Ideas For Films to Stimulate Philosophical Discussion

ValJester

I'm involved with a university philosophical society, and we're trying to think of films we could show to stimulate philosophical discussion. Thus far we've had Waking Life, Memento and Wittgenstein, with A Clockwork Orange and Dekalog in the works.Any other suggestions?

Cannibal Ox

The Pervert's Guide to Cinema! It's Zizek's film about film. There's also Examined Life which is a documentary with interviews with a bunch of philosophers. There's a film/documentary about Derrida, but I don't think it's great. I can't get my hands on it, but if you can, The Ister looks interesting. Adam Curtis's documentaries are always worth checking out too, particularly the Century of the Self, the Trap, and the Power of Nightmares.

More film like films, The White Ribbon has a whole lot going on in it, and Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Eraserhead, The Seventh Seal, The Mission and more obvious stuff like 2001 A Space Odyssey, There Will Be Blood, Blade Runner are all worth looking at but I also think you could really look at anything (try Avatar!) and think about the themes in it.

Also, don't forget youtube. There's lots of lectures/interviews on it with recent and modern philosophers, the Chomsky Foucault debate being one of my favourites.

Morbert

Solaris might be a good one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(2002_film)

Goduznt Xzst

I'd recommend:

The Fountain

Coffee and Cigarettes

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring

The Boondock Saints

Last one might seem a little odd to some, but there are a ton of philosophical themes running through that film.

I'm also going to add my personal favorite:

The Dark Knight

It features exceptional examples of Game Theory in action, touching on the philosophical side of it.

Red Hand

The Fall.

Visually stunning and having a number of themes running through it such as what is real and what is fiction.

Queen-Mise

Matrix - this is the most basic questioning of what is reality? Kant

A Beautiful Mind

American Beauty

I Robot

Vanilla Sky

Gladiator- ethics

Identity - although more psychology

Fight Club - ego/superego, Descartes' Cogito

Avatar - conservation, good/evil

Alice in Wonderland, Johnny Depp, Reality again,

Shutter Island, reality again

moondrizzle

A.I. on what does it really mean to be alive.

Priori

moondrizzle wrote: »

A.I. on what does it really mean to be alive.

Or the original and best, Pinnochio...

bhovaspack

Hubert Dreyfus at Berkeley uses Hiroshima Mon Amour to teach aspects of existentialism, particularly Kierkegaard's concepts of knight of faith, knight of resignation and lower and higher immediacy. His lectures on it are well worth downloading from itunes U.

dublin1904

Kontroll (2003)

TheUsual

Yeah Solaris (2002) version and the old
Solyaris (1972) version. There is a book behind the movies as well if you want to read more.

I like Blade Runner as well, the whole definition of a human is in Philip K Dick's book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". Where the replicants are not so odd as they are made out to be. And the idead of humans that are not humans.

JBnaglfar

Hi there, this is my first time posting in the philosophy section of boards.

Some more recommendations for you.
Primer is an excellent film which should stimulate discussion around issues such as ethics, ontology/self-identity, and freewill/determinism.

Christopher Nolan's Memento would also be a good choice imo. There is an article by George Bragues called Memory and Morals in Memento: Hume at the Movies which considers Memento through Hume's epistemology and cognitive psychology. There is the added bonus that it happens to be a really good movie too.

nyarlothothep

Cube: its in the so bad its good territory and is something of an allegory for the why are we here existential question. Also Pi by Daron Aronofsky, its not that seriously philosophical but it does deal with the philosophy of maths somewhat. Its just a good film. Oh and Conan the Barbarian, its an excellent treatise of Nietzsche. Plus its got swords and sorcery.

Valmont

Dogville was billed by Lars von Trier as a philosophical drama. Roughly speaking, I suppose it concerns the nature and emergence of evil.

Improbable

Blade Runner