• Hanover
    13k
    What do you consider the most philosophical movies and why? I ask this question because I recently changed satellite providers and have access to a bajillion movies and I need something of value to watch. A couple that come to mind are Being There and the Matrix.
  • _db
    3.6k
    Have you seen the Matrix II? Oh wait, it sucked, nevermind.

    I was pleasantly surprised with Ex Machina - it's not perfect, but it does tackle some of big questions of philosophy of mind, like Mary's Room, connectionist theories of mind, A.I., and ethics in an age of science. It's one of my favorite recent movies.

    Blade Runner is also really good.
  • Srap Tasmaner
    5k
    Gattaca

    (The Truman Show was also written by the writer-director of Gattaca.)
    I guess Waking Life

    I actually liked Youth Without Youth, but I'm not sure many did.

    Stranger Than Fiction

    Those are some with obviously philosophical content. I'm not quite sure what to say about the philosophical content of Magnolia, but it is an extraordinary, overwhelming masterpiece. (The Master is also interesting, also by P. T. Anderson.)

    Besides Blade Runner, almost anything adapted from Phil Dick--he's kinda the gateway drug. (The Truman Show might as well be a Phil Dick adaptation. Minority Report. etc.)
  • jkop
    923
    Solaris (2002, which I think is a very good remake of the Soviet original). It could be the plot for a philosophical thought experiment (e.g. like Twin-Earth, or something on identity, ethics etc.), for what would you do if you wake up next to a real copy of the person you just dreamed of? Say, a dead wife but who is then alive again, or what if you dream of yourself and wake up with a copy of yourself being there next to you?
  • Buxtebuddha
    1.7k
    Se7en and Shutter Island. Both tackle ethics in a number of ways, and play on notions of perception in their own ways.
  • Srap Tasmaner
    5k
    Other thought-experiment/phildickian stuff: Donnie Darko
    Chris Nolan's other movies (The Prestige, Memento)
  • Canis
    5
    Blade Runner and Contact come immediately to mind. Also Slaughterhouse Five, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Gods Must Be Crazy. Most of these are based off of books, I just noticed.
  • Moliere
    4.8k
    7th Seal is the first one that popped to mind for me.
  • Wayfarer
    22.8k
    Groundhog Day, because I'm in it.
  • andrewk
    2.1k
    7th Seal is the first one that popped to mind for me.Moliere
    Me too.
  • Wosret
    3.4k
    John dies at the end is pretty trippy. Also based on a book by David Wong, one of the editors of Cracked!
  • S
    11.7k
    Have you seen the Matrix II? Oh wait, it sucked, nevermind.darthbarracuda

    No, it most definitely did not. It was awesome, like the first film, and these are some of the reasons why:

    The Matrix Reloaded lives up to fans' expectations in many ways, serving as a bridge between the chapter that sets up the conflict and the chapter that resolves it. It has some narrative weaknesses, but there are electrifying fight scenes, an audaciously dystopic vision, zillions of explosions and car crashes, a steamy love scene, and visual effects that continue to raise the bar.

    Some of the action sequences will simply knock your socks off. The Matrix's Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) has learned how to multiply, and Neo has to fight a hundred Smiths, each with its own version of Weaving's magnificently cocked eyebrow. Real-life twins (and black belt karate instructors) Adrien and Neil Rayment play dreadlocked albinos who can turn themselves into ghost-like wraiths out to destroy our heroes. And there's a heart-stopping 14-minute chase and crash scene on a freeway. But the movie's most powerful scene doesn't have fancy special effects or explosions. It's the conversation between Neo and the Oracle (played with endless warmth, wit, and spirit by the late Gloria Foster). The movie also taps into epic questions of destiny, causality, identity, and choice.
  • Streetlight
    9.1k
    GattacaSrap Tasmaner

    I love this one so much. Her was also really, really lovely, to name a recentish one.
  • Hanover
    13k
    My problem with the Matrix movies is I don't know if you're real or are part of the Matrix, so I'm not sure who or what I'm responding to. In truth, I don't know what I am. It's too complicated for me.
  • Hanover
    13k
    7th Seal is the first one that popped to mind for me.Moliere

    This one looks interesting.
  • TimeLine
    2.7k
    Pan's Labyrinth and Ghost in a Shell (the original anime, not the hollywood rubbish).
  • Srap Tasmaner
    5k
    Gattaca
    — Srap Tasmaner

    I love this one so much.
    StreetlightX

    Nice to meet another fan!

    This thread's a little weird because we're mostly talking about sf or fantasy, and Gattaca's the movie I always reach for as coming closest on film to what sf is on paper. (People always used to say the original Solaris, but it's been many years since I saw that & I haven't seen the remake.)

    I guess it's okay for something like philosophy to show up in movies mostly as these "what is reality?" sorts of puzzles. Gotta start somewhere.

    There are ethical dilemmas in lots of movies; does that make them "philosophical"? I think Peter Weir's Witness might be. I feel stuck between wondering what could possibly count as philosophy and what could possibly not!
  • Cavacava
    2.4k
    Hannah Arendt is a 2012 German-Luxembourgish-French biographical drama film directed by Margarethe von Trotta and starring Barbara Sukowa.
  • _db
    3.6k
    Groundhog Day, because I'm in it.Wayfarer

    Wait really
  • Shawn
    13.3k
    I guess anything Kubrick, since he took surrealism to perfection.

    2001 : A Space Odyssey, would be my first pick due to being all cozy with logical positivism, which simply became replaced with scientism.
  • Wayfarer
    22.8k
    Figuratively speaking, of course. But with the contract situation I'm in right now, it's on the mark.
  • Jamal
    9.8k
    2001 : A Space Odyssey, would be my first pick due to being all cozy with logical positivism, which simply became replaced with scientism.Question

    What do you mean by this, Q? What's 2001 got to do with logical positivism and scientism?
  • Shawn
    13.3k


    Well, what I mean is that the people making 2001, Kubrick and Clarke (who closely worked together) in making 2001, believed that society embraced the progress produced by science and the desire to move out into space. Kubrick wasn't as positive and exuberant about space as Clarke was, and it's said that Clarke wept when he saw how silent and austere space was for the main characters in 2001.

    For reasons all too obvious, that isn't true; but, one can dream?
  • Jamal
    9.8k
    What are you talking about?
  • Shawn
    13.3k
    I'm saying that I liked 2001 from a philosophical perspective of mankind embracing technology, science, and change.

    It fits into my narrow logical positivist view on life.
  • Agustino
    11.2k
    Shawshank Redemption
  • VagabondSpectre
    1.9k
    This is far from a top philosophical movie because it's subject matter is quaint, but "Tampopo" (1985) is a film that somehow satisfied me more than any other overtly philosophical movie I can think of.

    It's about life, love, and joy from a Japanese perspective, through the lens of food.

    Here's one such quaint but satisfying scenes:

  • Srap Tasmaner
    5k
    Shawshank RedemptionAgustino

    Good call. There's a lot going on there.
  • Srap Tasmaner
    5k
    Maybe Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven.
  • Moliere
    4.8k
    Ingmar Bergman is one of my favorite directors, and that's probably his most famous flick. I don't want to spoil too much, but if you happen to give it a try you should post your thoughts afterwords. (negative or positive -- I've heard both kinds of reactions to it)
bold
italic
underline
strike
code
quote
ulist
image
url
mention
reveal
youtube
tweet
Add a Comment

Welcome to The Philosophy Forum!

Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.