Javert
Tony Perkins
Alan: There "should" be an Oscar for "Most Prophetic Film" in the original sense of "prophetic" which derives from propheteia, Greek for "the gift of interpreting the will of the gods."
In secular terms, prophecy arises from an individual's harmonic alignment with The Good.
In secular terms, prophecy arises from an individual's harmonic alignment with The Good.
What criteria would be used for "Most Prophetic Film"?
I suggest The Academy focus those movies that best illustrate the conflict between good and evil, and the "winner" will be that film which best harkens "the better angels of our nature."
I suggest The Academy focus those movies that best illustrate the conflict between good and evil, and the "winner" will be that film which best harkens "the better angels of our nature."
Naysayers will argue the thorny difficulties defining "good" and "evil," a conundrum made more dicey by the prevalent sense of moral relativism, and justifiable misgivings that "intended good" often morphs into monstrous evil.
"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.” "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton
More Merton Quotes
"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."
Not always, but often.
Not always, but often.
The intrinsic muddle-of-morality makes an Oscar for "Most Prophetic Film" fertile ground for the exploration of "virtue," "vice" and the moral hazards accompanying each.
If the word "vice" conjures the prissiness of "church ladies," recall the other word rooted therein: "vicious." http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=vicious
If the word "vice" conjures the prissiness of "church ladies," recall the other word rooted therein: "vicious." http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=vicious
In the absence of aspiration informed by inspiration, homo sapiens can only "progress" in the aimless sense of "moving forward" without lodestar, direction or goal.
In large part we find ourselves in continual moral muddle because we presume the impropriety of probing "first principles," preferring instead the indolence of ignore-ance.
In large part we find ourselves in continual moral muddle because we presume the impropriety of probing "first principles," preferring instead the indolence of ignore-ance.
In this milieu, Rugged Individualism wins by default, its crazed supporters representing The Common Good and The General Welfare as socialist plots.
Fear has become America's default "virtue."
"The Paranoid Style In American Politics," By Richard Hofstadter
As the informal motto of the Republican Party puts it: "We are all in this... alone."
Fear has become America's default "virtue."
"The Paranoid Style In American Politics," By Richard Hofstadter
paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/
Faulty Risk Assessment: "Self-Terrorization Is The National Pastime"
The United States Of Paranoia
Donald Trump: The Paranoid Style In American Politics And The Ongoing Festival Of Hatred
As the informal motto of the Republican Party puts it: "We are all in this... alone."
"Why America Is an Ultra Violent Society," Umair Haque
Enter The Academy. http://oscar.go.com/
Despite its fondness for bloodlust, degradation and edgy antinomianism, Hollywood might wisely conceive the "morality play of cinema" with an eye to "where we are going" and "why."
Remember.
Nothing is certain, not even an end to Holocaust.
Indeed, it is an inconvenient truth that ethnically "pure" societies run more smoothly than ethnically diverse ones.
And so we hush the monstrous "reasonability" of Hitler's Final Solution.
Despite its fondness for bloodlust, degradation and edgy antinomianism, Hollywood might wisely conceive the "morality play of cinema" with an eye to "where we are going" and "why."
Remember.
Nothing is certain, not even an end to Holocaust.
Indeed, it is an inconvenient truth that ethnically "pure" societies run more smoothly than ethnically diverse ones.
And so we hush the monstrous "reasonability" of Hitler's Final Solution.
We are not noble savages.
Routinely we are savages of the worst sort.
How You And I And Everyone Can Create REAL Damning Evidence To Justify Any Damn Thing - Divorce; One's Religious Faith As "The One, True Religion"; Donald Trump As A Godsend; The Advisability Of Provoking Armageddon, Hitler's Heinous Extermination Of Jews
Similarities Between Hitler And Trump
The above quote fact checks.
Devout Catholic, Blaise Pascal
"Aggressive Ignorance And Christianity's Failure To Champion Truth"
To be clear, the nature of The Good is not self-evident.
Rather, its definition is obscure and uncertain, recalling "angels on pinheads" and contentious debate.
Lest we forget...
A sizable percentage of American citizens would eliminate Social Security and Medicare.
An even greater number would repeal Medicaid.
***
Two nights ago, "my" Danny and I saw "Les Miserables" presented by The Gallery Players in Burlington, North Carolina. http://www.burlingtonnc.gov/
The abiding appeal of Hugo's epic -- like the attraction of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Cervantes' Quijote, Hamlet, Madame Bovary, Moby Dick, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, The Idiot, The Stranger, Things Fall Apart -- is its unrelenting emphasis on the moral nub of the human condition.
Where do our hearts lie?
Do we seek vengeance, vindictiveness, retribution and retaliation? http://www.britannica.com/
Or do we seek, mercy, compassion, love, forgiveness and service?
The abiding appeal of Hugo's epic -- like the attraction of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Cervantes' Quijote, Hamlet, Madame Bovary, Moby Dick, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, The Idiot, The Stranger, Things Fall Apart -- is its unrelenting emphasis on the moral nub of the human condition.
Where do our hearts lie?
Do we seek vengeance, vindictiveness, retribution and retaliation? http://www.britannica.com/
Or do we seek, mercy, compassion, love, forgiveness and service?
It is true that these perennial concerns are not the only ones, but they are The Foundation.
