Eighteen Woody Allen Films Analyzed: Anguish, God and Existentialism

This new textbook is an abridgment of the author’s earlier Woody Allen’s Angst: Philosophical Commentaries on His Serious Films (McFarland, 1997; “invaluable”—Choice.)

Five main topics are explored: the desire of many of his characters to ground their lives in traditional ethical values despite their realization that such values may no longer be certain; the opposition between pessimism and optimism throughout his films; gender issues relating to romantic love, sexual desire, and the ongoing changes in our cultural expectations of both men and women; the idea that contemporary American society is rapidly descending into barbarism precisely because of societal failure to maintain a sense of individual moral responsibility; and a critique of psychoanalysis as a method for understanding human behavior.