Required viewing and reading.

[Christemo]

viewing:
Forrest Gump
Gladiator
Im Going To Jail
Scarface


Reading:
all the Dan Brown books
The Tales of Malus Darkblade: The Daemon´s Curse, Bloodstorm, Reaper of Souls, Warpsword and Lord of Ruin
Gotrek and Felix.

 

[Kilaknux]

Scrap V For Vendetta, try Children Of Men which is kinda the same thing, but for adults.

I am guessing you are talking about the movie and not the book, but I don't really see how either are like V for Vendetta.

The underlying themes are identical. Children Of Men just does a far better job of exploring them. Children Of Men makes V For Vendetta look like exactly what it is - a film based on a comic book.

So just because it's a comic book it is less meaningful ?

No, it's just less meaningful because it's less meaningful.

Touché but your entire post read like you have only watched the films, plus you seemed very dismissive of it being a comic book.

You're making not one but two assumptions there.

I repeat, V For Vendetta just isn't as good as Children Of Men. Period. Fullstop. The characters aren't as well fleshed-out or interesting, the story is relatively predictable, and the underlyring themes, while identical, are explored without as much depth (SOME, yes, but not as much). V For Vendetta is certainly not a bad film and is great for teenagers but anyone with a more adult type of brain is going to find some parts of it juvenile and will find Children Of Men to be a superior film.

OK condescending tone aside i was talking about the books yet you keep reverting the argument back to the films, my opinions of both films is relatively low i felt Children Of Men was handled badly and suffered from poor acting on Clive Owen's part. I was not that keen on the V for Vendetta movie either as they completely changed V and Evey's characters. Yet i still don't think you could really call V for Vendetta a child's book.

What this guy said. While neither film is bad and in fact deviated greatly from the source material, actually read V for Vendetta, because it honestly sounds like you haven't. It's an excellent exploration of a facist society, the parallels between facism and anarchy, extremeism and tons of other themes I can't remember at present.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

Really, because they're my favourite books, films and TV shows.

They're all comedy. Robert Rankin is hilarious, and his books are always compltely absurd, Tom Holt is a tiny bit more serious, and his books are very realistic, but with a fantasy element, e.g. Barking - it's a lawyer firm, competing with another firm.

It just so happens that one of the firms is full of werewolves, and the other vampires. He also has a Douglas Adams-esque mastery of similes.

Hot Fuzz is my favourite film, because it manages to be a hilarious comedy, has awesome action scenes, and has, unlike other comedies, got a serious undertone. Shaun of the Dead is much the same, and the unreleased Sci-fi one will undoubtedly follow on from that.

Buffy I sort of put in on an impulse, as it is a 'classic' pseudo-horror drama thing - it's not scary in the slightest, but is really good fun.

So, in terms of the OP, none of them?

 

[Xerosch]

Viewing:

Shortbus
American Beauty
99 Francs (I don't know if the movie has even been released outside of Europe)
Princess Mononoke
A life less ordinary
Vertigo
Slumdog Millionaire


Reading:

Krabat
The Dark Tower
The Cement Garden
House of Leaves
McBeth & Hamlet
Neil Gaiman's Sandman
Strangers in Paradise
Transmetropolitan

 

[Poopie McGhee]

A Clockwork Orange...
The Audition (it IS haloween, after all)...
THX 1138...
As for books, Most I can think of have already been said... I'd go for The Odessy

 

[Dys]

1984 and the quiet american probably wouldn't go astray. Children of men is probably worthwhile as well. It's probably also important for any leader to at least be aware of current satire, so things like the chasers war on everything or john saffron are worth watching (while they are current).

 

[Kushin]

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Read or Watch)
Watchmen
FLCL
Donnie Darko
Discworld Series (Read)
The Shawshank Redemption

Each provides ideas that are good to think about, how you interpret them is up to you.

