned "spoiler alert" before my "Special Bulletin" comment but it's still not bad for a made-for-TV-movie from that era.  My same reaction to Testament, too.  I don't remember much from it other than being depressed after seeing it years ago.  I really miss movies like "Fail Safe" that had first class acting to carry the movie rather than non-stop CGI crap.


Speaking of painful movies, from the visceral sense, one of my favorites is "Hannibal."  It's still tough to set through Hannibal's special dinner with Ray Liotta at the end without a little squirming.

My friend almost threw up when Ray Liotta told Hannibal that His brain tasted good

[ItsOver]

My friend almost threw up when Ray Liotta told Hannibal that His brain tasted good

I just about lost it with the final scene with Hannibal and the child on the airplane when Hannibal decides to share his "meal." 
Is there anybody who makes a better "bad guy" than Hopkins playing Hannibal?

[Sardondi]

Ugh.  I forgot Life is Beautiful.  Never Again... will I watch that movie.

I won't watch it ether...but because of the Italian poster child for preventing mental retardation, Robert Benigni. I can only hope he's killing himself with a life of coke, Scotch and street hookers.

[BigDave]

I just about lost it with the final scene with Hannibal and the child on the airplane when Hannibal decides to share his "meal." 
Is there anybody who makes a better "bad guy" than Hopkins playing Hannibal?

He should have gotten an Oscar for that role

[Treading Water]

Testament, I vaguely remember some of it, but nothing in detail.  I've tried to track it down on YouTube and Netflix, but I can't find it. 

I think I almost reached Old Yeller sob level after Testament.  I have it , but can't bring myself to watch it ever again.

[ItsOver]

He should have gotten an Oscar for that role

At least he got it for "Silence of the Lambs."  I actually prefer "Hannibal" to "Silence of the Lambs."   The settings in Florence are beautifully staged and shot.  The violent scenes are a little over the top and not necessarily needed for the film but Hopkin's performance is award-worthy and Ridley Scott pulled-off a magnificent but under-appreciated film, in my opinion.

[somatichypermutation]

somatic hypermutation made reference to Glengarry Glen Ross, the powerful 1992 David Mamet movie with the all-start cast of Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Jonatahn Pryce and others. It reminded me of great movies which are nonetheless difficult for me to watch.

Thanks for the shout out.

The movie I have trouble sitting through, even today, is a Clockwork Orange.  Extremely disturbing scenes and violence that was truly shocking at the time.

Part of the one scene: A Clockwork Orange - Break-in Scene (Warning: Graphic)

[PhantasticSanShiSan]

Umberto D

13 Tzameti

[onan]

I forgot a movie that was painful. Painful in a "I think I am going to vomit and I cant get enough showers" kind of way. Eraserhead.

[UnscreenedCaller]

I forgot a movie that was painful. Painful in a "I think I am going to vomit and I cant get enough showers" kind of way. Eraserhead.

+ 1. Twenty-five years later and I still remember Eraserhead and not in a really good way.


Another painful movie: They Shoot Horses Don't They?. No one even bothered to go to the adjoining coffee place afterwards. It was empty as a tomb. And Ironweed. I know it's a good book. I enjoyed the book, but seeing the movie left me depressed for days afterward.

[Sardondi]

I forgot a movie that was painful. Painful in a "I think I am going to vomit and I cant get enough showers" kind of way. Eraserhead.

Made it through about 8 minutes.

Umberto D

So sad.

...Another painful movie: They Shoot Horses Don't They?. No one even bothered to go to the adjoining coffee place afterwards. It was empty as a tomb. And Ironweed. I know it's a good book. I enjoyed the book, but seeing the movie left me depressed for days afterward.

Both painful. I was not quite as moved by TSHDT as Ironweed the movie, which had my chest hurting from the effort not to weep. So, so human and painful. You can see how an otherwise normal, decent person's life can spin out of control by random or otherwise innocent acts. Kennedy is one of those painful authors I tend to avoid.

