The Watchtower of Destruction: The Ferrett's Journal - Weird Comfort Watching

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March 27th, 2012
12:31 pm

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Weird Comfort Watching

So yesterday, I questioned whether people would rewatch the Hunger Games movie, since it had all that, you know, traumatic children death in it.

Then Fargo came on HBO and I was all like, “Oooh, let’s watch it again.”

Yes, I know, in the end it features a murderer stuffing another criminal into a woodchipper.  But despite all the horror, Marge Gunderson still manages to retain her humanity, love, and good will, so when she settles into the bed with her husband and his three-cent stamp, it feels like a hug.

So I ask you: what’s your bizarre comfort watching, and why?  Sure, anyone can watch Galaxy Quest or Tangled a zillion times – it’s all silly comedy that ends well.  But what do you watch when you’re stressed that comforts you for reasons others might not understand?

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/201399.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.

(124 shouts of denial | Tell me I'm full of it)

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From:quennessa
Date:March 27th, 2012 04:33 pm (UTC)
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Gladiator.

I know, I know. He dies at the end. And yet... I love it so. If it comes on the TV, I must watch it. It's up there with Patton for me. (Yes, I know, I know, but DUDE, George C. Scott!)

I think it's a stress reliever for just watching Russell Crowe beat the living shit out of people...



Edited at 2012-03-27 04:34 pm (UTC)
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From:theferrett
Date:March 27th, 2012 10:10 pm (UTC)
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I definitely like Gladiator. But I'm still pissy at it for winning the Oscar.
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From:meyerweb.com
Date:March 27th, 2012 04:34 pm (UTC)
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Well, whenever I get the flu (the actual flu, not just a bad cold) I drag myself to the sofa and watch all six hours of “The Stand”.
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From:theferrett
Date:March 27th, 2012 10:09 pm (UTC)
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That makes sense to me.
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From:shadowwolf13
Date:March 27th, 2012 04:37 pm (UTC)
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Cujo and T.A.P.S.
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From:radiumhead
Date:March 27th, 2012 04:49 pm (UTC)
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The Lion in Winter.
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From:grail76
Date:March 27th, 2012 06:16 pm (UTC)
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It's not the honors I lack, it's the mention I miss.
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From:roniliquidity
Date:March 27th, 2012 04:53 pm (UTC)
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Dr. Horrible.
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From:theferrett
Date:March 27th, 2012 10:12 pm (UTC)
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Musicals, no matter how ultimately depressing, never strike me as weird comfort watching. They're musicals!
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From:khiron1416
Date:March 27th, 2012 04:53 pm (UTC)
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twin peaks: fire walk with me and blue velvet
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From:mrs_kat_tyler
Date:March 27th, 2012 04:55 pm (UTC)
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Hannibal & Silence of the Lambs. He is an interesting character but I find it soothing because all the characters make sense for all their complexity. Particularly in Hannibal, the fact that everyone has their own moral code is a lot of the point of the film and it is comforting to watch people that while interesting, also make sense to me.
Less bizarre but still a little off, my original comfort movie is Gypsy (the tv version with Bette Middler.) My parents were horrified that I was obsessed with a movie about a girl who grows up to be a stripper. This one I have a hard time explaining what it is about it that comforts me; I just love it.
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From:theferrett
Date:March 27th, 2012 10:12 pm (UTC)
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I do in fact love Silence of the Lambs. It's oddly comforting in its horrific rhythms.
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From:daphne24
Date:March 27th, 2012 05:43 pm (UTC)
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Some time ago, I settled in knowing I wanted to watch a feel good movie. I was having a hard time deciding on which one until I happened to see Paul Sorvino come on t.v. That's when it hit me - I needed to watch Goodfellas.

I think it's because I know all the personalities. We may not be connected but that gaudy white Christmas tree? My Sicilian aunt had one not dissimilar to it just a few years ago. That rock wall that rotates to reveal a bar? She would have wanted that in the 70s. Probably would have in the 90s too. The woman who plays Joe Pesci's mom was Martin Scorsese's mother and looks exactly like my Italian grandmother. When she meets the wives, and there is a pan of all their faces? They all look at least vaguely familiar.

