Which films or books have challenged the way you think?

ISO: Thought provoking films or books

Whilst discussing in another thread about films, it started me thinking about thought provoking books & films . A strong example I can think of is The Matrix or AI.

I love to watch a film which you come away from still questioning so any things & would love to find some good books which do the same.

I love films that try to accomplish that, but with me it'll never work. The Dutch have a reputation of being pretty down to earth, so I don't 'question my reality' all that fast.

A few examples of films that tried, besides the ones you mentioned:

- Memento
- Donnie darko
- Fight Club
- The Usual Suspects
- The Machinist

All very good films to boot.

Cheers

I am quite envious of the dutch way of life, to an english person it comes across as very laid back & open minded. Admittedly, it would take more then a film to make me truly query reality, but I enjoy ones which merely give you at least slightly different viewpoint for a moment - excellent choice of films you listed though. Do you know of any books in that vein?

Not off the top of my head, no I don't. Maybe someone else knows some titles?

I'd love to hear 'em.

Cheers

The classic dystopias had a huge influence on my outlook. Examples would be:

Fahrenheit 451
Brave New World
1984

I read them in a row when I was fifteen. They destroyed my complacency, and taught me about vigilance against the manipulation of reality.

My sister coined a term, the mindfuck movie. All of the ones Martin mentioned fall into that category, and they rock, too.

I'd add SE7EN, this really tripped out French movie I saw once (can't remember the title as I wasn't entirely in my right mind at the time) about zombies in heaven, or something like that, 28 Grams (or its Spanish predescesor, can't remember the name), Abre los Ojos (or Vanilla Sky, they are the same exact movie, the spanish one's better in my opinion, but I did see it first), and a few other things I can't nail right now.

To the books, add the children's book The Giver, Something Wicked This Way Comes, the Otherworld series by Tad Williams, and anything by Kurt Vonnegut.

I'm too set in my ways to be that strongly affected by a single film or book, but they do make you think, and question--which makes them art as well as entertainment.

'scuse my stupidity....

what's this "AI" that gets a mention every now and then....

A book that comes to my mind is The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. It's a really weird book, thinking about it now. While I understand the reasoning, I'm just not entirely convinced that the world is as black and white as Rand's novel is painting it out to be.

I also sat about mulling after finishing 1984.

Moto - I believe AI stands for the movie Artificial Intelligence, directed by Spielberg, starring Haley Joel Osmont (the kid from Sixth Sense), Jude Law. I think that's what they meant, anyway.

ds

Thanks Direstraights...living so close to Philadelphia, Pa. the letters AI have been permenantly tattooed on my brain to mean Allen Iverson (basketball player for the 76'ers)

god that's so sad....especially as I hate basketball....

Actually I think Iverson is pretty good, when he's not throwing his wife out of his house. I'm pretty much out of NBA since Jordan switched to the Wizards.

Oh well, I guess I'll head 'straight' to bed now (haw haw haw!).

ds

direstraits said:

Moto - I believe AI stands for the movie Artificial Intelligence, directed by Spielberg, starring Haley Joel Osmont (the kid from Sixth Sense), Jude Law. I think that's what they meant, anyway.

ds

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Yes, it does

A film that really made me question reality is a semi-animated movie called "Waking Life". The movie has many different scenes in it, each portraying the differrent realities of many ppl. They discuss philosophical, physical, and mental explanations for life, and they don't waste any time doing it. It's a really thick piece of work

And for a more light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek movie that still has enough to analyze to make the most dour and introspective human being occupied for days if not weeks, the recent "I *heart* Huckabees" movie.

That and it made me laugh harder than anything I've seen in years.

sorry for hijacking the thread.

direstraits said:

A book that comes to my mind is The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. It's a really weird book, thinking about it now. While I understand the reasoning, I'm just not entirely convinced that the world is as black and white as Rand's novel is painting it out to be.


ds

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What exactly did you mean by weird, ds? You understand its reasoning? I just found it pretty confusing. I got a sense sometimes that Ayn made one charactor's words ambiguous or contradictory. And did you think she wrote the world as black and white? I didn't see that. To me, it was like that there was a skyscraper with a vast of dwarfed bungalows. Hope I could be understood.

Sar said:

Whilst discussing in another thread about films, it started me thinking about the books & films that truly make you question & challenge your perspective on things. A strong example I can think of is The Matrix or AI.

I love to watch a film which you come away from still questioning so any things & would love to find some good books which do the same.

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Films:

Amelie
Memento
Mulholland Drive
Elephant Man
1984
Brazil

I thought there were still many that I could not recall at the moment.

Fountainhead, here's what I, a general reader, understand from the Fountainhead.

In the book, there are the Creators, who are those that stand up for their vision and principles, never wavering to popular voices or people's opinions. Those who are self-reliant and produce work from their own energy. Then there are the Second-Handers, who live off the work of the Creators, who put the opinions of others above their own needs and desires. Second-Handers thrive in the environment of altruism, where everyone is supposed to sacrifice themselves to others.

Rand taught that Second-Handers emotional leeches that off people's opinions and feelings, therefore bad. Creators propel advancement, therefore good.

I said it's weird because I believe the world is not simply these 2 extremes. The book is 'weird' because the characters' behaviour, to me at least, seem to be either one or the other of these 2 extremes, white or black, with no gray in between.

I suppose I agree to a point of her Creator portion of the novel (not the Creator's actions, though), but I don't know if people actually see the world at all like Toohey/Second-handers did in the novel. The 'exhort mediocrity to destroy genius' is a little too unrealistic for me.

ds

After a couple of months of not having the time or concentration to read anything other than Harry Potter I'm now back to craving books. I've now read Fahrenheit 451, have 1984 winging its way to me, been trying to get hold of A Brave New World & Foucault's Pendulum & have been looking at factual books too like Michael Moore's Stupid White Men & Dude, Where's My Country

The reason for posting here again? Was wondering if anyone had managed to think of any more suggestions for thought provoking books?

Sar said:

factual books too like Michael Moore's Stupid White Men & Dude, Where's My Country

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twisted facts, of course..,

Everyone has their own spin on the truth, it's human nature, I therefore tend to read all "nonfiction" books with an open mind to author bias.

Sar said:

The reason for posting here again? Was wondering if anyone had managed to think of any more suggestions for thought provoking books?

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Sar, try these:

Non-fiction
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. He examines the course of human history and the emergence of industrial/technological societies from a geo-biological perspective. Thought-provoking for those of us who've been educated with a western European bias.
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Fences and Windows by Naomi Klein. A series of essays about globalization.

Fiction
Blindness by Jose Saramago