Pajiba

American History X. Great film, utterly unwatchable for any reason other than self-torture.

Dead Man Walking. Green Mile, either.

I would probably list Finding Neverland as one of my favorite movies and yet, I've only seen it once and probably will never see it again. My reasoning may be different than what you're going for, but for me, the movie was so charming and unexpectedly moving that I wouldn't want to watch it again and ruin it. I'm afraid that seeing it again, I would find it boring or not as good as I remembered and then it would be sullied.

Great diversion, Erin!

american history x-- for obvious reasons. dr. zhivago just because it's so horrendously long, at the showing I went to we had an intermission.

Requiem is a GOOD one.

-Hedwig and the Angry Itch (loved it the first time, but have no desire to watch it again)
-City of God (too depressing)
-Schindler's List (ditto)
-Raising Victor Vargas
-Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring (gorgeous, but experiencing it once is enough for me)

Grave of the Fireflies.

Being John Malkovich.

Definitely "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" for me!

Also, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Pan's Labyrinth

The Night Porter.

apple - absolutely! That was one of the ones I couldn't think of before.

Dark Days, a documentary about homeless people living under NY city. I also consider Adaptation one of my favorite movies, but I can't stand to see the twin die at the end. I know the twin is just a physical manifestation of his creative process, but I have a twin and it just kills me to see that scene.

Where the Boys Aren't 15. I just don't think I have the strength in me to go through it again.

(OK, in all seriousness, I don't think I'd want to watch There Will Be Blood again. If I wanted to sit through almost three hours of drama for a comedy, I'd watch Saturday Night Live.)

Hmmm.... I'll never watch Naked Lunch again, but I wouldn't consider it a fantastic film.

Definitely agree with Requiem. Thinking along those lines, I'd have to say I'll probably never watch Audition again either.

-The Pianist
-Half-Nelson

I really felt that Dancer in the Dark was a good movie, but man was it bleak! Von Trier is one of my favorite directors, Dogville is a masterpiece, and while this one is full of life and strong performances, but boy oh boy is it just heavy.
Au Revoir Les Enfants is an exquisite film but again, it's so depressing that it's not even a tearjerker, it's just painfully bleak. I don't feel like I need to watch Junebug again, though I really liked it and love Amy Adams, it's just...not a film that requires multiple viewings like The Royal Tenenbaums or Amelie.
And am I crazy for showing some interest in watching Requiem for a Dream a second time? It's amazing and I think I'd benefit with a second viewing. How strange am I?

You know, someone should release a patch for your web browser where it renames the "Stop" button the "Double Post" button.

I agree with what was said about any movie with a graphic rape scene...I still have nightmares about that chant in The Accused. Gah.

I saw Pan's Labyrinth in the theater twice in two days, and I watch it every time it's on HBO. I'm a little addicted to that movie.

Rikkitikkitavi nailed it right off the bat.

For me, Magnolia is another one.

Bladerunner, Apocalypse Now

I could easily sit and talk about either of them for three hours at the drop of a hat, but I don't feel much need to actually sit through them again ...

I think really thought-provoking films are interesting on a meta level because they succeed at an intellectual journey not an emotional journey. Great films constructed on emotional journeys benefit from repeated watching because we can re-experience the emotion. There isn't something external to the film that can be discussed/thought of/etc. that adds to the film itself.

Great films constructed on intellectual journeys are a different beast because re-experiencing the initial intellectual journey is not nearly as rewarding as expanding on the intellectual journey by endlessly discussing the implications of the film.

I don't think either category of film is superior, they are just different perspectives.

renames the "Stop" button the "Double Post" button.

If you open up the same page in another window/tab, you'll see that the post transmits almost instantaneously, looong before the page finishes reloading.

"Stop" stops nothing. Fait accompli.

Irreversible.

And now I can't get it out of my mind, thanks very much.

Requiem for a Dream. I've been describing this to friends as 'The best movie I'll never watch again.' ever since it seared eyeballs and brain.

I really can't think of another movie that I admire so much and avoid so completely.

I have been able to watch zero minutes of American History X after having the curb scene described to me. This film makes up my Great Movies I'll Never Watch Even Once list.

