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I love me a little philosophical discussion, especially when it pertains to film. Just watched THE LEDGE with Charlie Hunnam (green street hooligans), Liv Tyler, Patrick Wilson (the watchmen), and Terrence Howard. Director Matthew Chapman has said that the film's Suspense/Thriller story, which I thought was tremendous, is really a vehicle to address some deeper philosophical questions, namely:

1. How can evil exist in the world if God is perfect, and moreover how can it exist if God is a loving god?

2. What drives an atheist to sacrifice his or her life (for another person), when faced with the notion that God does not exist? i.e. Why act selflessly?

The clip below is a scene from the film where the "problem of evil" is addressed. Pretty cool scene. And Charlie Hunnam's character poses a pretty tough dilemma for the man of faith. Both of these guys were awesome in the film btw. Anyone care to take a stab at either of these issues? I'd love to get a little film-based philosophical chat going...

Clip from the film - "What did God Do To You?": https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1344744395085&oid=170693459636008&comments

The film releases July 8, but it's showing now on SundanceNOW.com until May 25, as a sneak preview.

http://www.daemonsmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/The_Ledge_filmstill2_PatrickWilson_byCookAllender-550x365.jpg

1. According to what I understand of religion...only God knows? The common answer seems to be based around the notion that "evil" (and/or "sin" are the means through which our faith in religion (if we have either) is "tested."

2. I can't answer that question for anyone else. I think it would have to boil down to the fact that, for myself at least, I don't require belief in any sort of "higher power" in order to cherish (and, often, detest) humanity.

This thread will probably end up being moved to the Philosophy forum, ja?

nice....

spam for a film that gives ruidemtary level investigation of philosophical concepts that, themselves, have hundreds of years of answers that an action film would never be able to get into given how complicated things like evil and altruism are...

it looks as intriguing as waking life, only less trippy and with more viral marketing attempts... meaning intriguing enough to show to highschoolers in an attempt to show them there is more to life than MTV.

Originally posted by inimalist
nice....

spam for a film that gives ruidemtary level investigation of philosophical concepts that, themselves, have hundreds of years of answers that an action film would never be able to get into given how complicated things like evil and altruism are...

it looks as intriguing as waking life, only less trippy and with more viral marketing attempts... meaning intriguing enough to show to highschoolers in an attempt to show them there is more to life than MTV.

What's MTV?

Originally posted by inimalist
spam for a film that gives ruidemtary level investigation of philosophical concepts that, themselves, have hundreds of years of answers that an action film would never be able to get into given how complicated things like evil and altruism are...

Even action movies have quiet talky scenes to move the plot along and he did say it was a thriller. Straight movies (ie without trippy journey through the mind stuff) just seems like a poor medium for a good discussion of philosophy, since so much of the character's internal life has to be guessed at.

Looking at the promo information I'm pretty sure the ending will be: Gavin falls to his knees, embracing Christ as his savior just as Hollis saves them both; or, Gavin jumps, leading to an ambiguous last scene where the audience doesn't hear his dying words.

Originally posted by inimalist
nice....

spam for a film that gives ruidemtary level investigation of philosophical concepts that, themselves, have hundreds of years of answers that an action film would never be able to get into given how complicated things like evil and altruism are...

it looks as intriguing as waking life, only less trippy and with more viral marketing attempts... meaning intriguing enough to show to highschoolers in an attempt to show them there is more to life than MTV.

Well said!

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Even action movies have quiet talky scenes to move the plot along and he did say it was a thriller.

weird, for some reason I thought it was supposed to be action packed

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Straight movies (ie without trippy journey through the mind stuff) just seems like a poor medium for a good discussion of philosophy, since so much of the character's internal life has to be guessed at.

I agree. I really enjoyed Equilibrium, and I would say the same thing about it. Its not so much that the film makes you think or is really offering a deep look at concepts like art or fascism, it just makes a really good setting for the plot to unfold, and in fact, not trying to even dwell on those questions made it much more effective as a film, if not as a dissertation on the philosophical nature of blah blah blah why isn't Bale gun-kata-ing some punk right now?

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Looking at the promo information I'm pretty sure the ending will be: Gavin falls to his knees, embracing Christ as his savior just as Hollis saves them both; or, Gavin jumps, leading to an ambiguous last scene where the audience doesn't hear his dying words.

I only watched the trailer. It does look like it is setting up for the atheist to eat some crow.