Recently some friends and I were discussing movies that fit particular philosophers well. So far we've only been able to come up with

Descartes – The Matrix
Nietzsche – Fight Club
Hume – Memento

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? We couldn't come up with one for Plato. What about other philosophers?

What about some new new age philosophers, like
Gary Zukav-What dreams may come

The Matrix is about Plato's Cave. I'm going to be honest, I didn't come to this conclusion on my own at all. After seeing the movie I personally found a few philosophers in it - from Descartes to Sartre. However, this article and conversations later with it's author persuaded me; http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/cmp/index_sequel.html

(Note: you have to go to the "Philosophy" section of the site, and find the article by Colin McGinn)

As for philosophers and movies, I'll through a couple into the ring:

Woody Allen's Love and Death. The philosopher in my mind is Woody Allen. The problem is that most folk don't consider him a philosopher. So if I had to link him to anyone, it would be (the obvious call) Kafka, and that particular movie is reminiscent of Aristotle. Part of my speech for school this year, actually, compared Allen's film to Aristotlean ethics.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Nietzsche. Come on...
Who "willing adopt(s) the beast" better than Raul Duke?

Girth gurth Generally my opinion is that if you saw anything particularly philosophical in the Matrix, then you were looking too hard.

As for fight club, I sure as hell hope no one took anything special away from that, what was the base of the morals Tyler Durden kept spouting? "Without destruction we'd have nothing!" I mean sure we need a little entropy to cut away the old and useless to make room for the new, but the whole point of the movie was that it was carried out to an absurd level, and Chuck PalaIcan'tspellhislastname, who wrote Fight Club even admits that he didn't intend anyone to actually take any of it to heart.

Didn't see Momento, can't comment.

A little gem I picked up just last night was actually in X-men2 of all films. Nightcrawler asks Mystique why she doesn't just stay in disguise all the time to look like everyone else, she responds that she shouldn't have to. Simple but powerful, and of course completely applicable to homosexuality, which, was quite likely not a coincidence, as the film is rife with metaphors for homosexuality, and it's no surprise considering several gay cast members, including the director.

Rio Bravo (and many similair Westerns) with Karl Marx. The town is in the hands of a villain who makes himself rich by stealing/robbing from the citizens (=Capitalism). The citizens are affraid and unorganised. A bunch of carouageous man (revolucionaries) disposes the villain from his power by (the help of) a "lumpenproletrariat-kind" hero (the drunkard-deputy).

The Way We Were (Straisand/Redford) with Sartre, existentionalism. You make you own life and choose the values.

Waking Life - every last respectable philosopher in history (give or take).

I loved Memento; I'm inspired to buy one of Hume's books. :)

Has anyone seen the movie Donnie Darko? Which philosopher would that fall under? (Forgive me for not knowing off-hand, my only love is Nietzsche--plus, DD was a little difficult to understand)


~Cory

Originally posted by Tyler
The Matrix is about Plato's Cave. I'm going to be honest, I didn't come to this conclusion on my own at all.'The Matrix' follows Descartes' line of thinking much more closely than Plato's. Plato's cave was just an analogy for how people perceive and understand the world differently once they know the truth about it; he wasn't proposing that our actual sense data was in some way false. Descartes seriously pondered the question of whether or not our entire world could be a mere illusion created by a powerful outside force for the purpose of fooling us.

The Matrix is about Plato's Cave I disagree! I think Platos cave is interesting, and it does have some foundation for a lot of thinking, but I do think The Matrix comes closer to expressing true Christianity. Plato's cave refers to the soul (in my opinion). Girth gurth Generally my opinion is that if you saw anything particularly philosophical in the Matrix, then you were looking too hard. Crap! The Matrix is the most philosophical film of our time (in my opinion)!

I'm pretty sure the matrix is meant to have elements of almost every philosophy. Gnostic Christianity, bhuddism, taoism, plato, descartes, etc...

Has anyone seen the movie Donnie Darko? Which philosopher would that fall under?

Great movie. Not sure about which philosopher it would fall under, maybe more along the lines of which scientist. It dealt with time travel, so I think maybe it was more influenced on science.

House of Fools (Dom Durakov). its ab war bw Chechnya and Russia. how much of it is tre?-probably A LOT. mostly its philosophical, psychological, etc. a real food for brain, quite well done. Advise to see that.