What's your inspiring story?

As somebody who loves literature and movies, I've always been interested in the effect they have on people. It's true they're all products of the author's own particular emotional state and worldview, but the ones that achieve popularity all have something about them which speaks to a broad range of people's experiences strongly. Some people say they've learned more from books and movies than they ever have from years of therapy! I'd like to hear from people about the books/movies/stories they've found personally meaningful over the years.

I'll start:

The colour purple (of course, about holding out through hardship for a happy ending);

Memoirs of a Geisha for similar reasons

Christiane F, for a chronicle of how my adolescence felt, without the clubbing or the drugs

Annie Hall - Neorotic in NYC! Makes being screwed up so hilarious!

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure there are a heap more that I can't think of right now. What about anyone else?

I like the story of Joseph in Genesis in the Bible.
He went through trials and tribulations; his brothers sold him to slavery, he was imprisoned because of false accusations. But in the end he became second in command of Egypt.

So even though we're going through something really tough, you never know what tomorrow brings.

I think I've learned a lot from Sci-Fi films. Like Thor, The Avengers, Transformers, The Hulk, Paul, all of those things. They've all made me wonder what it would be like to be unique and rich and powerful. Films like these also fuel my imagination and make me happy

If you're into philosophy and don't mind animation (it's rotoscoped, actually), check out the movie Waking Life. It's probably in my #1 spot for favorite movies.