the movie that inspired me essay

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7 Movies NOT About Writing That Inspire Me to Write Better

By Tom Meitner

Ask any writer what they are inspired by, and they’ll likely respond with the literary works of famous authors. They will rattle off great novels of the past, classic masterpieces of literature, or even inspiring books they read when they were younger.

While there are some good books out there, I’m far more inspired by other forms of media. One of these forms is movies.

To me, movies are one of the best and most effective forms of media. In just a couple hours, a movie can take you on an incredible emotional ride. You can explore ideas, light a fire under somebody, or communicate important truths about the world. But the limited format often forces movies to keep their messages punchy and communicate what they want to say more efficiently.

Or at least the good ones do.

Few things make me sadder than the state of the movie industry today. And I’m not just talking about how the pandemic affected movie theaters. Even before the world shut down, the movie-going experience just wasn’t the same anymore.

Movies are normally preachy messes, or they are just CGI-loaded superhero films. There are very few movies telling original stories, or communicating old stories in an original way, while also entertaining the audience.

As a writer, I often turn to movies and TV shows to inspire me. When I want to experience great fiction—or even, as in the list below, some non-fiction—I usually turn on the TV in my living room and immerse myself in a classic story told in movie form.

The list below is not an exhaustive one. There are great movies throughout the last 100 years that can inspire you. But these are the ones that I always go back to. These are the ones that leave me feeling as though I should run up to my office, sit down at my desk, and start working on the latest story in my book series .

You may have a different list. This is very personal for me. But it might inspire you to look at films and TV shows a little differently.

1. The Pursuit of Happyness

2. the greatest showman.

• 3. Back to the Future, 4. The Bourne Identity, 5. The Truman Show

6. Comedian

7. that thing you do, what it’s about.

Chris Gardner can’t seem to get his career on track. Selling medical equipment, he can’t make ends meet and lives on the streets with his young son. He sees an opportunity to build a new career, so places a big bet on himself to change his life and achieve the success that he always believed that he could.

Why it inspires me

To be honest, this is the movie on the list that I relate to the most . I’ve been a writer full-time for almost 13 years. In that time, I’ve made lots and lots of money, and I’ve also had years where I barely made anything. Throughout it all, I’ve been told by many people to give up, move on, and get "a real job."

Watching this movie shows me big lessons about success that I often need to remind myself of. The first, and most obvious one, is the importance of betting on yourself. Throughout this movie, Gardner struggles with self-doubt. And when he’s at his very bottom, sleeping in the bathroom of a train station, holding the door closed with his foot while cradling his son, tears of shame streaming down his face, you can see the guilt in his eyes. He knows that the decisions he made brought him to that point, and he and his son are paying for it. That’s a very powerful emotion to cope with when you’re struggling, and I am familiar with it.

But he got out of that by believing in his ability to do so. He didn’t dwell on how unfair the world was. Instead, he found a way out.

The second lesson is the importance of pivoting away from your original plan. At the start of the movie, Gardner believes that he is going to be successful by selling medical equipment. By the end of the movie, he has a completely different career. He was willing to take a step away from his plans and adjust. That’s more important than you think. Especially as a writer, think about how you are generating an income, and understand when something isn’t working so you can pivot to something else.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one already, but this is about a father who is not as successful as he believes he should be, so he changes careers and makes a big bet on himself.

Okay, this one is a little different. Hugh Jackman plays lead character P. T. Barnum. He believes he’s destined for great things, so he starts a circus. Nobody wants to see it at first, and he gradually builds up his acts, learning how to promote himself and his circus. Over time, he loses track of what really matters and why he was chasing this dream, and learns the importance of what life is really all about.

First off, this is a musical. And it’s a banger . If you like music at all, this is a good one to watch.

That point out of the way, it reduced me to tears the first time I saw it. I went to see it at the theater with my wife, and watching a man cry to his wife about what he’s put her through was very touching to me. Along with that, there is a brief window into the mindset of the wife who willingly supports her husband through his crazy schemes.

Now that’s a very personal reason to like this movie. But there is one that anybody can take away from this. The Greatest Showman was not supposed to be successful.

If you dig into the history of this movie, nothing about it makes sense. It’s a period film about an old circus, and it’s a musical. Not a Disney musical, but an original musical. It should not have been successful at all.

Except it was. This punchy little musical wound up staying very successful for months on end. When every other movie seemed to drift away, The Greatest Showman continued to be successful. It drew crowds. It went on to become one of the most successful musicals of all time.

The reason why is Hugh Jackman. He believed in this movie, and he took it on as a passion project. This was something he always wanted to do. When you watch the videos of the initial presentations of the songs, you see a man with tears in his eyes trying to bring this little dream to reality. And that’s not part of the movie, that’s real life!

Just because people don’t think you’ll be successful doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to fail. You may have an original idea, and if you focus on executing it properly, you can be successful.

Ours is an era where this is more important than ever. Thanks to self-publishing, writers don’t have to convince gatekeepers to take our ideas to the market. We can take our careers in our own hands, and place bets on ourselves.

Sometimes, those bets pay off.

3. Back to the Future , 4. The Bourne Identity , 5. The Truman Show

What they’re about.

I’m lumping all three together because a lot of what I learned is the same from each of them.

Back to the Future is about a young man who goes back in time to make sure that his parents end up together in high school. He interacts with younger versions of many people in his life, and he discovers how the way he interacts with them affects how they turn out in the present day.

The Bourne Identity is about a man who wakes up on a boat with total amnesia. He has documents and inexplicable abilities to observe the world around him and to fight. Eventually, he unravels a vast government conspiracy revolving around his previous life.

The Truman Show is about a man who lives his life completely unaware that everything around him is part of a TV show. His entire world is fictional. Thanks to a light fixture that suddenly falls from the artificial sky, Truman questions everything and discovers just how artificial everything is.

These are really generic recaps, but trust me—they’re all great movies.

Why they inspire me

I love an original story. Sure, they may follow similar arcs. But these stories all start with very interesting premises that have a lot of meat that they can work with.

Where do they come up with this stuff? I’m fascinated by the execution of these stories. And ultimately, all of these stories are pretty simple to explain. Yes, there is more to each of them, but I can sum each movie up in a few sentences. And with those sentences, you can pack in a lot of intrigue and curiosity.

To me as a writer, watching these movies and others like them shows me you can find a lot of originality in a very simple premise. By taking the time to execute it properly, you can take an original idea and turn it into something really memorable.

Jerry Seinfeld was on top of the world as the ’90s came to a close. He had just wrapped up nine seasons of his landmark TV show. It was a pop culture phenomenon, and it still holds up to this day. With all the money in the world and any direction for him to take his career, Jerry Seinfeld did the unthinkable. He went back to stand-up comedy. The documentary looks at Jerry building his act again from scratch, going down to the comedy clubs in New York and jumping on stage to work out new material.

