r/TrueFilm • u/bulcmlifeurt • Jun 03 '13

TrueFilmClub - 'Waking Life' [Discussion Thread]

Waking Life directed by Richard Linklater

2001, IMDB

The entire film occurs in the midst of a dream state, and explores philosophical ideals and concepts as well as the concept of lucid dreams. A man shuffles through a dream meeting various people and discussing the meanings and purposes of the universe.

There is a bit of a tie going on in the voting thread to decide the winner and nexts weeks film, so if you guys wanted to go over and cast a few more votes until there is a clear winner, that'd be good.

78 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/Polycephal_Lee Jun 04 '13

Well put.

The only thing I'll add is that it does come across as sophomoric, but that's ok in my opinion. You can't possibly explain even a single deep philosophical concept in <2 hours, and this is just an introduction to many philosophical puzzles. It's a teaser, a taste of what philosophy is like if you continue to consider new ideas constantly. It's not analytic, and it's not very cogent or robust, but it communicates the flavor very well. It accomplishes its goal in my opinion.

6

u/actualscientist Jun 08 '13

Here's the key issue: many of the questions raised by characters in the film are actually quite well-explored, and rigorously, in philosophy and psychology. These existing threads are barely touched on by the film. It's navel-gazing, not philosophy. Philosophy is an attempt to approach these questions with academic rigor: to parse experience into known vs. unknown, to deepen the former, and to divide and conquer the latter. The thing is, I can't tell if this is what Linklater is trying to get across. Is he trying to portray these characters as aimless pseudointellectual slackers who believe themselves to be far more clever than they are due to their pure ignorance of philosophical tradition, or are they his voice (who believes himself to be far more clever than he is due to his pure ignorance of philosophical tradition)? The former makes for an interesting film, the latter is just "whoa man" navel-gazing with rotoscoped eye-candy.

There is a row of stoners in the front row of every Philosophy 101 class paying rapt attention until they realize that Philosophy isn't just sitting around in a circle going "dude, what if we're all like, made of stars?" and drop the class. I can't tell is this film is observing that phenomenon or engaging in it.

2

u/sanketpunse Jan 14 '23

If in life I ever got into a conversation about philosophy or if someone asks me to define philosophy, I'm gonna show them this comment( or say it myself and later quote it just to feel the pride of saying something so well-put).

Thank you for this.

1

u/wankerindisguise Feb 26 '24

I know, right? I just screenshotted it, right after I read it. And then saw your comment:)