Reviews for Daoist Mystical Philosophy

The average rating for Daoist Mystical Philosophy based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2021-06-03 00:00:00 Kristin Johnson I admit, I haven't seen all of the Coen Brothers films, so I feel justified in only reading the essays that pertain to the 3 films I have seen. I'm such a nerd because I always get a kick out of reading critical analysis of films, literature, art, etc. I do feel like I have a better handle on why things happened as they did in Fargo, how irony and comedy work together in O Brother Where Art Thou?, and what the hell happened in No Country For Old Men. I look forward to finding more in this popular film philosophy series. The essays are always kind of fun to skip through.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-06-18 00:00:00 Sean Murphy Some of the essays collected here have good insights into the inspirations behind the Coen brothers' films, especially with regards to the film noir and 40s pulp influences behind Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, and Fargo, and the influence of Sartre and Camus on The Man Who Wasn't There. However most of the book leans too heavily towards philosophical theories to provide much of value in the way of film criticism. Many of the pieces in this volume are essentially philosophy 101 courses on the teachings of Socrates and Kierkegaard that merely use a particular Coen film as the framework through which to explain their theories. It's a shame because the Coens' oeuvre is deep enough in both volume and thought that a book analyzing their films in an effort to weave a comprehensive philosophical theory represented across them is easily conceivable and could be quite interesting.