Ten Spiritually Significant Movies
You know how Buddha and Jesus and loads of other master teachers used stories to teach? Film has the potential to do the same. Here are ten movies that have pointed to deep spiritual truths for me. These are not necessarily stories about spiritual people or subjects. They just resonate with my own spiritual search and still do, even after several viewings. This is not a ranked list, and it is necessarily very limited and clearly biased, but hey – that makes me a lot like the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who produce the Oscars (airing Sunday, February 9).
You will probably not agree with all of these, and I bet you have your own list. There are several wonderful, powerful spiritual movies I don’t mention. Arrival and Inception would be right at home here, as would The Wizard of Oz or [fill in the blank]. Whether or not you agree (or have even seen some of them), indulge me in my opinions and then consider: which films have touched your soul? How does your interaction with the arts increase your spiritual understanding?
Groundhog Day
It’s impossible to state definitively what my favorite film is (I can’t name my favorite food either), but Groundhog Day is tied with 3 or 4 others for #1. What a perfect movie. Don’t be fooled by its mainstream comedy veneer. That’s just what got it greenlighted. Harold Ramis has created a modern masterpiece that takes complex Buddhist cosmology and explores it in a literal way. The longer I practice and study the dharma the more obvious this becomes for me. Even without the deeper meanings it is funny, surprising, and leaves you feeling better than you did when it started. With a last line that rivals the one in Casablanca or The Princess Bride. [Here is Harold Ramis discussing the metaphor of Groundhog Day]
Jacob’s Ladder
Like Groundhog Day, this film’s structure relies on confusion about time and place, except it’s truly scary and not at all funny. I can watch GD any time, but this one I have to gear myself up for. It’s not for the faint of heart but it totally delivers, even if you don’t typically like scary movies (and I don’t). Deeply upsetting much of the time, Jacob’s Ladder has one of the most beautiful, hopeful endings ever (and also a great last line). Starring Tim Robbins and directed by Adrian Lynne with a flawless script by Bruce Joel Rubin, who later took a similar concept and wrote a mainstream movie that Hollywood could love (Ghost), Jacob’s Ladder portrays the reality of life and death in a way that feels true and possible to accept. Danny Aiello wins for best supporting chiropractor/avenging angel. “Just relax. This is a deep adjustment.”
The Matrix
What if I told you. . . I usually dislike the dystopian sci-fi genre? I discovered The Matrix one day when I was sick in bed and surfing for something to watch. Surprise! Waking up to reality can be fun. In spite of predictable plots and characters, I am not immune to entertaining movie-making. It’s got a terrific cast, including Laurence Fishburne, Joe Pantoliano, Hugo Weaving, and one of my favorite actor/spiritual seekers, Keanu Reeves. Are we each unconsciously being drained of our life energy to feed an immense inhuman machine? How much of what we experience has been programmed for us? Are things as solid as they seem? And who doesn’t look super cool in a long black topcoat and Ray-bans?
Stand By Me
Generally seen as a coming-of-age story, which it is. But this one is more than that. Essentially it’s about grief, and the way the grieving process forces one to face death and loss. It’s also the story of the compulsion to follow a leading, and the importance of traveling with a posse who supports you as you go. An exploration of the tension between beauty and decay, love and cruelty, class status and opportunity. We also get to see four young males as they attempt to follow the unwritten rules of what it means to be a man, at an age when their feminine side hasn’t yet been completely shamed out of them. Rob Reiner’s second film as director (his first was Spinal Tap), he gives it a lot of humor and heart, but doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to facing reality: “The kid wasn’t sick. The kid wasn’t sleeping. The kid was dead.” I adore Stephen King, arguably the most spiritual popular storyteller of our generation (that would be a long and loud argument I imagine).
The Shawshank Redemption
Is there anyone who has not seen this? It’s on TV every single day it seems. Another Tim Robbins tour de force performance, another great Stephen King story, and (I cringe to admit) another movie with a wise black character -- what Jordan Peele calls the “magical Negro.” Some activists I know really hate this movie because of its unexamined assumptions and stereotypes, and I get that. But c’mon, it’s Morgan Freeman. And Bob Gunton plays the perfect foil as the greedy, heartless prison warden. I don’t have to explain the spiritual metaphor of unjust imprisonment and the liberation that results from a daily discipline of chipping away at the barriers. Or the strategy of using the oppressor’s strengths against them in order to dismantle an unjust system. Sometimes you have to wade through a half mile of shit to get free, that’s all.
I Heart <3 Huckabees
Is spiritual growth funny? Hell yeah! This film is not everyone’s cup of tea, but then again it isn’t trying to be. For me, the humor comes out of watching the absurd lengths we will go to get free of our conditioned thinking, and the relationships we forge with our advisors and teachers. And wouldn’t it be great if our teachers were Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman? It’s also a satire about corporate culture and consumerism, including the “self-improvement” market. It asks some intriguing questions, including How am I not myself?
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Sigh. I’m not sure this one qualifies as a spiritual movie exactly, but it certainly touches on themes of timelessness and the enduring qualities of love. And it stars Jim Carrey, who is a modern-day mystic. I know he seems like a movie star, and I’m often baffled by the productions he chooses to do, but this man is pretty enlightened, albeit in a way that some interpret as mental illness. Jim’s intense. Anyway, Eternal Sunshine gives us the vehicle to follow the thought we’ve all had about ex-lovers: I wish I could just erase you from memory. What happens when there is no more story? Who are we then?
American Beauty
Here’s another one that might not seem very spiritual on the face of it. This story was full of surprises the first time I saw it, while at the same time clearly moving toward an inevitable conclusion. Just like life as a human. Every time I see a plastic bag wafting in the wind, I feel connected to everything. And nothing.
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Woody Allen’s masterpiece, in my opinion. Also pretty ironic now that we know that he is a pedophile. People get away with murder, and worse, every day. Who sees? If there's no G-d, why behave in a moral way? This is an attempt to answer the question, "how can you live with yourself?" I’m not sure how Woody lives with himself, but he has made some excellent films. Martin Landau, Anjelica Huston, and Jerry Orbach are just three reasons this is worth your time. Alan Alda is hilariously familiar as Lester, an artist with slightly different values than Woody’s character Cliff. “Comedy is tragedy plus time.” LOL I doubt that formula will ever apply to Woody’s personal crimes and misdemeanors.
Jesus of Nazareth / The Greatest Story Ever Told
Two very different movies based on the same myth. It may be unfair to lump them together, but they air during the same week or month each year, and they both have a blue-eyed Jesus. Only one, however, has Max von Sydow asking Michael York to “Bap-tize me John,” in a Swedish accent. And only one has John Wayne confessing, “Truly this man was the son-o-God.”
What are your favorites? Why do you agree or disagree with these choices? Please share in the comments. I love discussing movies.