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Philosophy Assignment
February 10, 2009 at 8:42 pm
What are some good movies that I could do a philosophical review on? It can be anything really that can be applied to philosophy (which is really most things). I don't want to do an obvious one like The Matrix or Eternal Sunshine. I'm not a movie person so I really don't what to do!
Cher
"I have no advice for anybody; except to, you know, be awake enough to see where you are at any given time, and how that is beautiful, and has poetry inside. Even places you hate" -Jeff Buckley
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RE: Philosophy Assignment
February 10, 2009 at 8:58 pm
I suggest "Wag the Dog". It shows really well the dynamics of politics and media.
Best regards,
Leo van Miert
Horsepower is how hard you hit the wall --Torque is how far you take the wall with you
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RE: Philosophy Assignment
February 10, 2009 at 10:22 pm
this may or may not be obvious to you, but Waking Life deals with philosophical subjects, but maybe too many to do a report on since it's mostly dialogue the whole time. Also Sunrise to Sunset and From Dusk to Dawn, which both may be made by the same person as Waking Life, I don't know. Has a couple of the same characters in them. You would have an easy time finding a subject to focus on in any of those movies.
Harold and Maude is a really cool old movie! It involves and eccentric rich teenage boy who likes to scare his mother by faking suicide a lot and the main story line is about his falling in love with an poor elderly woman who is very odd/crazy. It's a classic. although I'm having a hard time tying philosophy into that one. Maybe something about the life of the privileged leaving something to be desired.
A newer one that could work is called Doubt. I just saw that in the theater, but it's about *spoiler* a priest who I believe was gay giving a sermon about doubt and it sparks something in a nun who then starts to hate the priest for no apparent reason and tries to get him kicked out by accusing him of improper relations with one of the boys at the school they both work at. In the end *real spoiler* after she's gotten him to leave, she's crying to another nun saying she has "doubts" which in context appear to mean that she has doubts about the church. Putting it all together, she just hated the priest because he stirred some feelings of doubt inside her, making her believe that since she had these unholy feelings while he was speaking that he must be evil. That review really wraps it up in a neat package and makes some assumptions so that's not what everyone thinks it is about. but I really do. it's really a thought-provoking movie.
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RE: Philosophy Assignment
February 10, 2009 at 11:43 pm
(This post was last modified: February 10, 2009 at 11:44 pm by WWLD.)
Alice in Wonderland
im doing a paper on the philosophy of Alice in Wonderland right now.
It's really interesting
By the way the book is better than the movie by far, and they are different
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RE: Philosophy Assignment
February 11, 2009 at 3:46 am
Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas would definitely give you plenty of material.
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RE: Philosophy Assignment
February 11, 2009 at 6:09 am
Apocalypse Now. Its a mind bender. Not only can you look at how life and death are treated within the film, you can also look at in the context of the film as a 1979 retrospective view of the 60's
Happiness is all that's important. What makes me happiest is making my loved ones happy.
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RE: Philosophy Assignment
February 11, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Bladerunner? Can't stand the film, personally, but it probably has some milage with regard to perception of self etc.
Groundhog Day probably has quite a bit of determinism in it -- bang on about existentialism and logic.
Can you do anything like Aestheticism, or is that out of the remit? Wonder whether something like Sunday in the Park with George would fit?
God Calls Me God
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A man is born to a virgin mother, lives, dies, comes alive again and then disappears into the clouds to become his Dad. How likely is that?
