Movies & Books that remind us of voicelessness......why do they remind us?

[Meh]

What film moves you?
Which scenes impact you the most?
How does it make you feel when you watch it?
Why is it a significant movie to you?

It was suggested by Phoenix that a movie list be started. Here we go.

So far these are the movies:

Gran Torino
Pan's Labyrinth
Carrie
Old Yeller
August Rush
Ami also stated that fairytales and kid's movies do it for her.

[Meh]

I'm adding "Under the Tuscan Sun", yes it is a saccharin and fake happy ending movie but it has it's moments.
Within the director's comments were some interesting statements including the fact that she made the character motherless because in Myths and FairyTales motherlessness is a precondition for becoming a heroine.

This movie does not really have anything to do with voicelessness. What I do like is that the director says she is always looking for ways to beat up her characters. The director calls it "extended cruelty". Despite all the character's efforts she still feels alone. This I can relate to.

The movie was about broken hearts and not necessarily between a man and woman, one was between a woman and woman.
It was romantically related though. It did have this character of an excentric woman who did not seem to be in love, she was dating a younger man, so she may be an example of a different version of a non-romantic broken heart.

[JustKathy]

"Boogie Nights"

This movie took place in the town where I grew up, during the time I was in high school, so there was much for me to relate to. No, I never worked in the porn industry, but the family dynamic that forced the lead character to leave home and go into that business really hit home.

The part that really affected me, was in the beginning, before the Mark Whalberg character runs away from home. There was a scene where the mother is beating up on him relentlessly over breakfast, and the father just sits there at the breakfast table, reading the paper, as if nothing is happening. I can't tell you how many times that exact scene played out in my house.

[HeartofPilgrimage]

I don't know about movies, but I can contribute some books ... L.M. Montgomery hit narcissism on the head in several of her books! To be honest, until I started reading people's biographical stories on this message board, I thought Montgomery was exaggerating her characters. If you have never read her books, the ones I am particularly talking about are: Jane of Lantern Hill (the maternal grandmother in the story is a narcissistic tyrant, the paternal aunt is a narcissistic sneak); The Blue Castle (about an ACON kept under the thumb of an entire narcissistic clan until ... until ... well, I won't spoil the story in case somebody really gets interested and goes out to get it). In both of these books the female protagonist is voiceless (until she acquires a voice, that is!).

In Emily of New Moon, there are a couple of minor characters that are narcissistic, and one of the main characters, Aunt Elizabeth, is an ACON that became very rigid and cold due to her father's narcissism. However, if you read the whole story, you realize she is NOT narcissistic but just has an impaired ability to connect with Emily due to her own childhood. L.M. Montgomery had to have either experienced narcissism in her own family or at least to have observed it very close up.

[Meh]

Charlotte's Web:

For it's loneliness, sadness, weakness, abandonment and loss of innocence.
Wilbur's only friend is a little spider, he is a runt, he may be turned into sausage at any moment. This is really scary for a pig and kids!
All the odds are against him and the only thing that saves his life is an impossible miracle that would never happen in the real world.
Wilbur's best friend in the whole wide world dies.

[HeartofPilgrimage]

Oh my gosh, How did I miss thinking of Harry Potter??????????? He was voiceless until he discovered he was magic!

[Ami]

I love Charlottes  Web!                  Ami

[ShakeSenora]

"Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood" with Sandra Bullock and Ellen Burstyn = excellent example of watchable (narcissitic) storyline, good acting, and (rare) happy ending.

[Lollie]

A few of my favorites.

Garden State
Harold & Maude
I [Heart] Huckabees
Being There

[JustKathy]

Oh my gosh, How did I miss thinking of Harry Potter??????????? He was voiceless until he discovered he was magic!

Oh yes! That's a good one. And Harry also had to live with a Golden Child, that wicked cousin who was spoiled rotten.

I also think about the family dynamic in Saturday Night Fever. The John Travolta character (Tony?) was always put down by his parents - he was a loser and a failure in their eyes. The golden child was his brother, the one who was a priest. Tony was voiceless until he hit the dance floor. Dancing was his escape. The family scene at the dinner table, where they're all arguing (yet still doting on the Golden Child), is an absolute classic.

[Meh]

The Power of One Movie based on the book by Bryce Courtenay

The character (Peekay) is orphaned, is a misfit in his school, as a kid his only and best friend is a ROOSTER! He is bullied. He randomly meets a rag-tag group of imperfect adults who help him develop some skills in life (they teach him how to FIGHT). His personal story is set against apartheid Africa. The movie is about personal power and social power. I haven't seen this movie for years and years…now I want to see it again.

This movie made me feel hopefull because it has an underdog that I want to cheer for, it feels so good to see him succeed against the odds. I liked the humanness of the characters, even though the adults themselves are suffering and are "losers" in a way, they still are able to contribute something important to the main character's own growth. I also like that he learns to fight and stand-up for himself, that is something that I relate to personally.

[Nonameanymore]

How about Magnolia? From pain to knowing to more pain...

[Ales2]

Steel Magnolia's - specifically the Mother/Daughter relationship in that one
Terms of Endearment
Foxes
Ordinary People - Mary Tyler Moore makes my Nm look like a warm person
Prince of Tides -  price of family secrets
Stepmom - not a great movie, but the Sarandon character vascillates between N and warmth
Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood
How to make an American Quilt


...hmmm this gets me thinking ....

[Meh]

Gran Torino

I just saw this movie a couple nights ago, and I'm compelled to write a little blurb. This movie showed the futility of violence and disfunction, the way that someone inevitably has to suffer and lose dignity. Also losing the feeling of safety. It shows how whole families are impacted by it, and then even the people nearby. Violence and disfunction has a pond ripple effect.

It also shows how pathetically empty the lives of predators seem to be.

That is one factual thing I can relate to the Nar-people in my life. The Nar-people I have known do not have hobbies or passions in life, they are boring. They don't make an attempt to find their own life expression in a positive way. They join packs of losers.

[bearwithme]

Moonstruck:  Cher was brilliant as the unmarried woman living at home under the old Italian regime of her parents and also, her aging grandfather.  Cher finds love in the most uneasy of circumstances: her fiance's brother who is such a momma's boy, by which his own mother is an N and controlls his life from her deathbed.  Cher's entire family is so dysfunctional they cant' get at of their own way, but they knew how to love, deeply love one another!!  I thought this movie was hilarious and touching. 

When Harry Met Sally:  Just my all time favorite of movies.

Terms of Endearment  Beautifully written

Anchorman:   I love to laugh!!

Bruce Almighty:  I love this movie because Jim Carrey's character, Bruce, feels ignored by God and believes that God has sort of abandoned him, or even punished him, during the pivotal times in his life.  Bruce challenges God and God answers!!  I admit, I have felt as Bruce has many, many times in my life.  My favorite line is when he crashes his car into the river and yells up to the sky at God, "C'mon God, bring it on me....smite me you almighty smiter!"  That's when God has had enough of Bruce....


I love Charlotte's Web too!

Finding Nemo: About protecting your children then having to let them go....