Spiritual Cinema
"Movies containing spiritual, metaphysical, conscious or similar messages or themes".
Simon Keyes explains the idea behind Spiritual Cinema.
It is the extraordinary power of cinema, high or low, serious and exploitative, to move and disturb us that we should celebrate and embrace in all its diversity. Films can fertilise our inner lives and provide a counter-balance to that compartmentalisation of our "religious" selves that Thomas Merton dubbed our "personal holiness project". The feelings and shadows that films (well, perhaps not quite every movie) incarnate in us give us privileged access to the world beyond our immediate experience. The sights and sounds of cinema can resonate in the realms of the unconscious and the archetypal like no other medium, and there is much for us to learn about ourselves in this experience.
Below is a list of "the best of" this genre...
The Terminator (Blu-ray) (1984)
8/10
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Paul Winfield, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger
A cyborg is sent from the future to present-day Los Angeles on a deadly mission. He's got to kill a young woman whose life will have great significanc... Read more
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
7/10
Director: Josef Rusnak
Starring: Craig Bierko, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Gretchen Mol
This thought-provoking dark thriller, in keeping with "The Matrix" and "Dark City", is set in a computer-generated parallel world like 1930s L.A. with... Read more
The Thirteenth Floor ( Blu-ray ) (1999)
7/10
Director: Josef Rusnak
Starring: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Craig Bierko, Dennis Haysbert, Gretchen Mol, Vincent D'Onof...
This thought-provoking dark thriller, in keeping with "The Matrix" and "Dark City", is set in a computer-generated parallel world like 1930s L.A. with... Read more
The Tree of Life (2011)
6.8/10
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain
Written and directed by Terrence Malick, this complex and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition stars Brad Pitt as the patriarch of a M... Read more
The Tree of Life ( Blu-ray ) (2011)
6.8/10
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain
Written and directed by Terrence Malick, this complex and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition stars Brad Pitt as the patriarch of a M... Read more
The Truman Show (1998)
8.1/10
Director: Peter Weir
Starring: Ed Harris, Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Natascha McElhone, Noah Emmerich, Holland T...
Wellingtonian Andrew Niccol's clever and meticulously crafted script has Jim Carrey playing Truman Burbank, who lives the American dream in a postcard... Read more
The Way (2010)
7.4/10
Director: Emilio Estevez
Starring: Deborah Kara Unger, James Nesbitt, Martin Sheen, Tcheky Karyo, Yorick van Wageni...
Martin Sheen plays Tom, an irascible American doctor who comes to France to deal with the tragic loss of his son (played by real-life son Emilio Estev... Read more
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
7.6/10
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
A few people arrive from Tehran for a short stay at Siah Dareh, a village in Iranian Kurdistan. The locals do not know why they are there. The strange... Read more
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
8/10
Director: Victor Fleming
Starring: Ray Bolger, Judy Garland, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Billie Burke, Frank Morgan, Mar...
Follow Dorothy over the rainbow and down the Yellow Brick Road, along with the Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman, Cowardly Lion and Toto, too, for fun and adven... Read more
The Wizard of Oz ( Blu-ray ) (1939)
8/10
Director: Victor Fleming
Starring: Frank Morgan, Jack Haley, Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamil...
Follow Dorothy over the rainbow and down the Yellow Brick Road, along with the Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman, Cowardly Lion and Toto, too, for fun and adven... Read more