10 Movie Characters That Shaped (or ruined) My Life

Heavily influenced by movie heroes, I would like to think that my life is somehow shaped by their stories, somehow inextricably, in my own over romanticisation of life .I am mostly an American by culture, LOL. Not in alphabetical or order of appearance :

1. James Dean- Jim Stark- Rebel Without A Cause

Here, James Dean epitomised the embodiment of coolness. Every body movement, hand gesture, spoken words and facial expression is a top notched poster imagery of careless confidence. A story about a privileged yet troubled youth, driven mad from his parents constant bickering. Constantly in trouble, the character almost always land in dramatic and confrontational situations yet amicably surviving from all of it. I can somehow empathise with the main character's refusal to follow social conventions and of a period of youth's malcontent with the world.

2. Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa, Rocky

Rocky is a story of heroism, real love, of dramas of people rising above their environment. From the slums, working as a bouncer, he landed a chance to fight the champion and in his own unassuming and humble ways, able to withstand the beatings to proudly achieve greatness that he had never imagined before. While doing that, he had a great love story to boot with a timid girl that blossomed to become the inspiration for him to fight and better himself. Stallone's portrayal of Rocky's constant battle with his own self esteem narrates my own internal demons.

3. Robert De Niro, Travis Bickle - The Taxi Driver

De Niro's best movie, in my opinion, is this. Travis's incoherent mumblings and his thoughts showcased the dangers of living as a loner. Driving around New York, he observes the world's social ills in his everyday life. His failures with relationships, from both the lower and upper class women, made him to blame the capitalistic world which we live in, driving him to plan an assassinate a politician, only to be fatefully praised as a reluctant hero by the society later on.

4. Harrison Ford , Han Solo - Star Wars

Han Solo, a smuggler who traverses the faraway galaxy with a hairy giant later became part of a rebellion team that successfully went to destroy the Death Star. His nonchalance attitude and cocky confidence complements Luke Skywalker, who often seem to be lost. Well, Harrison Ford displays similar trait in Indiana Jones trilogy so I guess, the two characters are almost the same in spirit. And who can forget when Han Solo replied "I know" when Princess Leia told "I Love You".

5. Brad Pitt , Tyler Durden, Fight Club

One of the greatest anti establishment heroes of all time, Chuck Palahniuk's (the writer of the book) Tyler Durden had some of the greatest quotes for the modern life. 

• "Reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions."
• "It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."
• "The things you own end up owning you."
• "This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time.:
• "Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else."
• " You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world."
• "Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think every thing you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned- Tyler."

6. Jeff Bridges, The Dude, The Big Lebowski

One of the coolest heads of all the listed here, The Dude is a potsmoker with an avid love for bowling where he has equally dysfunctional friends. He has a relaxed attitude for life, taking in things as it is, living alone with no income, not ashamed to parade around in a bathrobe all over town. The Dude abides, and I think that's something people really yearn for, to be able to live their life like that. 

From Jeff Bridges himself, of the character : "It's kinda like realizing that the more open you get, life keeps challenging that openness to open you more, and so, at some point, you say, "Well, that's the game. I'm just gonna sit back and dig the way it is." 

7. Ewan McGregor, Mark Renton, Trainspotting

This is my favourite character, really. Shaved my head skin head a few times in imitation for this and had a poster in my dorm room in colleges (only to be stolen later. who steals posters anyway!). His pulp fictionish adventures of sorts reflects an overtly gruesome view of a life unhindered by limitations of Mark is somewhat a normal Scottish bloke who wanted the best in everything and drug was his escapism from the mundane life which he sarcastically labeled "Choose Life".

And now, with Trainspotting 2, I love the character even more. Its not as good as the first movie but it is realistic. 20 years changed people a lot but not that much, really.

7. Bruce Willis, John Mclane, Die Hard

John McClane, the crazy cop who just wouldn't die. Unconventional , he comes around every Christmas to meet his ex wife only to fail at the most unfortunate circumstances, somehow like me. He is described as being a "foul-mouthed, wisecracking, no-nonsense New York cop with an itchy trigger finger ... and a never-say-die maverick spirit Ingenuity gets him going at the most impossible situations and my favourite line of his is "Think, motherf**ker, think!". This line plays in my head whenever I get into impossible situations and when I get something good, its ""Yippee-ki-yay, motherf***er".

8. John Heder, Napoleon Dynamite, Napoleon Dynamite.

Napoleon Dynamite is the typical sad-sack, luckless loser that has permeated high schools for seemingly centuries. He has no friends, he's picked on by bullies, he has a somewhat-odd home life ... but through it all, he's sure things will be just plain okay in the end.

And the Napoleon Dynamite world is the real world, not the Hollywood world. The world does not consist of good looking white people along with slapstick fat people and token minorities, like Hollywood shoves down our throats.  You know that you don't need money, hot people, and lots things and property to be happy, you don't need to prove anything to anyone to be happy. That, no matter how mediocre things might be in your life, you are still happy. And so is Napoleon. Always my hero.

9. Ethan Hawke, Troy Dyer, Reality Bites

Generation Xers have just graduated, hate their jobs, and are looking for direction in the directionless mid-'90s. This is my life somehow, with different sets of people at different times. This film is typified by over-intelligent, under-achieving, dope induced philosophical musings and desire to make a difference but not knowing how to go about it in world where people feel anonymous and disenfranchised dealing with modern day issues. On the same note, Ethan Hawke's protrayal of Jesse in the Before Sunrise trilogy should also make it here.

10. Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump, Forrest Gump

Forrest's simplicity is almost zen-like. One of the best scene for me in the movie was when Forrest is in a quandary about life and wondering as Lt.Dan said we all have a destiny and his Mom says it is where we are all just floating around like a feather in the wind. Forrest's character terms it very well with this quote,"I think it is a little bit of both." From my experiences in life it does appear to be that way. And sometimes, we don't get the love that we want, like how Forrest misses Jenny all the time.