Voting Is Open

Last month it was a comedic drama / dramatic comedy (The Truman Show).  This month we give you the vote (it is November of an election year).  Your options include an historical drama, a superhero movie, a sci-fi flick, and a classic.

Go to www.meetup.com/philosophilm and click on polls to vote on the film we show on Nov. 23.  While there, feel free to rsvp for the Nov. 23 Meetup.

The contestants are:

There Will Be Blood (2007) - A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.

Batman Begins (2005) - The story of how Bruce Wayne became what he was destined to be: Batman.

The Matrix (1999) - A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against the controllers of it.

Citizen Kane (1941) - Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance.

Meetup #2 Is now on the Calendar

Date: Nov. 23, 2008
Time: 6 pm
Place: Badger Room, Holiday Inn Express, 515 W. Verona Ave., Verona
Coffee, soda, and popcorn provided.

Vote on November's film at www.meetup.com/philosophilm.

Discussion Questions for the Truman Show

SPOILER ALERT!!!  If somehow you don't know the premise of this film or haven't seen it, you may want to stop reading.

We're looking at a decent turnout for Meeting #1 of Philosophilm.  Interested people have found us through our Meetup site. Other non-Meetupers are coming through good old-fashioned face-to-face invitations as well as the obligatory Facebook group.

So here's some of the discussion questions I'll be throwing out there the evening of the 19th. Feel free to chime in now if you can't wait.

1. Will Truman be happier on the outside?  Should he have stayed in Seahaven?  In other words, is ignorance of reality bliss?
2. In what ways does Truman's relationship with the perceived world (Seahaven) differ from that of a normal human being?
3. To what extent are humans shaped by their environment?  What personality traits are inherent to Truman Burbank and what are products of Christof and Seahaven?
4. Is Truman free?  In Seahaven?  Outside?
5. Is Christof right when he says there is no more reality in the real world than in Seahaven?
6. Truman has an epiphany that radically changes how he views the world.  Have you ever had such a moment?

To give credit where credit is due, I'll freely admit that I ripped off a lot of these questions from sites like this.