RE: Philosophical Films

[Keith Wilson <kw503@york.ac.uk>]

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I recently watched Identity, which although a bit cheesy at the start, 
turns out to have an interesting philosophical twist to do with the nature 
of self and (surprise, surprise) personal identity. Very existential...

A personal favourite of mine is Pi, a strange and disturbing film about 
complexity, chaos, God and the presence of recurring patterns in nature. 
It's shot entirely in black and white, and contains some interesting 
commentary on the nature of religion and big business. Highly recommended 
if you're into that sort of thing.

And of course we mustn't forget The Matrix trilogy, which questions the 
very nature of reality, and the boundaries between organic and artificial 
intelligence. Someone actually wrote a book about the philosophical ideas 
behind by the Matrix films, and the name itself is taken (I believe) from 
the latest scientific 'theory of everything': M-Theory, which according to 
who you talk to, stands for Matrix Theory, Membrane Theory, or Witten 
Theory ('M' being an upside-down 'W') after its creator, Ed Witten.

Interesting stuff...


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