Doing Philosophy at the Movies

By Richard Allen Gilmore

Book Overview

Explores philosophical ideas through an examination of popular film.

Doing Philosophy at the Movies finds the roots of profound philosophical ideas in the relatively ordinary context of popular, mostly Hollywood, movies. Richard A. Gilmore suggests that narratives of popular films like Hitchcock's Vertigo, John Ford's The Searchers, Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors, the Coen Brothers' Fargo, and Danny Boyle's Trainspotting mirror certain epiphanies in the works of great philosophers. Via Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, and Z iz ek, Gilmore addresses such themes as the nature of philosophy, the possibility of redemption through love, catharsis, the sublime, and the human problem of death. Gilmore argues that seeing these movies through the lens of certain philosophical ideas can show how deeply relevant both philosophy and the movies can be.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791463923
• ISBN13: 9780791463925
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 195 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.6" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher