Movies with Meaning - by Dan Shaw (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This book pairs close readings of some of the classic writings of existentialist philosophers with interpretations of films that reveal striking parallels to each of those texts, demonstrating their respective philosophies in action. Individual chapters include significant excerpts from the original texts being discussed and illustrated. Pairings cover Schopenhauer and Waking Life, Stirner and Hud, Kierkegaard and Winter Light, Nietzsche and The Fountainhead, Heidegger, Blade Runner and The Thin Red Line, Camus, Leaving Las Vegas and Missing, Sartre, Husbands and Wives, and Michael Collins, de Beauvoir and Revolutionary Road, and Foucault and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Movies with Meaning offers a clear and insightful examination of the relationships between existential philosophers and film, providing both digests of their most significant texts and cinematic illustrations of what each had in mind. For the first time in one place, this book analyses the implications for film of the perspectives of a wide array of the most significant existentialist thinkers. Organized chronologically, like most existentialism anthologies, this is an ideal textbook for an intermediate level existentialism course, or as a companion to a selection of primary texts.

Review Quotes

A wonderful introduction to existentialism and many of the excellent movies that embody this powerful current of thought. With incisive overviews of key existentialist and critical thinkers (Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, and Foucault), coupled with illuminating philosophical discussions of contemporary films across a range of genres (Blade Runner, The Thin Red Line, Waking Life, Husbands and Wives, Michael Collins, and Revolutionary Road), Shaw's Movies with Meaning offers an engaging and exciting foray into the world of film and philosophy for anyone interested in existential questions today.
Robert Sinnerbrink, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Macquarie University, Australia

Dan Shaw writes intelligently and insightfully about the intersection between film and philosophy. This book is a treat not only for scholars but for everybody who loves film.

Juxtaposing a set of well-known films with the theories of the central Existentialist philosophers from Arthur Schopenhauer to Simone de Beauvoir, Movies with Meaning explains not just how films raise significant philosophical issues, but also the ongoing relevance of films to understanding Existentialist thought. Anyone interested in Existentialism should read Shaw's insightful accounts of films such as Hud and Missing in order to see how these films shed light on this important tradition of philosophical thought.

About the Author

Daniel Shaw is Professor of Philosophy at Lock Haven University, USA. He is the author of Film and Philosophy: Taking Movies Seriously (2008) and Morality and the Movies: Reading Ethics Through Film (Bloomsbury, 2012) and is editor of Film and Philosophy.