Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead
Paths Of Glory
Hud
The Wicker Man
The Ruling Class
The Swimmer
The Candidate
Being There - better than the book
Monte Walsh
Breaker Morant
Posse (1975)
Blue Collar
The Stunt Man
Five Easy Pieces
The Last Detail
Black Robe
If…
Rashomon – it’s about the question of reality vs. our biased recollections. Technically, it might not fit, since it’s based kinda on two stories. But Kurasawa’s script is really something very different from the short stories it’s nominally based on.
Forget movies - read a book if you want a deep intellectual experience.
The Lorax and Horton Hears A Who are both very deep for their thickness. Quick, fast, and effective, like an introspective espresso.
Generally speaking:
we don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
So, really, a movie will be judged by you as deep if it hits on some theme that you already are thinking about.
I personally think “hoop dreams” was about as deep as they get.
“Babe” about the talking pig. Very deep in a child like way, lots of good lessons for kids and adults alike.
“Slingblade” mmmhmm
“the matrix”
“vanilla sky”
“AI”
that other speilberg, tom cruise future one with the mind readers who could tell if a murder was gonna happen…
I’ll see your Total Recall and raise you Death Race 2000.
I’m going to recommend “A Man For All Seasons”. Here’s a link to the amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6305252564/qid%3D1053897684/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr_11_1/104-3427797-3934326
The customer reviews give a better feel for the movie than the editorial review does.
Warning: this film will put you through the wringer. The cinema student I saw it with remarked, “A great film should be so cathartic that people commit suicide after seeing it.”
I just saw Barton Fink again, and it’s a thought proking lil’ piece on the Life of the Mind. (“I’ll show you the life of the mind!”) One of those movies that gets better for me each time I see it.
And you can’t beat Rear Window for an examination of the inherent voyeurism in watching any film or reading any text.
For those who enjoyed the Matrix or Dark City, there’s always The Truman Show, which predates both (not that that’s a big deal: the basic “reality is just a sham” concept is far older than any of 'em). Written by the same guy who wrote the excellent GATTACA.
Equus.
Deep movies:
The ring
The crying game
ExistenZ
Cool Hand Luke
Heavenly Creatures
High Plains Drifter
Pleasantville
Playing By Heart (It also has a “twist” ending; don’t let that throw you - it’s a fairly nice set of musings on the nature of love, identity, and family)
The Ice Storm (I hated it, but it was certainly deep)
Rushmore
I’ll second Amadeus, Baron Munchausen, and Rosenkranz and Guildenstern Are Dead, as well.
Grand Canyon - w/Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Danny Glover et al