I don't have the same reaction to the Godfather. I love it and have to watch it but there is something...less accessible about it, I suppose.
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From:jeffpalmatier
Date:March 27th, 2012 07:01 pm (UTC)
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I saw Goodfellas when it was in the theaters. Man, oh, man, what an experience. Twenty-two years later I recently discovered that one of my young co-workers had never seen it and I was flabbergasted.
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From:sacramentalist
Date:March 27th, 2012 06:16 pm (UTC)
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There's a 20 minute segment of Blue Velvet I used to watch. The Laserdisc was on three discs, and though annoying, they at least cut the film at two good points.

It starts on the morning after Jeffery "puts his disease" in IR (ending with a shot of a candle flame), when he meets Frank Booth who takes him out on the road. That drive sequence ends with another candle flame.

That Ben was one suave motherfucker.
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From:ghost_light
Date:March 27th, 2012 06:19 pm (UTC)
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Speed. Don't know why, but it just mellows me out. I did all my wedding invitations with it playing in the background.
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From:theferrett
Date:March 27th, 2012 10:17 pm (UTC)
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For a moment, I thought all of your wedding invitations were Speed-themed.

WHICH WOULD BE AWESOME.
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From:coyotegoth
Date:March 27th, 2012 06:19 pm (UTC)
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Peter Jackson's Bad Taste- it's one of the goriest movies ever made, but with very little *pain*- the fun he had in making it shows through.
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From:andrewducker
Date:March 27th, 2012 09:14 pm (UTC)
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I adore that movie. Simply glorious.
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From:cinema_babe
Date:March 27th, 2012 06:20 pm (UTC)
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A Face in the Crowd (1957) with Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick and Anthony Franciosa.

This is not "Andy from Mayberry". I love this movie because (a)Every time I watch it I think, "Dammit, Andy Griffith was a hell of an actor" (b)You could remake this story and set it in 2012 and no one would know the difference.

Griffith plays a drifter in the deep South who finds himself in the local jail for public drunkenness. As part of a local color story he gets the chance to sing a song with his guitar on a local radio show. He is a hit and the movie traces his path from local to state to national fame. It's from the Paddy Chayefsky school of screenwriting and you can smell the heat of summer in the rural South as well as the hear the whisper of the city from a penthouse.

It's a freaking gem.
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From:daphne24
Date:March 27th, 2012 07:07 pm (UTC)
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I've seen part of this and would love to watch the rest of it. I love the line, "This is not Andy from Mayberry." I have a similar reaction watching Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo - it was so against type to have him play someone so genuinely creepy.
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From:Raymond Arnold
Date:March 27th, 2012 06:25 pm (UTC)
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I watch Horton Hears a Who (the new CGI one) because the scenes where the clover gets dropped into the giant field makes me cry, every single time. As does the scene when all the Whos are shouting "We Are Here, We Are Here!"

I deliberately use the movie when I'm feeling slightly (but not too) sad for a while, and I'm sick of feeling slightly sad, and the movie causes all the sadness to bubblle up and wash out of my face.
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From:celandine13
Date:March 27th, 2012 06:39 pm (UTC)
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Red Dawn.

It's that combination of unintentional ridiculousness and sincere idealism. Also: Jennifer Gray as a guerrilla. It's almost too perfect a fantasy. Nice Jewish girl somehow winds up among hunky Boy Scout/gun nut freedom fighters, and does her own bit of ass-kicking, all in an incredibly pretty Rocky Mountain landscape.
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From:hacked2death
Date:March 27th, 2012 10:07 pm (UTC)
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check out "tomorrow when the war began" .. an almost aussie version of the same idea :)

Edited at 2012-03-27 10:07 pm (UTC)
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From:corvaxgirl
Date:March 27th, 2012 06:43 pm (UTC)
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Law and Order - because it's a procedural and I don't have to get weighed down by their stupid (personal) motherfucking problems

