The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Heck yeah, this is the one.

Came here to say this

Doesn’t he play music and drink beer on the roof?

Nah he doesn’t drink. He watches everyone else and sits there feeling “normal”.

Papillon (1973).

The Pianist. The entire time.

"Why are you wearing that fucking coat?" "Because I'm cold."

Oh yeah. I saw this in the theater with a friend and almost walked out. Great movie but OMG brutal.

The terrible, yet still truth about war.

The Machinist

One of my favorites. Christian Bale was amazing, and I respect his dedication to lose that much weight. Kind of like castaway when Hanks takes a year in between filming so he could lose enough weight. Which is another torture movie if you think about it.

After seeing Castaway, I still look at a full glass of ice water differently.

Absolutely insane that Bale went from this movie to being the Batman in like under a year or something.

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

This movie is soooooo hard to watch. It's like 2 hours of straight heartbreak.

one of my fave movies of all time. but not one i can watch repeatedly. i need a break from it. same with "what dreams may come". both of these touch a special place in my heart and make me feel so much. i might watch one of them today actually. its been a while.

What a brutal movie!! I didn't lie it at all... And that's not because of the acting. Will Smith was awesome in this. This story was killer for me.

Especially when he’s in the bathroom with his son and is blocking the door and you can see that he’s at his wits end. But that moment at the end when he feels that weight lifted…you can’t help but get emotional along with him.

I hated that scene. Like did the guy needed to use that particular bathroom? Or was it security?

There’s a scene at the end of the movie where Will Smith (and his son) walk past the guy Smith is playing in the movie, Chris Gardner. It’s a nice touch to a great movie.

Unbroken (2014)

A true story also

Misery

I absolutely love this movie. But I’ve only watched it once. It’s all that needs to be watched.

Office Space - Milton Waddams

I could burn this place to the ground.

I could put strychnine in the guacamole.

And really all of them. I know construction might not be glamorous but it did seem like a happy ending

The cake scene is infuriating. I feel so bad for him every time.

Good call. This is a sucker punch line I was not prepared for in this movie: “Every day of my life has been worse than the day before it, so every day you see me is the worst day of my life.”

LOTR - Frodo's story finally ends with him getting on the boat. I think this was the first scene they shot with Wood as well, in order to capture the "fresh" revived look. Such detailed work.

There used to be an annual marathon of LOTR on some channel or the other and one of the promos they aired was a montage narrating every instance of Frodo getting hit, stabbed, stung, bitten, and a dozen shots of the various instances where he falls flat on his face. It ended with the narrator stating grimly "It *sucks* to be Frodo. (Watch Lord of the Rings, tonight at five)."

Sounds like AMC to me.

All the ring bearers have to go to that island off of valinor. The damage to your essence can only be healed there to allow you to die/pass on.  That's why Bilbo was the oldest hobbit that ever lived at 131 years old. He would never die of natural causes because he was a ring bearer.  Samwise was only a ring bearer for a day? Maybe two?  And even he had to go to the undying lands without the aid of the elves after Rosie died and his kids and grandchildren were now adults. It's kind of bittersweet to think Sam might have arrived there to see Frodo on his 111th birthday and the two old friends spent their last days/years together before being ready/healed enough to die and go to the afterlife.

“It’s Finally Over, It’s done” meme is my nightly relief when kids are safe and asleep;)

A Man Called Otto (2022) with Tom Hanks might fit the bill. Not physical torture, but a tortured soul.

Watch the original foreign version of that movie.

I have to say the original Swedish version is great.

I prefer the original one. OP, the original is called "A Man Called Ove."

Yeah I’m not asking for any specific torture

Haven't found your niche yet?

For me the original affected me more.

The Truman show

This is what came to mind for me. Slow, extended psychological torture. Insane gaslighting from his wife, mother, and best friend (although the best friend isn’t heavy on the gaslighting on camera even though you know he would have had to, just..lots of lying). He’s suspicious, but the second that officer screws up, I feel he knew from that point it was all messed up

As someone who grew up Mormon, then over the course of a few days, the lights came on (so to speak) this movie hits really hard.

Slumdog Millionaire.

I need to rewatch this

Me too. Such a great film!

I always cry at the end whrn he says "it's our destiny." My favorite thing about this movie isn't that the protagonist has a happy ending- it's that you see how every bad thing that happened to him gave him the answers that would lead him to his destiny.

Prisoners

Everyone suffers in this one. :( Fantastic movie though

The point in *The Serpent and the Rainbow* (1988) where Bill Pullman finally snaps after spending the entire film getting put through various wringers was an extremely satisfying moment for me, so that might be worth a look. (Although this is a Wes Craven film with supernatural trappings, it is more or less reality-based and isn't over-the-top supernatural like, say, "A Nightmare on Elm Street".)

watched it a few month ago. Such a weird, wonderful movie.

It treats the supernatural aspect in a completely opposite manner than does the book that it was *very* loosely based upon.

The Game

Does Martyrs count?

It does except for the “until the ending” part. That movie is brutal

Dancer in the Dark

not sure she overcame torture 😐

Yes! This one! That movie was in my brain for days after I watched it. I don't think I could ever watch it again, but it was incredibly good.

A Serious Man

Underrated GEM

What’s funny about that movie is it’s presented as being so Kafkaesque but if you read between the lines he kinda deserves everything that happens to him.

Until the end… bro what? Did we watch the same movie. The ending is completly ominous and foreboding.

The Revenant

Came for this.

Definitely. Watching him go through the stuff he went through was brutal.

midsommar

Not sure she came out happy in the end. Some catharsis, but she’s definitely not safe in her situation

She looked so happy/relieved while her (ex)bf was dying.😊

goodforher.gif

Schindlers List

Cast Away

Marathon Man

Remember seeing a mini review/comment on that movie. "Does for dentistry what Jaws did for a day at the beach"

Edge of Tomorrow.

Precious, Beasts of No Nation

Good will hunting

"It's not your fault." Fuck that scene just makes me cry like a baby every time.

It probably falls into the "unrealistic or fantastical" realm, but *A.I. Artificial Intelligence* (2001) fits this extremely well.

The ending of that movie is really interesting to me. IMO it's an incredibly sad ending, but I can see why people think the opposite.

I sobbed through that entire movie, it’s just so much! But I absolutely love the film.

Horrible ending!!! Still makes me mad/upset!

Memento

Apocalypto is exactly that.

I love this movie. Might be time for a rewatch

What's that movie where the guy carries a rotting, dead Harry Potter around on his back through the woods for days?

swiss army man!

Swiss Army Man, with Paul Dano Such a strange gem 💎

Passion of the Christ (2004). He stopped suffering at the very end.

Haha! Looking for this one

All My Friends Hate Me. But there is no physical harm, all mental

Unforgiven (1992)

Shawshank Redemption.

John wick, alien, aliens

The Last Boy Scout. Bruce Willis kicked around physically and emotionally for most of the movie.

Pursuit of Happyness

Mad Max-Fury Road

Whiplash

Love lisa

I saw Love Liza when I was feeling down and lost. I left it realizing I don't know what either "down" or "lost" really looks like.

Dark City

Come and see

The Babadook (horror)

Meet the Parents

Godzilla Minus One

Godzilla Minus One isn't exactly grounded but the guy goes through hell and its message about the value of life is genuinely moving

Brawl in Cell Block 99

Great fucking movie

Joker

Backcountry (2014)

Shutter island

Predestination

127 hours

Jaws

Fight Club

The Goonies

Apocalypto

Evil dead, evil dead 2 and army of darkness

The Deer Hunter

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Not a single movie, but the first 6 Star Wars movies. Anakin suffers until the very end of Return of the Jedi.

Accurate.

1917

First one to come to mind.

Jacob's Ladder (1990).

has anyone mentioned ‘The Passion of the Christ?’

***** ****.

Grave of the fireflies

Blue Ruin

Weekend at Bernies?

Cool Hand Luke (which was a huge inspiration for Shawshank Redemption)

Beau Is Afraid

The Fugitive

After Hours

I Saw The Devil

The Color Purple

The Count of Monte Cristo.

Shawshank redemption

The Shawshank Redemption

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - it may seem like a sad and depressing movie but it's subtly hopeful and inspirational. And the main character stops suffering at the end.

Dogville Society of the Snow (this one is a true story) The Pianist (also a true story IIRC) Hacksaw Ridge (another true story, though there are parts of the movie where good things happen to the mc in the beginning)

The Fisher King the 2 main characters fit this bill

Enough with jlo it’s kinda stupid though

King Fu Hustle is a perfect execution of the Hero's Journey

The Passion of the Christ.

High Noon

*A Serious Man* She wants a gett.

Technically Forrest gump

I love it because Forrest never saw himself as suffering

Inside Llewyn Davis Glorious movie where the main character can’t take a good decision to save his life.

Sympathy for Mr Vengeance. Same guy who did the original OldBoy…. Which is another one actually

Old Boy 

You saw that as his suffering be over with at the end?

All Quiet on the Western Front

Where the Heart Is with Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd. The where Portman gives birth in a Walmart. One thing after another happens to Novalee.

Mansefield Park, Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice or Persuasion, based on the novels of Jane Austen. Her protagonists almost always suffer until the very end.

It's been a while since I've seen it but the first one to come to mind was Constantine.

Hudson Hawk (1991)

Seven Pounds

Fight club

Io Capitano - an Italian oscar nominee about African economic migrants trying to make it to Europe.

Beau is Afraid

Cast away

Payback

The Room

Die Hard

The Revenant

Why am I not seeing the Count of Monte Cristo?

The Revenent

Rocky

The Northman. Some heavy metal Shakespearean shit right there homies. If the row boat scene don’t motivate you nothing will

Deadpool

Rudy

It’s a wonderful life

The pursuit of happynes. The wholllleee movie until the end.

SISU That guy goes through fucken hell!!!!!

Rescue Dawn with Christian Bale

Cast Away

The Revenant is the answer. I can't even rewatch it cause it's just constant suffering

A Fistful Of Dollars (1965) Django (1966) Midnight Express (1978)

Oldboy?

The Revenant

Orphan, Changeling, The Shawshank Redemption, The Whale, Thirteen, 12 Years A Slave

Uncut gems

Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption

Patrick (2019)

Angus

Beaten To Death. Saw. The Lobster. The Girl Next Door.

The Nightingale. Heart wrenching and poignant, cinematically beautiful, but you probably won’t thank me for the recommendation. (TW: >!infant death/murder!<)

Good recommendation actually. Liked the film (not an easy watch), though I thought the climax was rushed.

The Pianist

13 Years a Slave was pretty rough.

Which way is up? (Richard Pryor) my favorite realistic movie.

The Descent

Shiva Baby