Intellectual Movies

On April 08 2005 01:41 Muhweli wrote:
Hmmnm... Fight club?

On April 08 2005 03:47 Bard wrote:
Usual Suspect??

On April 08 2005 03:50 ReBanned wrote:


Bard, you're a staff member now?! Way to go.

On April 07 2005 22:24 B.GoD_AnGRY wrote:
kubrick movies...

On April 08 2005 00:20 splat wrote:
A short list, in no special order:
Mabarosi (suicide, and finding meaning in life)
Russian Ark (90 minutes in one continuous scene; you will never see a film like this ever again)
Blade Runner (what is the difference between being human and being an android?)
Clockwork Orange (anarchy versus the ethics of mind control)
Kieslowski's "Three Colors" Trilogy
Scarface (beautiful story arc, a study in extreme yet repressed masculinity)
The Deer Hunter
To Kill a Mockingbird (stupidity of racism, beauty of innocence)
Citizen Kane (complex character study)
The Seventh Seal
Ran (Kurosawa meets Shakespeare)
Farewell My Concubine
Bread and Tulips
American Beauty
...

On April 07 2005 23:21 draeger wrote:
Check out "Waking Life". It's not a surprise ending - try and guess it - sort of ending.. but more of a philosphical movie with many various rants or strongly opinionated arguments on various aspects of life.

On April 07 2005 22:11 taeWook wrote:
I'm in the mood for some good ole thinking movies, not necessarily old, but I dont think theres many recent ones I can think of that really stimulated my brain. Some good ones I've seen in the past, are:

A beautiful mind
Goodwill Hunting
Pi
Memento

Any more good ones you guys recommend?

On April 08 2005 01:50 splat wrote:

Fight Club has come up a few times in this thread. Personally, I would suggest that Clockwork Orange did everything Fight Club wanted to do, but with so much more depth and subtlety.

On April 08 2005 07:34 ZorAptoR wrote:
hmm, apart from kurbick's:
Taxi Driver
Virgin Suicides
Apocalypse Now
Mulholland Drive
Interview with a Vampire
Go (japanese film)
Moog
...

On April 08 2005 07:45 drc wrote:
Once again I have to ask, what is so good in Apocalypse Now? Imho it sucks.

On April 08 2005 01:39 ReBanned wrote:
The land before time 3

On April 08 2005 10:28 DooMeR wrote:


rofl
its the way u said it thats funny. u didn't say "land before time owns" but instead u act like u actually mean it kaka~

On April 09 2005 02:41 Raistlin wrote:
Equillibrium

On April 08 2005 04:38 0x64 wrote:
Is someone interrested if I post a list of french movie that might enter this category?

On April 08 2005 09:24 Immer[Forever] wrote:
nice choices ZorAptoR

My tip: Seven Samurai. An old blacknwhite movie from Japan.
Here is a review

On April 09 2005 04:51 Liquid`Spy wrote:



Other films that I want to check out in the near future are the works of Fellini (Italian director) and those of Ingmar Bergman (Swedish) and some other foreign (as in non-english speaking) directors.
~

On April 07 2005 22:11 taeWook wrote:
A beautiful mind
Goodwill Hunting
Pi
Memento

On April 08 2005 13:38 BCloud wrote:
Hero, best movie i've ever seen, all the parts, the tale can be very confusing at first but when the movie finishes all of it makes sense, it falls into part, it is also inspiring.

On April 08 2005 07:07 Storketemmeren wrote:


I don't get this, how can you compare them so directly like that, and what did Fight Club want to that A Clockwork Orange did better? You could say they are both about the established society versus anarchy, but they both had different points, different messages.

On April 09 2005 04:51 Liquid`Spy wrote:


yes, please

I'm getting more and more into older movies lately, and use imdb as a sort of guideline. I'm pretty interested in 'foreign' language movies too, if they're really worth it. Recently saw M (1931) by Fritz Lang, a german director who also did Metropolis which is a silent movie iirc, but good too.
Other films that I want to check out in the near future are the works of Fellini (Italian director) and those of Ingmar Bergman (Swedish) and some other foreign (as in non-english speaking) directors.
So please do list good movies from your country, wherever your from so that maybe I might check them out as long as there's a downloadable version with english subtitles out there : O

I'm a huge van of Lynch, Kubrick and Tarantino btw~

On April 09 2005 23:30 ZaplinG wrote:
Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino

Criterion is definately great, and I own a bunch, but they are region 1 only and I dont know if Spy resides in North America or not.