Judge Judy - She's mean and justice is served twice in a half hour.
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From:corvaxgirl
Date:March 27th, 2012 06:44 pm (UTC)
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Oh and Jennifer's Body because Megan Fox is amazing in it and has surprisingly nuianced acting in it and I love the dialogue (and . . .some days . . .the trail of dead boys)
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From:particle_man6
Date:March 27th, 2012 06:52 pm (UTC)
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail?
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From:lysystratae
Date:March 27th, 2012 07:06 pm (UTC)
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The original Poseidon Adventure
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From:theferrett
Date:March 27th, 2012 10:14 pm (UTC)
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YES.

Gene Hackman FTW.
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From:naath
Date:March 27th, 2012 07:27 pm (UTC)
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Schindler's List.
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From:amand_r
Date:March 27th, 2012 08:29 pm (UTC)
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Me too!

I also do Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.
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From:alexmegami
Date:March 27th, 2012 07:36 pm (UTC)
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The Last Unicorn, despite the fact that no one really ends up totally happy except maybe Schmendrick sorta if you squint.
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From:theferrett
Date:March 27th, 2012 10:16 pm (UTC)
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Never seen it.

...I know, I know.
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From:starfoozle
Date:March 27th, 2012 08:00 pm (UTC)
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The Chronicles of Riddick. I've seen it enough times that I don't really pay attention to the plot anymore, but the world design is just lovely. It's my favorite sick-day movie for that reason.

Actually, same goes for Attack of the Clones. Terrible writing, I know, but I tend to fast-forward through the Anakin/Padme shenanigans and just enjoy the designs of Coruscant and Kamino and the like.
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From:phillipalden
Date:March 27th, 2012 08:10 pm (UTC)
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I like to watch the classic anime movie, "Akira." I don't know why I pick this dark version of the future, perhaps it's because the abuse of science blows up (literally) in the face of those "in power."

BTW - I love "Fargo." My favorite line from the movie is; "So I guess that's your friend in the wood chipper." The way she says it, with that Northern Minn. accent makes me laugh every time, even though it's a dark moment.
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From:theferrett
Date:March 27th, 2012 10:14 pm (UTC)
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For me, it's Marge not agreeing 100% with her pal's policework.
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From:ladywind
Date:March 27th, 2012 08:19 pm (UTC)
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* Sahara, despite the bloodshed, because of the way Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, Penelope Cruz, William H. Macy, and Rainn Wilson play off of each other.
* Master & Commander: the Far Side of the World, for the soundtrack and the way Russel Crowe and Paul Bettany fit so nicely into Aubrey's & Maturin's shoes. "Well, Stephen...the bird's flightless..." has become shorthand between my husband & myself for "It's time to go; you can come back to that (I know how important that is to you, though)."

Edited at 2012-03-27 08:20 pm (UTC)
From:thedigitalkuri
Date:March 27th, 2012 08:21 pm (UTC)
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I watch The Cell, as my icon implies. Weird pseudo-bondage, abuse, mental illness..and Jennifer Lopez. O.o
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From:theferrett
Date:March 27th, 2012 10:15 pm (UTC)
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It's a damned pretty movie.
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From:nounsandverbs
Date:March 27th, 2012 08:23 pm (UTC)
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A Clockwork Orange. It's rare I'm in the mood to watch it -- I have to be murderously angry and the world has to feel just as fucked-up as the world of the film. (And there have to be no kids, spouses or housemates present.) But just on occasion ...

Edited at 2012-03-27 08:28 pm (UTC)
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From:theferrett
Date:March 27th, 2012 10:15 pm (UTC)
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For me, I can see that, but it's usually The Shining.

Love the icon.
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From:themindseye
Date:March 27th, 2012 08:26 pm (UTC)
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Disaster movies. The Day After Tomorrow, Twister, Dante's Peak, 2012, etc. I even like the bad Syfy made by Asylum movies.
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From:theferrett
Date:March 27th, 2012 10:16 pm (UTC)
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There's something oddly comforting about watching civilization crumble.
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