A LIST OF PHILOSOPHICAL FILMS
THE MEANING OF LIFE
Fight Club (1999; young executive seeks for meaning through anarchism and violence)
Gates of Heaven (1778; Errol Morris documentary explores impact of relocated pet cemetery)
Ghost World (2001; cynical young girl seeks for meaning while hurting everyone in her path)
Leaving Las Vegas (1995; an alcoholic and a hooker enable each other)
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983; series of avant-garde skits)
O Lucky Man (1973; Coffee salesman travels UK searching for meaning)
On the Beach (1959; last people alive after nuclear war search for meaning; remade in 2000)
The Razor's Edge (1946; from Somerset Maugham novel about quest for truth through Hindu mysticism; 1984 remake starring Bill Murray)
SLC punk! (1999; punk youth struggle to find individuality and meaning)
The Swimmer (1968; a man swims in several neighborhood pools, revealing his self-deception)
The Trial (1963; from Kafka’s surreal novel, a man is arrested but never told why)
Stalker (1979; science fiction story of a post-apocalyptic world of despair; in Russian)
APPEARANCE/REALITY
The 13th Floor (1999; murder mystery set within a virtual reality in which people don’t know that they are only simulations)
Dark City (1998; science fiction story)
Existenz (1999; virtual reality device test marketed it on a group of people)
The Matrix (1999; human minds are unknowingly connected to a virtual reality computer, and a messianic figure attempts to free everyone)
Open your Eyes (1997; science fiction story, remade as Vanilla Sky; in Spanish)
Total Recall; (1990; science fiction story)
Vanilla Sky (2001; science fiction story)
Waking Life
(2001; animated film about a man who floats in and out of philosophical
discussions about the nature of reality)
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Brief History of Time (1992; documentary based on Stephen Hawking’s life and book)
Contact (1997; explores plausibility of extraterrestrial life)
Mindwalk (1991; poet, politician and physicist discuss implications of quantum physics)
MIND/BODY
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001; child robot longs for human mother)
Bicentennial Man (1999; follows robot’s 200-year quest to become human)
Blade Runner (1982; science fiction story about human/android distinction)
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (1997; documentary about four people discusses animal and artificial intelligence)
Final Fantasy (2001; animated science fiction film about spiritual residue of alien creatures)
Ghost in the Shell (1995; animated Japanese science fiction film about artificial intelligence)
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Being John Malkovich (1999; man gives tours of John Malkovich’s consciousness)
Memento (2000; man with short term memory loss tries to solve wife’s murder)
Multiplicity (1996; comedy about man with three clones)
Solaris (1972 in Russian; planet re-creates dead people based on memories; 2002 English remake)
FREE WILL/DETERMINISM
A Clockwork Orange (1971; criminal brainwashed into becoming nonviolent)
Gattaca (1997; man struggles to overcome biological destiny)
Groundhog Day (1993; man keeps reliving the same day)
Hilary and Jackie (1998; biography of Jacqueline du Pré who mentally degenerates)
Minority Report (2002; people imprisoned for predisposition to commit crimes)
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
1984 (1990); based on George Orwell’s novel exploring totalitarianism)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930; antiwar message from German side of WW I)
Animal Farm (1952 animated film based on George Orwell’s novel exploring communist totalitarianism; 1999 remake using talking animal computer effects)
Antz (1998; computer animated cartoon explores individualism vs. collectivism)
Bowling for Columbine (2002; Michael Moore documentary explores gun control)
Equilibrium (2002; totalitarian regime controls population by suppressing emotions)
Fountainhead (1949; Ayn Rand novel, attack on collectivism based on )
Lost Horizon (1937; group discovers a Tibetan utopia)
The Killing Fields (1984; true story of Cambodian man fleeing from genocide)
Mr. Death (2000; Errol Morris documentary about Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. explores death penalty, holocaust denial)
Nuremberg (2000; drama about WW2 war crimes trial)
Roger and Me (1989; Michael Moore documentary, explores corporate insensitivity towards workers)
The Big One (1997; Michael Moore documentary, explores corporate insensitivity towards workers)
The Awful Truth (1999; Michael Moore documentary series explores social issues)
The Thin Blue Line (1988; Errol Morris documentary about an innocent man on death row)
AESTHETICS
I shot Andy Warhol (1996; biography of Valerie Solanas, Warhol’s would-be assassin, explores avant-garde film)
My Dinner with Andre (1981; dinner dialogue explores philosophy of theatre)
Pollock (2000; biography of Jackson Pollock explores philosophy of art)
PROBLEM OF EVIL
The Quarrel (1991; a conservative and a liberal Jew debate implications of the Holocaust)
The Rapture (1991; a woman’s unsuccessful quest for salvation)
The Seventh Seal (1957; a disillusioned knight returns from the crusades questioning God’s existence; in Swedish)
Shadowlands (1993; biography of C.S. Lewis)