Well, I was just re-reading Mr. Bennett's absurdly arrogant comment that he made about his film choices compared to our classes' knowledge, in which he stated:
"Mr. Bennett, You have shown one sublime film after another. Obviously, You possess powers of discrimination far exceeding our own. And who is better able than You to reconcile the objective appreciation of truly great films with the subjective and inscrutable nature of the 17-year-old mind, twisted as it is within a tangled matrix of tightly wound springs . Is there the remotest possibility that we, in our fathomless ignorance, could possibly choose a film that is superior to one of Your choosing? We humbly thank You for offering us the opportunity to choose for ourselves. But, the choice between us choosing, and You choosing, is, frankly, no choice at all. Rather it is a strategy steeped in folly, bound to result in bitter disappointment. We defer to You. Choose a film that we've never seen and never heard of, but will leave us once again speechless, shaking our heads silently in awe at the transcendent power of art."
Now, normally I would somewhat agree with this statement because although I enjoy watching movies, I personally don't think that I am a great movie reviewer because most films I watch, I like. That could be a product of me being too kind to movies, or the fact that I don't like watching bad movies, so therefore most of them are actually good. In this way, I normally would not question Mr. Bennett's film choices because he does have the knowledge of more than 20 years of watching films critically.
But
I have just realized that we have all been manipulated and imprinted with memories of Mr. Bennett being a great film teacher and global teacher who has been doing it for more than 2 decades, and that in reality Mr. Bennett has only been a film teacher for about 4 days, maybe as long as a week, but certainly no more than that.
He has no recollection of a previous life, and has only been imprinted with these memories of knowing all of these films, even though he has only just been given this job. However, we can all recognize his personality, because instead of being just the sum total of his memories, he does have an underlying personality that remains, no matter what he is imprinted with. Now, we all have this ingrained personality, but in Mr. Bennett's case, it is a personality filled with absurd and ridiculous amount of arrogance, a sense of superiority, and of course a love of profanity.
So, to sum up my ideas (not sum up my memories) I have concluded after watching our most recent film, Dark City, I have realized that Mr. Bennett has just recently been imprinted with the memories that he is a film teacher and a global teacher, and has been the given the ideas that he has been doing this job for 20+ years and that he has watched all of our films, like All Quiet..., Citizen Kane, and Unforgiven 30 or 40 times each when, it fact he has never actually seen any of these movies.
Therefore, only his arrogance and sense of superiority makes him believed that he is more qualified to pick our next movie, even though it is quite possible that he has never seen a movie in his life. Because of this line of logic, I believe that each of us in the class are more qualified than our "Leader" Mr. Bennett to choose a film. So, I think that we are all better able to pick a good film than Mr. Bennett is, despite what he believes.
Think about that everyone....
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Something to Think About
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My brain just exploded from that amazingness.
ReplyDeleteActually, James, we have never met. The memory of me was implanted in you just last evening, around midnight. I'm surprised you didn't realize it sooner. After all, analyze your memory of me and ask yourself the following questions. Is it possible that anyone could possess all the talents that you remember me possessing? Barring Leonardo, (who was ugly, mind you) can you think of anyone who brings together more positive attributes in a single package? Impossible.
ReplyDeleteWhat is just as interesting, and more terrestrial, is the influence that Dark City has had upon you, and so many others, me included. The film has staying power. I, too have been thinking about it this weekend. Can one give a work of art greater praise than to say that it has occupied one's mind for days? And the irony of it is that the characters who we have found so compelling are, to a large extent, false.
I guess it's pretty boring, but the films I've shown, with few exceptions, have all been character-based. Thus, the old maxim holds true. Tell a great story first, populate it with great characters, and worry about all the rest later.
Mr. Bennett and Nick I thank you for the kind comments but I'm not quite sure what either of you are discussing. As a matter of fact, there is no post here, it is only blank. This leads me to believe that the memory of a blog post was just implanted in your mind at some point, where as in fact that is just a fabrication because no post actually exists. So, I must be honest I'm not sure what either of you are responding to, because as you can clearly see, nothing exists.
ReplyDeleteYou may want to think again and try to consciously remember if you can actually remember what was actually written in the blog post or it is just something that you were manipulated with.
Finally, I will admit that the last paragraph of your comment makes sense. I love character-based films, even if it is a boring concept to keep going back to, I always find them most compelling.
You're freakin me out man!
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly, Mr. Bennett was a arrogant jerk parading around his classroom with his nose held high and putting on airs about ridiculous pretensions, such as his "profound" knowledge. So, I must be remembering the wrong Mr. Bennett.
ReplyDeleteQuite so, Irina. By the way, you used the incorrect form of the indefinite article. The rule on when to use "a" and when to use "an" has to do with the sound of the word the article precedes. In this case, the word is "arrogant," which begins with a vowel sound, thus indicating the use of "an." Had the word been, say, magnificent, or demi-godlike, or beloved, the word "a" would apply.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, it is not the presence of the vowel itself that inititates the change from "a" to "an" but rather the sound of the vowel. Thus, in America, a word starting with "h" is seen as a consonant, triggering an "a" whereas in England, the h calls forth an "an." Therefore, had you employed a different word to describe me, let's say "humble" or "handsome" or even "Herculean," you would have had the benefit of that grey area so dear to the literary mind.
'ppears to me that you have proven ma' point quite el-o-kently.
ReplyDelete