On April 09 2005 23:14 Eatme wrote:
Good ones: American Beauty and Donnie Darko
Bad ones: Memento and Fight Club

Memento was painfully bad to watch and got worse over time aslo vanilla sky sucks.

Oh and I'm really tired.

Edit:If "lock stock and two smoking barels" counts I'll toss that one in the good section too...

On April 11 2005 16:23 {88}iNcontroL wrote:
Can someone explain the deeper meaning to "Blade Runner" i was confused at the end when the head Replicant SAVES Harrison Ford, after all this build up to the Replicant wanting revenge for Isis (i think thats the name) "retirement." Was a great movie, but id like to understand it better.

Also i watched Clock Work Orange for the first time, jesus that movie is fucked up and amazingly entertaining i loved it.

On April 11 2005 15:47 chrusher97 wrote:
Assault on Precinct 13

On April 11 2005 17:54 Zerius[TPR] wrote:



SPOILER:









Harrison Ford is a replicant himself.

On April 13 2005 22:09 tiffany wrote:
suicide club is very intense. so is uzumaki

On April 13 2005 14:53 {88}iNcontroL wrote:
thanks dude that all makes sense (i watched directors cut).

ty again!

On April 14 2005 02:36 SW)RIF wrote:
I cant really say i agree with many of these movies. We could lists hundreds of movies that are entertaining and 'intellectual' if we were to use the movies listed as a guide from this thread.

Does it hurt you guyses feelings that I think 90% of everything said is contrived? Sounds more like a sounding board for peoples favorite movies rather than intellectual integrity.

Heres what i see the 4 cornerstones of instant acceptance to this list. 1) Plot Twists 2) Psychological thriller 3) A film revolved around anything time 4) Politcial/Social/Cultural commentary...which btw anyone can comment on these, doesnt make them the least bit right or entertaining. That about sums it up

On April 14 2005 01:49 {88}iNcontroL wrote:
Great, now perhaps the deeper meaning in Clock Work Orange? Or is it merely a look at the flawes of anarchy and mind control?

On April 14 2005 02:18 rS.Loco wrote:
THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT.

On February 08 2010 08:01 Tazan_0 wrote:
This thread is missing, possibly the most intellectual movie of all time........ Too Fast Too Furious, and its predecessor, The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift............ DONT FORGET

On February 08 2010 08:08 ToeJam wrote:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I like how this thread abruptly was bumped from 5 years ago. Good call on that

On February 08 2010 09:58 Djzapz wrote:
zombieland

On February 08 2010 08:27 zulu_nation8 wrote:
i didn't find "a beautiful mind" intellectually stimulating

On February 08 2010 10:33 Sirakor wrote:

If you liked Gattaca, you will probably also like Code 46

On February 08 2010 05:27 Rez wrote:
Watched all but I will want to add "21" to that list .. I dont see any in the recent posts adding that but i'm sure everyone watched it... and try to research something called "Variable Change"
and recently I liked the speech given Gerald Butler in the law abiding citizen... he gives it back to the judge.

A beautiful mind
Goodwill Hunting
Pi
Memento

On February 08 2010 11:50 ArvickHero wrote:
Moon is pretty awesome

On February 08 2010 07:49 Papvin wrote:
Hm, just read through the thread, and didn't see it there, so I'm strongly going to recommend American Psyco. Cool plot, and funny in a weird way.

On February 08 2010 11:11 baal wrote:
what in the hell, The clockwork orange has absolutely nothing to do with anarchy, its a movie about "ultra violence" and pavlov conditioning.

A great movie with anarchic tones would be V for Vendetta

On February 08 2010 12:30 Xusneb wrote:
Being John Malkovich

On February 08 2010 15:34 jalstar wrote:
Avatar

On December 30 2010 06:55 WniO wrote:
i dont want to quote your massive post suffir, but what "revolver" are you referring to, there are like 3. and i hope you mean tarkovskys "solaris."

