🎬 Movie Time

Nietzsche and the Big Screen

Philosophers,

Today we’re going to movies.

I firmly believe in the power of film and music—especially when combined—to reveal personal truths that even writing cannot illicit.

We’re going to consider the overture Also Sprach Zarathustra (German for Thus Spoke Zarathustra), and the classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

• First, the classical overture Also Sprach Zarathustra was composed in late 1800s by Richard Strauss as a direct inspiration from reading Nietzsche’s philosophy. Chances are, you know this song and don’t even realize it.

• Second, 2001 very much owes its creative instinct and inspiration to Nietzsche’s work in Zarathustra.

I just wrote a lot of big German sounding words, so let's put it in an organized timeline before we hit the film.

• Nietzsche wrote the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra in four parts released between 1883 and 1885. In it, he proposes a new mythology, ethical construct, and human philosophy.

• Richard Strauss, deeply inspired by the journey of humanity in Nietzsche’s…