Irreversible sounds exactly like the kind of movie I don't want to see the first time--even if its very, very good (same with American History X and Requiem for a Dream).

Ditto on Schindler's List, Boys Don't Cry and Requiem for a Dream.
Mysterious Skin....it was so convincing, and made me so uncomfortable.

Kronenberg's Spider, The Fly.
Schindler's List.
3 women

PrincessLeah, that's exactly how I feel about Requiem. I saw the last five minutes waiting for something else to come on, and it just wrecked me. I don't know if I could sustain the full gutpunch.

To this list I'd also add Mystic River. Very well done and far too misery inducing to watch again.

stipe, I think I have to disagree with you on Bladerunner in light of your argument... I found it both emotionally and intellectually stimulating.

Requiem I could watch have watched over and over again. It's just so well made. And it kills me every single time.

I think I have to agree with never needing to see Schindler's List again.

Gran Torino, I think, is another one.

Damn people, them's some fine suggestions, boat load of good films listed here. I'm proud to virtually associate with most of you.

Leaving Las Vegas
Really, any movie with a graphic rape scene.
Or Nicholas Cage, for that matter.

And I even agree with this comment, although I never saw the movie, but any movie where Nicholas Cage is graphically raped can't be all bad.

Yeah, I went there...

Hotel Rwanda.
I made the mistake of watching this alone at home just after its DVD release.
Im still not over it.
Yet i tell everyone to watch it because it's brilliant and they need to know.

Leaving Las Vegas, hands down.

Pan's Labyrinth for me.

The second time I saw Leaving Las Vegas with a friend we tried to match the on screen drinking. Now the movie gives me a Pavlov hangover.

Mr. Henry has just informed me that no, I do not want to see Requiem for a Dream.

In the Company of Men. Because there's nothing like a movie confirming all your worst fears about the way man think and act.

Giant - Although it only has the illusion of greatness wrapped in a cloak of histrionics.

Most definitely Pan's Labyrinth

and one allegedly great one:
Monster's Ball

if I don't like the people the movie is about then why would I watch it again?

This is why I don't watch "Mad Men", beautiful beautiful art direction and wardrobe "Mad Men".

Yeah, someone oughta break Leto's face.

Oh, wait

Citizen Kane
I recognize the brilliance, but I have no urge to revisit it.

Hotel Rwanda, which moved me deeply but which I doubt I could ever willingly watch again.

I watch Pan's Labryrinth every six months, and it just doesn't get less magical than the first time I saw it. I'll never watch Schindler's List again, nor The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Both incredible films, and both pulled my heart out through my mouth.

Boys Don't Cry broke my heart. Even though it's a brilliant film, I couldn't bear to watch it again. Ever.

I feel the same way about Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves. Ditto the totally awesome and horrifying Todd Solondz film Happiness.

It's funny, though. Even though its been years since I've seen any of them, there are scenes from all of those movies that are totally burned into my brain--I'm actually replaying them in my head as I type this. Isn't there some sort of psychological term that's used to describe a vivid memory of a traumatic event? "Flash-bulb memory", maybe?

Schindlers list. I saw it the one time, when I was much younger.

Oddly enough, I was just talking about this with my friend.

I'm taking this History of the Holocaust class and was talking to her about how I can watch Schindler's List over and over again but how I will never EVER watch The Pianist again. Don't know why, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Well, The Pianist and The Little Mermaid (1975) Japanese Anime version...because, holy shit, that film scarred me for life as a little girl.

I always have trouble thinking of things for these lists because I just get reminded by what other people have said before me. In this case, though Requiem For A Dream wins big. Huge. Never will watch it again unless I have to curry favor in order to get laid. For me it's both the way things end terribly for everyone as well as the fact, as s.pisaster points out, that everyone's a piece of shit. Hello, idiot, if your arm is rotting off, you might want to make one good decision in your miserable life and get that seen to. Hell, I'm a preschool teacher and I know about a backalley doctor they could have gone to. There is no way that there wasn't some scumbag friend who could have hooked them up with a shady doctor who doesn't like police.

Also Snow Angels (hideously depressing), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (too terrifying), and Boys Don't Cry (devastating). Possibly In Bruges but I'm giving that one some time to simmer.

