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CINDERELLA LIBERTY (1973) was on this channel FXM late this morning or early afternoon.  I've seen it before, but was lucky enough to catch the parts I did not remember as well.  
It was both subjectively and objectively relevant.  

Subjectively, PAUL WILLIAMS is in there singing on the soundtrack (at least twice) and I recently have been experiencing a "Paul Williams Renaissance".  

Objectively, the concepts of race and human sexuality are examined in detail, with no ham-handedness or hackneyed platitudes; these are simply there. Those, objectively, seem particularly relevant these days.  

The film has dark and disturbing moments yet is hopeful.  JAMES CAAN and MARSHA MASON star, and I always admire the John Baggs Jr. character (JAMES CAAN): his intolerance of foul language, his bonding with a prostitute's son, his caring for these two problem people, and his love, as hesitant as it may be, for the barroom floozy (wish I could remember DABNEY COLEMAN's remark).  As grotesque as Maggie Paul (MARSHA MASON's character) is, she is, remarkably, maybe, hopefully, ...salvageable.  Great performances by the cast, I did not get misty though I might have.  Instead, I understood that LOVE must stand by itself.  Today this movie changed me, though it had before, but this was personal and immediate.  Not just as cited above, this film was quite relevant to me.  I use the proactive present tense of "change" purposely.  

WHAT FILMS CHANGE YOU?  

The first time I ever saw SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.  I think I cried at three different points in the film.
It was the first time that I ever really saw what sacrifices my Dad's generation made to save the world.
I was deeply moved, and to this day I thank every World War II veteran I see.

Another one that really hit me hard was THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST.  I know that many people hate this film,
but seeing in such graphic detail the depth of the suffering Jesus endured on the cross broke my heart for my God
in a way I had not felt before.  It was a deeply spiritual experience for me.

Unbelievably, I have not yet seen THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, though I will.  These days, I do avoid gore in movies.  

I saw SAVING PRIVATE RYAN with a woman 30 years older than me, a long time friend and widow who had no one to go see with, and, not being a movie goer much in the last decade or two, I escorted her.  I love this lady, but I am amazed to remember that she and I both reached for each other and held hands at the beginning of the film.  We were both, just, shaken to the core.  I do think it is a major achievement.  

For me, it was this film:

(http://yabangee.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Murder-on-the-Orient-Express.jpg)

I was seven years old and my parents took me to the cinema as a treat. I spent most of that film gaping open-mouthed at the screen and remember getting frightened in the pre-murder scene where Jean Pierre Cassel switches off the main light in Richard Widmark's compartment and everything goes an eerie shade of blue.  :buggedout:

When I left the cinema, I told Dad that I wanted to do something like this when I was older, he smiled and that was it for me. This film gave me a hobby and indirectly a job later in life.

In the last 26 years I have worked on countless films (documentaries mostly) and I count the Saturday afternoon in September 1974 as a watershed day in my life.

BTW: that scene still scares me.  :wink:

(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/2/Open/CinemaSource/Jaws/_9by13/_derived_jpg_q90_410x410_m0/004210R1_CR.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)

I got to see this at an age when I should have seen Disney movies, but my parents took me to see Spielberg's Jaws and it changed my (back then) young life forever. Watching Jaws on the big screen was a terrifying experience, more frightening than any nightmare I remember having before that (and I had a few). I should also note that my family went to see Let's Scare Jessica to Death at the theater a year before Jaws, but I was too scared to watch the end of that movie so my father took me out to the lobby. However, I was eager to sit through all of Jaws, and I did. Even though I was hiding behind the person sitting before me most of the time, or peeking through my fingers I held up against my face. Sometimes I was brave enough to watch more than 10 minutes without hiding, but whenever John William's score got scary I was ducking again.
Weeks later I had a huge Jaws movie poster hanging on my wall, and several Famous Monsters magazines on my nightstand. Jaws scared me nearly to death but I was hooked and fascinated by horror ever since. And I still am many many years later.

The Deer Hunter was a game changer for me. Eyes Wide Shut floored me so much I wound up watching it twice in a row. A Serbian Film absolutely destroyed me in the best possible way.
EDIT: Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door was just.....uuuuggggh. Tough watch and I don't think I'll ever get the "basement" scenes out of my mind EVER. Just...WOW. Stayed with me for days.

no doubt...Jaws was scary enough for me seeing it on the small screen, and I was about 15. think I'd still be shaking now if I'd seen it at the cinema a few yrs younger

(http://dv1.us/p1/725/024725-d0.jpg)

(https://darkcornerbooks.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/a-nightmare-on-elm-street-wallpapers-for-windows-7.jpg)

I was 5 or 6 when I first watched this, I don't know what my parents were thinking, but I'm glad they let me. I just remember being both really scared and entertained at the same time, especially the area extension in the alley scene.

