Philosophical Movies for Thinkers

Our first film and one of my all time favorites is American History X. The story of white supremacist who is forced to take a long hard look at everything he believes. His younger brother has always seen him as a hero, and is now following in his skinhead footsteps. He struggles to save his brother from hatred before it is too late.

This movie will leave you with many questions, the strongest of which may very well be...

Which is stronger, hate or love?

Naturally I give this movie five stars, not just for the strong anti-hate message, but for the other questions it raises as well. An all star cast delivers stellar performances, and there is more than one scene that will haunt you for years to come.

Starring Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, and the lovely Fairuza Balk

Another Edward Norton movie, but it is hard to decide who steals the show because Brad Pitt and Ed Norton tend to vie for the spotlight throughout this movie. On first look this is a movie about a group of men getting together in a basement and beating the tar out of each other. Hopefully that's not all you come away from this movie with.

Underneath the strange veneer of "Fight Club," is a strong message about what life in America is becoming. Corporate America, the strive to get consumers to keep consuming, the way we live our lives trapped in a bubble of buying things we don't need to impress people we don't even like.

This movie is certainly disturbing, I won't deny that. However it will also hopefully leave you looking a little more closely at the way you live your life, and why you are living it in the first place.

Starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, and Meatloaf

Again this movie has two levels, on the surface you have a teenager struggling with mental illness, and all of the fun things that make me glad I am no longer a teenager. Dating, controlling teachers, out of touch parents, and school bullies. With an added bonus of an imaginary friend in the form of a giant bunny trying to convince him that the world is going to end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds.

On a deeper level you have an exploration of Donnie's mental illness, intertwined with visions, the concept of fate, time travel, and the physics of the universe. This is one of those movies that leaves you wondering exactly what you just witnessed.

This movie will leave you with more questions than answers, but the questions in this case just might be more interesting than the answers.

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Jena Malone.

The essence of the butterfly effect is the theory that making small changes in one area can create huge alterations of events elsewhere. Can a butterfly flapping it's wings create a tornado around the world? Could we change the events of our past, and leave our present course unchanged?

In this movie a psychology student discovers by concentrating on the events of his past he has the ability to change them. When he comes back he finds not just his life, but the lives of those around changed, not necessarily for the better. With each change the world around him becomes more and more unbalanced.

This movie leaves you with the overwhelming question, if you had the power to change the events in your past, would you? Should you?

Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Melora Walters, Elden Henson, William Lee Scott

Do you believe in coincidence? Or is there some strange fate leading all us to the crossroads of life? We have all had things happen that were too bizarre to be just coincidence, but all of the evidence proves otherwise. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time?

This isn't the story of one or two people who find their lives entwined with one another, in the beginning the events seem random but as the stories begin to unfold you see that these ten lives have been connected all along, just waiting for the right set of circumstances to break free.

Starring: Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Tom Cruise, Philip Baker Hall, and John C. Reilly

In what is most likely the most bizarre movie I have ever seen, John Malkovich plays himself or rather he plays John Cusack playing John Malkovich. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to be someone else, this movie takes the scenic route to answering that question. There's only one catch, you can only be John Malkovich.

Why are the ceilings in the office so low? Why is there a portal into John Malkovich's head? Why is it hidden behind a file cabinet? What is the fascination with puppetry? You'll just have to watch the movie and figure that out, but I warned you, this one is really going to mess with someone's head.

Starring: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Orson Bean, Ned Bellamy, W. Earl Brown, Kevin Carroll and of course John Malkovich (You know that right?)

The reigning champion of the messing with your head genre, "The Matrix" tells such a vivid story that you find yourself wondering if reality really is real. A fantasy mix of philosophy, psychology, and technology woven together with strands of mythology to create a tale this is both fresh, and as old as time.

Computer hacker Neo is given the choice, stay enslaved inside of the matrix or join the real world to fight against the powers that control our very lives. Once you leave the matrix, there is no going back and life on the outside is pretty bleak. Is it better to seek out knowledge and find the truth, or to remain hidden and unaware as a mindless drone?

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Hugo Weaving