I also avoid some directors. I'm no fan of Bergman, although I saw some of his major works because I felt a duty/ But the bleakness, pointlessness and hopelessness of existence expressed in The Seventh Seal is so depressing that I simply can't comprehend how someone with this world view can bear to live. It's a powerful film and I've seen it several times. I couldn't finish Wild Strawberries because of the bitterness and loss of the lead character, but I probably cheated myself out of a happy Bergman ending, or at least "less hopeless".

And just thought of a movie that is extremely painful but also somewhat hopeful. I don't enjoy it per se, although I've seen it or parts of it, several times, but there is some sweetness in it, but at the same time exquisite hurt: Magnolia.

[Eddie Coyle]

 
            I'll get on my moral soapbox here...

             Fucking Scarface, the 1983 De Palma/Pacino vehicle, which is unfortunately has become an cultural icon...in all the worse ways. Urbania is clogged with 12 year olds walking around with the Scarface poster on their T-shirts. A coked Pacino with an assault rifle. Terrific. There are no cautionary tales when you're dealing with fools. So that movie, while entertaining to base instincts, is ultimately pernicious in the long run.

          Kurt Vonnegut famously walked out of the premiere in '83 quite annoyed, telling the press that clearly De Palma and Pacino had never actually seen somebody shot or killed.
         

[BigDave]

            I'll get on my moral soapbox here...

             Fucking Scarface, the 1983 DePalma/Pacino vehicle, which is unfortunately has become an cultural icon...in all the worse ways. Urbania is clogged with 12 year olds walking around with the Scarface poster on their T-shirts. A coked Pacino with an assault rifle. Terrific. There are no cautionary tales when you're dealing with fools. So that movie, while entertaining to base instincts, is ultimately pernicious in the long run.

            Off soapbox.

Scarface is one of My favorite movies,I watch it whenever I can

[BigDave]

The "Story of O" was a painful movie to watch. Bloody S&M throughout the whole movie

[ItsOver]

            I'll get on my moral soapbox here...

             Fucking Scarface, the 1983 De Palma/Pacino vehicle, which is unfortunately has become an cultural icon...in all the worse ways. Urbania is clogged with 12 year olds walking around with the Scarface poster on their T-shirts. A coked Pacino with an assault rifle. Terrific. There are no cautionary tales when you're dealing with fools. So that movie, while entertaining to base instincts, is ultimately pernicious in the long run.

          Kurt Vonnegut famously walked out of the premiere in '83 quite annoyed, telling the press that clearly De Palma and Pacino had never actually seen somebody shot or killed.
         

Agree and can we just "Say goodbye to the Say hello......." quote.  Enough already.

[Usagi]

Sleepers is a pretty rough viewing.

Any Japanese gore-fest à la Ichi the Killer or Suicide Club is pretty painful to watch, usually in an absurd manner.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

Sleepers is a pretty rough viewing.

Any Japanese gore-fest à la Ichi the Killer or Suicide Club is pretty painful to watch, usually in an absurd manner.

You have seen Ichi the Killer? That has to be one of the weirdest movies I have ever seen. Can't say I would watch it again.

[ziznak]

watched suicide club recently.  couldnt get through it.  There was this other one "the audition" that was really interesting.  I found a really good article about heroins and penises... im sorry phallics... the Neo-phallic mother role of women in certain movies. Ripley from aliens is supposed to be the epitome of these types of characters.  "The Audition" and other japanese movies like it tend to hold my attention even though they can be hard to watch.  The dialog is what I find most interesting.  I love when things are translated literally and I have to try and think about exactly what the hell is being said.
here's that article:
http://networkologies.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/the-neo-phallic-mother-of-capitalism-in-takashi-miikes-audition/

[Sardondi]

I'll get on my moral soapbox here...

