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Toltec Spirit: Wisdom of don Miguel Ruiz and The Four Agreements passed on to others |
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Gary’s Recommended Movies for entertainment, fun and mind bending.
These are all not Academy Award winning films, but certain ones may make the list just for particular aspects that I enjoy. If it didn’t make the list, it may just be that I haven’t seen it, or it slipped my mind. You are welcome to remind me. Why movies, because they move us, they open us up, they allow us to feel another's emotions and to see into others imagination. They are an extraordinary feat of artistic expression. And they are fun.
(Generally in Alphabetical order with a few of my favorites first) A more complete list is on my new site at www.PathwayToHappiness.com/about_gary_books.htm
Brilliant, Funny and an inspiring demonstration of not taking the world personally. The world is what it is and while we may not always be able to control it, we can have complete control over our emotions and the story we tell about it.
Cabeza de Vaca (foreign film with subtitles) (you never know what your spiritual journey is gonna look like)
You always have some
free will in your life. When it comes to your destiny, you can choose to enjoy
the journey along your destiny path, or you can choose to struggle Razors Edge One of my all time favorites, and near the top of my list. Original with Tyrone Power and remade in the 80’s with Bill Murray, I prefer the later, Bill's just funnier, but both are good
Passion of Christ Recent film by Mel Gibson. Yes controversial. Tough to watch if you just see the expressions and treatment to Jesus. Inspiring if you notice throughout the Integrity and expression of Love Forgiveness and support to everyone. I watch it to "see" his message as he lived it.
American Beauty As my friend put it, “They nailed the Dream”. It might be one mans search for his Integrity. To do it he need not to be accepted and respected by anyone else. But he also discovers that he has to fully accept and respect himself.
Adaptation Nicholas Cage. We so often change the story of our life to suit others. We adapt our story to help it survive, but in the process, does our authentic self really live, or are we only partially alive?
A Beautiful Mind
We are all just a little
crazy. We all have that internal dialogue going. Russel Crowe, Jennifer Connely and Ed Harris
About Schmidt Jack Nicholson about what is really lasting and important in life. And how things are not what we thought they were, and people are not what we assume them to be.
Altered States William Hurt, a man possessed with a desire for truth, and willing to do what it takes to make his peace with it
Amadeus Brilliant
Amistad Powerful story, and as I understand it, based on a true story. Morgan Freeman, Mathew McConaghey, Anthony Hopkins
The Aposotle Robert Duval - the power of conviction, even if it is corrupted with self importance and a wounded emotional body. With that corruption of the emotions, it is difficult to practice what we preach
Being John Malkovich What if you weren’t who you thought you were? It might be frightening, but it might also be freeing?
Being There Peter Sellers, as brilliantly simple as one could be.
Bull Durham Kevin Costner Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins.
Confession Ben Kingsley and Alec Baldwin with what does it take to do the "Right" thing. And can we be honest with ourselves about what the "right" thing is??? Interesting questions and challenges in this movie.
Chocolat It is in embracing our humanity that we can recover our Divinity
Confidence Life is never what we imagine it is. Great illusions are so powerful, when we want them to be true. Ed Burns, Dustin Hoffman
Contact The great battle between logical reasoning and Faith. Most of our life has been spent with our faith trapped in the world of logical reasoning and left us without any way to see something more. Thus we are blind, and without faith in ourselves. with Jodie Foster
The Contender Brilliant. The black magic power of gossip. A tremendous cast
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Incredible martial arts, powerful women, battles of Good vs. Evil. Romance love, incredible landscapes, spiritual teachings....... Did I leave anything out????
The Crossing Guard What is good and what is evil? Are they black and white? Jack Nicholson- A man trapped by his own historical agreements
Dangerous Beauty We either are passionately alive, or we are not.
Dead Poet’s Society Must See, an absolute must see
Devil’s Advocate Are the big demons of temptation out there some where, or are they part of our imagination? A must see, although it can be a little dark and scary. Al Pacino, Keanu Reaves and Cherize Theron
The Doctor When we face our own Death, it can become our greatest teacher of living life. With William Hurt
Dogma A Parody on Religious Dogma, Angels, Heaven, Hell and Prophets. Also includes some good platypus humor. Slows in the middle but recovers nicely at the end. I didn't care for the cussing.