Breaking the Waves
American History X

I second (or third or whatever) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Beautiful, but totally too much to watch a second time.

Not quite the same, but...supposedly, these are great movies. I would never voluntarily watch Gone With The Wind or Citizen Kane again. But then I didn't watch them by choice in the first place. Gone With The Wind is like a cruel film school initiation. By the time Clark Gable finally says the line that everyone knows, I didn't give a damn either. Citizen Kane is more entertaining but overrated. And long. And boring. I'm not a big Family Guy fan but this one quote always comes to mind..."It's his freakin' sled, I just saved you three boobless hours!"

Failing that, it'll be a while before I feel like watching There Will Be Blood again, but I love it.

There's a movie called "Salo" that I was forced to watch with some people in my university residence. It's possibly the most disturbing thing ever put to film. Some people consider it one of the greats of Italian art cinema. To give you a hint of how bad it is - the alternate title is "120 Days of Sodomy."

Oh, God, Schindler's List. The scene with the little girl in the red coat? Fuck. This watch? How many more could I have bought with this watch? Hell no. Just no. Watching that felt like having my soul ripped out.

The Last King of Scotland.

Well acted film but the carnage really stuck with me.

I've also been on the Reqium bandwagon for some time.

American History X and Schindler's List seem to be very popular choices for this one. Personally, I just need to have enough of a break before I can watch them again. But the break needs to be longer for Schindler's List. I guess I do have some hidden masochist tendencies, because while I know with absolute certainty that I'll start bawling at the end sequence of Schindler's List (when the actors accompany the people they were playing to Schindler's grave),I still watch it whenever I stumble across it accidentally on TV.

I also thought Mysterious Skin was great, but so far, I haven't had any desire to see it again. Probably because a certain scene is still far too vivid in my mind.

And I think I'll probably never watch Requiem for a Dream, and I'll certainly never watch Irreversible. A rape scene that goes on for almost ten minutes - yeah, I'll take a pass on that one.

No Country For Old Men; Fargo

I have no rational explanation for why I didn't really like these movies. I really wanted to like them, but...no dice. I know I'm one of a small quiet minority but these movies simply didn't resonate with me and sitting thru them again would be like sitting thru An American Carol again (The girl I was after was a whackjob McCain supporter and testosterone thought "How bad could it possibly be?")

There Will Be Blood also gets an honorable mention for the absolutely cringe-inducing soundtrack.

wall-e. i sobbed the whole time when i saw it in theaters. anything bad that happened to that lonely little robot with those big puppy-dog eyes made me bawl. just goes to show how much disney manipulates everyone's fear of abandonment.

// end rant.

E.T. I was 11 when it came out and saw it in a theater, and once it started being repeated on TV every Thanksgiving I realized it would never be as magical or wonderful as it was when I was a child.

So I'd rather hold onto that feeling (street light people, oh-oh-oh...sorry) than see it now as a cynical and over-educated adult, and have that memory ruined.

Hey, it was loud and kinda screechy, like listening to some of Philip Glass' lesser works.

I can only partly agree on Gone with the Wind. The first half of the movie I can watch over and over, but once Rhett leaves and they burn Atlanta, I'm pretty much done.

The Bridge, a documentary about people committing suicide off the Golden Gate. It was powerful...but it's a documentary about suicide.

Old Yeller. I never really forgave my father for renting this one for me when I was a child.

A Taste of Cherry--it's 95 minutes in which NOTHING HAPPENS. And it's nothing happening WITH SUBTITLES. (Which I don't usually mind, but in this case it totally enraged me.)

Crash - so bad I have tried to block it from my mind. So many people whispering in my ear did you see Crash - heavy stuff. I just gritted my teeth, acknowledged my piles and nodded like a corpse.

Trainspotting. Great movie, cannot watch the scene with the baby in it ever again. If you like babies, or even think you might, don't investigate my comment with a viewing.

This is a hard one for me, since I obsessively re-watch everything I enjoy. lynch said Heat, which is a film I have watched maybe twelve times - I've watched JFK about seven times as well. Children Of Men I've watched four times. Chinatown? Twice. Blade Runner? I literally own every version of that movie that has ever been released. I've got the theatrical cut, the director's cut, and the tin box set with the the workprint editions and the final cut. The only non-heavy-metal-related poster on my bedroom wall (yeah, I'm 25 and still do that, wanna fightaboudit?) is a Blade Runner poster.

