Philosophical Movies

Several years ago I scoured the Internet looking for all of the recommendations I could find for philosophical movies. The complete list of what I found is posted below (note that these movies aren't necessarily focused on philosophy, but they each raise philosophical issues to various degrees). Feel free to post your own additions.

The American Astronaut
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Brazil
Mindwalk
Lost Highway
Amelie
The Seventh Seal
Equilibrium
The City of Lost Children
The Sea That Thinks
Human Nature
I Heart/Love Huckabees
Badlands
Days of Heaven
Barton Fink
Alice In Wonderland
Logan’s Run
Billy Jack
Cool Hand Luke
Open Your Eyes (aka Abre Los Ojos)
Les Miserables
Sophie’s Choice
Gosford Park
La Jetee (12 Monkeys is based largely on this groundbreaking film)
Dead Man Walking
Mr. Death
Dancer in the Dark
1984
We the Living
Fahrenheit 451
Equilibrium
Persona
The Man With Two Brains
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Who is Julia?
Wild Strawberries
Stealing Heaven
The Meaning of Life
Ghost World
The Trial
Videodrome
Last Year at Marienbad (or is it One Day at Mariebad?)
Hour of the Wolf
Being There
Sleeper
O Lucky Man
On the Beach
SLC Punk!
Deliverance
Confession
Inherit the Wind
Dogville
Failsafe
Hilary and Jackie
Rashomon
Love and Death
Crimes and Misdemeanors
The Addiction
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead** (described as 'best movie ever' type)
Twelve Angry Men
Proof
Swimming With Sharks
Quiz Show
Hurly Burly
The Godfather series
Reconstruction
The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Handmaid’s Tale
Iron Monkey
Dark Star
Jacob the Liar
Extreme Measures
In the Name of the Father
Burn!
The Thin Blue Line
The Others
Blow-Up
Cruel Intentions
Henry and June
Chocolat
The Cube
The Fountainhead
Amistad
Schindler’s List
The Vanishing
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
The Emperor’s New Groove
The Last Temptation of Christ
Winter Light
Midnight Cowboy
Zelig
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Zorba the Greek
Intersection
A Man and a Woman

Any film by Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Alain Resnais, Cronenberg, Kurusawa

My Dinner With Andre
Waking Life
Bliss
Dr. Strangelove
Matrix series
ExistenZ
Pi
A Clockwork Orange
Memento
Mulholland Drive
Being John Malkovich
Dark City
Animal Farm
What Dreams May Come
Charly (adaptation of Flowers for Algernon)
K-Pax
Apocalypse Now
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Requiem for a Dream
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Usual Suspects
Groundhog Day
American Psycho
Hollow Man
Dead Poets Society
The Bourne Identity
Leaving Las Vegas
Seven
Life of Brian
Minority Report
Vanilla Sky
Bruce Almighty
Twelve Monkeys
The Lord of the Flies
Bladerunner
Bicentennial Man
The Fisher King
The Survivors
The Thirteenth Floor
The Truman Show
The 6th Day
Total Recall
Gattica
Donnie Darko
Antz
The Time Machine
Terminator series
Time Cop
Back to the Future
Austin Powers 2
Demolition Man

Acoustic Guitar Virtuosos

I went to the Manhattan Arts Center last Friday to see a cozy show by Beppe Gambetta. Beppe is a flatpicker from Genova, Italy, who in addition to his solo touring, is also a member of Men of Steel (along with Don Ross, Dan Crary, and Tony McManus).

Beppe's final song of the show was an audience request: Church Street Blues. It doesn't show off his technical mastery as much as many of his other songs do, but I think it does justice to his ability to breathe beauty and genius into a simple little song. Here's a YouTube video of his version:



And while I'm at it, let me go ahead and expand this post to include a number of representative videos of my favorite acoustic guitar virtuosos.

Here's a fellow from Topeka named Andy McKee (since he's a localish guy, I'll splurge and share 3 videos):

"Drifting"


"Common Ground"


"Rylynn"



This next fellow is Don Ross. He's the only person to ever win the world fingerpicking championship twice. Here are 2 of my favorites:

"Afraid to Dance"


"Midnight March"



Speaking of Don Ross, here's a fellow named Antoine Dufour covering one of Ross's songs ("Dracula and Friends"):



Now meet Erik Mongrain. He plays the guitar as if it were a cross between a keyboard and a set of bongos. This is his song "Airtap":



Here's Tommy Emmanuel gettin' after it with "The Hunt":



Next is Leo Kottke, master of the 12-string. My current favorite song is a simple little folk song called "Tiny Island." You can listen to it here:


Most of his songs are instrumental, though, like this:


Finally, let me end with Mark Goffeney, the most inspirational armless guitar player around.

What Does Softball-Size Hail Look Like?

For a reference point on what softball-size hail looks like, take a look at the hail scene from the movie The Day After Tomorrow: