Existential Films
Dvorsky had a pretty cool post in which he picks out “The Top 10 Existential Films.” By existential, he doesn’t mean Kierkegaard or Sartre but “philosophical films that study the nature of existence and what it means to be alive.” His list is pretty solid; The Matrix, Citizen Kane, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind make the list. Mike Treder chimed in (as did some commenters on Dvorsky’s blog) with a bunch of foreign film-snob films.
The two films I thought were glaring omissions are John Carpenter’s The Thing and The Iron Giant. It is hard to get a better sense of “is it human” and the concept of existential threat than The Thing. The nearly inhuman tenacity of McReady and the brutal summary of their situation at the end of the film by Childs alone earn it a spot. As for The Iron Giant, well, the Cold War was the existential crisis of the 20th century and the Giant itself is attempting to decide its own fate. Oh, and like everything on the lists, they’re both really, really good.
Update: Speaking of the Cold War, Dr. Strangelove should be on there too. “We cannot afford a Mineshaft Gap!”
Pop Transhumanism | Kyle Munkittrick | 
June 8, 2009 4:00 pm
