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Examined Life

  • 20082008
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 27m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
1.7K
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • IMDbPro
Examined Life (2008)
Examined Life pulls philosophy out of academic journals and classrooms, and puts it back on the streets...
Play trailer2:05
1 Video
9 Photos
  • Documentary

In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today's most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for t... Read allIn Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today's most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas.In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today's most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas.

IMDb RATING
7.0/10
1.7K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Astra Taylor
  • Writer
    • Astra Taylor
  • Stars
    • Kwame Anthony Appiah
    • Judith Butler
    • Michael Hardt
Top credits
  • Director
    • Astra Taylor
  • Writer
    • Astra Taylor
  • Stars
    • Kwame Anthony Appiah
    • Judith Butler
    • Michael Hardt
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 12User reviews
    • 15Critic reviews
    • 64Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Examined Life
    Trailer 2:05
    Examined Life

    Photos9

    Cornel West in Examined Life (2008)
    Peter Singer in Examined Life (2008)
    Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor in Examined Life (2008)
    Avital Ronell in Examined Life (2008)
    Kwame Anthony Appiah in Examined Life (2008)
    Examined Life (2008)
    Examined Life (2008)
    Examined Life (2008)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Kwame Anthony Appiah
    Kwame Anthony Appiah
    • Selfas Self
    Judith Butler
    Judith Butler
    • Selfas Self
    Michael Hardt
    • Selfas Self
    Martha Nussbaum
    • Selfas Self
    Avital Ronell
    Avital Ronell
    • Selfas Self
    Peter Singer
    Peter Singer
    • Selfas Self
    Sunaura Taylor
    • Selfas Self
    Cornel West
    Cornel West
    • Selfas Self
    Slavoj Zizek
    Slavoj Zizek
    • Selfas Self
    • Director
      • Astra Taylor
    • Writer
      • Astra Taylor
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit
    Examined Life pulls philosophy out of academic journals and classrooms, and puts it back on the streets. In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today's most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas. Peter Singer's thoughts on the ethics of consumption are amplified against the backdrop of Fifth Avenue's posh boutiques. Michael Hardt ponders the nature of revolution while surrounded by symbols of wealth and leisure. Judith Butler and a friend stroll through San Francisco's Mission District questioning our culture's fixation on individualism. And while driving through Manhattan, Cornel West - perhaps America's best-known public intellectual - compares philosophy to jazz and blues, reminding us how intense and invigorating a life of the mind can be. Offering privileged moments with great thinkers from fields ranging from moral philosophy to cultural theory, Examined Life reveals philosophy's power to transform the way we see the world around us and imagine our place in it. —Anonymous
    • philosophy
    • f rated
    • Plot summary
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    • Taglines
      • Philosophy is in the streets.
    • Genre
      • Documentary
    • Certificate
      • Not Rated
    • Parents guide
      • Add content advisory

    Did you know

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    • Quotes

      Cornel West: The unexamined life is not worth living, Plato says on line 38A of the Apology. How do you examine yourself; what happens when you interrogate yourself? What happens when you begin to call into question your tacit assumptions and unarticulated presuppositions and begin then to become a different kind of person. See, I put it this way, that for me, philosophy is fundamentally about... our finite situation. We can define that in terms of we're beings toward death, we're featherless, two-legged, linguistically conscious creatures born between urine and feces whose bodies will one day be the culinary delight of terrestrial worms. That's us, beings toward death. At the same time, we have desire, why we are organisms in space and time, so it's desire in the face of death. And then, of course, you've got dogmatism, various attempts to hold on to certainty, various forms of idolatry, and you've got dialogue, in the face of dogmatism and then of course, structurally and institutionally, you've got domination... and you have democracy

      [...]

    User reviews12

    Review
    Top review
    5/10
    Why are they running around and not focusing on the dialog ?
    Pretty frustating camera work, and direction.

    For some reason, the film-makers decided that to keep the philosophers time and make them run around and make them talk in the ambient noise and in lack of focus.

    Hard to focus on what the person is saying because of the stupid direction of forcing them to run around in order to talk.

    Was so excited about this one, the entire thing was butchered by the director.
    helpful•1
    2
    • yugalmait
    • Sep 8, 2019

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 20, 2009 (United Kingdom)
    • Country of origin
      • Canada
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Sorgulanmış yaşam
    • Filming locations
      • Chicago, Illinois, USA
    • Production company
      • Sphinx Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $120,712
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $12,085
      • Mar 1, 2009
    • Gross worldwide
      • $120,712
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 27 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital

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