I just heard about this blogathon on Drew’s blog, but it was spearheaded by the Con Man blog, inspired by the Pixar hit Inside Out (which I adore). I love this idea and naturally I had to take part!
Here are the rules for the Blogathon:
- Pick five films to represent the five emotions in Inside Out. The criteria for choosing these films is listed below. I would be willing to allow a tie, if you couldn’t decide between two films to best represent one of the emotions.
… - What I’m looking for are five movies that make YOU feel a certain emotion. Here’s what to look for:
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JOY: First of all, you want to pick a movie that makes you happy. The kind of movie that you put on whenever you’re in a bad mood that never fails to lighten your spirits. It can be a family film, a romance, a comedy – as long as there’s a smile on your face by the end credits, it should be fair game.
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SADNESS: Now for the movie that made you cry the most. From Bambi to Titanic, there are plenty of tear-jerker movies out there. These are movies where you gravitate towards the main characters and really don’t want to see anything bad happen to them. Maybe a character dies, maybe the guy doesn’t get the girl, but your eyes should be pretty watery by the film’s end.
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FEAR: This is the movie that gave you the most nightmares. Pretty self explanatory. There are plenty of classic horror movies to choose from, but it doesn’t have to be an out-and-out horror film. If the movie’s about a more subtle kind of fear, or if the movie just has a creepy atmosphere, that should work. Whether blunt or subtle, this is the movie that scares the **** out of you.
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ANGER: This is a movie that you flat out hated. Not a movie that was dull or boring, but a movie that just fills you up with rage just thinking about it. Maybe it’s a movie made by a certain director that had so much potential, maybe it’s an adaptation or a sequel that just didn’t do the original justice. It could also be a movie where your anger isn’t directed at the movie, but at the characters. Ever wanted to scream at movie characters for making such incredibly stupid decisions.
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DISGUST: This last one is a bit tricky, I’ll let you interpret it the way you want. It could be a horror film with a lot of really awful imagery that you don’t want to look at, it could be a comedy with a bunch of gross-out humor that you can barely listen to. It could even be a movie that you like, but your disgust comes towards the basic premise in a grander sense, like being disgusted by what you see in 12 Years A Slave or Schindler’s List. Either way, this film should make you cringe.
… - Write out five paragraphs, (one for each film) talking about the movies and why you chose them.
So here are my picks:
JOY
The Gods Must Be Crazy
As the criteria is a movie that never fails to lift my spirits and puts a smile on my face. It’s got to be my childhood favorite that still holds up to this day. Right from the witty & sarcastic opening monologue that’s poking fun at modern civilization… “For instance, if it’s Monday and 7:30 comes up, you have to dis-adapt from your domestic surroundings and re-adapt yourself to an entirely different environment. 8:00 means everybody has to look busy. 10:30 means you can stop looking busy for 15 minutes. And then you have to look busy again…”
There are sooo many hilarious situations that never fails to get me in stitches. The main character Xi the traveling Bushman & his Coca Cola bottle + the clumsy research scientist Mr Steyn w/ his decrepitude jeep are simply hysterical!! The movie is also very quotable. To this day I still find myself quoting from this movie: “It’s really an interesting psychological phenomenon…” or my personal favorite “ayayayayay” 😀
I picked this movie for a ‘A Movie That Always Make Me Laugh‘ Meme a few years ago and I still think so today. I think What We Do in the Shadows will become a perennial favorite comedy of mine, too!
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SADNESS
Legends of the Fall
I struggle with this one as I initially thought of Schindler’s List and the two Disney movies Bambi and The Lion King because those films made me cry buckets. Heck even just listening a few notes of Itzhak Perlman’s violin music of Schindler’s List on the radio gets me teared up. But at least those films end in a hopeful note. So for this category, I have to go with Legends of the Fall because it’s one of the biggest tear-jerkers I’ve ever seen.
The story itself is just sad and tragic – families torn apart by love and war, everyone ends up losing the one they love. The romance is as devastating as can be given most characters didn’t get the love of their lives. I just listened to the beautiful, aptly melancholic score by James Horner recently and watched some clips of the film, and it still gets me sobbing all over again.
FEAR
The Exorcist
This is an easy one as I don’t watch hardly any horror films but I did see this one in college and to this day, it still scares the **** out of me. I remember after I saw it, my then boyfriend who’s now my hubby actually slept in the living room of my apartment as I was too scared to spend the night by myself. Even just looking at a photo of Linda Blair in full demonic makeup as Regan still gives me the creeps. I couldn’t even google Regan’s photo to include here, so I just typed in ‘Exorcist poster’ instead.
There was a Chinese horror flick I saw as a kid that I didn’t know the name of that I found pretty chilling, but I think Regan is probably the most horrifying character I’ve ever seen. I think what makes it even scarier is the fact that it’s inspired by a true story and people do get possessed in real life.
ANGER
Transformers: Age of Extinction
For a movie I absolutely loathe with a passion, it’s hard to top this one. I’ve only seen the first one and the only reason was because we were at a friend’s house. And I saw this one as I interviewed the two young actors, and thought, well how bad could it be? Well, I wanted to punch Michael Bay and whoever financed this stinker, an abominable of gargantuan proportion. It fills me up with rage how movies like this continues to get made… I mean one movie is one thing, but five??! It’s even more aggravating as there seems to be no end in sight as this franchise continues to make money 😦
It’s as if appalling dialog, stupid characters who continually make idiotic decisions weren’t enough to insult us, there’s the gross female objectification and obtuse gender/racial stereotyping. Don’t get me started about the overwhelming CGI, I mentioned in my review that I actually took my 3D glasses off a few times just to give my tired eyes a break. It’s really a sensory overload in the worst possible way. If only this franchise would go extinct!!
DISGUST
The Whistleblower
I raked my brain for this one as I could technically put down The Exorcist again for this category as Regan is just a disgusting creature and the vomit stuff & a bunch of other demonic scenes are so stomach-churning. I choose to include this little-seen film because it also deals with deplorable crimes against humanity issues like Schindler’s List and 12 Years A Slave. Human trafficking is a disgusting crime that has no part in any society, and it’s even more heart-wrenching that this film shows nobody’s willing to stand up for the victims.
Rachel Weisz played the title role, a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia who outed the U.N. for covering up a sex scandal. As if the living condition these girls are subjected to isn’t appalling enough, they also had to endure some truly brutal stuff. There’s one particularly barbaric scene that’s absolutely painful to watch, I literally felt sick in my stomach that I had to look away. What’s most depressing is that these atrocities are still allowed to continue as the perpetrators are not persecuted due to diplomatic immunity. Check out my full review.
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What do you think of my picks? Which films would YOU select for each of the five emotions?
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FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
The Exorcist is scary. I watched it for the first time for a blogathon and it scared me witless. Legends of the Fall is such a sad film. A beautiful piano piece too.
Hi Alex! So you just watched it recently? I’d think it’d be utterly terrifying for anyone at any time and it’s got such a timeless quality about it because evil IS real.
I tend to stay away from horror films. I’m too jumpy at the best of times. It was a blogathon of a film you’d meant to see but had been putting off for a while. I couldn’t think of a better choice for a sad film. https://alexraphael.wordpress.com/2014/09/19/lines-of-the-day-legendsofthefall/
Actually was thinking about starting a blogathon like this 🙂 But I like your picks and the one you chose for Joy isn’t a surprise 🙂 From the other movies I’ve only seen the Transformers film.
I LOVE Gods Must Be Crazy!! Bummer the sequel wasn’t as good though. Transformers should go extinct even after the first one.
Great pics! I haven’t seen a few of these, but I love that you mention The God’s Must Be Crazy! I have such joyful memories of seeing that as a kid!
Yes, very joyful indeed and most of the jokes just never gets old!! I love comedies like that, it’s not raunchy or foul-mouthed like today’s comedies, but genuinely funny! You should check out What We Do in the Shadows too if you haven’t seen it, Drew.
I’ve only seen The Exorcist and that Transformers sequel. You hit the nail on the head for both.
Glad you also found Exorcist terrifying and Transformers 5 disgusting, Dell!
This is a fun blogathon! I like your choices too.
Here are my choices:
JOY: Ocean’s Eleven & Thirteen and Hugo
SADNESS: It’s a tough call between 13 Grams and Sophie’s Choice so I’ll go with the latter
FEAR: I don’t get scare easily anymore but I think the first Nightmare on Elmstreet freaked me out when I first saw it back in like 6th grade.