Hotel Rwanda, now - I loved that film, but haven't felt any urge to watch it again since. Same with Brokeback Mountain.

After watching each one of these films I thought I deserved a medal.

Lorenzo's Oil. An early 90s film starring Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte as parents trying to save their kind from a rare disease. Brutally kicks every TV disease-of-the-week movie in the balls. Utterly flawlesss and thoroughly depressing.

The Deer Hunter. So good it almost makes up for every fuck-up Michael Cimino directed afterwards. Pity then that it is three unrelenting hours of people being warped by the Vietnam War. After this one I became grateful that Christopher Walken switched to paycheck acting.

The Pianist. Two and half hours of what it was like to be a Jew in Nazi Germany. My worst date movie choice ever. (That she was French probably didn't help either.)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Really enjoyed it while I was watching it. So depressing and heavy I plan to never see it again.

The Wrestler. Not even the opportunity to see Marisa Tomei's MILFtastically hot, hot, naked bod again will be enough to make me sit through this downer again.

Posted by: Tripp at February 11, 2009 5:11 PM

I second Trainspotting for the same reason as Tripp. The baby scene was awful and truely disturbing.

@ Jay -

I totally agree about Mad Men. I just don't like any of the characters. I tried about 4 episodes and gave up when Draper bailed on his daughter's birthday party.

Its getting pretty repetitive but I have always felt that Requiem was really good movie that just bummed me out too much to re-watch. Also, Boys Don't Cry (great performance by Swank) and Oldboy.

No matter how hard I try, I cannot get through Dancer in the Dark again. I just start crying hysterically and having an anxiety attack 10 minutes in and have to shut off the DVD.

Dogville's not a problem, though, or any other von Trier joint. Go fig.

I'd have to say United 93 and Into the Wild

Raging Bull
The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things

Yeah, "Kids" wasn't too much fun.

Next long weekend I'm renting all these films. Although for the sake of my mental health I think the next diversion needs to be "Films that will always make you smile".

Before Night Falls was incredible, though I can't bring myself to watch it a second time.
Talk to Her is another one.
Atonement also.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father.
You guys warned me, but I just didn't listen.

Amazing movie, I will NEVER put myself throught that again.

God, there are so many, but just to add a few...

1. The Notebook. I know everyone loves this movie, but to me, it was just too depressing to enjoy.

2. Brokeback Mountain. I saw it three times in the theater, and have yet to be able to watch it again at home, though I own it. It broke my heart and almost made me move to Wyoming after law school to work on a dude ranch for a summer. God, I'm glad I got over that phase.

3. Casualties of War. I love Michael J. Fox in this, but like many of you, I can't stomach a rape scene.

4. The City of Lost Children. Beautiful, dark, fantastical, unwatchable. It's hard to explain unless you've experienced it.

5. Someone Like You. Yes, I know. This officially makes me a woman, but I can't bear to go through the scene again where Ashley Judd realizes that men don't leave all women; they just leave her. I'm only human. I can only take so much abuse.

Seven. I was in a bad place when I saw that, so it made it even more disturbing and bleak. And I have an overactive imagination.

I know it's not necessarily a great movie, but Bridge to Terabithia absolutely destroyed me when I saw it. I was also that kid in fifth grade who sobbed in class at the end of the book, so the entire story is a no-go for me.

Brokeback Mountain also destroyed me to the point that I will never be able to watch it again.

Million Dollar Baby
Platoon
Little Children

Power of One - I was traumatised as a kid cos of the chicken beating scene. Have never watched it since...
And Romper Stomper. Mainly because of the little kid Nazi who gets shot in the head.

Why has no one mentioned Strange Circus? I love that movie to death, but it's hard to watch. Breaks my heart...

The Squid and the Whale was pretty brutal...although it did make me feel like a decent parent. Oh god, and Wings of Desire (or anything by Wim Wenders...it's beautiful, but...just too difficult).

Sophie's Choice anyone?

