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Enjoyable Movies

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C.A. Thanks for explaining. Maybe I'll give it another watch!

B.F. likes it because it's dark and intense, also for the symbolism and excellent cinamatography. He thought the sequence was really neato (he also likes Pulp Fiction, which I think sucks for some of the same reasons).

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On the surface, yes. But I found it to be an inspiring movie because essentially it was about a group of young sisters who would rather die than 'live' under the oppressive conditions posed on them by their parents. Their suicides at the end were actually pro-life, because they acknowledged that living life without freedom corrupts the idea of life. It was also beautifully shot with a great soundtrack.

I thought the movie was ultimately defeatist. The girls’ parents were not so horrible to justify suicide, which indicates that the real reason for the suicides was that girls did not see any value in living. Really, if everyone with overbearing parents killed himself, the population of the world would be decimated.

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Has anyone seen the 1996 movie "Dead Man" with Johnny Depp? It was not objectivist, nor can I say I liked it. I'm still not sure what to make of it and would like someone else's opinion as to the philosophy, if any, reflected in it.

My guess would be existentialism because I get a similar feeling from reading Sartre's novel "The Age of Reason" (which I've gotten only 1/3 of the way through and don't have any interest in finishing).

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Who here is looking forward to Troy?
Me. I've been waiting for a modern interpretation of the Trojan War for ages.

There is also a movie coming up about Alexander the great which unfortunately is made by Oliver Stone but that's another story.

Baz Luhrmann had plans to make a movie about the same man but it was axed in favour of Stone's. Disappointing.

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In no particular order:

The 39 Steps

The Search

The Fountainhead, especially Patricia Neal and Raymond Massey's portrayals

From Here to Eternity

I Confess

Casablanca

The Maltese Falcon

Red River

Young Frankenstein

2001- a Space Odyssey

Mystic River

Play Misty for Me

The Unforgiven

Whale Rider

The Graduate

Blazing Saddles

Freud

Rain Man

Life is Beautiful

I promise to revisit this as more names come to mind

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dondigitalia has strange tastes for someone in an Objectivist Forum... he picks four of the strangest movies I have ever seen in:

Being John Malkovich

Edward Scissorhands

Fight Club

Best in Show

I direct you all to his post in the favorite music thread. He picks Erik Satie (Ogives, is possibly the worst serious music peice I have ever heard) as one of his favorite classical composers, and also makes reference to Bjork.

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I'd like to add Secondhand Lions and Chocolate to the list.

However, I think the Fountainhead movie was an embarrassment to the book.  Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I never felt the slightest empathy for the characters.  The We The Living movie was fantastic on the other hand.

There was a movie on We The Living?

How is it I missed it?

That was one of my favorite books!

I wonder out loud if it's on DVD :pimp:

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You've never seen We the Living? You're in for a treat when you do. It's outstanding. It was made in Italy when Mussolini was in power, before WWII if I remember correctly. It follows the novel very closely, because they didn't have a screenplay---they worked directly from the novel.

It was discovered by Ayn Rand's attorney, I believe, and was then acquired by them and eventually released in a shortened version--the original was actually two movies. I think they were called Noi Vivi and Adio, Kira.

Kira Argounova is played by Alida Valli, a beautiful Italian actress who later had a few roles in Hollywood. Leo is played by Rossano Brazzi, who later appeared in South Pacific.

I have it in VHS, two tapes totalling almost 3 hours in length. I don't know if it's available on DVD.

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Fight Club

My brother-in-law and a guy at my work recommend Fight Club.

When it was on UK tv a while ago, the tv guide said it is about a young man driven mad by consumer society and I refuse point blank to watch it.

The maker should have his head punched in by Lennox lewis and then deposited safely to North Korea where there will be no consumer society to drive him mad.

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dondigitalia,

Why did you like Fight Club?  I know it displays mans fight with a split personality, and he wins, but it was just too dark and too anti commercialism for me.

I left the movie feeling disgusted.

I liked fight club b/c all 3 of the lead performances were superb. In fact, in my experience, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter have consistently given good perfomances in just about everything I've seen.

Granted, the movie does have a strong anti-commercialism theme, with which, I disagree. Although I'm certain this this is in contradiciton to the filmaker's intended message, my private interpretation of the Pitt/Norton character's (I haven't seen it in several years, so the character's name escapes me) self-destruction at the end as symbolic of the destruction any society will undergo that rejects capitalism.

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