ANGER: Well it’s definitely one of the Transformers flicks but the third takes the cake for me. I hated that movie with a passion, also Bay’s Bad Boys 2. Recently that’s how I felt about
Chappie.
DISGUST: This one is kind of tough but I’ll go with Irreversible, a movie disguised itself as “art” film but it’s just made to shock people. Also, early found footage movie from the 80s called Cannibal Holocaust, a disgusting movie that I wish I had never seen.
Hi Ted! Thanks for listing your picks here. Oooh Sophie’s Choice is VERY sad indeed. I will avoid your picks under fear, anger and disgust. I heard about Irreversible from Vince, definitely not something I could even stomach.
Great picks. I’d love to participate in this blogathon but my tiny knowledge of film makes it hard! I might give it a shot though
Come on Jordan, you have a wealth of film knowledge, what are you talking about? Yes do take part in this man!
Love it when you channel your anger towards Transformer: Age of Extinction—a true example of lazy movie which tried to look good 🙂
I love your picks, especially that and The Gods Must Be Crazy—ridiculous till the end!
Ahah well it was easy. I was enraged whilst I was watching the darn thing. Such an insult to humanity, esp moviegoers. Gods Must Be Crazy is the kind of comedy that never gets old for me.
OK, I haven’t written anything in a while other than my Auteurs piece on Gaspar Noe so I guess I will have to take part in this.
Anything related to Michael Bay has me both angry and disgusted. I really fucking hate that guy.
Hi Steven, yes do take part, curious to see which films you pick. Amen on Bay, but sadly his movies continue to make money.
Great picks, Ruth. Mine will be up later tonight, and I think we overlap in one very important way!
Hi Jay! Sounds like we’d agree Michael Bay shouldn’t make any more movies!
Oh I’m staying away from the Exorcist. I don’t feel the need to be traumatized anytime soon and I like being able to sleep at night. ;D
Ahah, if you like your sleep, stay away from Exorcist and be careful about even googling it. Regan’s face is enough to give you nightmares!
Good stuff Ruth! Lotsa fun to read! Love that you mentioned The Gods Must Be Crazy. It’s one of my favorite comedies of all time. Legends of the Fall is interesting. It’s a movie I love to watch. I really do. But it is such a soapy movie. And those scenes with Pitt riding on his horse with those golden locks flowing in the wind…lol. Yet I have watched it sooo many times! As far as scary, that is really a tough one mainly because movies don’t really scare me. I may say the original Evil Dead? I dunno. Toughie.
Thanks Keith! Woo hoo! Glad you love The Gods Must Be Crazy, that’s my kind of comedies. Genuinely hilarious characters in hysterical situations, nothing foul-mouthed, mean-spirited or raunchy like today’s gross stuff. Yeah Legends of the Fall is rather sappy, Brad Pitt looks like he came straight out of those Harlequin novels, mwahahaha. I think he looks good, the only time I actually think Pitt was kinda hot, ahah.
Movies don’t scare you? Y’know, the original Evil Dead is kinda funny wasn’t it? I remember seeing that but it wasn’t nearly as terrifying as Exorcist.
Great picks, all of these!
Thanks Khalid!
I agree with Fear. The Exorcist terrified me when I first saw it. It’s still the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. I haven’t seen your other picks, but I looked up the parental guide for the Whistleblower. I think I know what scene you’re talking about. Yeah, pass. lol
Hi Brittani! Glad I’m not the only one who think Exorcist is so damn terrifying. THAT face! [shudder] And yep, they might’ve warned people on IMDb about THAT scene in Whistleblower, apparently one person fainted during the screening so they had to tone it down but it’s still VERY disturbing.
Terrific choices for the different emotions. The only one I haven’t seen is the Transformers sequel, I thought the first was one of the dumbest things I’d ever seen so I’m sure they only got worse going forward.
I didn’t love Gods Must Be Crazy but it was a cute film, I know a few others who feel about it like you do.
I LOVE Legends of the Fall in all its overblown drama and there are points in it where the sadness is overwhelming, poor Susannah!! Glad you mentioned the score, along with the cinematography they add so much to the film.