Don Juan de Marco It is about being a Master of Dreaming. To erase our personal history based in domestication and live our life the way we choose. An act of power and an act of the artistry of love
Dark City A little dark, and a little mind bending possibility
Elizabeth To much here to make a superficial comment about
Fallen What it takes to find, trap and vanquish a predator. A little dark and scary also. Denzel Washington and John Goodman
Fearless Jeff Bridges Fearless Living only comes when we are fearless with our mortality.
Field of Dreams You have to be a little crazy to step out of the box. But you might find an incredibly wonderful world out there. Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones
Fisher King It's odd and I still haven't made sense of it all. but I liked it
Forest Gump Being happy is simple. With Tom Hanks
Four Weddings and a Funeral Find your voice. Or forever be in conflict where there is no peace Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell
Francesco The Life of St. Francis of Assisi. Beautiful. The challenges of being a Holy man in a world of temptation. Mickey Rourke
Frida Salma Hayek, and a few other accomplished artists in this one
Fight Club If anyone asks, you didn't hear about this movie from me. Brad Pitt and Ed Norton
The Fugitive If you like Tommy Lee Jones. A two hour chase. Oh yeah, Harrison Ford was in there too.
Ghandi One man's will in integrity with his Love. Just plain powerful Ben Kingsly
Gladiator We might not be able to choose aspects of our life, or even how we die, but we can choose how we live. Russel Crowe
Good Will Hunting Your life will not measure by what you know. It will only be measured by what you do. And how you feel about it. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver and Robin Williams
The Green Mile Powerful, moving and touching Tom Hanks
The Game A convoluted, suspenseful mystery thriller or not????? With Michael Douglas
Ground Hog Day Just like any other day that you don’t make your life extraordinary. In time we all can learn to be artist of our life with Bill Murray and Andie McDowell
The Highlander Only the first one, not the sequels. Perhaps an externalized version of your internal spiritual warrior taking on inner demons, or perhaps not
Harry Potter and all that Magic
Hook Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams. The Imagination is more powerful and interesting than knowledge.
Horse Whisperer When a man lives in his integrity, he doesn’t try to be something he isn’t. Knowing the truth is the easy part, saying it is the hard part. Ladies when you find a man with Integrity, the leap to live in his world will be a challenge if you haven't done your own work Robert Redford
Immortal Beloved The story of Beethoven. It is one thing to write music, but to do so when you are physically nearly deaf. Brilliant
The Insider Al Pacnio and Russel Crowe - Agreements of Loyalty..... to whom and why
Instinct Anthony Hopkins recovers his Integrity. And gets Cuba Gooding Jr. on the path of breaking his illusions to do the same
Jacobs Ladder Tim Robbins ( a little dark) We dream. We dream when we sleep and when we no longer have a body. If we do it with some awareness, it can make all the difference
Lawrence of Arabia An Epic tale of one mans will Peter O'toole
Legend of Baggar Vance We all lose our swing and fall down at some point. But warriors get back up again Matt Damon and Will Smith
Living Out Loud Holly Hunter, Danny DiVito, Queen Latifa, What we can count on in life is change.
Love Actually- Huge cast and laugh out loud funny. Quite true that Love is actually, everywhere, we just have to look for it, and know what it looks like to find it.
Lord of the Rings Big,Big film. The temptation and seduction of Power. One of the challenges and obstacles a warrior faces. It can only be passed with complete humility.
The Lord of the Flies Without common law, we resort to might being right, and we have one type of social order. With law and agreements, we have different social structure. But if that law does not have common sense, we have something else
Little Buddha Been a while, but I remember I liked it.
Master and Commander with Russel Crowe.
Momento Incredible mind bending What do we really know for sure? And, can we really trust what we are sure of?
The Matrix Classic tale of the Hero Myth told in future time. The brothers who wrote and directed it have done their homework. Lawrence Fishbourne and Keanu Reaves
Malcom X. Just powerful.... With Denzel Washington
Max Post WWI Germany and the beginnings of a dream. We are all artists, We are all amazingly powerful, what will we create, and what will influence us in our decisions? John Cusak
Mr. Holland’s Opus What do you love? Richard Dryfus
Michael John Travolta, William Hurt and Andie McDowell
Miss Congeniality and II Cause Sandra made me laugh out loud
My Life A Statement for recapitulating the domestication of your life. Whether you think you need it or not Micheal Keaton and Nicole Kidman
Mysts of Avalon
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Magnolia A long one, and not necessarily that enjoyable throughout. You have to be patient to appreciate what it is saying. But the message can still be elusive.
