10. 'The Trial' - Orson Welles (1962)
It is based on the novel by Franz Kafka, starring Anthony Perkins, and directed by Orson Welles. It would be tough to leave this one off of the list. Mentioning Kafka’s name is almost all that you would have to do to know that this film belongs on this list. In this film, Perkins stands trial for an unspecific crime in an absurd and alienating bureaucratic world, and in the end, resigns to his fate.
9. 'Shame' - Ingmar Bergman (1968)
Ingmar Bergman is no stranger to existentialism in his movies. 'Shame' was shot during the peak of the Vietnam War, but it is not politics that is focused on here so much as the idea that truth cannot be escaped. It focuses on a couple living alone on an unspecified desolate island, rich in existential symbolism in itself. The war in this film is never seen, but it closes in despite all attempts at escape.
8. 'The Mechanic' - Michael Winner (1972)
An existential hit man film, opening with 15 plus minutes with zero dialogue, and full of feelings of gloom and dread. Charles Bronson is a hit man with a high degree of self-awareness. It is said that Tom Cruise’s character in Michael Mann’s 'Collateral' (2004) was inspired by this film. Charles Bronson knows who he is, and what he lives and dies by, and in this case, he actually teaches this philosophy to a younger protégé.
7. 'The Driver' - Walter Hill (1978)
Originally intended for Steve McQueen to star in, 'The Driver'’s main characters do not have names. The Driver, played by Ryan O'Neal, The Detective, played by Bruce Dern, The Woman, etc. This film takes the cinematic touch of 70’s action directors such as Sam Peckinpah and William Friedkin. The world is spare, empty, and alienating. It is a world without meaning except that which The Diver has created for himself.
6. 'Apocalypse Now' - Francis Ford Coppola (1979)
Coppola's masterpiece throws the existential hit man into the puzzle of an absolutely absurd and futile universe is his dark voyage into the self and into the savagery of man. Based on Joseph Conrad’s 'Heart of Darkness', 'Apocalypse Now' is a surrealist take of symbolic dark and winding journey into the horrors of war and into the dark side of ourselves.
5. 'Stalker' - Andrei Tarkovsky (1979)
As with 'Solaris' (1972), Tarkovsky explores existential desires and meaning within the science fiction genre. What matters and makes life worth living? What is reality, and does it matter to define it when one has meaning? There are no answers for our lives, only choices. It is rare combination of beauty within bleakness and a story that will leave you with endless questions in your own mind about your own life and existence.
4. 'Blade Runner' - Ridley Scott (1982)
What is consciousness? What is life? These are the major questions and themes within Ridley Scott’s masterpiece that was 30 years ahead of it’s time, and still mimicked to this day. Artificial life is both venerated as well as feared and hated, in the case of replicants, but it is self aware and conscious of its own mortality, and fights to survive and to find meaning.
3. 'The Thin Red Line' - Terrence Malick (1998)
Like most Terrence Malick films, this one should be experienced and allowed to flow over you more than simply being viewed, and the flow in this case, will be full of existential questioning about man, nature, who we are, and how we fit into this nature that we are a part of, and our war against ourselves and acceptance of who we are. It’s an internally visual poem.
2. 'Fight Club' - David Fincher (1999)
Perhaps the ultimate and one of the most successful postmodern existentialist films. 'Fight Club' explores our meaningless, conformist, and robotic corporate/consumer driven society with a struggle to regain masculinity and selfhood. There are few times when major Hollywood films strike a political, artistic, and box office chord all at once, but this film did it, and it forced a generation look within, even if just for a brief moment.
1. 'No Country for Old Men' - The Coen Brothers (2007)
Joel and Ethan Coen almost never make a film without some existential ideas, and some more than others. Death and the idea of chance loom large over this bleak Texas landscape, and there is no justice in the world futility patrolled by Tommy Lee Jones’ Texas sheriff. There is only the inevitable. The movie won 4 Oscars, including Best Director for Coen Brothers and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Javier Bardem.