For me, it's Primer.
Great movie but rewatching it to try and figure out the timeline would be like jumping into the rabbithole.

So I just pretend to have understood it.

Brazil

Apocalypse Now. Maybe Deerhunter. Possibly Dog Day Afternoon.

Oh, and the original Solaris.

March of the Penguins
Saving Private Ryan: When I saw this in the theater, I very nearly passed out, threw up, and started shouting at the screen at various points in the film.
Audition: Tickity, tickity, tickity...

Pink Hulk, I own and love The City of Lost Children. Why that one, if you don't mind my asking?

In the Bedroom. Fantastic movie, far too depressing to ever watch again. It makes me sad just mentioning it.

I want to give a huge ditto to Brokeback Mountain. Saw it in the theatres. BAWLED, like, seriously sobbing, DESPITE having already read the story and knowing the ending. I own it and have watched it all the way through ONCE since buying it on the day it came out. I can only watch it up to a certain point, and then I just have to press stop.

The Fountain. Holy shit. I don't know if I will ever watch it after seeing it in the theatre. Again, I own and love the graphic novel, but that movie fucked my shit up!

Oddly, Mysterious Skin does not push my buttons. I've watched it at least 10 times and keep trying to get other people to watch it, although it's...a bit of a hard sell. I think it's the fact that it does have a hopeful ending that keeps it from being totally bleak. Although the ending monologue does make me tear everytime.

I'm gonna third Grave of the Fireflies (I couldn't breathe at the end, I was crying so hard), which is too bad because it's a beautiful piece of animation.

I don't watch von Trier any more -- Breaking the Waves put me in a fetal position on my bed for an hour. I left Dancer in the Dark pissed as hell at the way he plays on his audience's emotions. Fuck him.

One that I haven't seen mentioned yet is Plague Dogs. It's a bone of contention between me and my partner -- he thought he was sharing this wonderful, profoundly moving film experience with me when we first started dating, and I spent the rest of the afternoon crying about the ending. I will never re-watch it -- I just can't put myself through that again.

I agree wholeheartedly with everyone who says Requiem. It was great, but I don't ever want to go through the last half hour ever again. Or try heroin. I'm of the opinion that if they really wanted to win the war on drugs, they would make this movie mandatory viewing in high schools.

I think I'm one of the few people left who can't stand Requiem, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that I didn't care about most of the characters.

I agree with Claire about Kids. I saw it once, and now I have no idea if it's a good movie or not, cause I won't watch it again, but I tell people they should still see it.

The movie that I think was masterfully done, but I'm pretty sure I will never sit down to watch again is "Bent" (Think Schindler's list, only much lower budget, and about two gay men who meet in a concentration camp)

The Fox and the Hound

I watched it once at 7 years old. 26 years later and that shit still haunts my fucking dreams.

Whichever fucked up, high on hookers and cheap blow executive decided that would be a brilliant movie to make should have been taken out back of the Disney lot and had his testicles removed with dull nail clippers.

Tod: Copper, you're my best friend.

Copper: And you're mine too, Tod.

Tod: And we'll always be friends forever. Won't we?

Copper: Yeah, forever.

Kelly: sobs loudly

Kelly, you are my hero.

1930's surrealist films (un chien andalou, l'age d'or, blood of a poet, l'etoile de mer, meshes of the afternoon). i have had to watch them multiple times for different film classes, i understand their importance, i even enjoyed parts of them, and i feel no need to ever see them again.

There are a lot of movies here I haven't seen. And now am feeling a sick need to see.

American History X
Virgin Suicides
The Lion King
Crash

Most other really good movies I've seen I like watching again, even if they are painful to see.

The Land Before Time, I know that's not the first choice, but it's one of the saddest movies of all time. I'll probably see it again, but when I was younger, you'd never get me to see it later.

For those of you who haven't seen it, I'm going to write about the saddest parts of the film. Go see it, and weep like you've never weeped before.

In the middle of the film, the kid apatosaurus, Littlefoot, sees his mother killed by a T-Rex. He walks over to her, and they have the talk that only a mother who has just been mortally wounded can have with her son. All of this happens while the saddest music ever plays in the background on a single violin and a companion cello play in the background.

