I feel that much of the world’s sorrow comes from people who are this
Yet
Allow themselves to be treated as that.
EXISTENTIALISM: “Harold And Maude” / Flower Scene / 1971
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Category Archives: Film
INDEPENDENT MOVIE: Trailer / “Compliance” / 2012
h/t: Planet Atheism
h/t: Arizona Atheist
Film highlights the temptations and perils of blind obedience to authority
Indie film Compliance recalls notions that the past decade’s worst events are explained by failures to oppose authority
[…]
It is difficult to overstate the impact of this authority-serving behavior from the very institutions designed to oppose authority. As Zobel, the writer and director of Compliance, notes, most people are too busy with their lives to find the time or energy to scrutinize prevailing orthodoxies and the authorities propagating them. When the institutions that are in a position to provide those checks fail to do that, those orthodoxies and authorities thrive without opposition or challenge, no matter how false and corrupted they may be.
As much as anything else, this is the institutional failure that explains the debacles of the last decade. There is virtually no counter-weight to the human desire to follow and obey authority because the institutions designed to provide that counter-weight – media outlets, academia, courts – do the opposite: they are the most faithful servants of those centers of authority.
[…]
Of course people who think and behave this way encounter no oppression. That’s their reward for good, submissive behavior. As Rosa Luxemburg put this: “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” They are left alone by institutions of power because they comport with the desired behavior of complacency and obedience without further compulsion.
Related articles
- ‘Compliance’ Director Craig Zobel On Courting Controversy And The Insidiousness Of Chick-Fil-A (movieline.com)
- “I was just following orders” (salon.com)
- Chilling Realities, Beggaring Belief In ‘Compliance’ (wnyc.org)
- ‘Compliance’ depicts prank-driven assault (sfgate.com)
- Chilling Realities, Beggaring Belief In ‘Compliance’ (npr.org)
- The Year’s Most Controversial Film (thedailybeast.com)
DOCUMENTARY TRAILER: “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”
IN MEMORIAM: Mr Fish / “Rest in Peace, Dear Gore”
Cartoon credit: Mr Fish
IN MEMORIAM: Gore Vidal / “Gore Vidal, American Writer And Cultural Critic, Dies” / (AUDIO)
Gore Vidal came from a generation of novelists whose fiction gave them a political platform. Norman Mailer ran for mayor of New York City; Kurt Vonnegut became an anti-war spokesman. And Vidal was an all-around critic. His novels sometimes infuriated readers with unflattering portraits of American history.
He also wrote essays and screenplays, and his play The Best Man currently has a revival on Broadway.
Vidal died Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills, from complications of pneumonia. He was 86 years old.
Related articles
- US author Gore Vidal dies aged 86 (bbc.co.uk)
- Gore Vidal: a life in pictures (guardian.co.uk)
- Gore Vidal quotes: 26 of the best (guardian.co.uk)
- Hail and Farewell, Gore Vidal (truthdig.com)
- Gore Vidal: Born-again atheist (examiner.com)
- Gore Vidal Remembered: 2003 Interview With Late Iconoclastic Writer & Longtime Critic of U.S. Empire (democracynow.org)
- Democracy Now! Shows Featuring Gore Vidal (democracynow.org)
- Gore Vidal and His Reading List for America (billmoyers.com)
- Gore Vidal in ‘The Nation’ (thenation.com)
IN MEMORIAM: Ray Bradbury / “‘Fahrenheit 451’ Author Ray Bradbury Dies At 91” / (AUDIO)
Ray Bradbury, author of The Martian Chroniclesand Fahrenheit 451, died Tuesday. He was 91. Bradbury was known for his futuristic tales — but he never used a computer, or even drove a car.
Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Ill., in 1920 and grew up during the Great Depression. He said it was a time when people couldn’t imagine the future, and his active imagination made him stand out. He once told Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross about exaggerating basic childhood fears, like monsters at the top of the stairs.
“As soon as I looked up, there it was, and it was horrible,” Bradbury remembers. “And I would scream and fall back down the stairs, and my mother and father would get up and sigh and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, here we go again.’ “
Bradbury dove into books as a child. Wild tales from authors Jules Verne and H.G. Wells captivated Bradbury — and made him dream of becoming a great author. So he started writing, churning out a short story every week during his teens. After his family moved to Southern California, he would escape to the basement of the UCLA library. There, he’d focus on his craft.
Related articles
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: Film / “In God We Teach”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP6B4gpgyRI&feature=player_detailpage
A film by Vic Losick, “In God We Teach” tells the story of a high school student who secretly recorded his history teacher in class, and accused him of proselytizing for Jesus. The teacher, in danger of losing his job strenuously denied it. The specifics of the controversy lead directly to the church & state arguments that are in the news this election year. With Stephen Colbert, Alan Dershowitz, Neil deGrasse Tyson and others.
ART: Famous People Painting
This painting is truly amazing, but more surprising is that it has been “computerized”.
Click on the link below and see a larger version of the picture.
Roll your mouse over the characters and the program tells you who is, each of them.
Click in the body, and you will be re-directed to the Wikipedia life and history of each.
The Life and Loves of Oscar Wilde
The Life and Loves of Oscar Wilde 1/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=tiQMDNYpqeI&list=PL1D9373169A795818
The Life and Loves of Oscar Wilde 2/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vbHJwY9NA1w&list=PL1D9373169A795818
The Life and Loves of Oscar Wilde 3/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ggXGtjGD1ug&list=PL1D9373169A795818
The Life and Loves of Oscar Wilde 4/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_eLuyTAGSuk&list=PL1D9373169A795818
The Life and Loves of Oscar Wilde 5/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WWgebBzqG1I&list=PL1D9373169A795818
12 angry men (1957 classic film)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qaU0IGdaEoI
12 Angry Men is a 1957 American drama film adapted from a teleplay of the same name by Reginald Rose. Directed by Sidney Lumet, the film tells the story of a jury made up of 12 men as they deliberate the guilt or acquittal of a defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt. In the United States (both then and now), the verdict in most criminal trials by jury must be unanimous one way or the other. The film is notable for its almost exclusive use of one set: with the exception of the film’s opening, which begins outside on the steps of the courthouse and ends with the jury’s final instructions before retiring, a brief final scene on the courthouse steps and two short scenes in an adjoining washroom, the entire movie takes place in the jury room. The total time spent outside of the jury room is three minutes out of the full 96 minutes of the movie.
12 Angry Men explores many techniques of consensus-building, and the difficulties encountered in the process, among a group of men whose range of personalities adds intensity and conflict. Apart from two of the jurors swapping names while leaving the courthouse, no names are used in the film: the defendant is referred to as “the boy” and the witnesses as the “old man” and “the lady across the street”.
In 2007, 12 Angry Men was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
| Directed by | Sidney Lumet |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Henry Fonda Reginald Rose |
| Written by | Reginald Rose |
| Starring | Henry Fonda Lee J. Cobb E. G. Marshall Martin Balsam Jack Warden John Fiedler Jack Klugman Edward Binns Joseph Sweeney Ed Begley George Voskovec Robert Webber |
Source: Wikipedia
Always Question Authority 