"Business!" cried Morley's Ghost, wringing his hands, berating Scrooge. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business: charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/
"Business!" cried Morley's Ghost, wringing his hands, berating Scrooge. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business: charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/
Unlike the titillating vagaries of Pulp Fiction and Fargo, humankind's moral concerns are indispensable.
The questions themselves are so important that we should, at least, have opportunity to "get them wrong."
Chesterton observed: "If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."
The questions themselves are so important that we should, at least, have opportunity to "get them wrong."
Chesterton observed: "If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."
Whether we laud or lambaste a "Prophetic Film Oscar," such an award would have a huge following and provoke widespread debate. Such an Oscar might even displace "Best Picture" as The Academy's most closely watched and ardently discussed award.
Even those who hold prophecy in contempt will indulge it as a "guilty" pleasure.
Even those who hold prophecy in contempt will indulge it as a "guilty" pleasure.
- We love our chains!
- "A Christmas Carol: Dickens' Inquiry Into The Conservative Psyche" http://paxonbothhouses.
blogspot.com/2015/12/a- christmas-carol-inquiry-into. html - Alan: While speaking of morality, I would be remiss not to draw your attention to the following blog post. I have NEVER come across such an insightful, bedrock description of "The Great Unraveling" - and the concomitant collapse of American society - as contained in the work of visionary Spanish philosopher, José Ortega y Gasset, whose 1929 book, "The Revolt of The Masses," left an indelibly deep impression on Bob Dylan in the early 70s.
The Incipient Unraveling Of The Western World As Seen By Visionary Spanish Philosopher José Ortega y Gasset (1929)
https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-incipient-unraveling-of-western.html- *****
- My Personal List Of Favorite Films (in no particular order):
- Shawshank Redemption
- 12 Angry Men
- Interstellar
- It's A Wonderful Life
- The Green Mile
- The Pianist
- Casablanca
- Inglorious Basterds
- Coco
- Dr. Strangelove
- American Beauty
- Cool Hand Luke
- Milagro Beanfield War
- The Hunt
- To Kill A Mockingbird
- 1917
- All Quiet On The Western Front (the recent re-make)
- The Wolf of Wall Street
- Shutter Island
- Badlands
- The Tree of Life
- The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (both versions)
- Pan's Labyrinth
- Wind River
Les Miserables (with Tony Perkins)
- The Treasure of The Sierra Madre
- Argo
- Scrooge (Disney's rendition with Jim Carrey doing all the voices)
- A Christmas Carol (starring Alistair Sim)
- Dial M For Murder
- The Great Escape
- Gran Torino
- Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
- The Third Man
- Wizard of Oz
- L.A. Confidential
- Shadow of a Doubt
- Brooklyn
- Indignation
- The Hobbit
- It's A Beautiful Neighborhood
- Once
- Lost in Translation
- The Conspirator
- Ordinary People
- The Truman Show
- In The Heat of The Night
- Being There
- Run Lola Run
- Goodfellas
- Scarface
- Apocalypse Now
- Rashomon
- Ground Hog Day
- Pinocchio
- Sleeping Beauty
- Coraline
- Nemo
- The Fantastic Mr. Fox
- The Witches
- Matilda
- Up
- Aladdin
Guillermo del Toro's "Pinochhio" (Fine movie, disappointing ending)
Memoir of a Snail
Enchanted
The Adventures of Tin Tin
Klaus
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
BFG
Peter Pan
The African Queen
Schindler's List
The Bridge (with Tom Hanks)
The 3:12 to Yuma
West Side Story
Goodfellas
My Fair Lady
Mutiny on The Bounty (or, The Bounty?) - starring Mel Gibson
Wutherinig Heights (with Olivier)
American Graffiti (I worked for a day on this movie)
The Silence of the Lambs
Tootsie
Vertigo
Rear Window
Notorious
North by Northwest
Suspicion
Rope
Lifeboat
- How To Train Your Dragon
- Tangled
- The Return of The Secaucus Seven
- Ratatouille
- The 6th Sense /// Jacob's Ladder
- *****
- Movies I haven't seen, but which I think I will very much like:
- The Secret In Their Eyes
- Ford vs. Ferrari
- Network
- 12 Years A Slave
- Ragin Bull
- Pather Panjali
- Some Like It Hot
- The Best of Youth (Perhaps Nancy Hardies favorite celuloid)
- St. Vincent - with Bill Murray
- Beauty and the Beast
- Mary and Max
- *****
- In closing, note that "The Great Novels" -- unlike The Academy's "Best Movies" -- grapple with the conflict between good and evil, and more to the point with the nature of "the good." The Academy is disproportionately dedicated to the prurient "description" of evil, a perverse and ultimately desperate manifestation of American exhibitionism which is - and always has been -- the most seductive form of pornography.
The Age-Old Normalization Of Warfare Through Stupidity, Ego And Religion
*****
"50 Books Every Man Should Read Before He's 50" /// "My Favorite Books"
How To Save "Conservative" "Christians" From Themselves: An Experiment In Reading About Notable Human Beings
Alan: I must confess that avid, wide-ranging reading by a large percentage of the population, preferably coupled with something like a "Classical Education" to ground Americans in our Greo-Roman and Jewish past, appear indispensable if we are to keep the continuity of civilization alive.
Without this continuity, I think all will be lost and we will have to re-create a new civilization starting back "in the Neolithic."
Conservative Christianity, Armageddon As Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, And Return To The Neolithic
*****
No comments:
Post a Comment