2. Being And Time, Martin Heidegger
A work of enduring and legendary difficulty in themes and exposition, this is the magnum opus of Heideggers writings about philosophy, thinking and existence. But the problem is Being and Time is also an overhaul of modern philosophy, where an entire new vocabulary of words are exploited with verve and gusto to a point where only a few people thoroughly understand the book anyway. The central message is that being (existing) is time. Nothing exists before birth or after death and so time is necessarily finite. But the real message is a positive Hollywood blockbuster one, since, so Heidegger asserts, if time only has a relation to our existence, then a carpe diem attitude to life is all we should ever employ. Obviously this is all a bit simplified as Im sure any film version would also have to be. In truth, Being and Time is nothing short of an impenetrable matrix of thinking that would probably begin to frazzle the celluloid of any adaptation. Being and Time may even break the Hollywood sign on Mount Lee. Film is, ultimately, a visual medium. It does not handle deeply novelistic writing well and it would surely have met its match with Heidegger. The only man who might have a crack at it is Terrance Malick-presumably the Directors Cut would be two months long. Perhaps the one nugget of filmability that lies deep with Being and Time is its Hollywood-friendly central message-that death defines life. Heideggers book is concerned with the choices we make as individuals but then every film has a bit of this Heideggerian notion in them anyway. There just doesnt feel any point in an adaptation of Heidegger Having said that, if they can have a go at Prousts In Search of Lost Time, they can have a go at anything.