Mythic Mind Movies

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We tend to think that the past is fixed in memory and that our eyes simply tell us the truth. Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon shows something more unsettling: people can witness the same event and remember it differently, not only because they lie, but because pride, shame, fear, and self-preservation shape what they are able to see.

In this episode of Mythic Mind Movies, Andrew Snyder, Kit, and David discuss the "Rashomon effect," the film's four contradictory accounts of a samurai's death, and why Kurosawa is not arguing that objective truth does not exist. The murder happened. The stories differ because each witness rewrites reality to preserve a role: hero, victim, honorable man, or innocent observer.

The conversation also explores the ruined Rashomon Gate as a landscape of the psyche; the monk, commoner, and woodsman as a struggle among moral idealism, cynicism, and the conflicted self; Kurosawa's groundbreaking cinematography; and the abandoned child whose appearance turns a story about deception toward sacrifice and hope. The film's final answer to a broken world is not perfect knowledge of the past, but the choice to do the good that stands before you.

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Dead Poets Society is famous for boys standing on desks, and it is also the story of a boy who never stands again. The familiar fork (seize the day against crushing tradition, poetry against conformity, the beloved teacher against the rigid father) is real, and it is not deep enough. Read with Soren Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death, the film is a drama of despair: a sickness of the spirit when possibility and necessity tear apart.

In this Mythic Mind Movies episode, Dr. Andrew Snyder (professor of philosophy and theology) speaks alone, expanding the earlier Mythic Mind Movies conversation rather than restaging it. He will not score the film as a culture war, and he will not worship Keating for liberating the young. The tone he wants is Kierkegaard's physician at the sickbed. Welton Academy, at its worst, drains out possibility and trains boys to be excellent at function: finitude's despair, the mass man, traditionalism turned into tyrannical order. Mr. Perry is not a cartoon. He loves Neil, but only through security, profession, reputation, and a decided future in medicine, and he wills a self for his son. Dr. Andrew Snyder compares that shape of love to the archetypal witch, who feeds children up so that she can feed on them. Keating, at his most intoxicating, is the other sickness. He tears out the dead utilitarian measurement of poetry, stands the boys on the desk, and at least in spirit takes them to the cave, so that language is the air the spirit breathes. He floods them with possibility and does not teach the return to necessity without a crash on the shore. Lazy readings give him sainthood or make him the scapegoat. Neither is the film.

Neil Perry is the center of the reading. On stage he tastes a self that feels like his real life, then binds that self to one possibility, Kierkegaard's "either Caesar or nothing." When the father closes the theater and military school waits, necessity arrives as violence, not as a place where a self might still be formed. Neil stays in what Kierkegaard calls a poet-existence. He does not come home. He does not rest, repent, or endure. He wills to be rid of himself. The earlier conversation rightly refused a single villain: the father presses finitude's despair onto another life, Keating opens possibility without enough formation for the return, the school rewards spiritlessness and then needs a scapegoat, and Neil, still unfinished, fails the task that belongs to the individual. Todd's last stand is the contrast. He does not demand an overnight rewrite of his whole story. He takes one finite step, in the moment, and stands on the desk in public. Charlie (Nuwanda) wears rebellion like a costume, a theater of defiance rather than integrated selfhood. Knox lets desire race ahead of the real girl and the real limits. The film, to its credit and its limit, shows the dizziness of freedom (The Concept of Anxiety) more clearly than the orientation faith would give. Where, humanly speaking, there is no possibility, the movie goes silent. Kierkegaard does not: with God, everything is possible. Poetry, friendship, and carpe diem can wake a self. They do not by themselves cure despair. The opposite of despair is faith, willing to be the concrete self you are, limits included, before the power that established you.

Topics include quiet despair that still looks successful, Headmaster Nolan and the false peace of an institution, spiritless boys trained as empty talking machines, the sin of poeticizing instead of being (a nod to Plato's cave, where the boys may only have changed shadows), and three questions for the watcher: where you are mortgaged to finitude, where you are drunk on infinitude, and what one concrete step would look like this week.