I’m fascinated by the world of stand-up comedy in the 20th century. And if you know nothing about it, understand that it was a very hard life. You worked late nights trying to get on stage so you could work out your act.

Comedians who hit it big were often pulled into movies, their own TV shows, or they just dominated the stand-up comedy scene. But it was a world full of amateurs looking for their big breaks.

This documentary illustrates that perfectly . Even though Jerry Seinfeld was a household name, he couldn’t just get on stage and say whatever he wanted. His material still had to be good. And after he ended his TV show, he did one last stand up comedy special retiring all of his old material. He started over completely from scratch.

Throughout this movie, you see Jerry sitting down with legal pads, writing out jokes every day. You see him getting on stage and forgetting what he was trying to say, referencing piles of papers in front of him. He looks like a complete amateur up there, struggling to get people to laugh at his jokes. It’s very raw and very revealing.

As a writer, it is really easy to look at people who are successful and think that they live on Easy Street. They can spit out successful stories repeatedly. But the truth is, the good ones with any kind of staying power don’t rely on their reputation to get them by in their careers. Those who do wind up petering out after a short period of time.

Jerry Seinfeld is still very successful to this day because he works hard. And any of the other most successful entertainers, writers, comedians, and so on are all successful because they still do the grunt work themselves.

Does it get easier? I’m not sure. But I know that the things I struggle with in my writing are the same things that successful writers struggle with in their writing too.

A young group of teenagers play in a band in their garage. They work to get their big song on the local radio. Once they do so, a big record label picks them up and puts them on tour, producing a hit record. With their one-hit wonder under their belts, they embark on a whirlwind journey where they ultimately flame out and go their separate ways soon after their initial spike of success.

Tom Hanks made this movie in the late ’90s. And I’ll be honest with you, it’s not a cinematic masterpiece. I don’t believe it won very many awards at all, and it certainly didn’t win any Oscars.

But it was fun . And that was the point.

To this day, there are many people who still call That Thing You Do! one of their favorite movies. It’s certainly one of mine. When it comes on, it’s like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket. It’s comfortable, fun, and you know what to expect from it.

And in my opinion, the music is pretty good too.

How many people who decide to embark on a life of writing are always looking to build an epic masterpiece that they can point to as their own? When you learn about writing, you study great works of literature and want to emulate their influence.

But that’s not all that writers do. There are many writers who are comfortable and happy just pumping out entertaining works. They’re not looking to change the world with their literature. They just want to entertain people for a little while. They want to have fun.

That’s the kind of work that I do. I’m not expecting to have someone put down one of my books and believe that I am an intellectual giant with a brilliant mind. I just want them to put down my book and say to themselves, "Man, that was a fun read."

Often, many writers would really benefit by sticking to their strengths. You may not have the chops to write something brilliant. You might be able to put together a fun little story. And if you write enough of those, you can build a rabid readership of people who just want a little bit of an escape for a while.

That Thing You Do! is an escape. That’s all it is. And it’s a fun one. If I want a smile on my face, I can put that movie on anytime. It’s a movie that knows exactly what it’s supposed to be, and it doesn’t try to be anything more than that. It knows its limitations, and it plays into its strengths. More writers need to learn how to do that.

What about you? What movies are on your list?

Are there movies out there that restore your faith in your chances of success as a writer? Or are there any stories out there that light a fire under you to pick up the pen or grab your laptop and start working on your story?

Start looking at your favorite movies through this lens, and you might find more inspiration than you think.

Do you want to know how to build a world your readers won’t forget? Download this free book now:

World-Building 101: How to Construct an Unforgettable World for Your Fantasy or Sci-Fi Story!

This guide is for all the writers out there who want to construct an unforgettable world that your readers can’t help but get lost in, learn how to invent species, gods, monsters, and more in our immersive guide..

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Tom Meitner

Tom Meitner spends pretty much his entire day writing—and loves it. He is a freelance copywriter, self-published author, and fiction ghostwriter. You can learn more about Tom and his work at his website TomMeitner.com. When he's not glued to the screen of his Chromebook, Tom is spending time with his wife and kids in Wisconsin, likely eating some form of cheese.

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Essay Samples on Someone Who Inspires Me

At its core, inspiration is a powerful force that ignites passion, propels dreams, and molds individuals into extraordinary beings. It is the vibrant pulse that surges through our veins, pushing us to achieve greatness even in the face of adversity. Crafting an essay about someone who inspires you allows you to shine a spotlight on the transformative power of such individuals.

How to Write an Essay on Someone Who Inspires Me

Here are some useful example you shpuld consider when writing a college essay about someone who inspires you:

• Consider beginning with a heartfelt introduction that captivates the reader’s attention and sets the stage for the awe-inspiring journey to come.
• Share a personal anecdote or a defining moment that sparked the connection between you and your inspirational figure, allowing the reader to empathize with your experience.
• Delve into the qualities and actions that make this individual so inspiring. Explore their accomplishments, perseverance, and unwavering determination. Showcase how their words and deeds have impacted your life, shaping your values and aspirations. Be vivid and descriptive, illustrating the profound influence they have had on your personal growth and development.
• Weave in personal reflections throughout your essay. Share introspective thoughts and revelations, highlighting the lessons you have learned and the ways in which your perspective has evolved. By doing so, you invite the reader to embark on a transformative journey alongside you, creating a powerful emotional connection.

To aid you in your writing process, we provide a sample essay about someone who inspires you. It serves as a guiding light, illustrating the structure, tone, and depth needed to craft an outstanding piece. Drawing inspiration from this sample, embrace your unique voice, infuse your essay with passion, and let your words leave an indelible mark on the hearts and minds of the readers.

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A Beacon of Inspiration: A Descriptive Peace about the Person I Admire

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Best topics on Someone Who Inspires Me

1. A Bond Beyond Words: Reflecting on My Relationship with Someone Special

2. A Beacon of Inspiration: A Descriptive Peace about the Person I Admire

3. A Person I Will Always Remember: My English Teacher

4. My Grandmother as My Role Model: Her Role in Shaping My Identity

5. My Role Model and My Heroes: Mother and Father

6. Audrey Hepburn: Life Of A Timeless Inspiration Of Mine

7. Oprah Winfrey and Ariana Grande: Women That Inspire Me

8. St. Bernadette: The Woman That Inspires Me

9. Simone De Beauvoir One of the Greatest Woman

10. Ned Kelly: American Hero Or Villain

11. Joan of Arc One of the Most Heroic Women in French History

12. Who Inspired Me to Become a Nurse

13. Mary Kom, The Person Who Inspired Me to Pursue My Dreams

14. The People Who Shaped Me

15. Three People Who Influenced Me Throughout My Life

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• Perseverance
• Personal Experience

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, can i center my college essay around a movie that changed my perspective.

