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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
 Posted - 03/30/2005 : 09:38:16
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I just sent this to my brother who suggested that I see What The “Bleep” Do We Know? I thought I would share with SFN my thoughts about the movie in this letter.
Hi Denis,
Well, I finally saw What The “Bleep” Do We Know? and as might be expected, I do have some comments about the film.
Now, this wouldn't be the first documentary ever made in which the film makers were not going to let little things like facts be an encumbrance to the creative process, but it was by far the funniest. (Michelle does not hold the view that the film was funny. She was angered by the ageism and sizeism as well as this deeply perverse twist on existential psychology that actually has some merit.) Anyhow, like the old Ed Wood films, where we judge how good the film is by how really awful it is, one has to admire “Bleep” for its unwavering presentation of baloney that includes scenes designed to make us laugh that more often make us flinch and want to look away. Luckily for us there are many more fine examples of unintentional humor that far outweigh the mean-spirited fat and ugly jokes. (Oh, did I miss the lesson? One thing I have noticed about the “New Age.” It seems to be a requirement of membership to leave whatever sense of humor they may have had at the door, and to create the reality that they still have one.) All in all, since nothing in this movie lands as the filmmakers probably intended, this observer was left with the feeling that he had been witness to something very special.
Since I know that you have seen the movie, let me just touch on some of its finer moments rather then discussing the whole story. First off, I was impressed by the filmmaker's choice of a black boy with a basketball and a smile that suggested a “knowing” as the guide. Who would have ever guessed that a guide would come as cute little black boy? No cliché there. The only thing better would have been a blind, dirty, legless man with a smile that suggests a “knowing” and a tin cup. Think of our depressed protagonist trying to land a shiny quarter in the tin cup. Personally speaking, I might have preferred an infinite number of quarters to an infinite number of basketballs. And hey, I know I would rather have a quantum quarter existing in two places at once than a quantum basketball. Think of the possibilities! Vegas comes to mind. But maybe that's just me…
And for kitsch, how can you beat that drag queen, Ramtha? I'm telling you, not since Tammy Faye Bakker have I been so impressed by a drag queen in a supporting role. His moments on the screen are the stuff cult films are made of. Really good.
Dude, how cool was the idea that Native Americans could not see the arrival of Columbus's ships because they had no concept of them? The ships were invisible to them. How ever did they get that extraordinary fact? Facts like these litter the entire movie. Amazing…
Sometimes it takes a Polish Wedding to get what peptides and there effects on emotion are really about. Who'd a thunk it? I learned about the “molecules of emotion.” Very educational. I always did like Robert Palmers “Addicted to Love.”
I have always been a fan of movies that feature at least one chiropractor waxing philosophical.
The downside was this. I was kind of hoping for more science in the film. Even with the knowledge that the filmmakers would no doubt take that science and run with it to areas so completely outside of science that by all rights it should make them blush, I thought I might actually learn a little something. Instead, while the film offers plenty of lip service to quantum physics and biology, it ultimately imparts very little knowledge about science to the audience. What we get are lines like these. “Quantum mechanics allows for the intangible phenomenon of freedom to be woven into human nature…” And “Quantum physics, very succinctly speaking is a physics of possibilities. It opens fundamentally the quest
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Plyss
Skeptic Friend
Netherlands
231 Posts |
Posted - 03/30/2005 : 11:28:21 [Permalink]
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| Man, i gotta see that movie some time. |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 03/30/2005 : 11:56:20 [Permalink]
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I was suprised to see a lot of copies of the DVD at the local rental place. It never made it to the theaters in our area. Had to travel an hour and a half to see it at the artsy-fartsy theater in Columbus, Ohio. Either that or the 'Motorcycle Diaries,' and my wife wanted to see Ramtha. I would have preferred Che Guevara movie, but that just came out on DVD too, so I got to see it anyway.
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 03/30/2005 : 13:39:03 [Permalink]
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Now I have to see that movie.
Poor quantum physics. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 04/06/2005 : 02:29:24 [Permalink]
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Finally saw this movie. I can't say it lived up to the hype suggested by the theoretical physicists on the credits. I found it more boring than funny.
It was painstakingly slow. It had a few interesting concepts on the quantum world. The brief discussion of God was irrelevant to the majority of the movie. The emotional distress of Marlie Matlin, the character the movie follows to tie the discussion together, was another waste of time. And somehow having JZ Knight speak as if the woman has any real concepts to contribute was hard to swallow.
In short, the movie couldn't seem to discuss the mysteries of the Universe without having to make our lives "meaningful" with God and somehow having the quantum world solve everyone's emotional problems. I would have enjoyed it more if they hadn't felt the need to make a self improvement flick out of it.
We were discussing the Columbus ships sightings by native Americans on JREF, I think. I'll go see if I can find any reference to where the facts came from. It'll be funny if the movie was the source of the data for the forum discussion as I don't think it was mentioned. |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 04/06/2005 : 02:48:42 [Permalink]
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| Here's the thread on JREF with a lot of discussion on the natives view of Columbus' ships. There is some sort of anthropological evidence in the way of Columbus' logs. Pragmatist has some good comments throughout this thread such as how would Columbus have been able to communicate with the natives at first given there would have been no way for each side to know the other's language. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 04/06/2005 : 09:36:38 [Permalink]
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quote:
beskeptigal:
And somehow having JZ Knight speak as if the woman has any real concepts to contribute was hard to swallow.
That wasn't Knight speaking. They made clear that it was Ramtha wearing women's underwear and plenty of lipstick.
quote:
beskeptigal:
I would have enjoyed it more if they hadn't felt the need to make a self improvement flick out of it.
Would they have had any other reason to make this piece of crap? It is not as though the filmmakers were really invested in presenting science except to twist and torture it to fit their particular point of view. Jacking scientific concepts is nothing new in the world of hucksters and the self deluded.
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Maverick
Skeptic Friend
Sweden
385 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2005 : 13:14:31 [Permalink]
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quote:
Dude, how cool was the idea that Native Americans could not see the arrival of Columbus's ships because they had no concept of them?
This goes for every other object that any person has never seen before. I suppose everything is invisible. Seriously, it may be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. |
"Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy." -- Carl Sagan |
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