“Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know, you can’t explain. But you feel it. You’ve felt it all your life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there.” Like a splinter in your mind, driving you crazy.” -Morpheus, Matrix

This is not a list of movie reviews and is not comprehensive. It’s just a few notes on some movies that I think are helpful for awakening and why, or aren’t and why not. With comprehension tools, the bad is often better than the good.

The main themes represented in this list seem to be these:

-Heresy

– Captive/Captor

– Teacher – student

– Nature of the self/man

– death/rebirth

– Cataclysm/Epiphany

– Lack of confidence in the mind/memories

The only thing I could do about movies and books is to elevate the material to the level where it’s valuable to you. Orwell could have been writing an anti-communist manifesto, but Nineteen Eighty-Four is much more interesting seen as the struggle between the man and his imprisonment. Apocalypse Now is about more than just Vietnam, How to Get Ahead In Advertising is about more than rampant commercialism, etc.

::: American Beauty

“I feel like I’ve been in a coma in the past

twenty years. And I’m just waking up now.”

I’ve included American Beauty mainly because of what’s wrong with it. Lester’s big death/rebirth transition shows promise, but what is he transitioning to? Back to adolescent trash, not moving forward in any sense. A fear-based regression. Stupid car, stupid drugs, stupid vanity, stupid skirt chase. Not redeemed at all when Lester sees his own insanity near the end or by some cheesy/sweet dead guy’s voiceover.

The film is slightly redeemed by the presence of the quasi-mystical neighbor boy and his video of a bag being blown by the wind:

“That was the day I realized there was a lifetime behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever.”

::: Apocalypse now

“In a war there are many moments for compassion and tender action. There are many moments for ruthless action, what is often called ruthless, which in many circumstances may just be clarity, seeing clearly what needs to be done and doing it. , directly. , fast, awake, looking at it”.

You’d think Apocalypse Now Redux, the director’s cut, would be the cut to watch, but everything that was properly cut from the original was mistakenly replaced. (Raising the interesting point that directors and authors often don’t understand the higher applications of the stories they’re telling.) Stick with the original on Redux and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Apocalypse Now is all about Horror. A journey of discovery, into the heart of darkness, reaching this horror. What is the horror? How do you get there? Why would someone do such a thing? Should you do such a thing? Why or why not?

Note the powerful epiphanies that drive the film. The first killer’s letter home (“Sell the house, sell the car, sell the kids…”), Dennis Hopper’s youthful exuberance, Kurtz’s diamond bullet, the “…I wasn’t even here anymore.” in his army.” “

::: Being there

“Spring, summer, fall, winter…then spring again.”

A beautiful movie ruined by a silly water walking trick added at the end. Without that nonsense, the viewer would be free to think, to decide, to wonder. Instead, the movie closes with its clever little silly twist. Hit the stop button when Chauncey is straightening out the shoot, before the ruinous denouement, and it’s a fun and charming movie.

::: Bounty hunter

“I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe. Attacking ships in flames off Orion’s shoulder. I’ve seen C-beams shine in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost to time like tears in rain. It’s time to die .

Were you born five minutes ago? Of course not, and you have the memories to prove it. You’d know if they were artificial implants, because, uh…

::: Discard

“I couldn’t even kill myself the way that

wanted to. She had no power over anything.”

If a man screams on a desert island and there is no one to hear him, does he make any noise? Is it enough that he hears it himself? What if not? What is left when you remove everything?

Stripped car.

This film raises many intriguing questions about the substance of the self, or lack thereof, and includes a very zen-like eulogy.

::: Dead Poets Society

Heresy.

::: Harold and Maude

“Vice, virtue. It is better not to be

too moral… It aims above morality.”

American Zen, teacher and disciple.

:::Harvey

“For years I was smart… I recommend nice.”

Elwood P. Dowd, wise fool. A sweet representation of a higher order of being misconstrued as a lower order of being. Would we know the Superior Man when we saw him?

