His place in the 20th century

It would have been better to have made a film about Heidegger (I dont know Ive never heard of one but I dont think it exists, god knows how one could make it), someone who was more interesting/controversial and influential. Allan Bloom regarded Derrida as a "mini-Heidegger."

Derrida has definitely been influential in helping the common conversation ender, "well, thats your opinion," gain currency (anyone who even reads these message boards now and then can get pretty nauseated by these statements). I would have been interested to find out why Quine and some other philosophers teamed up to try to block Derrida from receiving an honorary doctorate from the U of Cambridge saying: "Academic status based on what seems to us to be little more than semi-intelligible attacks upon the values of reason, truth, and scholarship is not, we submit, sufficient grounds for the awarding of an honorary degree in a distinguished university."

He was probably one of the most reviled modern philosophers (pretty much any of the 20th century French thinkers can fall in this category) and there wasnt much about that, if anything, I can barely remember since the movie was so unremarkable. All that was there was a reference to debate stimulated in the US. Us damn Americans, when will we ever learn to just eat what we're fed. Did they go into the feminine aspects of his teaching? That would have been interesting. Once again Im at a loss because I can barely remember huge portions. Most of that postmodern French thought is good in that it serves as a way of getting BA students and postgrads interested in the non-career-oriented curiosity that is philosophy. Having him on your bookshelf will definitely impress a date from the art school crowd.

One funny thing about it was showing that Derrida was absolutely humorless and the exchange with some guy in the street where D. seemed like he could care less. The movie as a whole was "semi-intelligible" and had a NPR-like monotone voiceover. Dont have a drink while watching this droll piece.