Professor Dan Shaw 
Movies with Meaning [PDF ebook] 
Existentialism Through Film

This book pairs close readings of some of the classic writings of existentialist philosophers with interpretations of films that reveal striking parallels to each of those texts, demonstrating their respective philosophies in action. Individual chapters include significant excerpts from the original texts being discussed and illustrated. Pairings cover Schopenhauer and
Waking Life, Stirner and
Hud, Kierkegaard and
Winter Light, Nietzsche and
The Fountainhead, Heidegger,
Blade Runner and
The Thin Red Line, Camus,
Leaving Las Vegas and
Missing, Sartre,
Husbands and Wives, and
Michael Collins, de Beauvoir and
Revolutionary Road, and Foucault and
One Flew Over the Cuckoo”s Nest.




Movies with Meaning offers a clear and insightful examination of the relationships between existential philosophers and film, providing both digests of their most significant texts and cinematic illustrations of what each had in mind. For the first time in one place, this book analyses the implications for film of the perspectives of a wide array of the most significant existentialist thinkers. Organized chronologically, like most existentialism anthologies, this is an ideal textbook for an intermediate level existentialism course, or as a companion to a selection of primary texts.