Reflection + Connection 4

So, I decided that I am going to talk about the film Inception because it took up a large part of our week and I feel like I need to explain my thoughts on the movie. The plot of the film was amazing. Sorry, the storyboard was amazing. It was so intricate and unique, and must have taken well over a month to finish every detail and trace the plot correctly. That aside, I also loved the visuals of the movie. It looked unbelievably realistic, making me unable to tell what was CGI and what was real.

But my main love for the movie comes from something that I feel many movie-makers have been struggling with; Nolan loved Inception. LOVED it. Whether you loved it or hated it, you cannot dispute how much heart he put into this movie. When I first saw it, I was blown away by the plot, story, visuals, acting and direction. Upon further inspection, I looked at different techniques Nolan used throughout the film to make it even more mindblow-y. For example, the score is the same throughout the entire movie; the tempo changes between the levels of the dreams. How cool is that!?

From the love the director put into the making to the visuals of Limbo, Inception is a truly amazing movie that made me think as well as enjoy. I know that you may not like seeing it over and over while teaching Philosophy, but every student should be forced to watch it for educational purposes.

Reflection and Connection 3

Now I'll admit philosophy is in my strongest subject but I find what we are learning in class very interesting. We are learning about a philosopher who believes that imagination is the greatest power to mankind. He says that it leads us to great knowledge but it can also lead us astray. I find this very interesting as it connects to the world of theater. In theater we learned about Michael Chekhov, an actor who believes that anything can come from imagination. For example she says that if you cannot experience the pain of burning you have to imagine a hot oven. That way you can truly feel the burning sensation without ever actually hurting yourself. He also says that this will lead you to fully understand the character as well as the motivation behind the characters flaws as well as their glory. This connects to philosophy because just like Michael this philosopher believes that imagination can lead us to really understand things about ourselves as well as the world. Personally I do believe that imagination is the key to acting as well as the key to modern philosophy. Who knew philosophy would tie into everything I love?

Reflection/Connection 2

I find this book to be very strange, but also very interesting (so far). I really like the mystery surrounding Sophie and what these letters mean/who they are from, but I really like that the intrigue of the story is wrapped around learning about Hellenism and ancient philosophy.
For me, the most interesting part of the actual learning came when Plotinus and his "opposite pole theory" were revealed. When I read this the first time/when we learned about it in class, I was extremely interested to find that there was basically a spectrum that things fell by, either towards "the One" (God) or darkness. Coming from a very religious background, I found that this is similar to a way that my father has raised me. He explains that we must look at all the actions we take and see if it is more of what God wants or if it has an absence of light, much like the discussed darkness.
Also, I want to discuss that movie "Henry Poole is Here" and how much I didn't like it. I hated how preachy it got and how overtly religious it was. I was thinking, I would have really liked the movie if it ended on a different note not that his illness magically disappeared. It seemed like an unnecessary scapegoat that inhibited any true meaning in the movie. Rotten Tomatoes said that the film "preaches to the choir instead of converting believers," which I think beautifully sums up the movie.

The Adjustment Bureau Blog

I have seen the film The Adjustment Bureau before. Of course, I didn’t watch it in an intellectual light, but I did know the basic idea of the plot. However, after seeing it in class, I looked into the film more as a philosophical study.

2. In the end of the movie, we see Elise and David and they are told that there plan has been rewritten with a blank page set aside for their plans. My interpretation is that the Chairman is allowing them to live their lives without any interference from the adjustment bureau. In the past, it was revealed that people with their own free will has essentially let the world fail and it brought about such atrocities as The Dark Ages, the Holocaust, World War I and World War II. But allowing the two of them to love again is a foot-in-the-door; it is a chance to see if people can once again handle choice.

4. I don’t believe that Harry is the Chairman in the movie, but I do think that he is above the other people within the Adjustment Bureau. I feel that he isn’t the Chairman because I don’t think that it would be that obvious. Harry is a crucial aspect to the story and we see his story unfold with the other characters. If he was more mysterious, I could understand how he might be considered the Chairman, but I don’t see it. I do believe that The Chairman did has a certain plan for him, though, and that he was set aside to do something great.  

Henry Poole Is Here...or is he really?

I am choosing to do number 7.

Even though I didn't really like the movie, I really liked the ending with Esperanza and her boyfriend, Leo. In the entire movie, Esperanza's main goal was to help people; she wanted to make a difference in people's lives. She made it her goal to help the (crazy) Spanish people when they came to his house and she really wanted to help Henry Poole. She thinks that the "sign" that Leo is okay is when the Jesus appears on the side of his house, whereas I believe it was clearing Henry of the illness. It was almost a life exchange; although Leo died, Henry was saved.

In real life, I would love to believe that everything happens for a reason because it makes things seem more optimistic, more life-worthy and livelier. However, I don’t believe that I can believe that for things in life just don’t make sense to me. There are some personal demons I’ve dealt with/am dealing with/ will deal with that won’t have an explanation and won’t ever been understood. Yes, this movie has a happy ending about the life of Henry Poole, but I don’t see this in my own life.  

The Matrix

In the film, The Matrix, many characters are viewed as real and many are viewed as "unreal," or those living inside the faux world that the matrix has created. When I reflect on the film, however, it is hard to tell between who actually is a real person and who is a matrix bound human, even when the characters reveal themselves as their true person. For me, I believe that almost every person in the movie is a real person besides Agent Smith. He is a part of the machine; a computer that's sole objective is to stop anybody who tries to defy the rules. This sets him up as a virus in the other movies, so basically he isn't real. The other characters in the movie are; whether they are in the matrix or not, the people are still people. They are living in a world created by the machines, they are still humans. It is kind of weird, but it makes sense (even if it's only to me).

Post 2: In Relation...

The events that are occurring in Sophie’s World remind me a lot about other films that I have seen. Not so much because of the actual philosophical content, but more because of the whole “notes from a stranger” idea. This book we are reading reminds me of is The Lake House, starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves (hey, we just watched a movie with him!). While I really didn't like the film at all (whatsoever), I did find it similar to Sophie’s World because of the notes. In The Lake House, Reeves is in the past and Bullock is in the future, but they communicate to each other via mailboxes. This sends the two of them into learning more about each other’s lives and the notes each convey a different personal message that leads the two to find deeper meaning in their lives. This reminds me of Sophie’s World because these notes that she is getting make her think harder and harder about her own life.

In the film The Matrix, the character Neo is living inside a virtual world run by computers, which he is eventually woken from when Morpheus, the leader of the Resistance against the machines, finds him. One of the themes is the idea of anonymity because you never truly know who is woken up and who isn’t. Honestly, I have no idea who is awake and who isn't.  While I am a literalist and believe that the film is just a film, I could see how other people could find deeper meaning within the storyline. If there was anybody who I knew was awake, I would say it was the Oracle. She seems to know everything that is happening and everything that will happen, so I do believe that she is awake. Aside from her, I have no idea…