The other night I was kicking back and watching Waking Life
for fun to remind me of some of the concepts the film talks about. What can be said about Waking Life is that the film is totally unique, its ideas vast, and a special fact behind this film is that it is the first film in history to use the animation style of animating over life action film line by line. Overall, the loosely held storyline of the film(it’s mostly a collection of intellectual, existential, and philosophical vignettes) is that the main character Wiley is trapped in a dream state, and is probably experiencing his final moments of brain activity before he physically dies. Out of the three major movies I know of that deal with the content I write about here, which are Waking Life, The Secret
, and What the Bleep Do We Know!?
- Waking Life comes the most highly rated of all of them on IMDB, and also the most highly rated overall. I think part of the reason for this is that while What the Bleep and The Secret mostly deal with the Law of Attraction and positive thinking, Waking Life tackles the topic of lucid dreaming with a very intellectually driven sequence of scenes.
Other movies I can think of that relate to very psychological aspects such as lucid dreaming, memory, or the overall experience of manipulating perception are Vanilla Sky
, I Heart Huckabees
, and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
. I’d say that every single one of these films is inspirational, and thought provoking.
Each one of these movies has their own benefits, and I recommend all of them if you really want to hunt the knowledge of personal development to have for your own. If you are building your own personal growth library of sorts, these DVD’s probably belong on those shelves. Let me sum up what each of them are generally about, what they can do for you, and what they have done for me.
Waking Life - Out of all the films here, this one is the highest rated. Perhaps it is the format of Waking Life that gives it its power - a series of intellectually thick scenes that shower you with untraditional contemporary vocabulary. I am under the belief that this movie is also the most important out of the different films that have come out in this general area. When Richard Linklater, the director of the movie, set out to do something with the film, the idea was to create something that would inspire people to think. And really, I think that is all. Just start thinking. The movie carries with it a sort of implied opinion that too many people are concerned with unimportant, trivial matters.
Commercialism, negativity, predation, natural selection, dramatic struggle, melodrama - all these things are within the wrong paradigm. Perhaps the things we should be focusing on are purpose, the meaning behind existence, the fundamental questions of the universe. Instead of just passing each other on the street, maybe people should be getting to know each other more, interacting with each other more, traveling more, experiencing more diversity.
The overall message is simply intelligent; the film does not seek to bring into light anything new that has not already been heard before, but rather compiles the ideas that circulate around existentialism, philosophy, and of course: lucid dreaming.
What the Bleep Do We Know!? - This is proclaimed to be a “new kind of film,” that is part documentary, part fictional story. Surprisingly, it really IS a new kind of film. Nothing like this has actually been done before, or at least, not at feature length. The fictional story follows that of Amanda, a deaf woman who reads lips and is attempting to find happiness. The documentary side of the film follows a number of speakers ranging from psychic consultants to quantum physicists. For some, the film is just too misleading in that it focuses on a single aspect of physics, the fundamental laws of science, and what all of it says about individual choice, personal freedom, subjectivity, and other subjects of interest. All in all, the overall message is in regards to the law of attraction and the power you have over your own body via your mind.
The Secret - Similar in some respects to What the Bleep, the Secret takes a vastly different approach to a similar subject, but The Secret becomes wholly specific to the Law of Attraction. A lot of people have said they like The Secret better, and after having seen it myself, I can see why. The film also has received better ratings across the board, even while featuring some of the same speakers from What the Bleep - Dr. John Hagelin, and Fred Alan Wolf PhD.
Vanilla Sky - Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise unite on this adventure, and it definitely is an adventure. A very weird, odd, strange adventure. The main character of this movie finds his life in a fantastic state, and as things begin to spiral out of control while he seems to be losing everything and also having very strange experiences - we begin to realize his state of being: The state of being in a lucid dream. If you’re not one for documentaries or informational films, this tells a great story, has a gripping visual theme to it, and is certainly very entertaining.
I Heart Huckabees - I Heart Huckabees has a few great things going for it. For one, right from the get go the creators and the film’s studio, Fox Searchlight Pictures, knew what it was they were making here. This film sets out to do many of the things you’ll see Waking Life attempting, but perhaps the biggest difference here is that this story is tailored to be a bit more mainstream. The action is more plot driven, the pace is faster, the characters more intense, and passionate. It also has a good deal of comedy in it - some moments had me close to tears I was laughing so hard. The characters go through a journey of confusion and frustration, and they hire an existential detective firm to help them figure out the meaning of life as well as the purpose of their existence. The ending has wit, and while it does not come to the conclusion I might have liked to see best, it still is one that makes you smile.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind - Yet another movie with actor Jim Carrey carrying out some of his more serious acting abilities, this film accomplishes some outstanding feats. For one, it is a film that shows the nature of memory, and while it is not exactly lucid dreaming, it shows a beautiful representation of what the inner mind might be like, the nature of perception within one’s awareness. The ending is a bit sad, but also very realistic. I do not want to give too much away, but I will say that this film has a distinctly different feel than the other films here, and some might even argue that this is not exactly the intellectually stimulating movie that I’ve made it out to be. It all depends on your own opinion of it. I leave that up to you.
For me, this is a film that shows some other important aspects of self. It shows the way that drama and over dramatization can ruin relationships. It doesn’t just say it either, it shows you step by step, piece by piece as it goes through this main character’s life, to get to the point where finally it is understood why these particular two people should not be together. It shows you, piece by piece, by it is okay for people to be different, and okay for them not to try and force the relationship to work.
Once again, I would highly recommend seeing any one of these films. These are all fantastic. One thing I notice about Hollywood, too, is that they seem to be putting more of these movies out there in recent time, and fortunately enough for all of us - people are seeing them and loving them. While some aspects of the film making part of these films can be improved, I think that intellectual films like these are off to a wonderful start.
Write a comment