There's a movie that really hit home for me and offered a lot of insight into who I am. I want to write about it for my college essay, but I'm slightly concerned that it might not be 'significant' enough. Any advice on this?

Absolutely, centering your college essay around a movie that significantly impacted your perspective can be a great idea. Admissions officers are looking for authenticity and depth in your writing, so if this film truly influenced your worldview, it can serve as a compelling central theme for your essay. In any college essay, your 'topic,' no matter how significant (or insignificant) it seems on the surface, is always just a lens that you want to use to shine light on certain key aspects of your personality.

More concretely, the key to your essay shouldn't be the movie itself, but rather the connections between its themes or messages and your life experiences, growth, and aspirations. It's important to show personal reflection and introspection when discussing why this film is meaningful to you. So, avoid summarizing the movie—instead, discuss specific moments or quotes from the film that sparked change in your thoughts or behavior, and illustrate how these insights have woven into the fabric of your life and how you see the world. Use concrete examples that did take place in your real life to demonstrate the film's tangible impact on you, and to reveal qualities about yourself that would be attractive to a college admissions officer, like resilience, curiosity, creativity, leadership, open-mindedness, and so on.

For example, if a certain character's journey helped you overcome a personal challenge or inspired a project you worked on, those are strong links to make. If you're wondering whether your approach works, you can check out CollegeVine's free peer essay review service, or submit your essay to a professional reviewer for a paid breakdown of what you're doing well and what needs work. But to summarize, it's absolutely okay to write about a film—happy writing trails!

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CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

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'Soul' Creators On Passion, Purpose And Realizing You're 'Enough'

Terry Gross

The Oscar-nominated Disney/Pixar film Soul centers on Joe (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a middle school band teacher who longs to be a jazz musician. Disney hide caption

The Oscar-nominated Disney/Pixar film Soul centers on Joe (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a middle school band teacher who longs to be a jazz musician.

The Oscar-nominated movie Soul tackles passion, purpose and the meaning of life — topics that aren't usually addressed in animated films.

The movie centers on Joe, a middle school band teacher who feels unfulfilled because his ambition is to be a full-time jazz musician. On the day he lands the biggest gig of his career, Joe nearly dies — but then gets the chance to return to his body if he can figure out the purpose of his life.

Pete Docter, who co-wrote and co-directed the film with Kemp Powers, says the film was inspired by the emotional turbulence he experienced after writing and directing Inside Out .

"Having ... so much success in [that] film, I found myself wondering: Why don't I feel like my life is all wrapped up and solved in a nice bow? Why didn't it fix everything?" Docter says.

It's All In Your Head: Director Pete Docter Gets Emotional In 'Inside Out'

Soul has generated success of its own. The film won the Golden Globe award for best animated picture, and is nominated for three Academy Awards. But Powers, who's also up for an Oscar for his adapted screenplay for One Night in Miami , says Soul is actually meant to challenge conventional notions of success and failure.

"We were trying to help not just Joe, but the entire audience, understand that it's not about winners or losers and that everyone's life has value," Powers says. "That was really a powerful driving force from the very beginning."

Docter says the film's message is that life has meaning that goes beyond personal ambition.

"The movie's aim is really to say that we're already enough," he says. "We all can walk out of the door and enjoy life without needing to accomplish or prove anything. And that's really freeing."

Interview highlights

On Pixar approaching Powers to work on the film

Powers: It is pretty funny, because obviously when I got the call from my agent that Pixar was interested, they were looking for a writer to help them with a project ... the first thing my brain said was, "Hmm, I'm guessing the story must have Black people in it." I know that that can sound cynical, but look, that's just the reality of this business, this industry. ... It wasn't very long ago — and when I say not very long ago, I'm talking just, like, three or four years ago — where it was very possible, if you happened to be white, to create and tell a story about anything you wanted to. And no one would so much as push you to even consult with people from that community, let alone invite them in and be partners.

In 'Soul,' Jon Batiste's Music Helps Bring Pixar's First Black Lead To Life

So while it's easy to kind of take the cynical road, I saw it more as a really interesting opportunity, because when I flew up to Pixar and I sat down and I saw the nuggets of what would become Soul , I really fell in love with the story that Pete was trying to tell. And it was a story that felt like it was about me, and it was a story that really wasn't about race. That was one of the things that really, really excited me about this. ... I tell people, yes, Soul is a film [where] the majority of the characters are Black, but it's not a "Black" film. We're trying to tell this universal story through the specific prism of a Black man. And I think that was a really bold choice that I was relishing an opportunity to try to execute.

On Powers' feedback to an early reel of Soul

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'soul' is a jazzy, joyful celebration of life.

Powers: In the early reels, [Joe] seemed like the least interesting person in the film. ... Part of it was, I think, because there had been such extreme caution and such a fear of doing things that might offend someone or upset someone, that instead there really hadn't been much done [on the character]. I didn't know anything about the guy. I didn't really know anything about his family. It seemed like Joe was just a very, very lonely man who didn't know anyone and had no friends. And so that just meant that his life had to be filled in. And, of course, it's just the nature of being at Pixar, it doesn't matter whether you're a director or a designer or an artist, you use your life as fuel. So it was very easy for me [to] say, "Oh, he's supposed to be a 45-year-old Black man from New York. What a coincidence! That's what I am!" [And then] to start filling in a lot of those gaps with my own personal experiences.

On researching depictions and beliefs about the soul for the film

Docter: I talked to priests and rabbis and experts in Islam, Hinduism, as many of the main religions as we could find, to just see how these different traditions look at the soul and the afterlife and the world beyond our bodily forms. What we found was that most of them have a lot to say about what happens after we die — but very few talk about what happened before. So that meant we were kind of free to make stuff up, which is my favorite place to be. ...

Joe's soul (right) is paired with 22, a lost soul voiced by Tina Fey. Disney hide caption

Joe's soul (right) is paired with 22, a lost soul voiced by Tina Fey.

If you ask, "What is the soul?" most of them talk about the soul being ethereal, vaporous, non-physical, invisible. We wanted to hint at all that in our design — not only of the souls themselves, but the world they inhabit. And actually, interestingly, the first draft of the film ... was a version entirely set in the "Great Before" [a fantastical place where new souls exist before they go to Earth]. There is no Earth-based stuff. It was all about observing life just through these memories and these visualizations of the world, trying to talk this other soul into going [to Earth]. But the more we developed it, the more we realized, if we're going to talk about what makes life worth living, we've got to go interact with it. We got to get our hands dirty — smell, taste, touch, all those things that a soul can't do.