The Nine Queens Foreign film. about making assumptions, they are powerful illusions that leave us without value
Open Your Eyes Vanilla Sky was the remake with Tom Cruise On the mind bending nature of dreaming. All our intellectual thinking will not help us out of the dream we are in. But perhaps courage, love and intent will. Original in subtitles.
Pay It Forward Moving, touching, emotional and inspiring. Packed full of agreements to learn from. Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, two of my favorites. Packed full of agreements to learn from.
The Princess Bride Romantic comedy about true love
Passions of the Mind What are we when we dream? Do we ever stop? Demi Moore
The Power of Myth Video tape series of Bill Moyers interview with Joseph Campbell. It sometimes plays on PBS. Campbell is beautifully brilliant
The Piano Nothing Glib about this one
Patch Adams The world is crazy. For those that touch sanity, they often feel like they don't belong. And this can be somewhat uneasy, but it is not crazy Robin Williams
Pleasantville “It’s about the emotions stupid.” When you recover being present with your emotions, they can become like a compass guiding you to your Integrity
Powder We fear what we don't understand. Which is quite the tragedy, because there is no understanding unconditional love
Primary Colors John Travolta, and Emma Thompson How politics is played?
Pushing Tin Once again, you don’t get to know how your awakening will come. But generally it is preceded with much drama. Billy Bob Thorton, Angelina Jolie and John Cusak
Runaway Jury Powers of Persuasion, great storyline, great cast, Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, John Cusak, and more.
Searching for Bobby Fisher Being happy is better than being the image of a winner. Ben Kingsley, one of my favorites
Solaris George Clooney - On dreams, and the power we have to manifest them. Are we not Divine in a certain point of view?
State and Main Cute, funny and clever. Great cast
Star Wars – ALL OF THEM IN THE SERIES Just good storytelling (except for Episode one,, poor character development)
Smoke Signals Sometimes you can't really move into the future until you clear the past.
Sneakers Fun, clever, great weaving of suspense and intrigue. Incredible cast. Robert Redford, Dan Akroyd, Ben Kingsley and James Earl Jones
Something about Mary Beyond funny. But in a sick, twisted, silly disgusting way. I really liked it, but you got to be in the mood for the low brow humor
Shawshank Redemption
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Shakespeare in Love Funny, clever, romantic and then some
Sliding Doors An interesting look at possibility and the world of choices and free will. With Gwenyth Paltrow
A Simple Plan Billy Bob Thorton, Bill Paxton, and Bridget Fonda The is another movie version with the same or similar name. Also good.
Ten Commandments
Hero Myth, and a good one.
Tin Cup No Matter what you do, we can all take that epic journey inour mind. And it can be fun too. Kevin Costner and Renee Russo
The Truman Show Hero's journey to step out of our comfort zone and follow our bliss. with Jim Carey and Ed Harris
Traffic It's about chasing a Ghost that just uses people. How do you catch and stop a ghost that dreams people? Full blown cast Huge cast
Touch Christopher Walken, Bridget Fonda Each person is entitled to live their life as they choose. No one else can choose what is best for us. And we can not choose for anyone else what is best for them. This is respect.
The Usual Suspects Good mind bending . Never trust a story teller. Kevin Spacey
Wag the Dog Dustin Hoffma, Robert Dinero, Woody Harrelson, Anne Heche. While outlandish in a way, perhaps it is more accurate than fictitious.
What the #@%$#! (Bleep) do we know.
Waking Life Are you dreaming? Animated and recently released
When Harry met Sally It’s worth it for one scene alone
X-men Interesting storyline. Good entertainment
7 years in Tibet Brad Pitt breaks down Self Importance the size of mountains.
12 Angry Men Each person lives their own dream and projects that dream to the world. It is their own dream that they see. One of the greatest arts of "seeing" is to see life as it is. This is without the projections of our own distorted beliefs. Watch the film once. See it unfold and then watch it again with the awareness of each person's dream being projected. A classic with Henry Fonda
12 Monkeys Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in a pretty imaginative world.
13th Floor Consensual Reality isn't
28 Days Revealing as how we learn to parent and treat ourselves the way we have been parented and treated. and cause Sandra Bullock makes me laugh
50 First Dates with Drew Barry more and Adam Sandler.
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