Javert
Tony Perkins
***
Alan: There should be an Oscar for "Most Prophetic Film" in the original sense of "prophetic" deriving from propheteia, Greek for "the gift of interpreting the will of the gods."
In secular terms, prophecy describes humankind's harmonic alignment with The Good.
In secular terms, prophecy describes humankind's harmonic alignment with The Good.
What would criteria be?
The Academy would focus those movies that best illustrate the conflict between good and evil.
The "winner" will be that film which calls most clearly to "the better angels of our nature."
The Academy would focus those movies that best illustrate the conflict between good and evil.
The "winner" will be that film which calls most clearly to "the better angels of our nature."
Naysayers will argue the thorny difficulties defining "good" and "evil," a conundrum made more dicey by prevalent sense of moral relativism and justifiable misgivings that "intended good" often morphs into monstrous evil.
"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 both.
If the word "vice" conjures the prissiness of "church ladies," recall the other word rooted therein: "vicious."
If the word "vice" conjures the prissiness of "church ladies," recall the other word rooted therein: "vicious."
In the absence of aspiration informed by inspiration, homo sapiens can only "progress" in the aimless sense of "moving forward" without lodestar or goal.
In large part we find ourselves in 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 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 as socialist plot.
Fear has become our default "virtue."
"We are all in this... alone."
Fear has become our default "virtue."
"We are all in this... alone."
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're going" and "why."
Remember.
Nothing is certain, not even an end to Holocaust.
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're going" and "why."
Remember.
Nothing is certain, not even an end to Holocaust.
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.
The nature of The Good is not self-evident.
Rather, its definition is obscure and uncertain, recalling "angels on pinheads" and contentious debate.
A sizable percentage of American citizens would eliminate Social Security andMedicare.
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 and forgiveness?
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 and forgiveness?
It is true that these perennial concerns are not the only ones but they are The Foundation.
"Business!" cried Morley's Ghost, wringing its hands again. "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 dorp in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/
"Business!" cried Morley's Ghost, wringing its hands again. "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 dorp 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's 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's worth doing badly."
Whether we laud or lambaste a "Prophetic Film Oscar," such an award would be closely followed. It 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.
"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 Thomas Merton
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- We love our chains.
***
The Modern Library's Lists of Top 100 Novels As Chosen By Staff And Readers
