Movies with Buddhist Themes - More Ideas?

Since writing an article on movies about Buddhism awhile back, I've often been asked to write an article on movies that don't explicitly feature Buddhism, but might be said to explore Buddhist themes. Here's my take on it, including quotes from The Matrix, Waking Life, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Defending Your Life, and Forrest Gump.

I'd love to hear some more suggestions, or your takes on my list. Thanks!

I love this article! I'd love to see an in depth review of the themes in ground hog day.

7 Years in Tibet (obvious)
Peaceful Warrior (more obvious)
Into The Wild
Jacob's Ladder
Big Lebowski
I Heart Huckabees
Wizard of Oz (big time especially Toto character)

Just a few I've watched. I've watched so many more but too many to try to remember : )

LOL - definitely explain the Wizard of Oz one...

Thanks Jilly, I'm glad you saw this, as you were the one who originally suggested it after I did the original Buddhist movies article!

Monica, thanks for the ideas. I mentioned Jacob's Ladder and Seven Years in Tibet in the original Buddhist movies article, but the rest of these I didn't think of. I read Peaceful Warrior but never saw the movie, definitely have to get that one on my Netflix list. I love the Big Lebowski and I Heart Huckabees, didn't think of those.

And I forgot about Into the Wild - it does have the whole renunciation/looking for what's real theme going on. But too bad he doesn't find the 'middle way' like Buddha did after his ascetic phase...

Wizard of Oz I will have to watch again...haven't seen as an adult, so missed the Toto/Buddhist link I guess!

I also agree about the Into the Wild...i actually have this book set up for my mother to read if I die in the wilderness. I'd hope it would help her understand me better. not sure she'd get it, but one could not say i did not try.

I've watched The Wizard of Oz dozens of times (it's one of my favorite movies) but never considered the symbolism. There's tons of interpretations of this movie including very interesting political ones but the main one has to do with the fact that Baum was a Theosopist.

Apparently the book and movie is chock full of this but I wouldn't know that if I had not read a few articles on it. Here's are some fun quotes taken from various websites that you might find interesting. Is Toto our Buddha within?

"the entire story of the Wizard of Oz is an allegorical tale of the soulï¿½s path to illumination ï¿½ the Yellow Brick Road. In Buddhism (an important part of Theosophical teachings) the same concept is referred to as the ï¿½Golden Pathï¿½.

The story starts with Dorothy Gale living in Kansas, which symbolizes the material world, the physical plane where each one of us starts our spiritual journey. Dorothy feels an urge to ï¿½go over the rainbowï¿½, to reach the ethereal realm and follow the path to illumination. She has basically ï¿½passed the Nadirï¿½ by demonstrating the urge to seek a higher truth.

Dorothy is then brought to Oz by a giant cyclone spiraling upward, representing the cycles of karma, the cycle of errors and lessons learned. It also represents the theosophical belief in reincarnation, the round of physical births and deaths of a soul until it is fit to become divine. It is also interesting to note that the Yellow Brick Road of Oz begins as an outwardly expanding spiral. In occult symbolism, this spiral represents the evolving self, the soul ascending from matter into the spirit world."

"Most of the spiritual interpretations of The Wizard of Oz see Toto only in terms of his relationship to Dorothy. In his Zen Buddhist interpretation of The Wizard of Oz, Joey Green points out that Toto is the only one who loves Dorothy unconditionally, but Dorothy invites trouble by allowing Toto to run through Miss Gulch's garden in an effort to get Aunt Em and Uncle Henry to take notice of her. Darren John Main in his New Age interpretation of The Wizard of Oz argues that Toto is an extension of Dorothy's character. Toto represents the creative part of the soul that may lead us into trouble but also uncovers important lessons. As he puts it, "Toto has one major functionï¿½to rock Dorothy's world." [4]In his Christian interpretation, Samuel Bousky suggests that Toto represents something more profound. He argues that Dorothy represents the spirit of humankind while Toto represents the physical body. Toto comes from the Latin Totum, which means whole. Together these two characters represent the whole of humanity."

