Creator Title Emotional Sum (Sense of Life or emotional World View) Theme
Author: Henry Kitchell Webster King in Khaki, A

Honesty is a noble and practical way of life.

Business acumen produces both material wealth and moral right.

The success of the entrepreneur in this story, along with his relation to all his staff and secondary and tertiary folks on the island who work for him -- makes him into a "king" based on important human relations and the rightness of his decisions that result in a successful business enterprise.

A subsidiary theme might be termed the power of morality over physical power or economic "power".

Composer: Lou Handman Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Sensuality and bitterness

The remembrance of past love.

Director: Carroll Ballard Black Stallion

Everything is possible between boy and beast, between an innocent human and mother nature.

Man and nature in harmony. At least this is the theme of the first half of the movie. See "Description" and "Context" info below for more on this comment.

Miron - Parish: Tzena Tzena Tzena

Joyous celebration

Joyous celebration

Painter: Thomas Wilmer Dewing Comedia

Life is sumptuous and beautiful and alive.

Feminine vivacity and gaiety

Rand, Ayn: Anthem

The book starts out psychologically dark and disorienting because of the protagonist struggling with the radically collectivist world he was born into. But what shows even in the early pages, and grows to the climax is the triumphant struggle of a rare few who break free of the yoke of total mind control and become free to live a life as a conceptual human and rediscover what it means to be an individual. Thrilling and emotionally satisfying (unless the reader is a committed determinist.)

Ego and using one's individual mind is the core of being human.

Loysel, Jacques: La Grande Nevrose

The dynamic female body is beautiful and exciting. Although it may not explicitly suggest it, the nude and its tense position could be felt as erotic.

An animated female body is a vessel of perfection.

Director: Rob Reiner A Few Good Men

Justice should be fought for, needs to be fought for and can be fragile.

Commitment to a moral code is central to a good man's life.

Author: John Steinbeck East of Eden

Life is filled with great and important choices.

The battle between good and evil, guilt and innocence. Takes the position that we are influenced by many things, but ultimately we have free will.

Author: Nevil Shute Trustee from the Toolroom

A feeling of gentleness, kindness and generosity towards good people in the world.

The importance of pursuing one's personal values.

Director: John McTiernan Die Hard

The way to beat evil is to give no quarter, no compromise. Life is hard, but fighting for the right is rewarded.

Giving up in life is not an option.

Maugham, W. Somerset: Of Human Bondage

Life is a fearful gray spread of actions and in-actions without genuine values. We are all deformed in mind or spirit and should accept convention as demanded by those around us.

Man's life is outside his control. Conventionality is the final ideal.

White, James Terry: Hyacinths to feed thy soul

Hopeful. Even in poverty one can have beauty.

Beauty is a form of sustenance

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi Attila (live performance)

Life is a mix of strength, heroism, romantic passion.

The work is a long complex opera, so it has many other lyrical emotions as part of it, but this covers the basic sense of life.

Loving a heroic woman leads to death

Author: Nevil Shute Far Country, The

Life can be bright, happy and successful, but hard decisions must be faced and dealt with.

A good and happy life is made up of self-directed actions, self-chosen goals.

A less important theme is:
Freedom from government control.
Whether the government control results from devastating wars, or from socialist control of medical care, freedom is to be sought and prized.

Director: Akira Kurosawa Rashomon

The world is terrible and full of disasters and mankind is awful and pathetic.

Objectivity is a myth -- everyone sees a different reality, a different "story".

Author: Henry Kitchell Webster Real Adventure, The

Life is wonderful as long as you realize that life has to be earned the hard way.

Creating your self is the only way to live.

Director: Emile Ardolino Dirty Dancing

Life is passionate and meaningful.

The joy and passion of love and life and dancing, while learning integrity and independence.

Composer: Franz Lehar Merry Widow (Die Lustige Witwe)

Love brings gaiety and joy to life.

Love can be gay and tender, solemn and lighthearted, painful and joyous.

Director: Hugh Hudson Chariots of Fire

A complete feeling of openness of the world to greatness of your own choosing.

Life is achievement.

Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright Johnson Wax Building

Day to day life can be exalted and pleasurable.

To Work should be a condition of grandeur and joy.

Composer: Warren and Dubin Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Weariness & Sadness

Life is loss of dreams and sadness

Architect: Unknown Burgos Cathedral Crossing

God is order and reason and light.

The spirit of god is rational, uplifting and rich in detail

Director: Oliver Stone Wall Street

There are bad people in power who use ordinary people as pawns in their endless pursuit of money. Those who are not ruthless are sheep to be slaughtered by the rich and powerful. Greed is bad.

Financiers are amoral money-grubbing backstabbers, i.e., desire for money corrupts

Screenwriter: Chopra Vidhu Vinod 3 Idiots

Life can be fun and productive and exciting. As is true in some other Bollywood features, this story and the ideas behind it about pursuing the good life, has an honesty and clarity and benevolence that is not part of the U.S. movie scene.

Be what you want to be; follow your passion in life