On depicting "lost souls" in the film

Powers: Something that we discussed when making this film was that at different points in our lives and careers, we've all been ... "lost souls," based on our definition of it. Because when you find something you enjoy and you're passionate about and you actually are pretty good at it, it is so easy to take the extra step of hiding behind that thing and using it to not deal with so many other elements of life. That's why it was so important that when we introduced the idea of the lost soul — that someone could be lost — but then they could be found. ... I've definitely found myself, based on our own definition of it, [as] a bit of a lost soul, someone who — to avoid facing all different elements of life — just [loses] myself in my work.

On screening Soul for kids

Docter: On Soul , we got started to get worried, like, is this too much? Are kids going to be able to track this? So we brought in an audience full of kids. It was probably the second scariest screening, because they're quiet. Kids are quiet. They don't laugh a lot. So you're like, "Oh, we're dying! We're dying!" But we found over the years, like especially the first time they watch something, they're typically just sucking it all up and taking it in. ... But afterwards we ask them questions like, "Did you understand this?" And what seems to happen again [and] again is the parents will say, "This film was too complicated for kids. This is not appropriate for kids." And then the kid sitting right next to them will sit and explain the entire movie better than I could. They get everything. They're very smart.

Heidi Saman and Seth Kelley produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the Web.

The Analysis of the Movie “Inside Out” by Pixar Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Brief movie summary, memory system movie connections, learning process movie connections.

Understanding the innermost workings of the human mind is a challenging task. The film Inside Out presents a curious take on how emotions create lifetime connections within one’s brain that constitute and influence their personality. Their interactions and the events that the main character lives through create a compelling narrative of one’s learning process. This paper will provide an analysis of the movie Inside Out and explain how it exemplifies the connection between one’s memory, emotions, and learning.

The film virtually follows Riley from her birth and through the point where her life circumstances change significantly. Joy has been a dominating emotion over the first years of Riley’s life, but the world around the girl does not have enough sources of happiness (Docter, 2015). A struggle is ongoing in Riley’s life and her mind. Sadness is the one emotion that is suppressed the most by a constant stream of attempts by Joy to keep Riley as optimistic as possible, which is unnatural for a developing mind. At the same time, there are new, mature concepts that Riley must comprehend, and it becomes possible only with the help of the full range of emotions (Docter, 2015). The role of Sadness becomes apparent to Joy as they realize the necessity of their cooperation in Riley’s life.

A human’s brain might not resemble an assortment of memory balls as shown in the film, yet it does store memories via different modes. An essential part of the memory system is the transfer of a day’s memories to long-term storage (Docter, 2015). This switch does help people to accumulate knowledge throughout their lives. While neurons do not get stored in the back of one’s brain, they do keep a portion of familiar connections that represent a particular event (Hartshorne & Makovski, 2019). Some thoughts may be more accessible due to said cells being more actively used. The movie also utilizes the concept of core memories that represent breaking points in one’s life that shape traits that are shown as a set of personality islands (Docter, 2015). These foundational ideas may play in people’s heads less apparent than in Inside Out , yet they serve as a framework for one’s actions and decisions.

The process of knowledge acquisition is directly linked to one’s memory. In the film, the train of thought goes through the imagination to assess new concepts, utilize past knowledge, and generate ideas (Docter, 2015). However, an internal balance is necessary for the timely replacement of outdated memories. One of the essential aspects of one’s mind that are established in the movie is the necessity for all emotions to be correctly represented for progress to be made (Docter, 2015). A strong emotional response can lead to the necessary changes in one’s mind.

The film makes it clear that the learning process itself is not a constant structure. A clear difference between an adult and a child is depicted through the maturity of the characters that represent people’s emotions (Docter, 2015). Their actions show how comprehension of a situation depends on one’s age. The necessary balance of emotions has a vital role in the learning process, as Riley does not respond well to a new school environment until her crisis is resolved (Docter, 2015). A person’s memory is an ever-changing landscape that is constantly affected by their emotions, which is a healthy response to an outside influence. Only through adapting to these fluctuations can one acquire new information and learn efficiently.

Docter, P. (Director). (2015). Inside Out [Film]. Pixar Animation Studios.

Hartshorne, J. K., & Makovski, T. (2019). The effect of working memory maintenance on long-term memory. Memory & Cognition , 47 (4), 749-763. Web.

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Bibliography

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The Best Essay Films, Ranked

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Every Major Marvel Character In Deadpool & Wolverine

10 best war movies of 2024 (so far), every spielberg movie from the 21st century, ranked.

In literature, an essay is a composition dealing with its subject from a personal point of view. The pioneer of this genre, 16th-century French writer and philosopher Michel de Montaigne, used the French word "essai" to describe his "attempts" to put subjective thoughts into writing. Deriving its name from Montaigne’s magnum opus Essays and the literary genre in general, essay films are defined as a self-reflexive form of avant-garde, experimental, sort of documentary cinema that can be traced back to the dawn of filmmaking.

From early silent essay films, like D. W. Griffith’s A Corner in Wheat and Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera , to in-depth explorations from the second half of the 20th century, these are some of the best essay films ever made, ranked.

8 A Corner in Wheat

The 14-minute short A Corner in Wheat (1909) is considered by many to be the world's earliest essay film. Directed by filmmaking pioneer D. W. Griffith, this shot follows a ruthless tycoon who wants to control the wheat market. A powerful portrayal of capitalistic greed , A Corner in Wheat is a bold commentary on the contrast between the wealthy speculators and the agricultural poor. It is simply one of the best early short films.

7 Two or Three Things I Know About Her

Described by MUBI as "a landmark transition from the maestro’s jazzy genre deconstructions of the 60s to his gorgeous and inquisitive essay films of the future" (such as Histoire(s) du cinéma , Goodbye to Language , The Image Book ), 1967's Two or Three Things I Know About Her is Jean-Luc Godard’s collage of modern life.

Related: The Best Jean-Luc Godard Films, Ranked

The story of 24 hours in the life of housewife Juliette (Marina Vlady), who moonlights as a prostitute, is only a template for the filmmaker’s social observation of 1960s France, sprinkled with references to the nightmares of the Vietnam War. Whispering in our ears as narrator, Godard tells us much more than two or three things about "her," referring to Paris rather than Juliette.

6 F for Fake

Orson Welles’ 1973 essay film F for Fake focuses on three hoaxers, the notorious art forger Elmyr de Hory who had a talent for copying styles of noted painters; his biographer Clifford Irving whose fake "authorized biography" of Howard Hughes was one of the biggest literary scandals of the 20th century; and Welles himself with his famous War of the Worlds hoax. One of the best Orson Welles films , F for Fake investigates the tenuous lines between forgery and art, illusion and life.

