Movies and the Meaning of Life

By: Kimberly A. Blessing, Paul J. Tudico

Narrated by: Gary Roelofs

"The meaning of life is the most urgent of questions", said the existentialist thinker Albert Camus. And no less a philosopher than Woody Allen has wondered: "How is it possible to find meaning in a finite world, given my waist and shirt size?"

The essays in Movies and the Meaning of Life look at popular and cult movies, examining their assumptions and insights on meaning-of-life questions: What is reality and how can I know it? (The Truman Show, Contact, Waking Life); How do I find myself and my true identity? (Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Boys Don't Cry, Memento); How do I find meaning from my interactions with others? (Pulp Fiction, Shadowlands, Chasing Amy); What is the chief purpose in life? (American Beauty, Life Is Beautiful, The Shawshank Redemption); and how ought I live my life? (Pleasantville, Spiderman, Minority Report, Groundhog Day).

The book is published by Open Court. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2005 Carus Publishing Company (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"An excellent achievement." (Midwest Book Review)

Entertainment & Food for Thought

Academic and interesting infusion of pop culture into philosphy basics. Each chapter is standalone-ish exploring morality then science, etc. I found the book most effective at illustrating philosphy elements with fictional allusions rather than necessarily deepening the films themself (the reading of Contact feels spot on but risks making the film seem like an examination in ways of knowing when I feel the film was more sloppily constructed with entertainment in mind; sometimes the depth here feels imposed or other times like with Crimes & Misdemeanors mansplains the intended subtext of the writer/director). There are a lot of spoilers for movies but the book is clear what films will be spoiled in advance and it's easy enough to skip chapters since they are noncontinuous. The choice of movies is locked in to early 2000s (I think 2004's Kill Bill v2 is the most modern film); which isnt necessarily problematic. It feels like the authors wrote the first 70% of the book and edited in other content for the end and the earlier chapters feel much clearer and more interesting apt to classify ideas better into principles and sources (later discussing for example relatively general meaning in life with Pleasantville versus the elaborate 'straw man' dupe in subtext with Fight Club earlier). It ranges from insightful worthy of taking notes and digging in to more obvious stuff like the ethics in Spiderman. Some of the material is sourced earlier than film and tends mostly to expand on content rather than style (with the exception of smartly dissecting a pivotal scene staging in Boys Dont Cry). Sometimes ideas like Platos Cave or Dostoevsky are repeated and the piecemeal approach to film by film prevents themes from evolving or contrasting. The narration feels serviceable, I turned the speed up and enjoyed a higher speed more. Overall there is a buffet of food for thought and I enjoyed the book.