"Littlefoot... do you remember the way to the great valley...."

"(cries) I guess so... but why do I have to know? You're going with me...."

"I'll be there... even if you can't see me...."

Yes, you can feel sad for something that died eons ago. To add to that, I saw this shortly after Grandma died with my mother. I'll see it one day, but back then, no way in hell. There is no sadder film for kids, and no sadder film for adults. It's even sadder when you realize that the kid who played the duckbill was killed by her father.

I'll be weeping now.... I hope you enjoyed visiting my traumatized memories.

Also, like everyone else here, I'll never see Requiem again. The first time I saw it was also the first time I used a vaporizer. Que creepy music- I'm holding onto my couch, high as giraffe balls, begging my friends to turn it off. Needless to say, I never put that fucker back in the ole dvd player.

My list:
Citizen Kane (I haven't been able to make it through the whole thing awake without having to go back, find where I fell asleep, and re-try to make it to the end. I give up. It's a beautiful film, I recognize why it's constantly on "greatest of all time" lists, but dagnabbit, it's long and slow.)
Finding Neverland (Beautiful movie, but so sad!)
Million Dollar Baby (again with the sadness--I love a good movie, but I hate being sad--my hate of sad usually wins out)
Old Yeller (why did we have to watch this IN CLASS? I hated my teacher SO much for that. We read the book, but reading about the dog dying and seeing it in film are two COMPLETELY different things.)
Lorenzo's Oil (Again, we watched this IN CLASS. What was the teacher thinking? "Oh boy, I'm gonna watch the class to see who's trying--and failing--to hide some tears." Heartbreaking story.)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (It's a great film, but the subject matter--abortion and rape--will totally keep me from seeing it again. But damn, what a great, moving, and unsettling film. And yay, someone else here listed this, too!)

I hate being sad. I really, really hate teachers who show sad things in class, too. "Why's Stef hiding behind her hands all of a sudden?" Sadists. GRR.

And someone mentioned Brazil? I loooooove that film. Could watch it over and over and over again, but then it's pretty funny. I guess it's the difference between laughable/sad and totally-freaking-serious/sad for me, though.

Nadha...for me The City of Lost Children was just so dark and bleak and disturbing in plot and imagery that it was too hard for me to shake after viewing it. I have a hard time watching any movie in which children are the targets of malicious behavior perpetrated by adults. While I concede it is an excellent film, I just don't think it's something I could sit through a second time.

Movie everyone else thought was great that I thought was a complete and utter waste of valuable hours of my life, which I bitterly rue the loss of:

Lost in Translation. I want this movie to die in a fire.

Stunning films I can never watch again:

Brokeback Mountain...just too damn close.

I know, Kris! I was on edge from the moment Briony appears on the screen, accompanied by that great but maddening soundtrack. Having already read the book, I knew what I was in for, but I can't express how unpleasant I find her (the Briony character) and indeed, the entire sorry tale.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Thoroughly enjoyed it the first time. Neeeever need to see it again.

There's a movie called "Salo" that I was forced to watch with some people in my university residence. It's possibly the most disturbing thing ever put to film. Some people consider it one of the greats of Italian art cinema. To give you a hint of how bad it is - the alternate title is "120 Days of Sodomy."

It's actually "120 Days In Sodom" (lossely based on the Marquis de Sade's book of the same name). I would never classify this as a "great film". But if you have friends who are squeamish about things like men kissing with their teeth caked with shit, it's a wonderful mine of scenes to describe.
Honestly, I would much rather have a way of erasing it from my mind, as it was the vilest thing I have ever witnessed.

Irreversible was really difficult to sit through once, I don't think I could watch that again...

No Country for Old Men, mostly because I like it so much more in retrospect than I did when I was going through it. I may be sqeamish, but there's violent imagery and then there's violent imagery, and these days the more small-scale and weird (Anton Chigurgh) or personalized and Nazi-related (The Pianist), the less I can tell my heart and stomach it's just red corn syrup.

Rowen, Bent is where I first met Clive Owen -- I've seen it twice. I don't know if I'll ever sit through it again, though. FYI, the other main actor in it played the Jesus figure in an amazing Canadian film called Jesus of Montreal. Highly recommended.