5 News from Home

An unforgettable time capsule of New York in the 1970s, News from Home features Belgian film director Chantal Akerman reading melancholic, sometimes passive-aggressive letters from her mother over beautiful shots of New York, where Akerman relocated at the age of 21. Released in 1976, after the filmmaker’s breakthrough drama Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles , News from Home makes plain the disconnection in family, while New York and the young artist’s alienating come more and more to the front.

4 As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

Jonas Mekas, the godfather of American avant-garde cinema, made one of the most personal, but at the same time one of the most universal films ever. It is his 2000 experimental documentary As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty . Compiled from Mekas' home movies from 1970-1999, this nearly five-hour essay film shows the loveliness of everyday life. Footage of what Mekas calls "little fragments of paradise," the first steps of the filmmaker’s children, their happy life in New York, trips to Europe, and on and on, are complemented by Mekas’ commentary. It is a poetic diary about nothing but life.

3 Sans Soleil

Directed by Chris Marker, king of the essay film , 1983’s Sans Soleil ( Sunless ) follows an unseen cameraman named Sandor Krasna, Marker's alter ego, who journeys from Africa to Japan, "two extreme poles of survival." The 100-minute poetical collage of Marker’s original documentary footage, clips from films and television, sequences from other filmmakers, and stock videos comes complete with the voice of a nameless female narrator, who reads Krasna's letters that sum up his lifetime's travels.

Like Marker's French New Wave masterpiece La Jetee , Sans Soleil reflects on human experience, the nature of memory, understanding of time, and life on our planet. It is pure beauty.

Made when the filmmaker, Derek Jarman, was dying from AIDS-related complications that rendered him partially blind and capable only of experiencing shades of blue, the great experimental film Blue from 1993 is like no other. Jarman’s 79-minute final feature consists of a single shot of one color — International Klein Blue. Against a blank blue screen, the iconic director interweaves a medley of sounds, music, voices of four narrators (Jarman himself, the chameleonic Tilda Swinton , Nigel Terry, and John Quentin), the filmmaker’s daydreams, adventures of Blue, as a character and color, diary-like entries about Jarman’s life and current events, names of his lovers and friends who had died of AIDS, fragments of poetry, and much more.

Related: 8 Must-Watch Movies From LGBTQ+ Filmmakers

A deeply personal goodbye and a sort of self-portrait, this essay film is dedicated to Yves Klein , the artist who mixed this deep blue hue and said, "At first there is nothing, then there is a profound nothingness, after that a blue profundity".

1 Man with a Movie Camera

Dziga Vertov, one of cinema’s greatest innovators, believed that the "eye" of the camera captures life better than the subjective eye of a human. In the 1920s, he started looking for cinematic truth, showing life outside the field of human vision through a mix of rhythmic editing, multiple exposures, experimental camera angles, backward sequences, freeze frames, extreme close-ups, and other "cinema eye" techniques. This is how Vertov’s best-known film, 1929’s Man with a Movie Camera , was made. This narrative-free essay shows the kaleidoscopic life of Soviet cities. An avant-garde urban poem, Man with a Movie Camera makes clear what the beauty of cinema is.

• Movie Lists

Essays About Movies: 7 Examples and 5 Writing Prompts

Check out our guide with essays about movies for budding videographers and artistic students. Learn from our helpful list of examples and prompts.

Watching movies is a part of almost everyone’s life. They entertain us, teach us lessons, and even help us socialize by giving us topics to talk about with others. As long as movies have been produced, everyone has patronized them.  Essays about movies  are a great way to learn all about the meaning behind the picture.

Cinema is an art form in itself. The lighting, camera work, and acting in the most widely acclaimed movies are worthy of praise. Furthermore, a movie can be used to send a message, often discussing issues in contemporary society. Movies are entertaining, but more importantly, they are works of art. If you’re interested in this topic, check out our round-up of screenwriters on Instagram .

5 Helpful Essay Examples 

1. the positive effects of movies on human behaviour by ajay rathod, 2. horror movies by emanuel briggs, 3. casablanca – the greatest hollywood movie ever (author unknown).

• 4.  Dune Review: An Old Story Reshaped For The New 2021 Audience by Oren Cohen

5. Blockbuster movies create booms for tourism — and headaches for locals by Shubhangi Goel

• 6. Moonage Daydream: “Who Is He? What Is He?” by Jonathan Romney
• 7. La Bamba: American Dreaming, Chicano Style by Yolanda Machado

1. My Favorite Movie

2. movies genres, 3. special effects in movies, 4. what do you look for in a movie, 5. the evolution of movies.

“​​Films encourage us to take action. Our favourite characters, superheroes, teach us life lessons. They give us ideas and inspiration to do everything for the better instead of just sitting around, waiting for things to go their way. Films about famous personalities are the perfect way to affect social behaviour positively. Films are a source of knowledge. They can help learn what’s in the trend, find out more about ancient times, or fill out some knowledge gaps.”

In this movie essay, Rathod gives readers three ways watching movies can positively affect us. Movie writers, producers, and directors use their platform to teach viewers life skills, the importance of education, and the contrast between good and evil. Watching movies can also help us improve critical thinking, according to Briggs. Not only do movies entertain us, but they also have many educational benefits. You might also be interested in these  essays about consumerism .

“Many people involving children and adults can effect with their sleeping disturbance and anxiety. Myths, non-realistic, fairy tales could respond differently with being in the real world. Horror movies bring a lot of excitement and entertainment among you and your family. Horror movies can cause physical behavior changes in a person by watching the films. The results of watching horror movies shows that is has really effect people whether you’re an adult, teens, and most likely happens during your childhood.”

In his essay, Briggs acknowledges why people enjoy horror movies so much but warns of their adverse effects on viewers. Most commonly, they cause viewers nightmares, which may cause anxiety and sleep disorders. He focuses on the films’ effects on children, whose more sensitive, less developed brains may respond with worse symptoms, including major trauma. The films can affect all people negatively, but children are the most affected.

“This was the message of Casablanca in late 1942. It was the ideal opportunity for America to utilize its muscles and enter the battle. America was to end up the hesitant gatekeeper of the entire world. The characters of Casablanca, similar to the youthful Americans of the 1960s who stick headed the challenge development, are ‘genuine Americans’ lost in a hostile region, battling to open up another reality.”

In this essay, the author discusses the 1942 film  Casablanca , which is said to be the greatest movie ever made, and explains why it has gotten this reputation. To an extent, the film’s storyline, acting, and even relatability (it was set during World War II) allowed it to shine from its release until the present. It invokes feelings of bravery, passion, and nostalgia, which is why many love the movie. You can also check out these  books about adaption . 

4.   Dune Review: An Old Story Reshaped For The New 2021 Audience by Oren Cohen

“Lady Jessica is a powerful woman in the original book, yet her interactions with Paul diminish her as he thinks of her as slow of thought. Something we don’t like to see in 2021 — and for a good reason. Every book is a product of its time, and every great storyteller knows how to adapt an old story to a new audience. I believe Villeneuve received a lot of hate from diehard Dune fans for making these changes, but I fully support him.”

