There is no need to buy a DVD. Most movies will be available at your public library, by streaming, or through that library by inter-library loan. If you subscribe to an on-line movie service, you will find that some of these movies are included in that subscription.
The items are in no particular order, although the most recently added will appear at the top. Eventually, one or two sentences will accompany each entry to describe why it is listed here. As the list grows longer, it will be divided into categories for easier browsing.
Please feel free to email [email protected] and give your opinion as to whether the film merits listing here -- or to make any comment, including suggestions for additional listings. Ideally, this is a community-generated list.
The items are in no particular order, although the most recently added will appear at the top. Eventually, one or two sentences will accompany each entry to describe why it is listed here. As the list grows longer, it will be divided into categories for easier browsing.
Please feel free to email [email protected] and give your opinion as to whether the film merits listing here -- or to make any comment, including suggestions for additional listings. Ideally, this is a community-generated list.
Ship Of Fools
1965; B&W
Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret Directed by Stanley Kramer Nominated for 8 Academy Awards; won 3 Oscars 1933, a microcosm of western culture, both wealthy and poor, aboard a ship from Mexico to Europe. Notable for their forbearance of others are: Dr. Schumann, Lowenthal, and Glocken. The Chorus (Les Choristes)
2004
French with English subtitles Can lies ever serve the purpose of truth? In totalitarian conditions perhaps. Arriving to work at an orphanage, Clément Mathieu quickly realizes that blame-and-punishment, often randomly delivered, is the operating worldview of the headmaster. Although Mathieu's job is simply to watch over the unruly residents, he introduces them to his love of singing, bringing a sense of purpose and pleasure to their otherwise bleak lives. (The narrative is slightly simplistic but worth the view; As It Is in Heaven is a similar story told with more nuance.) As It Is In Heaven
2004
Swedish with English subtitles Nominated Best Foreign Language Film of the Year (2005) For his health, a famous but despondent conductor returns to his hometown to live a simpler life, and finds himself reignited by his original values: to fill people's hearts with the spontaneous (non-professionalized) joy of music. This apparently harmless pursuit threatens the stodgy status quo and he is attacked. Ultimately though, his integrity and people's love for the vitality he has brought to their lives are the stronger forces. Mr. Holland's Opus
1995
Richard Dreyfus: Nominated Academy Award for Best Lead Actor A man who takes a temporary job as a high school music teacher realizes it is his favorite work, and in his 30 years there touches many lives. This is also a great cultural retrospective of the U.S. from 1965-1995. The Chosen
1981
Maximilian Schell, Rod Steiger, Robby Benson Les Misérables
1998 Liam Neesan, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman The Singing Revolution
2006
This documentary traces the history of how Estonia won its independence from the Soviet Union without any conventional weapons. The culture's tradition of singing in massively large groups became the outlet of the people's wishes for autonomy as well as the unlikely vehicle for effecting change. Zelary
2003
Czech with English subtitles A love story in unlikely circumstances, this story of (non-Jewish) people in a mountain village doing their quiet part to resist the Nazi occupation is beautiful and heart-rending. Scent of A Woman
1992
Al Pacino 1993 Academy award - best actor This is a hard movie to watch -- Pacino's character is objectionable in the extreme. It takes a while to understand how this movie is about integrity, but it's worth the wait. "There's no prosthetic for an amputated soul," he says, and he would know. But perhaps there are opportunities to "grow one back." Temple Grandin
2010, made for HBO
Claire Danes With exceptional acting, this "bio-pic" follows the real life of a bright autistic woman persevering against severe discrimination to earn her graduate degrees in animal husbandry. Ultimately she designs methods to create more humane conditions in the cattle industry. "Nature is cruel but we don't have to be." Not recommended for small children or vegetarians. The Legend of Bagger Vance
2000
Will Smith, Matt Damon, Charlize Theron Directed by Robert Redford This movie starts out oddly but eventually hits its stride. A man demoralized by his war experiences slowly regains his conviction that his life and his actions matter, even if nobody else witnesses them. The game of golf is used as a zen-like metaphor for living. To Sir, With Love
1967
Sidney Poitier A new teacher arrives at a tough London school and realizes that instead of discipline, the angry and unruly students need information about the confusing world around them, and above all, they need respect, something they are not accustomed to receiving or giving. Mary and Max
2009, Claymation
This movie is claymation, but too edgy and dark for children. It depicts an epistolary relationship between a girl Mary in Australia and an autistic man Max in New York City. Max is on the very edges of society due to his condition, but his moral sense is unwavering. The relationship is the anchor for both of them in their difficult lives. An Unfinished Life
2005 Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Lopez Directed by Lasse Hallstrom This film depicts contrasting responses to trauma in the lives of the two main characters: one of unrelenting anger and one of exploring and accepting. Portraying one of the most loving relationships in film between two heterosexual men, this love pulls the angry man out of his shell. Watch the special features, too. The Cider House Rules
Directed by Lasse Hallstrom Starring Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, Michael Caine 1999 Naive, and uneducated in the conventional sense, the main character fights for the rights and dignity of those who, by cultural morés, are abused and neglected. Please research further before watching with children: a subplot addresses the damage of incest. Won two Oscars. Fugitive Pieces
2007
The film is more coherent but less poetic than the novel, and beautifully done. The main character is a boy Jakob whose family was destroyed by the Nazis in Poland. He escapes by hiding, and later is found by Athos Roussos, a Greek archeologist doing research there. At great risk to his life, Athos smuggles the boy back to Greece and keeps him hidden until the war is over, then raises him openly as a son. A beautiful portrayal of integrity in Athos, and a portrayal of the life-long struggles of post-trauma for Jakob, who does however find peace towards the end of his life. Everybody's Fine
Robert De Niro 2009 A widowed blue-collar worker, who hoped for the better "success" of his 4 children, visits them one by one, sees the truth of their lives, and comes to change his definition of what is best for them. Nominated for Golden Globe. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
1953, color
Gregory Peck This is the movie that inspired this web site. Departures
Japanese with English sub-titles. 2008 The job of ceremonially attending to the dead is a despised one in Japan, but deemed necessary. In this film, an out-of-work cellist falls into the job accidentally, and in spite of the low esteem he is held in, brings dignity to his task and in so doing, finds his calling. Forrest Gump
Drama with comedic elements
Tom Hanks 1994 Forrest navigates a world of opportunists as well as every-day people and their sufferings, with the aplomb that comes from being so grounded in knowing what is right that he can't imagine doing things any other way. |
Jeff, Who Lives At Home
2011
Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon Official Selection at Toronto and Chicago Intnat'l film festivals Jeff is 30 years old and an unemployed "pothead" living in his mom's basement. His life seems meaningless until his innocent sense of "what's right" stumbles into a circumstance where it is highly valued, reinvigorating his whole family's sense of their deeper potential. Flipped
2010
Directed by Rob Reiner Although this is not a children's movie, the two main characters are seventh graders, each embodying a high degree of integrity (the boy, eventually; the girl all along) as they struggle with the common pressures against truth and compassion. Beautifully done. The Help
2011
Emma Stone, Viola Davis Set in the American South in 1962, this is a story of the power of truth-telling, not only to inform the world of unconscionable conditions, but as it turns out, for courageous individuals to come into the freeing power of their authenticity. The result is a rippling effect: one person's honesty gives permission for, and even provokes, honesty in others. In some cases, this leads to brutal, even fatal consequences. In some cases it leads eventually to wholesale changes in society -- e.g. the Civil Rights Movement. As this film portrays, life is typically both/and, rather than either/or. The Bourne Identity
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