Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975-British)

My friend Jim and I saw this movie this afternoon.  I liked it and Jim thought it was "imaginative".  I picked up the movie yesterday at Davis Library on Democracy Blvd. and I remembered that Barry Casey had listed this movie as one of his Favorite Movies on Facebook. 


What I picked up was the Collectors edition (2000), with the movie on Disc One and a Disc Two inside.  Jim and I were glad that we had watched "Quest for the Holy Grail locations" on Disc Two before we started the movie on Disc One, because once the movie started things happened very quickly.  Also, we liked reading the movie dialog in the Screenplay booklet that came wrapped with the movie by the library.  This movie is rated PG for language and violence.  The violence is not graphic, but is too much for children.


Here is a good description of the Grail legend:
From Dictionary, Copyright © 2005 Apple Computer, Inc.:


Grail  (also Holy Grail)
noun
(in medieval legend) the cup or platter used by Jesus at the Last Supper, and in which Joseph of Arimathea received Christ's blood at the Cross. Quests for it undertaken by medieval knights are described in versions of the Arthurian legends written from the early 13th century onward.


This movie includes a satire on the sword fighting of Errol Flynn in his movie "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938).  Also, the following myths or legends were included: 


From Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia:


Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.


In the Monty Python movie they attempt the same thing, except with a huge Wooden Rabbit.   But they forgot to put the men inside the Wooden Rabbit.  Then they came to a cave that's similar to the one in the Beowulf Old English heroic epic poem from the early 11th century.  Beowulf fights with the giant human-like Grendel.  The Monty Python group sees a cute bunny rabbit at the mouth of the cave; but it turns out he can fly and bite ferociously.  After that, the survivors have to cross a rickety bridge and answer all three questions correctly or get thrown off the bridge.  Later they run into a cartoon monster.  Now that I think about it, it was a funny movie.

The War of the Worlds (1953)

My friend Jim and I saw this movie this afternoon.  Earlier this week I had taped it from the American Movie Classics channel (AMC).  We both liked this movie.  It was very dramatic and it had some romance between Gene Barry and Ann Robinson.  Leonard Maltin, the movie reviewer said, "Vivid, frightening adaptation of H. G. Wells' story about a Martian invasion.  Dramatically sound and filled with dazzling, Oscar-winning special effects; superior sci-fi." The U. S. Army has a big presence in this movie and there is a lot of shooting on both sides; so it's probably not appropriate for children. 

It was made at the height of the Cold War with Russia in 1953.  Fear of nuclear holocaust was very great throughout the 1950s and 1960s.  I felt dread throughout the movie and I kept asking myself, "Will humanity on the earth survive this destruction?" Because they stated that half of the people of the world had died.  But they didn't show any graphic violence in this movie.

Now for the good news.  Near the end of the movie, many people are having a religious service in a big church in Los Angeles.  But I will not reveal any more.

  

Monsanto and an excerpt from "On Dialogue"

This morning I was watching a documentary show on Link TV that was critical of the Monsanto Company. I had always just assumed that Monsanto was a Japanese corporation. But I learned from Wikipedia online that Monsanto is an American Agribusiness corporation, founded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901.

Here is the same video that I saw on Link TV:

The World According to Monsanto

Here is an excerpt from "On Dialogue":

From the book "On Dialogue : an essay in free thought". Copyright © 1996 by Robert Grudin. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

p. 6

Dialogue and the Free Society

I lie in bed with a bad case of flu. My room is pleasant, and after a while the pain and fever give way to bronchitis, which calls for a few more days of rest. My wife, who takes care of me, my children, who visit my room, are now more sympathetic, less dependent on me than when I was well; my office has been informed, and my colleagues have promised to leave me alone until I rejoin them. As I lie in bed, peaceful solitary days slip by. I am amazed by the way my house, my business, which seemed so contingent on my efforts, now run happily without me. I read the newspaper, but from my isolated place in space/time, even local events seem to be happening in another world. Gradually I begin to feel vacuous, unnecessary. Am I really Robert Grudin? Certainly not Grudin the supporting father, not Grudin the indispensable colleague. Suddenly I feel imprisoned; I yearn to be up and out --- to reassert an identity that has begun to erode. I am not free without my obligations.

pick up again on p. 8:

Dialogue and Self-Transcendence

We come now to the most radical formulation of the idea of liberty. The idealist tradition since Socrates, the great religions and the mystics have taught that the most desirable form of liberty is not a freedom of the self but a freedom from the self:

a transcendence of confining individuality.

To some, this is a spiritual quest pursued through meditation and prayer; to others, it is a philosophical exercise requiring concentration and inquiry. This latter exercise is often conducted dialogically. Through dialogic imagination I can posit an "other" (a loved one, a friend, a stranger, even an enemy), focus myself on this other, detail this other until it has spirit, autonomy, volition (using one's will). To the extent that this is successful, I can achieve an interpersonal understanding impossible under other circumstances; and beyond this I have the opportunity temporarily to look back on myself, as though in a far-off mirror, as a distinct and limited entity.

Dialogic self-transcendence is valuable not only for personal fulfillment but also for artistic achievement and social renewal. Writers, consciously or not, resort to this strategy in developing character, idea, event and place, while actors and actresses enter into dialogic relationships with the parts they play. Without this process we would have dull fancy and tame art. Social possibilities are equally dramatic though less frequently explored. Here dialogic thought allows us to extend awareness not only beyond our personal isolation but also beyond our own gender, age group and ethnicity. With concentration and insight we can project living will into otherwise alien individuals and groups; in so doing we cross barriers that might otherwise cause disaffection or confrontation. Dialogic thinking, which deflects self-interest in the name of interpersonal understanding, becomes in the process a force of social evolution.

* * * *

Another good book is: "Embracing Contraries : Explorations in Learning and Teaching" by Peter Elbow. Copyright © 1986 by Oxford University Press, Inc.