Like the previous essay, Cohen reviews a film, in this case, Denis Villeneuve’s  Dune , released in 2021. He praises the film, writing about its accurate portrayal of the epic’s vast, dramatic scale, music, and, interestingly, its ability to portray the characters in a way more palatable to contemporary audiences while staying somewhat faithful to the author’s original vision. Cohen enjoyed the movie thoroughly, saying that the movie did the book justice. 

“Those travelers added around 630 million New Zealand dollars ($437 million) to the country’s economy in 2019 alone, the tourism authority told CNBC. A survey by the tourism board, however, showed that almost one in five Kiwis are worried that the country attracts too many tourists. Overcrowding at tourist spots, lack of infrastructure, road congestion and environmental damage are creating tension between locals and visitors, according to a 2019 report by Tourism New Zealand.”

The locations where successful movies are filmed often become tourist destinations for fans of those movies. Goel writes about how “film tourism” affects the residents of popular filming locations. The environment is sometimes damaged, and the locals are caught off guard. Though this is not always the case, film tourism is detrimental to the residents and ecosystem of these locations. You can also check out these  essays about The Great Gatsby .

6. Moonage Daydream:  “Who Is He? What Is He?” by Jonathan Romney

“Right from the start, Brett Morgen’s  Moonage Daydream  (2022) catches us off guard. It begins with an epigraph musing on Friedrich Nietzsche’s proclamation that “God is dead,” then takes us into deep space and onto the surface of the moon. It then unleashes an image storm of rockets, robots, and star-gazers, and rapid-fire fragments of early silent cinema, 1920s science fiction, fifties cartoons, and sixties and seventies newsreel footage, before lingering on a close-up of glittery varnish on fingernails.” 

Moonage Daydream  is a feature film containing never-before-seen footage of David Bowie. In this essay, Romney delves into the process behind creating the movie and how the footage was captured. It also looks at the director’s approach to creating a structured and cohesive film, which took over two years to plan. This essay looks at how Bowie’s essence was captured and preserved in this movie while displaying the intricacies of his mind.

7. La Bamba:  American Dreaming, Chicano Style by Yolanda Machado

“A traumatic memory, awash in hazy neutral tones, arising as a nightmare. Santo & Johnny’s mournful “Sleep Walk” playing. A sudden death, foreshadowing the passing of a star far too young. The opening sequence of Luis Valdez’s  La Bamba  (1987) feels like it could be from another film—what follows is largely a celebration of life and music.”

La Bamba  is a well-known movie about a teenage Mexican migrant who became a rock ‘n’ roll star. His rise to fame is filled with difficult social dynamics, and the star tragically dies in a plane crash at a young age. In this essay, Machado looks at how the tragic death of the star is presented to the viewer, foreshadowing the passing of the young star before flashing back to the beginning of the star’s career. Machado analyses the storyline and directing style, commenting on the detailed depiction of the young star’s life. It’s an in-depth essay that covers everything from plot to writing style to direction.

5 Prompts for Essays About Movies

Simple and straightforward, write about your favorite movie. Explain its premise, characters, and plot, and elaborate on some of the driving messages and themes behind the film. You should also explain why you enjoy the movie so much: what impact does it have on you? Finally, answer this question in your own words for an engaging piece of writing.

From horror to romance, movies can fall into many categories. Choose one of the main genres in cinema and discuss the characteristics of movies under that category. Explain prevalent themes, symbols, and motifs, and give examples of movies belonging to your chosen genre. For example, horror movies often have underlying themes such as mental health issues, trauma, and relationships falling apart. 

Without a doubt, special effects in movies have improved drastically. Both practical and computer-generated effects produce outstanding, detailed effects to depict situations most would consider unfathomable, such as the vast space battles of the  Star Wars  movies. Write about the development of special effects over the years, citing evidence to support your writing. Be sure to detail key highlights in the history of special effects. 

Movies are always made to be appreciated by viewers, but whether or not they enjoy them varies, depending on their preferences. In your essay, write about what you look for in a “good” movie in terms of plot, characters, dialogue, or anything else. You need not go too in-depth but explain your answers adequately. In your opinion, you can use your favorite movie as an example by writing about the key characteristics that make it a great movie.

From the silent black-and-white movies of the early 1900s to the vivid, high-definition movies of today, times have changed concerning movies. Write about how the film industry has improved over time. If this topic seems too broad, feel free to focus on one aspect, such as cinematography, themes, or acting.

For help with your essays, check out our round-up of the  best essay checkers .

If you’re looking for more ideas, check out our  essays about music topic guide !

'She Picked Me': Carlo Acutis’ Mother Chooses Actor to Play Jesus in New Eucharistic Miracles Movie Inspired by Future Saint

“The New Manna” is a film about Eucharistic miracles inspired by Blessed Carlo Acutis. It will be released soon.

“The New Manna” is a film about Eucharistic miracles inspired by the research of Carlo Acutis, a young man who will soon be canonized and who had a great love for the Eucharist.

The movie, produced by Catholic filmmakers in Los Angeles, will be released soon. It is made in the Hollywood production format and not a documentary.

It tells the journey of a man who feels “challenged” by these Eucharistic miracles and seeks to deny them, says actor Robert Renzi, 42, who plays Jesus.

“On that journey of disproving them, his heart starts to shift, and we are taken back into biblical times, and we see the biblical journey of Christ pointed out in real-time towards the Eucharist," he explains.

“I had the honor and the opportunity to play Christ in this film and it was an incredible journey," Renzi reports. “I thought I was a pretty devout Catholic beforehand, and I can tell you after this role I’ll never be the same."

The actor says that working in the film “brought me into an intimacy with Christ that I didn’t experience before."

In addition to the recorded scenes that illustrate moments from the life of Christ, the production also features well-known Catholics, including Scott Hahn, Cardinal Francis Arinze, Father Donald Calloway, and medical specialists.

Carlo Acutis and Eucharistic Miracles

Renzi reveals the inspiration behind the film and how future Saint Carlo Acutis and his mother came into the story.

“Our producer, Ray, had a podcast called ‘The Joy of Faith,’ and he did a video on Carlos Acutis and the miracles he found and put on his website, and that blew up. It went viral and that got noticed by our director."

Both did not know each other then, but the director expressed his desire to get out of the Hollywood scene and make a Catholic film. Hence, the idea of ​​bringing together the Eucharistic miracles discovered by Carlo and “tell an impactful cinematic adventure story.”

Antonia Acutis, Carlo's mother, also ended up joining the production and declaring her support for the initiative.

“She’s fully backing us and she’s been such a strong advocate of the film, so we’ll have a little wink to him as well."

