Most of the DiF'ers have talked about the original impact Star Wars had on us.  That can't really be overstated. 

Many movies had an influence on me, but in terms of making me say, "Oh, movies can do that?"  there's three and they impacted me in very different ways.

The first was The Dark Crystal.  I knew Henson had done it, but that movie was the first to really uncork my imagination and it was unlike anything I had ever known.  Granted, I was 5.

One was Midnight Cowboy.  You had these incredibly flawed characters that were just shattered reflections of America in the 70's.  I saw it at age 15 and it redefined what a movie could of in terms of tone, rhythm, and how characters are supposed to relate to one another.  Also, first movie where I actually cried at the end.

Lastly, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but Clerks.  This was the first movie where the characters talked like me and my friends, cared about the same things as we did, and had the same feelings I was feeling at the time.  I had drawn this concrete line of demarcation in my mind about Classic Cinema and the films of today.  Most modern, consumer film may have used vocabulary similar to mine, but I rarely connected to the themes and ideas.  Classic Cinema often had a theme that was timeless, but it had the baggage of its era, so it worked better as allegory.  Clerks was one that felt modern and fresh, but relevant to what my experiences were and about themes I identified with.  Its not a perfect film, and Smith is not a perfect filmmaker, but Clerks hit me at that perfect time.

Well, the first movie I ever saw that showed me that movies could have really great stories was probably Fight Club. In fact, that's the movie that got me on this crazy train with you crazy people, as it sparked my interest in movies enough to make me want to seek out stuff like Down in Front.

But the second step in that process was a little movie called Seven Samurai. It shocked me that a movie that ostensibly had no "interesting" elements (by today's standards) could turn out to keep me so enthralled, and even make me want to revisit it. People often think I'm a snob when I tell them that my favorite movie is a three-and-a-half-hour, black-and-white film in Japanese with subtitles. So far, I haven't actually gotten anyone to give it a try, which is unfortunate, because I know that they would love it.

One that comes to mind immediately is The Last Emperor; a beautiful, haunting film about Pu Yi, who becomes the Emperor of China at 3 years old and spends his whole life at the whim and power of others as he goes through the turbulence of 20th century China. It's a really tragic tale and the emperor is a great character, flawed but sympathetic. It's the first film I saw where I found myself really affected on an emotional level long after the credits rolled. Completely unforgettable in my mind.

Another is American History X, where it's raw brutality shocked me and I became aware of just how powerful the medium could be.

And totally agree about Dark Crystal. This is an amazing film unlike any other.

When I was 15 or 16 I was bored one night and was surfing around late-night cable TV to see what I could find. I ended up bumping randomly into Fellini's "La Strada". Some goofy chick who was acting all weird about her hat started getting bullied by some big oaf guy. I left it there for a minute just to see what the hell was going on and ended up watching the whole thing and having my feeble little teenage mind blown. My idea at the time of what a good movie was supposed to be was stuff like Star Wars and Jurassic Park and Die Hard. I never really got into Fellini after that, tho La Strada is still one of my favorite flicks, but becaues of that movie I ended up finding Kurosawa and allowed myself to watch older movies like "M" and "Breakfast At Tiffany's", which are both also favorite films of mine now.

A year or two later I got into anime with Akira, and eventually discovered "Grave of the Fireflies" (in a theater at a film festival, no less), which blew my mind again. Grave is my favorite film without a doubt.

La Strada showed me that movies could tell these really simple stories without any special effects or action sequences, yet they could be just as exciting and absorbing in other ways.

Grave of the Fireflies taught me that you could use a movie to eviscerate a theater full of grown adults and make them all sob uncontrollably like little babies.

And Return of the Jedi, for the record, was the first flick I ever saw (or at least remember seeing) in a theater.

I've said before that The Spy Who Loved Me was the movie that blew my 10-year-old mind. But it was probably House of Games (Mamet, with Lindsey Crouse and Fat Tony) that was the first film where I (20-year-old me) could see the mechanics working. Mamet is a very mechanical writer*, and seeing the wheels turn as he explored deception and seduction was enlightening.

* See The Spanish Prisoner for probably the most arch example.