On February 08 2010 12:30 Xusneb wrote:
I'm not really sure what the OP meant by 'intellectual movies' but I just listed some here that made me think.

Philosophy:
Being John Malkovich, I Heart Huckabees

Other ones that I liked:
Watchmen, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, No Country for Old Men

On December 30 2010 07:20 Blyadischa wrote:
I don't think the word intellectual should be used here. None of these movies are particularly intellectually stimulating, rather 99% of the movies mentioned are more of allegorical displays of things which everyone would agree with, such as Citizen Kane, yes it does take a little thinking to see the progression of his life, and remembering what "Rosebud" referred to, but other than that, the theme that one shouldn't sacrifice relationships for power is one that is pretty obvious and everyone would agree with it. An intellectual movie would make one think, like Lost in Translation, which had implied themes rather than explicit.



Please don't mention I Heart Huckabees. Anyone with any philosophical knowledge would know that the characters are just spouting nonsense, and the movie concludes with everything being resolved because of the epiphanies of nonsense that the characters share with each other. It's quite fraudulent in that it leads ignorant audiences into believing they have some semblance of an idea of what the characters mean, then allowing the audience to individually come up with the intention of the film, when in reality, not even the director or writers know what the fuck they are talking about.

Now, movies none of you posted.

On December 30 2010 09:04 The KY wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +

But if anyone's looking for great, intelligent films, I recently watched Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West and Once Upon A Time In America (the real version, not the shitty fucked up cut released in the US that apparently left Leone so 'heartbroken' that he never made another film).

+ Show Spoiler +

On December 30 2010 09:12 MarCoon wrote:


Probably because they cut like 90 minutes of the movie? OOa

On December 30 2010 09:04 The KY wrote:
If you're looking for something 'intellectual', I'd recommend skipping the film and reading the book it was adapted from. I swear, 99.9% of good, intelligent films are adapted from books. And 99.9% of the time the book is better. For example;

-Bladerunner, adapted from Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

While the main theme of both works is what it is to be human, the book addresses this much more fully. The post-war society that the Deckard of the books occupies is based largely around empathy. There is a religion called Mercerism based around every person using a strange machine to feel the experiences of, and thus empathise with, a mysterious messianic figure who for some reason is eternally walking up a mountain and being tormented (there's also a sort of bizarre TV low brow comedian whose show is aired 24/7, no repeats, and who seems to be engaged in a battle with Mercerism for the hearts and minds of the people - it's weird). Empathy is such an central part of their lives that it is a gross social faux pas not to own an animal to look after, but many can't afford one and buy an electrical fake animal and live in fear of their neighbours finding out. Replicants, meanwhile, can't feel empathy, and therein in the focus of the novel.
All or most of this, the 'intellectually stimulating' bits, is absent from the film. Don't get me wrong, Bladerunner is great, but for different reasons. Beautifully shot, written and acted, it's intelligent and engaging throughout. But for brain food, I know which I'm going for.

In my personal opinion, the book version is almost always better in general. But then again I'm not a big film guy.

But if anyone's looking for great, intelligent films, I recently watched Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West and Once Upon A Time In America (the real version, not the shitty fucked up cut released in the US that apparently left Leone so 'heartbroken' that he never made another film).

P.S. I can't be the only one who thinks Donnie Darko is balls, can I?

P.P.S This thread is fucking old.

On April 07 2005 22:20 travis wrote:
how could you not like good will hunting

On December 30 2010 10:11 simpy wrote:
El Topo and Holy Mountain -
Both directed, written and designed by the Chillien genius Alejandro Jodorowsky, I can't explain what happens but you must see El Topo first and be warned, these films aren't for anyone who isn't willing to commit to them. I recommend putting on the Director's Commentary for both El Topo and Holy Mountain after watching it a first time... It can help you understand it in a completely different way as to the way you first saw it!


Ed Wood -
A classic cult film directed by Tim Burton, the references are incredibly subtle and are easily missed if you don't pay close attention this film is a quasi biography on Ed Wood (the worst director in Hollywood), starring good ole' Johnny Depp back in the his earlier, less "mainstream" days.


Slacker -
A interesting look on a group of social outcasts and eccentrics who live in Austin, Texas. It's basically a whole lot of different life philosophies all tied together in some chaotic, random sequence which moves pretty seemlessly from one story to the next.

