Cemetary Man

[Rob Phillips]

Sorry if this is old hack here, but I'm new to list.

On rewatching Cemetary man I was struck by the fact that the entire movie was from the opening credits to the very end a philisophical statment. I can't decide whether to classify that statement as Existentialist or Nihilist.

Any ideas folks?

Rob Phillips

[The Burgomaster]

I think it had something to do with the main character's atavistic angst. Or perhaps it was the cosmic duality of man. Or maybe it was the id versus the ego. On the other hand, many believe that it was symbolic of man's struggle against nature. Others think that it is a parable about man's search for God. No matter how you slice it, mush of it can be compared to the writings of Plato.

[Andrew]

Actually, I have always looked on it as this:

"The whole world does not make sense and nothing you do matters beyond your small sphere of influence."

The ending was out of left field and plain weird.  The movie has a sort of ryhme to it, but the ending does not fit according to it.

[spikesangel]

i thought it was something sort of like "you can't fight destiny" or something...

or maybe "watch your step..?"

actually i just thought it was a madcap adventure that was very well-made.

now i have to watch it again before i begin to question my own intelligence not to have seen a statement.

[Cullen]

Never gave it a thought, myself.  Just thought it was a weird movie.  Fairly bleak, though.
_____________

[Rob Phillips]

Andrew Wrote:

"The ending was out of left field and plain weird. The movie has a sort of ryhme to it, but the ending does not fit according to it."

Quote from http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/ regarding Existentialism:

"Existentialism attempts to describe our desire to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe. Unfortunately, life might be without inherent meaning (existential atheists) or it might be without a meaning we can understand (existential theists). Either way, the human desires for logic and immortality are futile. We are forced to define our own meanings, knowing they might be temporary. . . ."

or The Individual Defines Everything

I shudder to disagree with you Andrew, but in the beginning credits the snowglobe appears . . .you forget it during the course of the movie . . . then it appears at the end. If you pay close attention to what Francesco Dellamorte says during the entire movie, he's struggling with existence and its purpose (design?)  . . . the end is meant to show he was correct, there is nothing outside of his range of existence (the outside world does not exist). Each character, goofy and strange as they may appear, lends to his growing suspician that something is wrong with the universe . . . he suspects that he's trapped but does no know until the end.

Great Movie! I rate it my 10 all time best, and I hear the DVD is coming soon (of course, after I just paid $35 for a mint video . . . such is life).

Rob Phillips

[Will]

The pre-socratic Heraclitus said "What we see when awake is death, what we see asleep is sleep." Franco said "Everything's s**tty. The only thing that's not s**tty...is sleep."

Much has been covered, but I'd also add the themes of identity with relation to other people/identity stripped. The ossuary, the graveyard, zombieism, the three manifestations of the girl, Dellamorte's impotence/potence, the phone book, the reversal of Nagi and Dellamorte's articulation at the end.

This film questions the very "who am I, why am I here?" fundamentals of existence. I shouldn't think it could neatly fall into any philophical sphere, to be honest. It seems a little too primal, which is one of the reasons I like it so much. The images are difficult to articulate, and there's so much happening at once. God, I love this movie.

[Johnny Blister]

You want a philosophical movie,go watch"Brazil".

[Will]

Brazil is great, but it's also pretty philosophically simple. Society, image, fascism, death of the individual, etc.
Cemetery Man I like a little better because it doesn't make--in my estimation--a single thesis, but rather asks a myriad of questions and leaves them unanswered.

Then again, there is room in this world for more than one "philosophical" film.

[Funk, E.]

Being a Philosophy Major and having seen Cemetery Man I feel I am uniquely qualified to add comment:

It's just a weird f**kin' movie




No, seriously




Ok, no more fooling around. As near as I can tell it’s primary philosophical emphasis is on Existentialism in a moral arena, specifically on the question of the value of life. If were all going to die anyway what is the crime in killing? The Zombies in the movie was a way to blur the moral lines. The movie further follows the implications by having the inspector knowing that Dellamorte is the only one “for the job” of undertaker in this case is constantly excusing his behavior when he applies his humanitarian tendencies (replanting dead people) inappropriately (planting not so dead people). The implication being that society has a love/hate relationship with it’s own moral structure in light of the fact that we make up our own rules by which to behave. A fascinating thought experiment all in all.

As an aside, In the philosophy of mind there currently is a debate regarding weather or not the mind is a physical thing. The position for Functionalism (a form of physicallism that asserts that anything that can function like a mindful thing, is a mindful thing) is the philosophical Zombie argument. These Zombies, in every respect behave like human beings except they have no qualified experiences. That is to say they do not “feel” the stimuli they receive as anything except information to respond to. They do not feel pain per se they merely know when they have been given information that requires a pain response.

Other philosophically dense movies:
Time Bandits
The Addiction
Ghost in the Shell
Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead