Films About Totalitarianism: A Series

 

An Intellectual Feast

 

Let's have a Presidential Civic Fitness Program in high schools and expand perspectives.

[Photo by Getty Images for Unsplash+]

Looks Fascinating

 

Perspective on The French Revolution

 

It is ironic that of all countries in Europe, France was the only one that could have had a revolution - not because she groaned under the lash of tyranny, but, on the contrary, because she tolerated and even invited every conceivable dissension and heresy. Restlessness, a passion for novelty and the pursuit of excitement were everywhere in the air. They were the fruits of idleness and leisure, not of poverty.

Paris was a "storm-tossed sea, blown perpetually by contrary winds." When, in 1789, the Revolution finally arrived it was everywhere acclaimed. It was not a single, self-contained or unified uprising, but a succession of revolutions. One after another, various men or parties emerged to seize power. One after another, they were swept away by forces stronger than themselves.

- From Paris in the Terror June 1793 - July 1794 by Stanley Loomis

[Photo by Ty Koh at Unsplash]

The Original Film Version is Best and Don't Forget to Read the Book

 

Bastille Day: Go Storm Something

 

Modern Question

"Don't you wish you were free, Lenina?"

"I don't know what you mean. I am free. Free to have the most wonderful time. Everybody's happy nowadays."

- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

Movie or Documentary?

 

70 Summer Escape Movies

 

1. Get Shorty
2. Sullivan's Travels
3. Beverly Hills Cop
4. Other People's Money
5. Back to the Beach
6. His Girl Friday
7. Moonstruck
8. Amelie
9. Galaxy Quest
10. The Full Monty
11. The In-Laws (with Alan Arkin and Peter Falk)
12. My Favorite Year
13. Napoleon Dynamite
14. Annie Hall
15. Some Like It Hot
16. My Cousin Vinny
17. Local Hero
18. Field of Dreams
19. Clue
20. A Good Year
21. Major League
22. Delicatessen 
23. Topsy-Turvy
24. The Hospital
25. Ruthless People
26. The History Boys
27. The General (Buster Keaton)
28. Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton)
29. Best in Show
30. It Happened One Night
31. Network
32. A Long Way Down
33. O Brother Where Art Thou?
34. Young Frankenstein
35. Pirates of the Caribbean 
36. Dr. Strangelove
37. Shaun of the Dead
38. Lost in America
39. A Hard Day's Night
40. Tea with Mussolini
41. Shakespeare in Love
42. Beetlejuice
43. Barbershop
44. Fast Times at Ridgemont High
45. National Lampoon's Vacation
46. Love Actually
47. Tootsie
48. Trading Places
49. Cat Ballou
50. Little Miss Sunshine
51. Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
52. Ghostbusters
53. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
54. Animal House
55. Being There
56. The Grand Budapest Hotel
57. Rustler's Rhapsody
58. Airplane!
59. Office Space
60. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
61. A Night at the Opera
62. Tremors
63. The Princess Bride
64. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World
65. The Ladykillers (with Alec Guinness)
66. The Naked Gun
67. The Producers
68. Groundhog Day
69. Barcelona (Whit Stillman film)
70. Caddyshack

[Photo by Ronald Crow at Unsplash]

Being Released in English Tomorrow