Related Mythic Mind Movies:
• Carpe Diem Unbounded: Dead Poets Society (ep. 28): https://youtu.be/I9N033zhmII

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The "carpe diem" spirit at work in Dead Poets Society is a genuine good, but it is dangerous when it is not given the guardrails of facticity. The romantic spirit can wake a sleeping life, give verse to the willfully mute, and make the world feel alive again. However, it can also blind us to the body we have, the people we owe, the school, the father, the future that will not be rewritten by a feeling, however profound. Keating is not a villain. The danger is what happens when “seize the day” starts to mean “the facts of our lives are silent."

This is Mythic Mind Movies, ep. 28, in which we discuss Dead Poets Society, the gift of the romantic spirit, and the cost of letting it run unbounded.

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Peter Jackson's The Return of the King is a cinematic finale that keeps much of Tolkien's spirit on screen (courage when the path is insurmountable, devotion to companions, sacrifice for ordinary domestic life) even while it makes significant, sometimes painful, departures from the book.

In this Mythic Mind Movies conversation, Dr. Andrew Snyder (professor of philosophy and theology) and guests close the Jackson film trilogy. Andrew names it his personal favorite of the three for the force of conclusion, while still granting Fellowship the stronger claim as adaptation. The talk weighs sympathy for what Jackson had to compress, missing Scouring of the Shire, oaths and the Dead, Gollum's treachery, Frodo and Sam at Mount Doom, and which extended-edition beats help or hurt. Tolkien's light still springs from the ashes; not every change is forgivable.

Topics include adaptation vs spectacle, eucatastrophe and endings, Denethor and Gondor, the Paths of the Dead, Grey Havens afterglow, and why "all that is gold does not glitter" still lands on film.

Related Mythic Mind Movies:
• The Fellowship of the Ring as Film and Adaptation (ep. 25): https://youtu.be/ZpZY3u_eyuw
• The Two Towers as Film and Adaptation (ep. 26): https://youtu.be/cQQy1BkKGt0
• The Princess Bride: Fairy Stories Taken Seriously (ep. 18): https://youtu.be/bIZ3MoK74r4
• Carpe Diem Unbounded: Dead Poets Society (ep. 28): https://youtu.be/I9N033zhmII

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Peter Jackson's The Two Towers is one of the strongest middle chapters ever put on screen: wider scope, deeper stakes, and Helm's Deep as an iconic set piece. It is also the film where adaptation liberties grow sharper than in Fellowship, and where Tolkien's spirit is both carried and strained.

In this Mythic Mind Movies conversation, Dr. Andrew Snyder (professor of philosophy and theology) and guests keep the dual lens: cinema on its own terms, and fidelity to the book. They weigh why expanding Helm's Deep often feels earned on screen, where Faramir and structural rearrangements hurt, Treebeard's invented and borrowed lines, Merry and Pippin's added nobility, and tonal shifts that change the experience of the text.

Topics include war cinema vs the book's proportions, forgivable spectacle, character emphasis, Saruman's industrial evil, and why middle-chapter departures matter for the whole trilogy.

Related Mythic Mind Movies:
• The Fellowship of the Ring as Film and Adaptation (ep. 25): https://youtu.be/ZpZY3u_eyuw
• The Return of the King as Film and Adaptation (ep. 27): https://youtu.be/ltRXR2l06Ak
• The Princess Bride: Fairy Stories Taken Seriously (ep. 18): https://youtu.be/bIZ3MoK74r4

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Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring is still one of the most awarded films in cinema history, and for many viewers it was the door into Tolkien. As a movie it has enduring power. As an adaptation it invites real criticism without requiring bitterness: the films are shadowed by the greatness of the books, and that is part of why they still matter.

In this Mythic Mind Movies conversation, Dr. Andrew Snyder (professor of philosophy and theology) and guests take the first Jackson film through two lenses: story on screen, and fidelity to Tolkien. They talk Bombadil's absence, Arwen's expanded role, Boromir's path to sympathy, Council of Elrond beats, and why Fellowship remains the trilogy's closest adaptation even when cuts sting.

Topics include cinematic introduction vs literary depth, forgivable and unforgivable changes, hobbit-point-of-view direction, and how criticism can honor a 25-year-old classic instead of dismissing it.