Saw it when I was a kid at my grandmothers no less. This was around the time when vcr's came into fruition. Spooked yet entertained me too Crackers. However, I caught it on tv not too long ago and it didn't do too much for me which is kinda sad really. Granted it WAS a kick in the ass for slashers at the time but there's better (generally more obscure) 80s slashers out there if you ask me (which nobody did  :twirl:).

When I was in 7th grade, my girlfriend and I went to see STAR WARS in the theater together.
I wasn't even sure I wanted to see it, but as soon as the classic theme kicked in, and those epic words: "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" crawled across the screen, I was HOOKED!

I still re watch the original from time to time . . . with the same girl.

The Master Killer aka the 36 Chambers of Shaolin. it's kind of like the Chinese version of Rocky. It's a cool movie in the first place with all the different kung fu training chambers, but the casting of Gordon Liu was realy inspired. As others have noted, it's the one classic kung fu movie no one has tried to remake because where would you begin? he has this determination that's just so inspiring. I think about it all the time still

Oddly enough-FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN (1943).
I was 5 years old-it was the first monster movie I had ever seen-and-as you can see-I have been a Monster Kid  ever since.
.the WIZARD OF OZ (1939)-I must have seen this movie every year as a kid And it still can take me back and turn me into a little kid again (like I really ever grew up  :lookingup:)
.SAVING PRIVATE RYAN-I agree with Indy.
.TAXI DRIVER (1976)-This spoke to me-at times in my life I have felt that kind of alienation-almost to the point of insanity.
.BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) is an amazing film-at times it had me holding my breath in awe.


http://youtu.be/laJ_1P-Py2k (http://youtu.be/laJ_1P-Py2k)

Gotta mention PLANET OF THE APES (1968) My first movie theater experiance-and the first time I ever quoted a film. My Dad was beating my mother in the kitchen-they were fist fighting and breaking s**t-me and my brother Mike were little kids running around our bedroom screaming "It's a madhouse! A madhouse!"

http://youtu.be/idsxgLjGXGI (http://youtu.be/idsxgLjGXGI)

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

I'm pretty sure it was not the first time I saw it, but this film was part of a life's experience that forever changed me and continues to stand as a defining moment in my life.  There's a LOT of depth here I won't go into, but here are the high spots.  The term "change" in the present tense of the thread title perfectly describes 2001's impact on me.

I was 18 years old and in the hospital with some unknown condition that was trying its best to kill me and wreck my life in the process.  I felt isolated, very alone, and not just a little bit scared.

While laying in the hospital bed...at night and unable to sleep...two things happened that made their respective impressions: 2001 came on and I watched it in its entirety, and one of the night-shift nurses sensed my loneliness so she came to sit with me. We didn't talk much, but she did her end-of-shift paperwork in my room and was "just there."  It was an incredible, and simple, act of kindness that I have never forgotten.

As for the film, its existentialism was perfect for my mood at the time and I think the film allowed me to see my own life reflected in its themes. The evolution of man depicted meshed with my sense of death - physical jeopardy of my 'condition' on the one hand, but also the metaphorical "death" of my childhood on the other (assuming I survived). In addition, the new dawn of man scene felt like my rebirth into a new life possibly permanently disabled or with complete healing.  I was not to know that night which was my fate: to die soon, to live with BIG limits on my existence or to fully recover.  2001 showed me they are all parts of the same larger fate.

I rank this film among my all-time favorites even though I rarely watch it.  It continues to have a profound emotional impact on me since I cannot even talk of it without seeing that 18 year old young man, scared and lonely, lying on a hospital bed. I will soon introduce 2001 to my children, and that will usher in a new wave of existential emotions.

This definitely for me as well. That film was right down my alley. I loved it immediately the very first time watching it.

Sure, we all relate.  

Where is change?  

This film deeply affected me too at a certain point in time.

Soylent Green comes to mind as well. Both films made me stop and think and appreciate the world a little more, both made me think a little outside the box. I have to also add The Thing From Another World, The Day the Earth Stood Still, even It Came From Outer Space as films that seemed to speak to me. Agree with The Wizard of Oz taking you back to childhood - it has that affect on me as well. Actually I also feel that way about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as well. Another film that made me rethink the world so to speak was On the Waterfront. As a little kid, Bruce Lee was an hero so his films (particularly Enter the Dragon) stand out for a lot of the philosophy he brought with him.