             Fucking Scarface, the 1983 De Palma/Pacino vehicle, which is unfortunately has become an cultural icon...in all the worse ways. Urbania is clogged with 12 year olds walking around with the Scarface poster on their T-shirts. A coked Pacino with an assault rifle. Terrific. There are no cautionary tales when you're dealing with fools. So that movie, while entertaining to base instincts, is ultimately pernicious in the long run.

          Kurt Vonnegut famously walked out of the premiere in '83 quite annoyed, telling the press that clearly De Palma and Pacino had never actually seen somebody shot or killed.

What are you talking about? Everybody knows that Hollywood's constant bombardment of its audience with images of extreme violence and cruelty, and scenes of the infliction of suffering and pain, have no effect whatsoever on our society. Just because movies and tv constantly drown us in ever more shocking images of blood and pain doesn't mean we're desensitized to violence and pain, you silly person. If that were true, our movies would be increasingly more violent and shocking according to earlier standards, and audiences would demand ever more violent and offensive.....uh, and everyone knows Hollywood's movies are just the same as they were in the 50's....wait...and movie audiences are just as shocked at the off-screen murder of someone today as they would be at a close-up of a throat-slitting.......okay, wait......uh.....I twisted something around somehow but I.... uh, I don't.....uh.....

[Eddie Coyle]

 
         The Bridge(2006) Harlan County USA (1976) Grizzly Man (2005)

         Non-fiction. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) It was re-released in 1990, unrated, and 15 year Coyle saw it three times at theaters. The third time(4/26/91) was with a girl I was going out with at the time. I warned her that she'd hate it, but she insisted, saying that Freddy and Jason didn't scare her etc...she walked out after the "party" with the new camcorder scene. I didn't walk out with her. Needless to say, that relationship didn't persevere.

[Eddie Coyle]

What are you talking about? Everybody knows that Hollywood's constant bombardment of its audience with images of extreme violence and cruelty, and scenes of the infliction of suffering and pain, have no effect whatsoever on our society. Just because movies and tv constantly drown us in ever more shocking images of blood and pain doesn't mean we're desensitized to violence and pain, you silly person. If that were true, our movies would be increasingly more violent and shocking according to earlier standards, and audiences would demand ever more violent and offensive.....uh, and everyone knows Hollywood's movies are just the same as they were in the 50's....wait...and movie audiences are just as shocked at the off-screen murder of someone today as they would be at a close-up of a throat-slitting.......okay, wait......uh.....I twisted something around somehow but I.... uh, I don't.....uh.....

        Here's my anecdotal evidence of American audiences and how desensitized they are to violence, but some things still "shock".

           I'm ashamed of this, but one of the last films I saw at the theater was Diehard 3( ) on June 3, 1995. There's scene were Bruce Willis is forced to wear a sign saying "I Hate Niggers" or something in Harlem...the capacity crowd in the Copley Square theater in Boston was gasping when they saw the sign, pin-drop silence type of shit(take a wild guess which irreverent attendee was laughing )...however, later in the film one of those mysterious take over the world Central European baddies is graphically "eviscerated"...the fuckin' crowd was carrying on, giggling. Words shock them, not visuals. Trained seals have more independence.

          I'd see three more films in theaters before my embargo began on 11/22/95 and has continued for the last 6,311 days...and counting.

[Juan]

I saw "Love Story" in the theater.  I laughed when Al Gore's wife died.  What's-her-name-#1 elbowed me in the ribs hard enough to separate cartilage.  A very painful movie for me.

[Sardondi]

...I laughed when Al Gore's wife died....

And I laughed when I read that.

[Treading Water]

          Grizzly Man (2005)

Oh, I forgot about that one.  Damn.  And I had it totally blocked...     

[yumyumtree]

I've never seen Thelma and Louise again.  Once was enough. I never had a desire to see Magnolia again, either, though its good.

Some of the others mentioned, such as A Clockwaork Orange and Leaving Las Vegas, are favorites that I have seen numerous times.

A Woman under the Influence is as difficult movie to watch, but good. In the Realm of the Senses, a Japanese film, is quite disturbing.