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Besides Shawshank Redemption, what films do you like that feature grit, resilience, endurance under hostile circumstances?
Besides Shawshank, the one that comes to mind is Gone with the Wind although that film has some issues.
The first one that came to mind is The Revenant. Basically nothing than endurance. I think The Martian also fits the bill.
Oh, Das Boot is one hell of a film. I saw the long long version (I think around 3 and a half hours, almost 4 hours?) and the ending is just... No words, really. I was speechless.
EDIT: spelling
Some of my favorites, tried to sort them a little:
Survival Films
Prison Films
War Films
Sports/Society Films
The Count of Monte Cristo hadn't even crossed my mind, but absolutely! There's a lot of persecution, scheming, and of course imprisonment that Dantes has to endure. Also just a great revenge story.
Maybe I've asked this before, but have you seen the 1975 version? Do you have a preference between that and the 2002 version?
for you and @EditingAndLayout, make sure you get your hands on the Count of Monte Cristo series that just wrapped up!
I can see the 2024 movie on streaming, but where is the 2024 TV series of the same name available to buy or rent?
mine was from a service out of france, but i think it’s on Crave in Canada and maybe Peacock or Amazon in the US.
I haven't watched either version but if you don't mind subtitles or understand French, the 2024 French version is pretty good!
Yes, and I'm not a fan of the acting in the 1975 version. It feels like a TV movie (I think it might have been).
The cast in the 2002 version is almost perfect to me, including Richard Harris as Abbe, and Henry Cavill as Albert. Oh, and Michael Wincott as the sadistic prison warden is just the best.
It's one of those movies that I know isn't perfect, but it's one of my favorites to put on, and I could watch it anytime.
Given the title I feel obligated to mention True Grit.
The prompt was grit. I agree.
The Revenant is a great movie.
My offbeat answer is Swiss Army Man.
Swiss Army Man is so great. There's a lot that can be taken away from it all. I bet a lot of psychology students have had fun writing essays about that film. Also, I think it was the first Daniel Radcliffe film I saw that really made me realize how much capability he has as an actor. Since then I've been an avid watcher of his films, big or small.
He and Daniel Webber were also great in Escape from Pretoria, about white political prisoners in apartheid South Africa. Really a great film and more or less fits the theme of this topic as well.
Is this a joke? I admit it's been several years since I've seen the movie but...he plays a dead man that has few, if any, lines. Just what acting chops do you believe Radcliffe displays in this film?
Whenever bad times come along, my first thought is always "I should reread/rewatch The Lord of the Rings."
Children of Men.
I'd say most war action movies would probably fit these criteria. But the first two that came to mind were actually Dances With Wolves and Lawrence of Arabia. The former is about an American soldier who goes west and learns to survive and coexist with the native populations nearby. And the latter is about a Brit who goes to the Ottoman Empire to help fight a war. Come to think of it, both are actually pretty similar. They both feature a protagonist who is thrust into hostile foreign (to them) territory and have to learn the local ways, adapt, and change their world views in order to survive and thrive. Oh and both are massively long, lol.
Rocky is a solid example, I think. Actually a lot of sports movies probably fit the bill. 42, A League of Their Own, heck, even Dodgeball and Happy Gilmore seem like they check the boxes.
I would have preferred to make one discussion topic but I'm going with Tildes' structure.
Would Little Big Man fit the bill? I'm also very partial to survival stories, and in that vein:
Against the Ice
Togo
Arctic
My English may not be enough to comprehend fully, but I will try.
Would Lock Up count? What about Fugitive? Or Punisher?
Color me an oddbal but I really enjoyed the Thomas Jane Punisher, as much as I wanted to like the Ray Stevenson one more.
The African Queen.
Great performances from both Humphry Bogart and Katherine Hepburn.
Cool Hand Luke has been mentioned, but it is worth a second recommendation. My favorite movie from the 1960's.
A very different, newer movie you might want to watch is Sisu. Over the top violence, so that might not be your preference.
A couple of off-beat suggestions:
Room (very importantly, not The Room, just Room)
Also, I just saw on Netflix a Norwegian movie called Nr. 24. It's the story about a real man who was part of the resistance against the nazi invasion. I really liked it.
No one mentioned Truman Show yet: what if you have to persevere, inspite of your entire world keeping you in the dark?
My absolute favorite movie on the subject (....condensed from 27 episodes), Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Trailer. If, after perseverance and against the odds, you burst through the ceiling, then find yourself trapped under a bigger ceiling, what do you do? When do you accept that's the most you can do and give up? Rah rah, fight da powah.
But otherwise yes LOTR, Children of Men yes totally.
I haven't seen the media, but for book, my favorite grit and preserverance story is The Silver Chair (Narnia. C S Lewis).
Very old, but I would suggest "Ice cold in Alex" - basically, the crew of a WWII ambulance, separated from the rest of the army, trying to make it safely back over the Sahara to the British lines at Alexandria. It's honestly pretty well done with good character work.
Watch Io Capitano, please! Excellent film overshadowed at the academy awards by Zone of Interest. I'll concede Zone of Interest deserved to win best foreign film, but Io Capitano was great too and I think it fits your criteria excellently.
I think Shoshana's story in Inglorious Basterds fits the bill. Also, any film featuring gratuitous violence against Nazis feels especially heartwarming these days.
I’ve been on an old movie kick lately and this thread reminded me of a movie I watched with my grandpa waaay back when. He picked it out and I was too young for it by far- but it’s definitely cut from the same cloth as Shawshank. Papillon (1973) with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. It was remade with Charlie Hunnam not long ago, but I never watched that one.
8/10 on IMDB. It might be kinda dude-bro-y - two guys trying to escape from an island prison in 1930s South America- very loosely based on a true story.
I might be suggesting this with rose-tinted nostalgia, but it definitely fits the requested criteria, and might be a good deep-cut.
One of my all-time favourites, which i don't see being mentioned, is Miller's Crossing.
One man cut loose from his gang, trying to keep his cool and play two sides off one another to avoid being killed.
The grey and All is lost are two great films that got the bill.
Bad News Bears.
Life is Beautiful
The Color Purple
Smoke Signals
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Fantastic Mr. Fox
It's TV, but I never hesitate to recommend OZ, the HBO prison drama that (I believe) kicked off Sopranos style tv before the Sopranos.
I'm surprised Kajaki (released in the US as Kilo Two Bravo) hasn't been mentioned yet. Though it is probably a bit of a different take on the topic.