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Movies and the Moral Adventure of Life

2007-08-17 Performing Arts
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Release : 2007-08-17
Genre : Performing Arts
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 189/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Movies and the Moral Adventure of Life by : Alan A. Stone

Download or read book Movies and the Moral Adventure of Life written by Alan A. Stone. This book was released on 2007-08-17. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays on small art films and big-budget blockbusters, including Antonia's Line, American Beauty, Schindler's List, and The Passion of the Christ, that view films as life lessons, enlarging our sense of human possibilities. For Alan Stone, a one-time Freudian analyst and former president of the American Psychiatric Society, movies are the great modern, democratic medium for exploring our individual and collective lives. They provide occasions for reflecting on what he calls “the moral adventure of life”: the choices people make—beyond the limits of their character and circumstances—in response to life's challenges. The quality of these choices is, for him, the measure of a life well lived. In this collection of his film essays, Stone reads films as life texts. He is engaged more by their ideas than their visual presentation, more by their power to move us than by their commercial success. Stone writes about both art films and big-budget Hollywood blockbusters. And he commands an extraordinary range of historical, literary, cultural, and scientific reference that reflects his impressive personal history: professor of law and medicine, football player at Harvard in the late 1940s, director of medical training at McLean Hospital, and advisor to Attorney General Janet Reno on behavioral science. In the end, Stone's enthusiasms run particularly to films that embrace the sheer complexity of life, and in doing so enlarge our sense of human possibilities: in Antonia's Line, he sees an emotionally vivid picture of a world beyond patriarchy; in Thirteen Conversations about One Thing, the power of sheer contingency in human life; and in American Beauty, how beauty in ordinary experience draws us outside ourselves, and how beauty and justice are distinct goods, with no intrinsic connection. Other films discussed in these essays (written between 1993 and 2006 for Boston Review) include Un Coeur en Hiver, Schindler's List, Pulp Fiction, Thirteen Days, the 1997 version of Lolita, The Battle of Algiers, The Passion of the Christ, Persuasion, and Water.

The Moral Premise

2006 Performing Arts
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Release : 2006
Genre : Performing Arts
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Moral Premise by : Stanley D. Williams

Download or read book The Moral Premise written by Stanley D. Williams. This book was released on 2006. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue and Vice for Box Office Success' reveals the foundational concept at the heart of all successful box office movies and other stories. It is a principle that has been passed down from ancient times. It is a principle that modern research has shown is in all great stories that connect with audiences. If you ignore this principle, your story is doomed. But if you consistently apply it to each character, scene, and dramatic beat, it is the principle that will empower your storytelling, and illuminate all the other techniques you bring to the craft. It is the guiding principle of writing that allows films and all stories to be great.

Thinking Through Film

2011-07-26 Philosophy
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Release : 2011-07-26
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 823/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Thinking Through Film by : Damian Cox

Download or read book Thinking Through Film written by Damian Cox. This book was released on 2011-07-26. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THINKING THROUGH FILM Thinking Through Film provides the best introduction available to the diverse relationships between film and philosophy. Clearly written and persuasively argued, it will benefit students of both film and philosophy. Thomas E. Wartenberg, Mount Holyoke College, author of Thinking on Screen: Film as Philosophy Cox and Levine’s admirable Thinking Through Film picks up where Philosophy Goes to the Movies left off, arguing that films not only do philosophy but, in some cases, do it better than philosophers! The result is a rich and rewarding examination of films – from metaphysical thought experiments, personal identity puzzles, to reflections on the meaning of life – that shows, in bracing, no-nonsense fashion, how popular cinema can do serious philosophy. —Robert Sinnerbrink, Macquarie University Thinking Through Film: Doing Philosophy, Watching Movies examines a broad range of philosophical issues though film, as well as issues about the nature of film itself. Using film as a means of philosophizing, it combines the experience of viewing films with the exploration of fundamental philosophical issues. It offers readers the opportunity to learn about philosophy and film together in an engaging way, and raises philosophical questions about films and the experience of films. Film is an extremely valuable way of exploring and discussing topics in philosophy. Readers are introduced to a broad range of philosophical issues though film, as well as to issues about the nature of film itself – a blend missing in most recent books on philosophy and film. Cox and Levine bring a critical eye to philosophical-film discussions throughout.

Reel Parables

2008 Performing Arts
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Release : 2008
Genre : Performing Arts
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 581/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Reel Parables by : James Hogan

Download or read book Reel Parables written by James Hogan. This book was released on 2008. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book takes on topics where critics fear to tread, into the moral and religious areas of life that really matter to ordinary people." James Hogan takes twenty popular films that have withstood the test of time-including Star Wars, Rain Man, Amadeus, The Shawshank Redemption, Groundhog Day, The Truman Show, and Forrest Gump-and discusses them with a view toward extracting lessons of Christian morality and, where appropriate, drawing parallels with the life of Jesus. Youth groups, adult film-discussion groups, and college and high-school classes on film will find this a valuable resource, particularly because the author has intentionally avoided movies about overtly religious topics. A set of reflection and discussion questions for each film facilitates use of the book in a group setting. Book jacket.

Immigrants and the Right to Stay

2010-09-03 Political Science
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Release : 2010-09-03
Genre : Political Science
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Book Rating : 105/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Immigrants and the Right to Stay by : Joseph H. Carens

Download or read book Immigrants and the Right to Stay written by Joseph H. Carens. This book was released on 2010-09-03. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A proposal that immigrants in the United States should be offered a path to legalized status. The Obama administration promises to take on comprehensive immigration reform in 2010, setting policymakers to work on legislation that might give the approximately eleven million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States a path to legalization of status. Commentators have been quick to observe that any such proposal will face intense opposition. Few issues have so divided the country in recent years as immigration. Immigrants and the Right to Stay brings the debate into the realm of public reason. Political theorist Joseph Carens argues that although states have a right to control their borders, the right to deport those who violate immigration laws is not absolute. With time, immigrants develop a moral claim to stay. Emphasizing the moral importance of social membership, and drawing on principles widely recognized in liberal democracies, Carens calls for a rolling amnesty that gives unauthorized migrants a path to regularize their status once they have been settled for a significant period of time. After Carens makes his case, six experts from across the political spectrum respond. Some protest that he goes too far; others say he does not go far enough in protecting the rights of migrants. Several raise competing moral claims and others help us understand how the immigration problem became so large. Carens agrees that no moral claim is absolute, and that, on any complex public issue, principled debate involves weighing competing concerns. But for him the balance falls clearly on the side of amnesty.

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