Perhaps Stanley Cavell? (Esp. Pursuits of Hapiness and In Quest of the Ordinary, but also Themes out of School and Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome)
I'm truly not sure if he matches the sorts of angles you want when you mean morality, etc., but he may work.
>From: Rebecca Thorndike <
[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Film-Philosophy Salon <
[log in to unmask]>
>To:
[log in to unmask]
>Subject: Film and Moral Action
>Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2003 23:29:28 -0600
>
>Hello all. I'm working on a paper in which I will be examining the film
>Philadelphia and its impact on the state of mass empathy. I'll be
>discussing the ways in which the film re-humanizes the homosexual, as well
>as individuals living with AIDS. Additionally I will be examining the ways
>in which the film tends to undermine the strides it takes in this direction
>by dehumanizing the white males Andy fights against, as well as the
>troubling fact that the only heterosexual individual to empathize and help
>Andy is another marginalized person (African American lawyer)--that is, with
>the exception of Andy's family. To make a long story even longer, I'm not
>sure where to look as far as texts that discuss morality--more specifically
>morality and moral action in Zygmunt Bauman's terms--and film. Martha
>Nussbaum's Poetic Justice is helpful here, but she limits empathy via moral
>imagination to Realist Novels. I'd like to check out any research,
>philosophical or otherwise that actually includes film as a means of
>stimulating the moral imagination, etc. Does anyone know of any good books
>I can check out that discuss this kind of thing? I would appreciate any
>help you can give.
>
>Best,
>
>Rebecca