 

[DarkMessiah]

For reading:
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (Author's preferred text version, preferably.)
The 9 book graphic novel series Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon

For viewing:
Fight Club
Full Metal Jacket
Pulp Fiction
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
A Clockwork Orange
Million Dollar Baby

 

[Woodsey]

Not about sex scenes? What's the point then?

 

[Sampler]

I have to say 1984, everyone needs to read it, especially all members of the government.

/Thread

A surrealist movement mailed everyone at the Houses of Parlimant in the UK a copy of this on bonfire night last year (or the year before, time is a concept I'm only vaguely aware of), attached to it was a note:

This is a work of fiction, not a manual.

Doubleplus good I say..

 

[j0z]

I have to say 1984, everyone needs to read it, especially all members of the government.

/Thread

A surrealist movement mailed everyone at the Houses of Parlimant in the UK a copy of this on bonfire night last year (or the year before, time is a concept I'm only vaguely aware of), attached to it was a note:

This is a work of fiction, not a manual.

Doubleplus good I say..

Wow, that is pretty awesome. Doubleplus good indeed.

 

[Shadowfaze]

You must read all the works of HP Lovecraft, and write a penetrating study on "the emergence of Cthulhu".

i am strict, but it can open your mind, maaan.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

Well most of what I wanted to say has been mentioned already. So I'll add in Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss into the reading collection.

 

[SnipErlite]

I agree with V for Vendetta.
And Discworld, all of it.

Definitely Discworld.

To read also: Watchmen, 1984 and Animal Farm

 

[Shoqiyqa]

Wonderful though it is, Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise doesn't seem like the intellectual equivalent of the Polio vaccine. Watchmen's a clever commentary with really good use of visual styles and themes, but is reading it an innoculation against delusions or inhumanity?

One more to add: Warriors. It was called The Peacekeepers in the US release.

I think people who make decisions and policies ought to be aware that humans are capable of doing that to each other.

 

[jimtheviking]

Reading:

Italo Calvino - Anything by this man, especially Invisible Cities and The Non-Existent Knight and Cloven Viscount
Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote
Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers series
Michel Foucault - Discipline and Punish
Kurt Vonnegut - Anything, but Slaughterhouse 5, Cat's Cradle, Sirens of Titan and Breakfast of Champions are my favourites
Charles Bukowski - Pretty much anything the man wrote, although I can't recommend Factotum highly enough.
Ernest Hemmingway - Same as Vonnegut and Bukowski, if there's something with his name on it, read it.

There are more, but you'll have to find them out on your own.

 

[Valiance]

Maybe one day, they will have to play a "citizen kane" of gaming as well, hm?

Anyway, everything I'd suggest is already here. ._.

 

[DreadfulSorry]

Book: Z For Zachariah.

Good book!

I would also like to add Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy; all three of them are just incredible. (If you saw the movie version of the Golden Compass, for God's sake, don't judge the books based on that piece of film-vomit.)

 

[setvak]

Dragonlance: Chronicles

Funny you should mention that, I was really into fantasy stuff (the genre, not the thoughts that take up about 3/4 of my time in class) in middle school and high school, and I read the whole Autumn/Winter/Spring trilogy (if I remember right). Good stuff.

Also, my recommended reading:

Steppenwolf by Herrmann Hesse (Siddhartha if you also want)

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (it's actually a play, but very unusual and thought-provoking)

Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, just because I had to read it during my senior year of high school, got sick and only got 1/3 of the way in, and now need to finish it sometime.

 

[The Cake Is A Lie]

Dragonlance: Chronicles

Funny you should mention that, I was really into fantasy stuff (the genre, not the thoughts that take up about 3/4 of my time in class) in middle school and high school, and I read the whole Autumn/Winter/Spring trilogy (if I remember right). Good stuff.

They released a Summer book a few years later (Summer Flame) that happens years after the Spring book ended. I read the Chronicles Trilogy when I was in middle school as well, and it ended up being my favourite fantasy series