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Ask HN: What movies changed your perception of reality or life?

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Re: Ask HN: What movies changed your perception of reality or life?

#31

Post by netsharc »

magarnicle wrote: post #15

Aguirre, The Wrath of God. I studied it at uni and wrote an essay where I explained that the main character couldn't be a symbol of both fascism AND a film director, because that would mean the director was calling himself a fascist. My lecturer's response was something like "why not?". I was a very black-and-white thinker at that time, and his response was eye-opening for me.

I knew of Werner Herzog but recently got really interested in his work after he guested on Conan O'Brien's podcast. I'm reading his autobiography right now.

It's fascinating how he was begging some investor about how he had to make the movie Fitzcarraldo, because if he didn't, his life would be purposeless (I do hope I'm remembering this right). It got me wondering how he got away with things like forcing his crew to carry tonnes of ship over a mountain, but, also why shouldn't he get away with it, why should there be a strict construct of what's allowed or not.

Re: Ask HN: What movies changed your perception of reality or life?

#34

Post by ShamelessC »

kylecazar wrote: post #18

Most recently, I left Oppenheimer with a lasting feeling of disillusionment and pessimism towards government. I didn't learn anything new (I read American Prometheus), but seeing the affair dramatized so well was pretty moving.

> towards government

it felt like more of an attack against academia and the forward march of scientific "progress" than specifically towards government. The character Oppenheimer has his own issues specifically with government, but it's moreso that by that point, he has decided not to blindly agree with the status quo and so has become a threat. Oppenheimer is portrayed as part of the problem after around the 3/4 mark though. "I feel I have blood on my hands"

Re: Ask HN: What movies changed your perception of reality or life?

#35

Post by solardev »

Into the Wild, this perhaps romanticized / dumb idea that blindly chasing your passion to your demise may still be worth it. Dying from mushroom poisoning doesn't seem so fun though...

Walter Mitty and Big Year, similar adventures about people chasing their silly passions (but not fatally).

Transcendence, Her, and Robot and Frank, some of the very few AI-optimistic movies. I've always believed in the transformative social good of AI, since I first heard of the Borg, but most people and media are staunchly against it. It was nice to see a more friendly viewpoint.

I really enjoyed Arrival too and hope we have an experience like that someday, but the whole time travel thing was a turnoff.

Re: Ask HN: What movies changed your perception of reality or life?

#37

Post by zebomon »

The Fog of War. It caused me to see geopolitics from both a simpler and more constantly ambiguous perspective.

A River Runs through It. Even more so the book, but the movie gets the job done: the meanings of our experiences only make sense once their dust has settled.

The Leftovers. I'm going to cheat a little and say a TV show here. Better than anything else, it draws a connection between the philosophical immensity of things like 2001/Interstellar and the real drama of everyday human lives.

Re: Ask HN: What movies changed your perception of reality or life?

#38

Post by SJC_Hacker »

kylecazar wrote: post #18

Most recently, I left Oppenheimer with a lasting feeling of disillusionment and pessimism towards government. I didn't learn anything new (I read American Prometheus), but seeing the affair dramatized so well was pretty moving.

I left Oppenheimer with the feeling that you had choose between politics and science, it was very hard to do both.

Re: Ask HN: What movies changed your perception of reality or life?

#40

Post by a_bonobo »

netsharc wrote: post #31
magarnicle wrote: post #15

Aguirre, The Wrath of God. I studied it at uni and wrote an essay where I explained that the main character couldn't be a symbol of both fascism AND a film director, because that would mean the director was calling himself a fascist. My lecturer's response was something like "why not?". I was a very black-and-white thinker at that time, and his response was eye-opening for me.

I knew of Werner Herzog but recently got really interested in his work after he guested on Conan O'Brien's podcast. I'm reading his autobiography right now. It's fascinating how he was begging some investor about how he had to make the movie Fitzcarraldo, because if he didn't, his life would be purposeless (I do hope I'm remembering this right). It got me wondering how he got away with things like forcing his crew to…

He has this wonderful story of how someone else got 'his' monkeys for Aguirre from the airport, the ones used for the final shot. He forged paperwork to make it look like he was a veterinarian who needed to give the monkeys vaccinations, and took them to the movie-set instead. The original 'ask for forgiveness, not for permission' mind-set.
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