The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Not awful, but not Gilliam's best work (that would be 'The Fisher King').  Loosely inspired by 'A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court', a filmmaker finds that a Spanish cobbler's unshakeable belief that the film maker is Sancho Panza eventually leads to a blurring of reality and fantasy.

Uneven in spots, but watchable.  6/10.

Boru

Finally watched Captain Marvel.
Wasn’t expecting all that much from it.

Pleasantly surprised.

A solid 9/10.

Fun.

Now I want a flirkin

Flerken

(June 28, 2019 at 5:18 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: Flerken

Same to you!

I watched "Gates to Paradise". It is a Polish movie from 1968 about tragic and infamous child crusade. I was disappointed. The movie is pretty bad. You could say it's Christian apologetics or even "washing of hands" from the whole event.
They pretty much concentrate on the leader of children crusade, certain Jacob the beautiful, who had vision of Jesus who told him to gather kids from all around Europe and lead them to war in Jerusalem. And as dishonest as Christians are, they feature a priest who is going with them and examining the whole thing, only to conclude that the whole thing was not a vision by Jesus but by the devil, and therefore he can't give his blessings.

So yeah, the whole thing doesn't have to do anything with Christianity because it was devil's deed - as opposed to, I guess, other crusades which were by Jesus.

And again, problem with Christians that the can't never be wrong and won't admit that these children were brainwashed by Christian parents: by their religion and seeing them go to holy wars.

'The Blazing Stewardesses' (1975), the sequel to 'The Naughty Stewardesses' (1974), which was made to capitalize on the success of the German film 'The Swinging Stewardesses' (1971).

And some people have to gall to insist that originality is dead.

Boru

(June 28, 2019 at 12:00 pm)Fake Messiah Wrote: I watched "Gates to Paradise". It is a Polish movie from 1968 about tragic and infamous child crusade. I was disappointed. The movie is pretty bad. You could say it's Christian apologetics or even "washing of hands" from the whole event.
They pretty much concentrate on the leader of children crusade, certain Jacob the beautiful, who had vision of Jesus who told him to gather kids from all around Europe and lead them to war in Jerusalem. And as dishonest as Christians are,  they feature a priest who is going with them and examining the whole thing, only to conclude that the whole thing was not a vision by Jesus but by the devil, and therefore he can't give his blessings.

So yeah,  the whole thing doesn't have to do anything with Christianity because it was devil's deed - as opposed to, I guess, other crusades which were by Jesus.

And again, problem with Christians that the can't never be wrong and won't admit that these children were brainwashed by Christian parents: by their religion and seeing them go to holy wars.

Okay, Gates of Paradise isn't one of those Andrzej Wajda films to actually be available in Region 1, but I am getting some idea of what it's like, and I have to ask: is the Devil actually a part of the movie? Can that just be written off as trying to put this criticism of religion in terms that would be acceptable for the time period or is the campaign supposed to be literally demonic? Looking this film up, it looks less like Catholic Apologetics and more an allegory for the abuses being committed in the name of religion, and looking up the original novel it was based on (and its author), there's also potential for an allegory for the Poles being corrupted by Stalinism.

And according to the Wikipedia article: "Finally, it is revealed in Jakob's confession that Jakob received the inspiration for the crusade not from God but from the Count, which means that the crusade must fail, since it is not by the will of God."

Was this scene in the version you watched? Granted, the assumption that there are Crusades that God approves of (and are therefore winable) is dodgy, but, given how the Crusades ultimately failed in their desire to take the Holy Land for Christianity, this criteria could help sew doubts in the rightness of the other crusades.

(June 28, 2019 at 12:37 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: Okay, Gates of Paradise isn't one of those Andrzej Wajda films to actually be available in Region 1

Lol, it's available on YouTube
https://youtu.be/Hst2KTgAWog

(June 28, 2019 at 12:37 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: and I have to ask: is the Devil actually a part of the movie?

That's the priest's conclusion



Especially since Jacob the beautiful has a homosexal relationship with the count.

So, I take it you watched the shorter version. Apparently, there is an uncut version in circulation that’s 11 minutes longer,

And even looking at this version, specifically the scene at the end where Jacques explains why he started it in the first place, and, honestly, it doesn’t really contradict my previous hypothesis.



This still looks like a critique of the excesses of religion and where they lead to. Saying it’s whitewashing Catholic complicity in the Crusades is like accusing Tartuffe of whitewashing corrupt priests because Cleante points out (repeatedly) there’s still other priests who aren’t just hypocrites like Tartuffe.

(June 28, 2019 at 3:33 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: And even looking at this version, specifically the scene at the end where Jacques explains why he started it in the first place, and, honestly, it doesn’t really contradict my previous hypothesis.

And like I tried to explain it to you: Jacques explains why he started it (from the Count) but, nevertheless, the priest concludes it was from the devil - perhaps because Jacques has homosexal relationship with the count, and is gay himself, and we know Catholics views on gays (including Catholics that made this movie)
The screen cap that I posted is after Jacques' explanation.
You should watch the movie if you want to make some deep conclusions.