“I didn’t know," Renzi commented, “that his family wasn’t practicing, and he actually had faith in his heart. It was very special. His mother said he was four years old and he understood the Eucharist.

"God blessed him with a unique gift to know what the Eucharist [is] and it was through his faith that his family came back to the faith. His mother and father weren’t practicing and he even converted his butler who was a Hindu at the time. So for me, that was tremendous to hear that part of his journey."

Antonia and the Choice of Jesus

Renzi reveals that he was in the production of the film from the beginning, but one day, a message from the director changed everything.

“As we’re getting ready to cast Jesus, it was important for [the director] that our Jesus was a practicing Catholic. For all the other apostles and characters it was okay if they weren’t as long as they were talented and they respected the material. But he needed Jesus to be Catholic."

After a long process, the choice was between Renzi and another actor.

“So one day I get a text message from our director and he goes, ‘Hey, send me a selfie right now. I need it. So I send him a selfie real quick, I text it to him, he takes that selfie of me and he takes a headshot of the other actor.”

“He sends both of them to Carlo Acutis’ mother and he goes ‘Who do you think?’ She picked me, and I couldn’t believe it. She looked at me and saw something and she said ‘That’s your Jesus.’ After that he cast me as Christ, so it’s a beautiful story and pretty unbelievable."

The movie is financed by crowdfunding and is reaching the final stage of filming so that post-production can begin.

To collaborate with the project, you can donate on "The New Manna" website .

Watch "The New Manna" trailer below:

Click here if you cannot see the video above .

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Where Was ‘Find Me Falling’ Filmed? Discover the Cyprus Filming Locations for the Harry Connick Jr. Netflix Movie

Where to stream:.

• Find Me Falling
• harry connick jr.

Is ‘Find Me Falling’ Based on a True Story? How Australian “Angel” Don Ritchie Inspired the Netflix Movie

Stream it or skip it: ‘find me falling’ on netflix, a tin-eared rom-com about music, lost love and, uh, suicide, harry connick jr. says he’d “jump at” a ‘hope floats’ sequel with sandra bullock: “i’ll go wherever she calls”, harry connick jr. says his ‘find me falling’ skinny-dipping scene was a blast: “all i had to do was float around for six hours”.

Netflix romantic comedies are gaining a reputation for taking their audiences to gorgeous locations, and the latest rom-com from the streamer—Harry Connick Jr.’s Find Me Falling , which began streaming today—is no exception.

Written and directed by Stelana Kliris, Find Me Falling stars Connick Jr. as a cranky, aging rock star named John Allman who, after a failed attempt at a comeback, absconds to the island nation of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea. At first, we think he’s just there to get away from life as a famous rock star. But it’s soon revealed that John once had a passionate love affair with a Cypriot woman named Sia (played by Agni Scott). All these years later, she still lives on the island, and the spark between them is still very much alive.

Also starring Ali Fumiko Whitney and Tony Demetriou, Find Me Falling is a touching romance shot in a gorgeous location. You’ll want to book your Cyprus vacation ASAP after you watch. Read on to learn more about the Find Me Falling filming locations in Cyprus.

Where was Find Me Falling filmed?

Find Me Falling was filmed on location in the Republic of Cyprus, which is an island nation in the Mediterranean Sea, located east of Greece, north of Egypt, south of Turkey, and west of Lebanon and Syria. Though Cyprus operates politically as one nation, the country is made up of two very different, distinct cultural groups: Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriot. The Cypriots features in Find Me Falling are Greek Cypriots. Find Me Falling (which was previously titled The Islander ) is the first Netflix film to be shot in Cyprus.

More specifically, the Find Me Falling filming locations in Cyprus included the small town of Peyia, on the west side of the island; and the capital city of Nicosia, in the central-northern part of the island.

The Find Me Falling writer/director, Stelana Kliris, is a South African Cypriot.

In director’s statement shared with the film’s production notes, Kliris explained, “Like my main character, I left my bustling city life for a fresh start on a small island. I have come to know the quirks and habits of the locals and the many opportunities for comedy in their everyday life, as well as the strong sense of family and community you find in small places. Our island, with its unique flavor and authenticity, has many stories to tell.”

In recent interview with Decider, star Harry Connick Jr. said it was his first time visiting the country. “I actually didn’t really know exactly where it was,” the star told Decider. “When I read the script, I had to look on a map and see precisely where it was. But I read about it and watched some documentaries on it. I wanted to learn. And then, getting there, it was just much more than I expected. The history is palpable. The food, the people, the two cultures coexisting on the island—it’s a complex place and it was incredible. I mean, I feel so lucky to have a job that allows me to visit places like that. It was amazing.”

In her same director’s statement, Kliris added that the film is “a love letter to my island home of Cyprus, to women with weathered faces crocheting outside, to children playing on cobbled roads, to village gossips, to singing in the street. It’s a love story that almost doesn’t happen until it does.”

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By Eshe Nelson and Danielle Kaye

Eshe Nelson reported from London and Danielle Kaye from New York.

Across the world, critical businesses and services including airlines, hospitals, train networks and TV stations, were disrupted on Friday by a global tech outage affecting Microsoft users.

In many countries, flights were grounded, workers could not get access to their systems and, in some cases, customers could not make card payments in stores. While some of the problems were resolved within hours, many businesses, websites and airlines continued to struggle to recover.

What happened?

A series of outages rippled across the globe as information displays, login systems and broadcasting networks went dark.

The problem affecting the majority of services was caused by a flawed update by CrowdStrike , an American cybersecurity firm, whose systems are intended to protect users from hackers. Microsoft said on Friday that it was aware of an issue affecting machines running “CrowdStrike Falcon.”

But Microsoft had also said there was an earlier outage affecting U.S. users of Azure, its cloud service system. Some users may have been affected by both. Even as CrowdStrike sent out a fix, some systems were still affected by midday in the United States as businesses needed to make manual updates to their systems to resolve the issue.

George Kurtz, the president and chief executive of CrowdStrike, said on Friday morning that it could take some time for some systems to recover.

How a Software Update Crashed Computers Around the World

Here’s a visual explanation for how a faulty software update crippled machines.

How the airline cancellations rippled around the world (and across time zones)

Share of canceled flights at 25 airports on Friday

50% of flights

Ai r po r t

Bengalu r u K empeg o wda

Dhaka Shahjalal

Minneapolis-Saint P aul

Stuttga r t

Melbou r ne

Be r lin B r anden b urg

London City

Amsterdam Schiphol

Chicago O'Hare

Raleigh−Durham

B r adl e y

Cha r lotte

Reagan National

Philadelphia

1:20 a.m. ET

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Someone Who Inspires Me — My Dad is My inspiration: a Story from My Life

My Dad is My Inspiration: a Story from My Life

• Categories: Father Someone Who Inspires Me

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Words: 490 |

Updated: 28 November, 2023

Words: 490 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

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My dad is my inspiration, works cited, video version.

