Here are seven movies so good we’ll never watch them again.
They made their points — extremely well. So well that we can’t shake some of the more harrowing elements of the films.
We greatly admire them, but once was enough.
Requiem for a Dream
Based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr., who cowrote the screenplay, Darren Aronofsky’s exploration of addiction is the definition of a harrowing watch.
We watch promising people as their potential fades before our eyes, culminating in an incredibly grim fate for Jennifer Connelly’s character, Marion. Watching her disassociate before our eyes isn’t something we ever need to do again.
The film deservedly earned an Oscar nomination for Ellen Burstyn, and is stunningly well shot, written, and performed. But the only way we’ll have watch it again is if we need to show it to someone to explain why they shouldn’t try heroin.
Million Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood’s Best Picture winner stars like a normal underdog sports story, and has a real propulsive, hopeful energy. It seems like Eastwood’s reluctant trainer, Frankie, and Hilary Swank’s rising fighter, Maggie, might be just what the other needs.
Then Maggie takes a bad fall, and the whole temperature of the movie changes. Suddenly you’re watching one of the saddest stories you’ve ever seen.
The film understandably won Oscars not only for Best Picture but also for Best Director, Best Actress for Swank and Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman. But wow is it a bummer. We saw it, we appreciate it, we get it, and we’re done.
Leaving Las Vegas
We watched this achingly dark Mike Figgis movie when it came out in the ’90s, when we were young and had yet to experience any of life’s disappointments. Watching it again in middle age was crushing — Leaving Las Vegas is another incredibly sad film about lost potential.
It isn’t just sad that Nicholas Cage’s desperately alcoholic Ben Sanderson wants to die. What’s even sadder is that Elisabeth Shue’s Sera, a sex worker with a heart of gold, thinks she can save him.
She can’t.
Cage won the Oscar for Best Actor; Shue was nominated for Best Actress.
The Last House on the Left (1972)
The debut film by Wes Craven is also the horror master’s scariest.
We write about this movie a lot; we respect it and don’t like it. We think often about how grimly effective it is, especially while watching the many horror films that have tried to match it.
But having seen it once, we don’t think we could make it through it again. It’s an endurance contest, and not one we want to repeat.
For our money, it’s not just the scariest Wes Craven movie. It’s the scariest movie.
The Father
This Anthony Hopkins dementia drama — a stunning debut from director Florian Zeller — follows an elderly man as he loses his mind.
It’s empathetic, perfectly calibrated, and beautiful. Hopkins very deservedly won his second Oscar for the role.
But it’s often an agonizing watch. We’re very glad we’ve seen it, and found it incredibly skillful and moving. But we can’t watch it again.
United 93
We’ll never know what exactly happened on board United 93, the only one of the hijacked 9/11 flights that didn’t hit its target.
But Paul Greengrass’ stunning, documentary-like narrative helps us imagine the horror of being trapped on the flight, and the courage of the passengers who stopped its Al Qaeda hijackers from carrying out their plan.
We admire the craft of this film, but don’t want to re-experience it.
There’s a reason there are so few successful 9/11 movies; even after more than 25 years, it’s still to fresh in the minds of most people who were alive when it happened.
Schindler’s List
Universal Pictures
Steven Spielberg tells his Holocaust story with beauty, soul, and deep humanity. We will never watch it again.
The key scenes — the girl in the red coat, “who stole the chicken,” Oskar Schindler’s final breakdown — are so engraved in our memories that we don’t feel any need to revisit some of the worst events in human history.
It deservedly won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
We believe everyone should see Schindler’s List at least once, but once is likely enough.
If you liked this list, you may also like our list of 10 Movies for When You Need an Escape.
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Main image: Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas. MGM, United Artists.