"Toto represents the inner, intuitive, instinctual, most animal-like part of us. Throughout the movie, Dorothy has conversations with Toto, or her inner intuitive self. The lesson here is to listen to the Toto within. In this movie, Toto was never wrong. When he barks at the scarecrow, Dorothy tries to ignore him: ï¿½Donï¿½t be silly, Toto. Scarecrows donï¿½t talk.ï¿½ But scarecrows do talk in Oz. Toto also barks at the little man behind the curtain. It is he who realizes the Wizard is a fraud. At the Gale Farm and again at the castle, the Witch tries to put Toto into a basket. What is shadow will try to block or contain the intuitive. In both cases, Toto jumps out of the basket and escapes. Our intuitive voice can be ignored, but not contained.

In the last scene, Toto chases after a cat, causing Dorothy to chase after him and hence miss her balloon ride. This is what leads to Dorothyï¿½s ultimate transformation, to the discovery of her inner powers. The balloon ride is representative of traditional religion, with a skinny-legged wizard promising a trip to the Divine. Toto was right to force Dorothy out of the balloon, otherwise she might never have found her magic. This is a call for us to listen to our intuition, our gut feelings, those momentary bits of imagination that appear seemingly out of nowhere."

Wow, Monica thanks so much for the Wizard of Oz interpretation!! Major palm-hitting-my-forehead moment as I read it - it is so obvious once you start thinking of it this way. The 'golden path' indeed! I didn't know Baum was a Theosophist. I studied Theosopy for a couple of years, fairly seriously. This is fascinating. I feel like I should post it as a guest post from you on the site - lots of people would like this. Perhaps I can link to this forum thread in my next newsletter...

Those are all other people's quotes so please don't quote me on that. There are tons of sites with killer buddhist interpretations of the movie. If you google you will find everything you could possibly need to write an amazing article on this : )

I kind of went nuts with the quoting but it is one of my favorite movies and the idea of Theosophy appeals to me even though I would never pursue it.

BTW I love your list. I need to go read your article : )

A reader sent me an email suggesting a British movie called The Warrior by Asif Kapadia, based on a zen story. I have not seen it yet but thought I would pass the suggestion on here...

I think it would be fun if you looked at movies like pride and prejudice from a buddhist point of view

Lisa, yes, I hadn't thought of that, Pride and Prejudice would be a good one. Really, almost any movie could be I guess, particularly any human drama, since the Buddha was so insightful about the human condition...

I wanted to add Hereafter to this list, after seeing it this weekend. It got terrible reviews, and I think they are really unjust. I think it's because it's a difficult subject matter - death - and it doesn't offer explicit, feel-good answers. It's also paced very slowly, often the case for Clint Eastwood movies, but that makes them less appealing to some people.

It centers on 3 characters: Matt Damon plays a reluctant psychic who can communicate with the dead but suffers because of it, and then there are two other story lines - a woman jouranlist who has a near-death experience in the Indonesia tsunami, and a young boy who loses his twin brother in a tragic accident. The three characters are pulled together in the end. There's a lot of suffering in the story, and that may be another reason some people have not reacted well to it. And although it centers around the idea that there is something else beyond death, it doesn't say what that is, or present it within a particular belief system or religion.

Personally, I thought it was really brilliant, and absolutely beautiful. And Buddhist in many ways, because it offers an honest look at human suffering, and is inquiring, but does not settle on a fixed answer or belief system.

Why is the Unbearable Lightness of Being considered a Buddhist theme movie?

I don't know as I would consider the Unbearable Lightness of Being Buddhist myself (and I haven't seen the movie, just read the book, and I remember that Kundera did not like the movie, so there may be a big difference between the two.) But perhaps some people consider it Buddhist because philosophically it is very focused on the essence of life being in the moment...however, as I remember it, Kundera is very existential - there isn't much meaning offered beyond the moment, so everything is kind of pointless...in Buddhism there is liberation and joy in the moment, in being free from our usual conceptual living, rather than hopelessness...

I added some movies to this post for an updated version - HereAfter with Matt Damon, and the Adjustment Bureau, also starring him. I thought about adding Limitless, since it also explores the nature of consciousness, but didn't think it quite fit. Has anyone seen these movies? What do you think?