The Exorcist is an excellent choice for fear even though I’ve never felt that way about it, but there is a reason for that. One of my first jobs was as an usher in a small theatre and they ran the film on a re-release, it did well and it played foreverrrrrrrrr so by the time it left I had seen most parts in different sequence too many times to count and the impact was diminished. However when they remastered it and did that last reissue with the new material I went to the theatre to see it and rediscovered how good a picture it is, but while I did find it tension filled it never frightened me.
What a great pick The Whistleblower is for disgust. I felt the same way while I was watching it, so despairing. Rachel Weisz, such an under-appreciated actress, is brilliant in the lead. A shame she was ignored come nomination time but I can see how the film would be one most would avoid.
Love the idea of the blogathon, here the ones I came up with:
Joy-Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)-From the moment the gaudy, spangled red curtain opens to reveal the equally red spangled and sequined Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell singing about their quest for rich men to its Technicolor finish this fun musical is a simple joy. Marilyn and Jane share such a captivating and easy chemistry and the musical numbers are so fun and iconic how can you not feel better after watching?
Sadness-They Shoot Horses, Don’t They (1969)-Now I’m not a crier so I picked something that made me feel sorry for the whole stinking world. This incredibly powerful study in nihilism is enough to drain any joy you might have felt for several days on end. To know that it’s based on an event, marathon dances that were a real occurrence and traded on people’s desperation makes it even more tragic. I think it’s fair to say that it’s a film that has such a bleak outlook it’s too sad to make you cry.
Fear-When a Stranger Calls (1979)-My cousin and I went into this without a lot of foreknowledge of the plot. She was heavily pregnant at the time and desperate to get out of the house and see a movie and this one was starting the soonest so in we walked, lambs to the slaughter as it were. The movie is flabby in the middle but to me has the most tension filled first and last 15 minutes of any one I can think of, so intense that in a particularly taut moment my cousin was so scared that the baby jumped and made her scream! For weeks after I couldn’t go to sleep at night until I had checked that all the closets were empty and the doors firmly shut.
Anger-Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998)-I don’t like to be cheated or deceived at any time, who does, but when watching a movie it makes my blood boil! This so called romantic comedy spends almost the entire movie leading the audience down the garden path that its two leads are headed to a great realization that they belong together only to have the rug pulled out from under them in the last few minutes and have the pair go off with characters we’ve never seen before!! A dirty cheat of a film, I was spitting nails when I left the theatre and too this day when I think about the film I feel my bile rising. GGGRRRRRRRRRR
Disgust-Sophie’s Choice (1982)-I think everybody knows what the choice is by now and the film is a grindingly sad study of man’s inhumanity to man. Perhaps because when I saw the film I had determinedly remained as uninformed as possible it hit me especially hard. I felt depleted at the end, full of disgust for all the world.
Hey thanks Joel!
Just skip any Transformers movies, they’re just such an abominable!!
Ahah, interesting tidbit there about Exorcist and how a certain circumstance around a film will undoubtedly affect how you feel about it. I can see how that’d kill the tension and scare factor.
Glad you have seen The Whistleblower and we share the same sentiment about Rachel Weisz. I’m glad I saw it as it’s an important subject matter, plus there’s the interesting cast like Monica Bellucci and Benedict Cumberbatch!
Great picks on all five emotions, though I’ve only seen Sophie’s Choice. It can go under sadness also as it really saddens me to see how people can be filled with so much hate like the Nazis.
Whistleblower is an excellent movie, it’s a shame it’s so underseen. But yeah that pipe scene was horrible.
Hi Margaret! Glad you have seen that film, it barely got any promotion at all which is a shame given the important subject matter and the acting was great all around. That pipe scene was so horrifying and I read that they actually already toned it down, sheesh.
Excellent post and choices, Ruth:
Joy: ‘The Adventures of Milo and Otis’ (1986). A well executed and Westernized Disney-eaque film from Japan covering four years. From orange tabby kitten, Milo and pug nosed puppy, Otis. Flawless location cinematography reinforce with Classical music and narrated by Dudley Moore.
Sadness: ‘The Sterile Cuckoo’ (1869). A late teen, college romance film. With Liza Minnelli as Mary Ann “Pookie” Adams. An oddball, quirky young woman with lots of hidden baggage. And Wendell Burton as quiet, reserved, bookish Jerry Payne. Sharing a bus ride to their close by colleges as romance blooms. Noted for Oscar nominations for Ms. Minnelli. And a sound track and song (Come Saturday Morning) by Dory Previn. Creating a film that succeeds so eaily where the much balllyhooed and adored, ‘Love Story’ fails!