::: How to Get Ahead in Advertising

“Everything I do now makes a lot of sense.”

A rejected offer for freedom. A failed attempt to overthrow Maya. She enjoys the madness of the epiphany.

::: Joe against the volcano

“Nobody knows anything, Joe. We’ll take this leap, and

we’ll see. We’ll jump and see. That’s life, right?”

Death and Rebirth. Unlike American Beauty, it’s all about moving forward, “getting away from the man stuff.”

::: Man Looking Southeast (Man Looking Southeast)

Keep an eye out especially for the visual poem of a man crumbling a human brain into a sink while searching for the soul.

::: Matrix

“Like everyone else, you were born in captivity, you were born inside a prison that you can’t smell, taste or touch. A prison for your mind.”

Plato’s cave for the people. As allegorically lucid as Joe vs. Vocano, Pleasantville and Star Wars.

::: The Life of Brian from Monty Python

“No, no! It is a sign that, like Him, we must think that we are not

of the things of the body, but of the face and the head!”

Holy cow tipping at its finest.

“Meaning of life” also belongs on this list.

::: 1984

“If you want a vision of the future, Winston,

imagine a boot trampling on a human face, forever.”

This film is unique in that it is as good as the book, which is an extremely intimate portrayal of the captor/captive, Mayan/male relationship. Compare this to Moby-Dick or One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which are great books but useless movies.

::: One flew over the cuckoo’s nest

As with Moby-Dick, Hollywood emasculated the book. They stripped it of its archetypal dimensions and reduced it to a pointless pissing fight between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. Great entertainment, but for a meaningful perspective, read the book.

::: Pleasant Villa

“There are some places where the path doesn’t go in a circle. There are some places where it continues.”

A joyous story of heresy in which no one is burned at the stake and the new paradigm is eventually embraced by all.

::: Razor’s edge

“The dead man seems so terribly dead.”

The razor’s edge is what makes it interesting; to see Larry teetering on the fine line between who he was and who he is becoming. He is walking the edge between two lives. Bill Murray’s version is a bit off… stick with Tyrone Power or read the book.

Maugham allegedly used Ramana Maharshi as a model for the novel’s holy man.

::: Star Wars

“The force will be with you, always.”

The first, where Lucas makes the transition from flesh to spirit.

The hero’s journey.

::: The thin red line

“Perhaps all men have a great soul, that of all

Other than, all the faces are the same man.”

A sublime inquiry into the spiritual nature of man. More of a sad/sweet song than a narrative movie.

::: The Thirteenth Floor

“So what are you saying? You’re saying

that there is another world above this one?”

Layer after layer. Turtles on top of turtles.

::: Vanilla Sky/Open Your Eyes

“Open your eyes.”

If you like Vanilla Sky, watch the original, Spanish film Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes). These two movies may be the best of the bunch for our purposes; the closest thing to an allegory of illumination.

Of course, the interesting thing about lighting is getting there, not being there, and that’s what these movies are about; waking up from a false reality, opening my eyes. It’s not so much about what’s real as what’s not.

It is the story of the journey one takes to get to the place where anything, even jumping off a tall building, would be better than continuing to live a lie, even a beautiful and blissful lie.

Note the presence of the real guru, explaining in no uncertain terms why jumping off the building is the best thing to do and patiently waiting for it to be done.

::: Awakened life

“They say that dreams are only real as long as

they last. Couldn’t you say the same about life?

Wide-ranging philosophical inquiry. Provocative. Fun. Potentially disruptive.

::: Wings of desire

“When the child was a child, it was the time for these questions: Why am I and why not you? Why am I here and why not there? When did time begin and where does space end?”

A beautiful, intelligent film that invites reflection. Can the waking being return to the dream state? Would you want to do it?

::: Others

Some other movies that reward thoughtful viewing are The Wizard of Oz, About Schmidt, What Dreams May Come, Total Recall, All the Mornings Of the World (Tous les Matins du Monde) and of course many more.