Waking Life Movie - Essay Example

Waking Life What is life that is not lived? This is one of the many philosophical questions that people try to ask themselves and yet not really having a clear answer to. Well, life in itself is something that is attributed to breathing however, the bigger part of waking life is all about living. Waking life is a movie directed by Richard Linklater that arose to be one of those that challenged industry standards. When everyone was busy directing movies that dealt with the obvious, Waking life is something that portrays the real battle that living beings face too often.

To give you a clue, it is a movie where the plot is centered on the journey of a man who is confused of whether he is living in the waking world or the dreaming world as he continuously runs into different kinds of people who will in turn open his eyes to the different lives and attitude towards life of these people. The characters in the movie really bring a lot of great interesting learning that you can pick up from this movie. One of which that really struck me would be the reality that a lot of people today do not have a personal identity for themselves.

This means that a lot of people strive happiness in the wrong places, intentions, and at the same time in the wrong means. Thus, we can see a lot of people getting frustrated, easily losing hope, and distracted by the world or perhaps circumstances that they face because of the fact that they base their happiness and life’s direction on people and events that happen in life such as perhaps the wish we often hear, “I would be happier if I had more money or etc.” This is showed in the film when Wily Wiggins, the main character meets a man in a boat that thinks his vehicle is a gateway to the world where every moment is a show while he remains in a state of constant departure, but always arriving.

This for me shows that this man in the boat is someone who always wants to please people by letting everyone dictate where he goes even that in turns make him lose sight of what he really wants to do or his personal identity. Another strong philosophy that this movie was able to reflect would be that of human freedom always being associated with responsibility or the sense of consequence. This is really what a lot of people should understand by heart today as we all usually have the tendency to pointing our fingers on other people and on circumstances and blame them for whatever trouble we are in to or the problems we face when the reality is that a lot of sufferings in life really is caused by oneself.

One would not have been in that situation if not for human freedom being abused or used in the wrong way. This is displayed in the movie when Wiley attends a philosophy lecture by a philosophy professor Robert Solomon. He was lecturing on existentialism, which supports that people are totally responsible for their behavior because every act is obviously resulted by a free decision. Here, you will be able to see that those people who always try to blame others for whatever situation they face are the ones who are never truly happy because of the fact that life will always throw lemons at you and not being able to take that responsibility of your own actions would only make you deceive no one else but yourself.

Another man that Wiley meets who also makes him realize the philosophy of existentialism is an inmate who had a never ending ranting which is troubling because he wants to torture everyone responsible for putting him in prison, yet he is incapable of seeing that he precisely deserves it because of his anti-social inclinations. Lastly, one of the learning or idea presented in the film that really is very relevant today is that of the current situation of every individual today knowing but not really understanding.

This means that with education and experiences we have, we all surely know what is right from wrong even when we are faced with a more challenging situation that blurs the wrong and presents it to be right by making us feel right. Even when we were still kids, we all know what is right and wrong already because we are born with that instinct. Thus, this brings me to the point also on the principles that the means does not justify the end. This means that the goodness or the badness of an act is not identified by bringing the end or the outcome’s goodness or badness into picture.

This lesson is shown in the film when Wiley sees a gang of intellectuals roaming the streets, spouting philosophical one-liners and they see an old man where one commented, “he’s no worse than us; he’s all action and no theory, and we’re all theory and no action.” Indeed, which is better? Well, not having theory yet having all action for me is better than having theory without action because of the fact that people who have no theory who makes mistakes or does wrong do so without really being totally responsible for their actions because of the lack of intent to really hurt other people.

While those who have theory without action is one that is worse because the fact that one does not do anything about a certain knowledge that could help or better other people could be likened to telling other people a lie and already committing a mistake. Bibliography: "Waking Life (2001) - IMDb." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2012. .