A Cult Survivor Learns About Movies
I asked my Twitter followers to help me crowd source a list of “classic” movies that I should see. You see, I grew up in the Children of God religious cult, and we weren’t allowed hardly any movies. I spent my teens and 20s making straight A’s, working multiple jobs, and going to war. Now I’m finally deciding to catch up on some of the pop-culture I’ve missed. (Check out my crowd sourced playlist on spotify, too)
The rules were, only one per person.
If you helpfully decided your movie judgement was more important than everyone else’s and gave me a whole list, only your first made the list —because rules; just be glad you didn’t get nixed.
Here it is:
The Lives of Others
Big Trouble in Little China
Fifth Element
Stripes
Highlander
Walk the Line
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control
Stand and Deliver
Life of Brian
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Stand by Me
Streets of Fire
The Waterboy
High Fidelity
Fight Club
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the Eight Dimension
Little Big Man
Forrest Gump
Casablanca
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Witches of Eastwick
Captain Fantastic
Better Off Dead
Grosse Pointe Blank
Mad Max: Fury Road
Tommy Boy
Burn After Reading
Melancholia
Clue Man on Fire
The Big Lebowski
Princess Bride
Reservoir Dogs
Night of the Hunter
Kung Fu
Hustle
The Money Pit
The Hunt for Red October
Shawshank Redemption
Blazing Saddles
The Americanization of Emily
The Fifth Element
The Fountain
The Martian
How to Train Your Dragon
Miracle
The Godfather
Addams Family Values
Fern Gully
Pride and Prejudice
Fire Birds
Moulin Rouge
Dr. Strangelove
The Labyrinth
Jurrasic Park
That Thing You Do
Arguing with Myself by Jeff Dunham
Steel Magnolias
October Sky
Fever Pitch
The Usual Suspects
The Mighty
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Spitfire Grill
LA Confidential
Legends of the Fall
My Blue Heaven
Pulp Fiction
Lord of the Rings
The Godfather
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Great Escape
Tombstone
Clerks
Training Day
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Much Ado About Nothing
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Jaws
Animal House
Near Dark
Citizen Kane
Layer Cake
Caddy Shack
Young Guns
Top Secret
The Crow
A Few Good Men
Leon-The Professional (Luc Besson)
Truman Show
Blade Runner
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
When Harry Met Sally
Die Hard
Saving Silverman
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Matrix
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Babette’s Feast
The Mummy
Live Die Repeat
The Breakfast Club
Top Gun
Creed McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Hackers as 90s Kids
The Muppet Movie
Goonies
Harold and Maude
Spirited Away
Say Anything
Clueless
Persuasion (1995)
The Departed
Dogma
Raising Arizona
Ten Things I Hate About You
Master and Commander
Star Wars
The Court Jester
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Iron Man
2001
I Robot
To Wong Foo
American History X
The Impossible
Donnie Darko
Happy Gilmore
Boondock Saints
Good Will Hunting
If a Man Answers
Le Grande Boeuf
Joy Luck Club
Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai
Apocalypse Now
Yojimbo
Monty Python’s Holy Grail
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Third Man
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Office Space
Snatch
Muppet Treasure Island
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
My Cousin Vinny
Apollo 13
Dazed and Confused
August Rush
Heart and Souls
First Wives Club
The Barbarian Invasions (Denis Arcand)
Seven
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Hot Fuzz
Tropic Thunder
No Country for Old Men
Skyscraper
My Man Godfrey
V for Vendetta
Mulan
Equilibrium
Idiocracy
Inception
Lawrence of Arabia
The Good, the Bad, the Weird
Ice Pirates Pirate
Radio
Tremors
And there you have it. I have some interesting thoughts about how I may work my way through the list.
Daniella Mestyanek Young is an American author and TEDx Speaker. Daniella has been breaking through barriers and challenging authority figures since her earliest childhood memories growing up in the horrifying Children of God Cult and on through her service and deployment to war twice. Daniella served as part of the first group of women who integrated into deliberate combat arms missions back in 2011 and has since spent the majority of her time leading in veteran service organizations to try and help folks heal and find their own definition of success after their service.
Daniella is married to the world’s best special operations helicopter pilot and speaks primarily in Brazilian Portuguese with her daughter, who sasses her back in three languages. Daniella is currently at work on her memoir. She can be found speaking speaking truth to power, irritating vetbros and stamping out the kyriarchy on Twitter @daniellamyoung. She can be contacted at daniella.m.young@gmail.com