Fear: ‘Wind Across The Everglades’ (1958). A gorgeously shot Technicolor film by Nicholas Ray. With Christopher Plummer as a Florida Game Warden going up against Burl Ives ‘Cottonmouth” and his crew of alligator, bird and snake poachers.
The first film to give me nightmares. And visions of gators in and snakes under my bed!
Will also toss in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ for its immediately off putting Flying Monkeys.
Anger: Every Oliver Stone film from ‘Platoon’ forward. For Mr. Stone’s good looking and well cast, though ultimately lame attempts at cinematically rewriting history!
Disgust: I can’t argue with your choice of ‘The Whistleblower’, Ruth.
Though my choice is a bit tamer and closer to home. Ridley Scott’s ‘Blackhawk Down’ (2001).
A superb film and one of the most faithfully executed “Modern” War films. That needed to go far deeper into the administration’s (Clinton) decision taking process in letting American Rangers be hung out to dry. For fear of “Upsetting the locals.”!
Would also add Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Full Metal Jacket’. For director’s decision to not pursue the final two chapters of Gus Hasford’s novel. Beyond Hue City and into the jungles of Khe Sanh!
Hi Kevin!
Thanks for your five emotions picks, I wish I had seen them all. Oooh The Sterile Cuckoo sounds like a bittersweet romance, haven’t even heard of that one I will avoid ‘Wind Across The Everglades’ though, eeek.
I hear ya about Oliver Stone, seems like his films are such diminishing returns.
I have heard about the brutality of Black Hawk Down and my friend Ted who knew of my squeamish tendency said I should avoid it. It’d probably give me nightmares!
Hi, Ruth:
Since I’ve placed your tastes and parameters on films on an equal level with my older sister for awhile. ‘Wind Across The Everglades’ and ‘Blackhawk Down’ may not be your cups of tea.
Great to look at, but intermittently frightening.
‘The Sterile Cuckoo’ is available in full film, trailers and snippets on You Tube. Definite worth the effort!
The Sterile Cuckoo is such a great pick, it’s a shame that the success of Cabaret obscured the memory of this and Tell Me You Love Me, Junie Moon and that Liza lost her way in the cinema and never found her way back to interesting films like these.
Just saw Wind Across the Everglades last month on TCM for the first time, had wanted to for years because of the cast. Gypsy Rose Lee, Burl Ives and Christopher Plummer in one film made it a must see. I didn’t love it nor hate it but can see your point about the gators and such. Beautiful looking picture though.
Thank you, Joel!
Your choice of ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’ is no slouch, either. Saw it as a teen and it went into my then near empty “One And Done” file. A superb well cast and scored, loud, unsettling, noisy and crowded period piece. Though, is so much more!
Also one of those films like ‘Bonnie And Clyde’ that started blazing the trail for the 1970s and its rich and diverse films that didn’t always end the way you expected.
It took a lot of time for Gig Young and slimy, sweaty, rotten emcee, Rocky to get back in my good graces as an actor afterwards!
I like the idea of this blogathon, how cool. 🙂
I think you picked a perfect title for the Anger slot. Screw Michael Bay and his Transformers ridiculousness.
The rest of these titles I don’t think I’ve heard of or seen. Legends of the Fall I have but I don’t know if I have much interest in getting through something like that.
Hi ya Tom! I feel that Michael Bay probably has some talents but the fact that he chooses to constantly waste it and make horrible movies is appalling.
I think Legends of the Fall is a decent movie but if you’re not into melodrama it’s probably best to avoid it.
That’s fair about Bay, he does have talent but constantly chooses to churn out “easy” movies. Maybe one day he’ll get back to making quality stuff
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Awesome picks. I need to do this blogathon.
Yes you should! Curious to see what you’d pick Abbi!
Pretty cool post. Loved your picks. Thinking of doing my own
Hi Fernando! Yes please do your own, I’d love to see what you’d pick!
Ha, Transformers: Age of Extinction is pretty bad. I wasn’t terrified by The Exorcist, but I’d definitely call it one of the best horror films ever made. Oh, I still need to see The Whistleblower. Love Rachel Weisz!
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