Not all of these are "intellectual" but they do provide a different look on different situations.
If you are looking for something not so "easy" to watch, these can be very rewarding.

Enjoy!

On December 30 2010 08:18 XeliN wrote:
Papillion is a great film. "Intellectual" is a pretty vague concept for films, with films I mostly like a believable and compelling narrative.

with Saw i think it does provoke thought on morality in an interesting way. Acts which would almost universally be considered heinous and immoral are justified by a moral undertone. This juxtuposition forces you to question ideas of ethics and morality and also does quite a good job of showing their tenuous nature and in doing so displays one of the largest critiques of moral relativism.

The point to this? Most of the burden falls on us the viewer and not the film itself to provoke intellectual considerations.

On December 30 2010 10:24 MarCoon wrote:


The Holy Mountain is in no way intellectual. It's one of those sick 70s movies where you sit there after it and you're not even sure what that even was what you just saw.

I am sure that Jodorowsky took some LSD while "writing" the "story" for this one.

I am not saying that the film isn't good in the way that it is "art", but it's in no way a film that has a story that could make you think about something.
This ofcourse could just be me, but I watched so many movies and this movie is good in the cinematographic sense, but not in any way that it's intellectual.

On December 30 2010 10:30 red_hq wrote:
Primer, has to do about the effects of time travel and the like. It is a very low budget indy movie but the script and acting considering is very very good.

On December 30 2010 11:13 UberThing wrote:
Debbie does Dallas. I have never been so intellectually stimulated (let alone physically stimulated) by a film.

On December 30 2010 10:59 MrProphylactic wrote:
" Rashomon " is a must if you want movies based on different perception as it is THE classic version of this theme , as well as made by the master of film-craft himself, Akira Kurosawa , as a matter of fact it spawned the term " a Rashomon effect "


edit : interesting little trivial tidbit ><


edit , to throw another obvious Kurosawa film out there " Ran" although it may not be a
pure " intellectual film" Its cinematography is unparalleled .
surprised no one has got to Kurosawa yet , or lynch by the time I had a few pages back ...

On December 30 2010 11:15 MarCoon wrote:


Not many people would watch Kurosawa movies nowadays, because they seem "old" so I guess that's why no one mentioned him and when it comes to Lynch then you gotta admit that his movies get more weird over the years but indeed is a good director.

On December 30 2010 10:30 Asdkmoga wrote:
Donnie Darko, as posted before, but i would like to bring more notice to this as it is my all time favorite movie ever, and blows my mind everytime i pretend to understand it / reread explanations online

On December 30 2010 11:24 MrProphylactic wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +

Yeah Kurosawa would not be currently mainstream, I didn't think that was the requisite of the OP .
Any serious film buff most certainty would be well aware of him . Or anyone that is a film appreciator, or even a novice just getting started should want to be made aware of these directors which started it all . which is what I thought this thread was for .
Anyone educated in film would name him among the first 50 best filmmakers EVER and most likely top 10 . He was voted as high as the 6th greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly numerous times . Just found it odd movies like inception are making the grade , but some of the best films in history are being left out .
Well also perception became one of the "subset" intellectual themes people were identifying with the last few pages ,. When it comes to perception " Rashomon" is THE ORIGINAL film

On December 30 2010 11:38 MarCoon wrote:


I totally agree with you that he is one of the Top Directors of all time, but if you're not a film enthusiast you don't know about movies and Directors like that. You know about the guys from your "generation" that made movies resembling that style, but not the guys that actually invented something like this.
Directors that come to mind that used similar techniques are Nolan and Noe from the top of my head and only one of those went on to "feature" films so people that see one of his feature films may also watch some of his older work.

Inception gets such a great grade because it is for example one of the newer movies that are good and thus is more publicly accepted and is accessible to a broader audience right now.

You can bring up so many names that revolutionized cinema and many people have no idea who they are since they wouldn't like to watch they're "old" stuff. That's just how people are nowadays and it is kinda sad :/

On December 30 2010 12:32 niTsEn wrote:
Don`t know if it has been mentioned yet but "Oldboy" by Park Chan-wook was/is really good.