The Bubble (depressed me to no end)
Gandhi (way to fucking long)

'Requiem' is only to be watched if you REALLY want to be depressed yet overwhelmingly happy about your outcome in life thusfar.

I will never watch that movie again. I had an ex that watched it and couldn't see the big deal. She was evil.

Oldboy, because all the shocks and twists are gone and the ending is just to painful and gut wrenching to watch again.

Seven, again, because the twist and the ending is so out of this world, there's no way a repeat viewing would ever have the same impact as the first time.

Look here: there are a lot of movies that I won't see again because they are important, ponderous, blah blah.
BUT. That would be a very, very long list.
As for a movie I never need to see again because it was utterly, achingly beautiful and because it destroyed me, that would be, hands down, AWAY FROM HER. I cried so hard my face hurt a little. And, I think it's important to note, this was not just some emotionally manipulative film. It was to-the-bone honest, and beautifully told. I remember much of the film vividly, and I think if I saw it again, it would destroy me.

Grave of the Fireflies. Awesome movie, nd the most depressing, heart-rending thing I've ever seen.

Beloved. Rape scene. Slavery. Dead baby. Once was more than enough.

Se7en - I had no idea what I was walking into, and I should have left when it became clear.

Brokeback Mountain - It was good, but so damned depressing. I'm not going there again.

1984 - probably the most frightening film I've ever watched. "You are the dead." shiver. Way too true to the book.

Project X. Fucking monkeys, man.

This is one of the most interesting lists I've ever seen here.

I agree with:
Posted by: Jay


In the Company of Men. Because there's nothing like a movie confirming all your worst fears about the way man think and act.




It introduced me to Aaron Eckhart as a smarmy business man long before "Thank you for Smoking". Ending of this movie leaves you with chills.




A oompletely despicable, "Gummo", written and directed by Harmony Korrine who wrote the famous "Kids" movie. Some how this movie is grittier and has even more cringe scenes.

Stoploss

The Last Samurai

jbone, I agree on Meeting People is Easy. After watching it I felt completely drained and exhausted.

Has anyone mentioned "Lilia 4EVER" yet?
This is absolutely number 1 on my list. I was devastated for days. Though it was also very understated, the (numerous) rapes were all off camera, and all the more powerful for it. The trick where the sex slavery was filmed from Lily's point of view was pretty effective, simultaneously saving the young actress from having to film the scenes AND making everything seem to happen to YOU. (Plus this film is how I got into Rammstein, they play the opening credits).

Requiem For a Dream is a great movie, but damn I couldn't watch that more than once. Also, Irreversible, some weird freaky French movie that is even harder to watch than Requiem, it happens backwards and it's about some woman getting raped and somehow the dude ends up in sex club (yuck). Pi is also hard to watch, Arofonsky makes some damn movies hard to watch, it's a wonder that I can actually sit through most of them. I think he just revels in the worst possible human moment and makes you sit through it and endure. Life is painful enough as is, shit!

I know there have to be others who now have a sick desire to see every movie mentioned, right?

This is a classic I've also discussed with friends, and Todd Solondz movies always top my list. Happiness, What. The . EF. I watched several of his movies and apppreciate the structure, the fearlessness, the objectivity, and yet still feel afterward like someone done D&Ced the endometrioisis of my soul.

Lest you think this is a generic wuss thing, consider some aforementioneds that I would watch again and again and again- Amores Perros, Before Night Falls, Dancer in the Dark,and a Brazilian movie called City of God wherein a four year old gang member gets shot in the foot for fun. And you can't wash that out of your brain with a Shamwow. You cannot.

Gegen die Wand.

Another second for Requiem for a Dream, and also the other Requiem about the girl with epilepsy. I think Palindromes was probably brilliant, but no way on earth I'm seeing that again. It still haunts me, oddly. Another is Gerry, which I enjoyed greatly late one night but have been unable to sit through again.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Great, powerful movie, but between the abortionist's alternative "payment", the trip back to the hotel and the disposal of the remains...I just, I just can't take it again...

Sophie's Choice. OK film, great performances--will NEVER watch again.

Into The Wild. Left an awesome impression that I will not risk ruining by over wathing/analyzing.