"Waking Life," the movie

[goldingds]

There's a movie called "Waking Life" (2001), and I'm wondering if you infidels have heard of it/seen it. If so, what do you think of it? is it pretentious, teenage mumbo-jumbo or does it raise good questions?

[Chris Porter]

If you think this belongs in the Philosophy forum, could you please add a link to some description of the movie? And maybe what it was about the movie that made you start questioning it philosophically. I don't think I've heard of the movie.

And welcome to the forums.

[goldingds]

I should have done that, huh. Okay so, here's an imdb link (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243017/) and a wikipedia link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waking_Life). Waking life is a very unique movie that's animated using digital rotoscoping. The animation is very surreal and has a floaty, dream-like feel to it. The protagonist wanders from person to person, listening to each of their philosophies. A lot of the philosophies expressed in the movie are very existensialist. I'd love to hear what an infidel who has seen the movie has to say about it.

[Chris Porter]

Well, I might possibly call myself a pragmatic existentialist, but I haven't seen the film. I'll add it to my Netflix. It does certainly seem like an appropriate thread for our forum. I hope there are others that have seen it.

[goldingds]

After watching it, I was impressed by the way the director presented the ideas. However, I wondered what someone who was schooled in philosophy would think, and wondered if it was profound and new or simply old ideas presented in dumbed-down, stylized ways. Immeadiately I thought of Infidels, so I posted this. I'm surprised nobody here has seen it!

[da_raven]

This movie is pretty good. I'm surprised I've never heared of it before you posted the thread. It's really outside the box, at least in directing - I liked the rotoscope technique. The script is somewhat incoherent, but it's what adds value to the film. As for the ideas presented, they range from moral philosophy and activism to evolutionism and reincarnation. It's broad anyways. The ideas aren't fresh, except for maybe a couple. I wouldn't call it mumbo-jumbo, but I still don't buy it. :D. - I'm reffering to the main idea here. It's a good source for getting to know some basic philosophical issus like 'free will' - which is well presented btw.

Thanks for sharing it with us goldingds.

[WarrenandTrumbull]

I've been a big fan of this movie for a while.... I guess the animation is better then the content.

[goldingds]

I'm glad I could introduce you to a new movie! I've been a fan as well.

[Zossima]

I like the film... although not necessarily for philosophical reasons. I think it's beautiful. The ideas are not particularly new, though the presentation of them is, and I think the presentation can and does add to their vitality. As far as I'm concerned, the film is worth seeing if only for the bridge sequence: "On romantic evenings of self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion." Sounds like something out of Hesse.