Most inspiring movies you've ever watched? What did you find inspiring?

Starting from the opposite end, I will rule out any movie where I think my emotions are being manipulated to make the studio a quick buck. I am sure that will include the majority of films that posters will suggest.

The sort of typical Hollywood effort where the hero or heroine wins through or dies nobly, after enduring horrendous tribulations, accompanied by sweeping strings or heavenly choirs.

In fact, I have a chip on my shoulder about music in films generally. I resent being told what to feel by the score. If the direction, actors, plot and dialog cannot do the job, relying on the score is like using ketchup to disguise inadequate cooking. The best score is one I am not consciously aware of throughout the film, but has been quietly working away on my subconscious. 95% movies have too much music, or too loud or intrusive music (I am particularly irked when the music or sound effects stops me hearing what the actors are saying. If the director thought it was not worth hearing it should not be in the script). Or totally inappropriate music (I am looking at you, Woody Allen). We all have friends who bore us stiff trying to impose their musical tastes on us. I appreciate it even less if I have paid to watch a movie.

So most Hollywood movies about people overcoming disabilities (social, mental or physical) will turn me off. I am not interested in heroic underdogs in sport, either. Or whitewashed political bios where I know all the dirt has been swept under the carpet. And as resolute atheist, I reject any movie that gives credit to any species of organized religion.

As I wrote this, I realize that I do not want to be "inspired" by movies at all. I am willing to be moved and be given an enhanced appreciation of people, things and life in general. The very greatest films do this but I do not call this being "inspired".

Cool, so any examples you felt moved by? What moved you?

Well..."inspiring" to me means making me love movies/want to work with movies (and I do, both). So in that sense, Back to the Future. A near perfect film that made me a movie buff. I admired the genuine characters and storytelling and started writing my own stories not long after.

It takes a lot to make me cry. I do not mean that I am some stoical, macho type (just the opposite). My first wife remarked when divorcing me after fifteen years that she had never seen me cry. Maybe she thought I was emotionally cold (who I am to judge?). Part of it may be the English grammar school ideal of "keep a cool head and a stiff upper lip".

But some movies do bring a tear (or three) to my eye. Apart from my father taking me to see "Bicycle Thieves" (1948) when I was about 9 years old, the first "art-house" movie I ever saw was:

Wild Strawberries 1957 (Ingmar Bergman)
I did not fully appreciate it first time, but after repeat viewings during the same run it became my all-time favorite film, and it still is, 58 years later. Like many of my favorite movies, it is not "perfect". The early dream sequence with the clock without hands and the coffin is too long and too blatant in its symbolism, and was a bad introduction to "art" movies for me. Having watched two or three mainstream (mainly Hollywood) movies a week for the previous twelve years I found the pacing slow and missed a "full" score. It is odd that as a very young man I was hooked on this saga of a man at the end of his life. Now I am old, about the same age as Dr Isak Borg, so the film is all the more relevant. My ex-wife might say that its theme of emotional coldness is also pertinent (though I would naturally have to disagree).

(I don't think I cried during "Bicycle Thieves". The most exciting thing about it for me was the scene where the kid pissed against the wall. This was a cultural shock, and my school-friends refused to believe such perverted filth could be shown on the screen.)

Ordet 1955 (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
I saw this for the first time recently on the recommendation of a poster on this board. As mentioned above, I am a stalwart atheist, so I was surprised to find myself in tears at the final scene. Mind you it had been building up with Preben Lerdorff Rye's extraordinary performance as Johannes. Interesting to see if it has the same effect on me on the second viewing.

I am not big on patriotic songs and flag-waving, but the scene in:
Casablanca 1942
where the girl (was it Yvonne?) gets them singing the Marseillaise brings a tear to my eye. And I am not even French! Pure Hollywood hokum (as is the whole film, really), but a great movie nonetheless.

Various Thomas Hardy adaptations can get me moisty-eyed, especially The Mayor of Casterbridge (2003), but I think that is more my memories of repeated readings of the novels coming through, rather than the movies themselves (good as they are).

The scene in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) where the Japanese attack force takes off at dawn is very moving, partly because we realize the die is cast and innumerable deaths and horrors will follow, yet all is so peaceful and the sky so beautiful.

But my question to you more knowledgeable movie buffs is: "Was that filmed for the movie, or it is actual contemporary footage?" I suspect the latter.

That's it. I am not owning up to any more. I have my reputation to think of.

My previous post was a bit unfocused but the example given by Movie_Riggs has helped me to gather my thoughts. "Inspire" is incomplete. It needs to be "inspire to do (a specific something or other)".

I am guessing 90% of the posters on this board have fancied themselves as writers at some point or other (I know I have). Maybe a very small percentage have actually got into print.

So, I too have been inspired by certain movies, though with nothing to show for it (yet). They will have been movies with clever or logical plots and sharp dialog. In other words, my favorite movies tend to be "literary" rather than "visual". Maybe because of my English background. The English have always been better novelists, poets and playwrights than painters, sculptors, and architects.

After watching Seconds (1966) back in November 2013, I wrote this for a '365 Films in 365 Days' list I was putting together (I may have been drinking)
9/10 It's as if the choice has been passed on to me, it's tangible, I can feel it inside lifting me up. I may literally owe my life to this movie.
But I didn't follow through with the choice, I didn't even complete the list. Maybe I should watch the movie again, give myself another chance at freedom.