Top 10 Profound and Deep Movies and TV Shows for Film Fans

Many people love movies nowadays. They are a great way to spend time, to relax, and even learn something new. Sometimes we want to see something deeper, something which makes us think about life for a while. Do you know the feeling of watching a movie and then not being able to get rid of it in the mind? What did the author mean by that scene? What really happened to the main character? This reminds me of my life a bit, is there anything I can take from this movie? Sometimes we are fed up with the repetitive superheroes and movie cliches everywhere. I don't mean those pseudo-deep movies which only look like profound with some confusing quotes but films with thoughts that are actually connected to our life and we all can relate to them. Well, if that's the case for you, this article might be helpful. I have also made another list with deep shows and films related to religion. Here is the list of some movies I saw and I found very interesting and sometimes even hard to understand:

10. The Fountain (2006)

Death is a difficult thing to accept. We live our lives not realizing that they would end one day. Immortality has always been something that fascinated people in all parts of the world. This movie follows three storylines from different ages. The same dream reincarnated in three lives. But what do we have to pay for immortality? Is it even worth it?

9. Collateral Beauty (2016)

Sometimes we don't see a way out of depression. Some events in our lives look totally miserable and throw us to the depths of despair. But the world is still here, life is going on. This movie is about looking at suffering from another angle.

8. Black Mirror (2011–2023)

This episodic TV show focuses on various social issues we face in our modern society. This show is sometimes quite dark and dystopic. It selects some aspects of the evolution of our society that might lead to difficult situations. What does it mean to be human, especially in the modern world and the future? Technology already plays an important role in our lives, but also raises various moral and ethical issues. This show opens topics which are sometimes hard to talk about and even hard to comprehend or judge.

7. The Little Prince (2015)

One of the most known books of all time. There is not much to say. This movie is based on the book and is extended by a new story of a strong-minded small girl who kind of forgot to be a kid. This movie is a great tribute to Saint-Exupéry!

6. The Man in the High Castle (2015–2019)

What if Nazis won the WWII? Imagine the world under their rule, USA split between Japanese and Germans. Atomic bomb dropped at Washington instead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This TV show is not just an alternative history. The things that I found most fascinating were the parallels between our democratical society and a cruel dictatorship. We see the WWII Germany totally fanaticized by Adolf Hitler but we sometimes do not see how fanaticized are we today by the ideals promoted in the current society.

5. A Beautiful Mind (2001)

A movie about a famous Nobel Prize laureate John Nash who was a mathematical genius. Geniality often comes with a prize, and his life was not easy. Not only his own inner problems, but also those who want to use his skills for their own purposes are dangerous. Thanks to the caring people around him, he manages to overcome the obstacles in his life. I guarantee you that this movie will leave you speechless and will make you think a lot about the people around you.

4. Christopher Robin (2018)

Winnie the Pooh. Great fairy tale for kids, right? However, many people find something deeper in these stories. The simple mind of Pooh is sometimes what we all miss. We have so many problems in our lives with work, family, money, health...but what is the worst thing about them? Usually, the thoughts that are coming back again and again, haunting us in our dreams. Maybe going back a little bit to our childhood might be a solution. This movie visits the little boy, Christopher Robin from the Pooh stories as an adult, adult who forgot about Pooh but Pooh hasn't forgotten about him!

3. The Man from Earth (2007)

This whole film is basically filmed at one place, in one house with a group of people talking together. Despite this seemingly boring setting, the story is very captivating. Imagine a man from prehistoric times who for an unknown reason does not age. He would have met thousands of people, loved them, hated them, and lost them in the sands of time. How would such an extraordinary being see the world? What wisdom would he gain during all these ages?

2. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring (2003)

This movie describes the cycles in life we all experience. We start doing the right thing, then we do mistakes, we go the wrong way, and eventually, we find the right path again. A young Buddhist monk lives with an old master in wilderness and lives a spiritual life. Things change when the young man meets a girl. This film is a great example of the spiritual way, which is not idealized. Despite doing all sorts of stuff in our life, we often return to things we have abandoned and often find new beauty in them.

1. Silence (2016)

Of all the movies I have ever watched, this one left the deepest impression in my memory. It is based on a real story of a Jesuit priest who came to the feudal Japan to spread Christianity. Imagine people who have a good intention to spread their religion, which they strongly believe in coming to a country where people want to keep their own cultural heritage intact. This movie presents many interesting questions that I comteplated for a long time. It is not just about the priests being chased away. The film goes deeper and focuses on the cultural differences which make the adoption of the new religion impossible. There are people who want to protect their own culture from foreign influence. There are some who want to adopt the new religion but cannot really understand it. The priests themselves are standing in front of a serious decision: keep doing what they believe in despite sacrifices, despite suffering of many other people? What is the right thing to do? How far can a human being go in the name of their own beliefs? The answer is...silence... This movie is unique in many ways. The priests' actors spent a week at a Jesuit retreat in complete silence to prepare for the roles. The legendary director of this movie, Martin Scorsese, wanted to keep silence on the set to create the right atmosphere, and he planned to make this movie for almost 30 years.

Of course there are also other films such as Matrix, Schindler's List, Shutter Island, Inception, Seven Years in Tibet, or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest which are quite profound, unique, and really good, but I wanted to mention more of the less known which I kind of regard as hidden gems. If you like thought-provoking, mind-bending films with religious metaphors and symbols, you might check out my original mysterious free-to-watch mini-series called Forgotten Wanderer.

Keywords: cinema, meditation, contemplation, deep story
#film #movie #cinematography #philosophy #deepstory