Wittgenstein at the Movies

Once I heard Wittgenstein (LW) liked to go to the movies and sit on the front row so the movie would wash over him. This activity assisted in his escape from the perplexities of his philosophical investigations (perhaps)—as it were. Or, conceivably, it allowed him immersion into the perceived public culture. Did it ease his internal conflict? Was it a place for chance meetings? Did the content of the movie matter to him? Does it matter to us? If we form our opinions based on the Tractatus, then we might say the content only matters if we have thought of it previously. Does that mean we cannot change our mind or learn a thing from nothing? No not really. I say it more to say, we have already had many of the thoughts of others—if only subconsciously. The difference, say, between your similar thoughts and mine are how we say/think them. My thought/idea might be a mere feeling, which I cannot verbalize. Yours, conversely, might be a well thoughtout discourse on the meaning of life-history-and-the-universe. To which LW says, "What can be said at all can be said clearly; and whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent." This is not exactly what he meant, but it is how we act at times. We feel we cannot speak of something so we do not. By not doing so, we deny ourselves the ability to learn, to engage and, most importantly, to express the fullness of what we feel and know intuitively.

For some unspeakable reason, I have always found LW's love of the movies unique. Is this because such an analytical bloke would seem to disparage such a subjective and emotive activity as the movies? Maybe. Maybe not. Could it represent the dichotomy of our twospirits or the ethereal nature of our souls? Clearly we could come at this question from many angles, but would any one be right or would they all be correct. It is much like the discussion of what music you like, and why music affects us as it does. Do we throw up our hands and talk about the weather or do we change the direction of the content discussed. Based upon our inability to understand LW's attraction and attendance of movies, we cannot determine what kind of movies he would like. Likewise, we cannot infer if he would like First Blood, Lord of the Rings, or Slumdog Millionaire.

Setting aside for a moment the leisure activities of our philosopher, let us look at our own love of the movies. Danny Boyle and Slumdog, as you may know, won an award or two including "Best Motion Picture of the Year". Was it really? Who knows? Any movie aficionado knows much of this award comes from the publicity and campaign. Arguably it is one of the best and I have no alternative. Could that be the real reason? Unforgiven won "Best Picture". Was it? No way to know. Because it did win, though, it became the best picture. Not by merit, per se, but by exposure. You could offer the suggestion that what is best depends upon how the film is crafted and the state of our culture at the time. "Hey, I like that!" Let's go back to Slumdog. If it was "BP", then is it Danny Boyle's best film?

My viewing of SM came after the awards and all the talk had settled. I usually watch movies outside the hype (and reviews) lest it inflates/aggravates my opinion of it. Fortunately, I was able to watch SM with a mostly unadulterated perspective. While I will not review it hear, I will say it was well defined and envisioned. Surely it deserves high marks as movies go. Some moments I even found to be quite brilliant. Still it was predictable in its being good. It was a good film—which I enjoyed—but it failed to ask something of me. While he won, and we all rejoice, how far did it go to question our involvement into alleviating discrimination in our communities? This, obviously, is not completely true only close. Masking the good-ness or bad-ness of an artistic piece is prevalent in all aesthetic creations. With motion pictures, the masking comes from talking it into our consciousness. The more common a film might be the more it is publicized and drilled into our brains from every bus we ride to each cup o'joe we lift to our lips. So let me ask this again, "Is Slumdog Millionaire Danny Boyle's best picture?"

(Part 1 of 2)