The film "The Silent Flute" combines quite a few Taoist and Buddhist teachings.

I hadn't heard of this one before, but looked it up and it sounds great.

I'd highly recommend it. It's one of those multi-level films you can watch every so often and see new nuances.

If we open the genre up to include TV series may I suggest "Life" from NBC? As you can see from the quotes .

Also The TV series 'Kung Fu' as shown in this example

Just found the guide for the series click on the episodes for the quotes

Also a starting point for Kung Fu: The legend continues

Have fun!!

A good animated film with Taoist/Buddhist themes is "Surf's Up" . The main focus is on the 'novice' Cody, while the 'death and rebirth' cycle are personified by "Big Z/Geek" and the "Follower of the Path" by 'Chicken Joe". The latter, for me, showing how being in tune with the moment both protects him and helps others find their own path. Joe doesn't even realize he's won until the film crew following the contest tell him!

I haven't seen the Adjustment Bureau or Hereafter (though I want to). I saw Limitless - which I LOVED so much, I'd watch it again.

Maybe you could say it was kinda metaphysical. I think if you used it as a metaphor for not truly "seeing" around us - and when we're hypnotized and lack vision due to being in our comfort zone (or rut LOL).

Deanna, I completely agree on Limitless, I loved it too (thought it was Bradley Cooper's best performance to date), and agree that if you approach it in terms of how we are usually limited by only seeing things through our 'conditioned mind', it can be seen as spiritual, or at least deeply philosophical...

To all,

Nobody spoke of Kundun,the movie about the Dalai lama's life,
as a child,growing up ,his meeting with Mao ze dong his escape from Tibet.7 years in tibet is a pale american copy of Kundun.

loong

Hi looong, I have a separate article called Buddhist Movies that includes Kundun and other movies such as The Little Buddha and Spring Summer Fall Winter that are actually about Buddhism or heavily feature Buddhism. The article that started this particular thread is Movies with Buddhist Themes, and it includes movies that aren't actually 'about' Buddhism, but feature Buddhist themes...

Kundun is a great movie, and has introduced so many people to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism....

Dear Lisa ,
I was surprised to see,Jacob's Ladder as a buddhist themed movie.

The Jabob's ladder I remember is an Israeli movie, where the mossad ,finds all the terrorist that killed many athletes at a
olympic games,I beleive it was at Athens.And they kill them one
by one.

Not the same at all.Just wikied the movie, no sign of it. It was quite contreversial at the time.

So sorry .One you can add to your list is a 2003 movie called
TIBET
cry of the snow lion.

hard movie to watch ,the struggle of the tibetans against the chinese army.People being bearnt ,emprisonned,killed for having
a picture of tha Dalai-Lama.

To the poor people of Tibet,I send them thoughts of resistance and compassion .

loong

Hi looong, I haven't seen the Jacob's Ladder you mentioned, but the one I meant was made in 1990 so is a bit outdated...it's about a Vietnam veteran who thinks he is losing his mind...his visions are based on the description of the bardos in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. So it's not a conventional view of Buddhism at all, but has some Tibetan Buddhist themes related to the bardos. It's quite scary actually (it is a Hollywood thriller after all) but has some interesting moments. Here's a brief article I posted awhile back on the bardos if you are not familiar with them: The Six Bardos of Tibetan Buddhism .

Thanks for the Cry of the Snow Lion suggestion, I had read a bit about that when it first came out but not seen it.

Dear Lisa,

What I had heard or read ,the bardo period was 23 days.Also I have read in my research for Jacob's ladder ,the movie you described.

With Loving Kindness
a simple buddhist named
loong

The bardo period varies in different schools of Buddhism.

To Lisa,
Thank you for that information.

With Respect.

a simple buddhist named
loong

Anyone seen The Way yet, starring Martin Sheen? I haven't yet, but many people have told me it's profoundly spiritual...it is out on Netflix streaming and DVD, so hopefully I will be able to see it soon and perhaps do a little mini-review here in the forum...