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• Johnson, R. B., & Johnson, M. A. (2017). A model of servant leadership: Influences on follower development and performance. Journal of Leadership Studies, 11(2), 64-76.
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• Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W. H. Freeman and Company.
• Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Self-determination theory: A macrotheory of human motivation, development, and health. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 49(3), 182-185.
• Gilovich, T., Medvec, V. H., & Savitsky, K. (2000). The spotlight effect in social judgment: An egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one's own actions and appearance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(2), 211-222.
• Mussen, P. H., Conger, J. J., & Kagan, J. (2016). Child development and personality (8th ed.). Harper & Row.
• Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227-268.
• Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
• Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 109-132.
• Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

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Spoilers! How Nicolas Cage's mom inspired his 'Longlegs' 'boogeyman'

Spoiler alert! We're discussing important plot points in the new horror movie "Longlegs" (in theaters now), so beware if you haven't seen it yet.

When Maika Monroe first confronted co-star Nicolas Cage as his devilishly unnerving serial killer when filming a key scene in “Longlegs,” her heart raced from 76 beats per minute to a very freaked-out 170 . When director Osgood Perkins’ daughter Bea got to meet Longlegs up close and personal, she took it like a teen.

“When you're 14, you can go either way: You're either really daunted or you just don't give a (expletive),” says Perkins, whose daughter has a small role in the film as a hardware-store clerk annoyed by the villain’s odd mannerisms. “She was very not overawed, which I thought was delightful.”

Most people witnessing Cage’s terrifyingly discomforting performance will be creeped out. Under a massive amount of facial prosthetics and wielding a strangely pitched, sing-songy voice (think Tiny Tim from hell), the Oscar winner plays Longlegs as an androgynous dollmaker really into Satan and T. Rex.

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Nicolas Cage lives up to his 'boogeyman' role in 'Longlegs'

“Longlegs" is a 1990s-set chiller starring Monroe as young FBI agent Lee Harker. She gets assigned the case of a father who killed his family and then himself, but a cipher found at the scene (with the name "Longlegs" attached) points to the real culprit being a serial killer who's been leaving occult calling cards for three decades.

Perkins first envisioned Longlegs as “this shifty, dirty, greasy guy” who would show up at a kids' birthday party as a clown or perhaps a puppeteer. “When I settled into making a serial-killer movie that was going to ape ‘Silence of the Lambs,’ I knew I was going to need a monster,” explains the director, son of “Psycho” horror legend Anthony Perkins.

The antagonist symbolizes the movie’s exploration of innocence lost. “He's the boogeyman, but he's also just a gross man,” Perkins adds. “There's both the magic and the horror of the thing that seems like it's sort of infinitely powerful, whether you call it the devil or death or evil. And then of course, when you see him ultimately unadorned, you realize he's just a really gutted husk of a person, gross and ‘busted’ as the kids say.”

'Longlegs' director Osgood Perkins sees his villain like a 'shark'

With much of Longlegs’ creation, Perkins tried to stay open to “the muse,” he says. “You're like a narrative doula. You just let it happen and you encourage it to come out.” Because Perkins was going through a T. Rex phase while writing the movie, a Marc Bolan lyric from “Bang a Gong (Get It On”) (“You’ve got the teeth of the hydra upon you”) informed the plot and also appears at the beginning of the film. Even the name Longlegs randomly popped into Perkins’ head one day: It sounded "like a Led Zeppelin song, something Robert Plant would've sung about or someone would've written on the side of their van.”

As for the character, Perkins let Cage be Cage. The actor patterned Longlegs’ hand movements, higher-pitched voice and penchant for saying “cuckoo” on Cage's own mother, Joy Vogelsang: “She did a lot of things to freak him out” when Cage was a boy, Perkins reports. "He harvested a lot of memory of his mom."

The director has kept his and Cage’s villain a mystery, with limited views in film stills and trailers, and Longlegs isn’t even seen in full until well into the movie. “We treated him like a shark,” Perkins says, having him pop out for a bit from the darkness every so often. The filmmaker was interested in “the duality between the all-powerful unseen hand, the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, that's messing everybody up, and then in the light of day, it's extremely vulnerable and human.”

Nicolas Cage channels Lon Chaney for his character's 'big flourish'

Longlegs’ big scene where viewers – and Lee – see him in all his grimy glory is basically his last: He doesn’t make it to the film’s ending, where it’s revealed that he makes the dolls that possess dads to do bad things but it’s Lee’s ultra-religious mom (Alicia Witt) who delivers these dark objects and makes sure the murders are carried out.

It's a chilling moment when Lee confronts Longlegs in an interrogation room. He moves around like a whirling dervish in his seat (another bit Cage took from his mom, Perkins says), and after stating, “Hail Satan,” Longlegs violently bashes his face into the table repeatedly until he’s a bloody, gruesome mess and dies on the spot.  

“It was the self-immolation, the almost ritualized suicide that requires all of your energy and focus. So he goes out with a big flourish,” Perkins says. “The movie is populated with these wildly baroque moments that are supposed to be nearly too much or sometimes too much too much."

The death scene is also reminiscent of the infamous moment when Lon Chaney's mask is taken off in “Phantom of the Opera” – you can even see the bone underneath his skin when Longlegs is finished. “We're borrowing from the classics, for sure. It’s all in the soup,” says Perkins, who discussed Chaney’s capturing “expressiveness” with Cage. “And if you start talking enough about Lon Cheney, then you end up with a Lon Cheney thing.”

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The Books That Influenced My Life

There are many parts of The Fountainhead that resonate with me, but my favourite part emphasises the importance of the independent mind and making, creating, and achieving things that not only make us happy, but also contribute to improving society.

Prarthana Banikya is a graduate in Sociology from Miranda House with a certificate in poetry. She spent her formative years in the valleys of Northeastern India from where she draws inspiration for most of her writing. Her work has been featured in several journals including Aaduna, Asia Writes, Aerogram, Danse Macabre, Poetry Super Highway, Namnai, and Pratilipi. In 2016, she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize for poetry and in 2018, was the recipient of the Orange Flower Award for poetry. She blogs at  prarthanabanikya.blogspot.in.

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A movie that has inspired you and its impact on your life. Problem in usage and convention - CBEST

"tare zameen par" movie.

OP baljinder 2 / 4   Jun 22, 2017   #3 Thank you @Holt . I want to know is my grammar and usage correct ? I will keep your advice to wrap summary of a movie in one paragraph. I took test but could not pass it because of usage and grammar.i will appreciate if u point out my usage and convention mistakes. thanks agin for your help.