Related Mythic Mind Movies:
• The Two Towers as Film and Adaptation (ep. 26): https://youtu.be/cQQy1BkKGt0
• The Return of the King as Film and Adaptation (ep. 27): https://youtu.be/ltRXR2l06Ak
• The Princess Bride: Fairy Stories Taken Seriously (ep. 18): https://youtu.be/bIZ3MoK74r4

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How do we know what is real when the set is perfect and the audience never sleeps? The Truman Show follows a man raised inside a television world who begins to notice the seams, then sails for the door at the edge of the sky.

In this Mythic Mind Movies conversation, Dr. Andrew Snyder (professor of philosophy and theology) is joined by David, Kit, and newcomer Max (Andrew's pick; childhood favorite). They talk affirmation of reality against gnostic readings, Plato's cave as a television studio, Sylvia as the one choice off the script, and Christof as a creator who would rather keep Truman safe than free.

Topics include freedom under surveillance, the hunger for an unscripted life, and why leaving Seahaven is an act of hope, not cynicism.

Related Mythic Mind Movies:
• Wings of Desire: An Angel Choosing the Weight of Life (ep. 22): https://youtu.be/6Cb_S_kJ_KI
• 12 Angry Men: Seeing Past the Story We Prefer (ep. 20): https://youtu.be/m0u-3w2CjDw
• Godzilla Minus One: The Life Worth Living (ep. 16): https://youtu.be/VupE3fmnAPQ
• Freud's Last Session: C.S. Lewis as Amateur Apologist (ep. 19): https://youtu.be/YnONwl7idEE

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Take some time to dilly dally shilly shally with us as we discuss Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. 

As a long-time fan of the original game, I finally got around to watching the film. This is a visually engaging project with the potential for great psychological exploration. Even if that potential is mostly untapped, Advent Children is definitely worth your time if you are a fan of the franchise.

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Wings of Desire watches over Cold War Berlin through angels who hear every inner voice and see in black and white, until eternity itself grows hungry for flesh. Damiel falls toward a trapeze artist and chooses the weight of time: color, cold, coffee, mortality.

In this Mythic Mind Movies conversation, Dr. Andrew Snyder (professor of philosophy and theology) is joined by David and Kit (Kit's pick; Andrew's first viewing). They talk the eternal consoling the temporal, the soundscape of thought, black-and-white heaven against colored earth, and what an angel gives up to become human.

Topics include intelligence and the body, desire as incarnation, Berlin's divided city as spiritual geography, and why a European art film still belongs in a Christian-humanities watch.

Related Mythic Mind Movies:
• Godzilla Minus One: The Life Worth Living (ep. 16): https://youtu.be/VupE3fmnAPQ
• Freud's Last Session: C.S. Lewis as Amateur Apologist (ep. 19): https://youtu.be/YnONwl7idEE
• Carpe Diem Unbounded: Dead Poets Society (ep. 28): https://youtu.be/I9N033zhmII
• The Princess Bride: Fairy Stories Taken Seriously (ep. 18): https://youtu.be/bIZ3MoK74r4

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Luther (2003) is a Reformation drama that cares less about palace intrigue than about a doctor of theology who wants consciences eased by the gospel. Against the "circus of Rome," indulgences, and empire, the film stages a man under authority who cannot quiet what he has seen in Scripture.

In this Mythic Mind Movies conversation, Dr. Andrew Snyder (professor of philosophy and theology) is joined by guests for Reverend David's pick. They talk about how the movie introduces Martin Luther beyond "the guy we're named after," how it compresses confession-scruples and the Diet of Worms, and where it plays fast and loose with figures like Aleander. The discussion also weighs Christian princes and politics, Frederick the Wise's relics and honesty, the Peasants' War as a bind Luther could not escape cleanly, and the film's deliberate restraint for a family audience.

Topics include bound conscience, gospel vs power, vocation and pastoral care, historical compression, and why public-school "political only" Reformation stories miss the soul of the crisis.

Related Mythic Mind Movies:
• The Princess Bride: Fairy Stories Taken Seriously (ep. 18): https://youtu.be/bIZ3MoK74r4
• Persuasion (1995): Constancy, Second Chances, and C.S. Lewis on Austen (ep. 17): https://youtu.be/To6WQwbs3Vw
• Carpe Diem Unbounded: Dead Poets Society (ep. 28): https://youtu.be/I9N033zhmII

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