This independent short-film is very well done in every aspect; from production, to costuming, to acting, to the script, and the surprise ending. Or, was the ending not a surprise? Also, there is a message (or, messages) behind the story. I don’t want to influence your opinion, so I’ll reveal what I got out of it in a moment. So, first, watch the short movie.
Anyway, no matter what you get out of it, I hope you enjoyed the film at least half as much as I did. Here’s my take ….
The most obvious message (imho) is the political one. The Narrator plays the role of Big Brother; knowing everything there is to know about us, and pitting all classes of people (men, woman, rich, poor, old, young, etc.) against each other, to the point of death. Sounds just like the America that is to come.
The other thing is not so much a “message”, but more of a thought experiment.
The Narrator to me is like God — again, knowing all there is to know about us … not only who boinked whom last night (including sheep!), but even all the actor’s very thoughts.
This, in turn, made me think about what it must be like to be God; (Note: I use the personal pronoun “He” only as a literary convenience, and not necessarily because I believe God has a male, or female, sex organ.)
—- He knows everything there was
—- He knows everything there is
—- He knows everything there is to come
—- He doesn’t forget anything
—- He will never, ever, learn anything new, for there is nothing left to learn, or discover, ever … in the entire universe … for all time.
—- He is incapable of being challenged by anyone, or anything
—- He can have no desires because desire indicates “need”, and He needs nothing, ever
—- He cannot be surprised
—- I even wonder which emotions God can have. Can He experience sorrow at the death of a newborn if he knows that newborn will be in heaven? Can He experience joy when a young woman “accepts Jesus as her Lord and Savior” when He knew she would do so for billions of years into eternity past?
Imagine this type of existence for Eternity. Is this not Hellish??
If I had to live this kind of existence I would kill myself. But, God can’t even do that. God exists in eternity, before time even came into being, and exists in eternity when time ceases. That God cannot die.
But wait …. what if He took on human form?? Then he could ….. die!! Maybe that’s the real reason he came to earth? Did He come to experience the sweet release of death … not for our sins, but to be freed from His own agony of existence?
I read once that we time-bound humans live on a linear scale where our existence at any point in time is a single dot on the axis that only moves forward, while to God all points are experienced simultaneously. In other words, our sins are ever before Him. He doesn’t have to “go to” the day you boinked that sheep but, rather, that event is always before Him without having to “go there”. Perhaps that is the meaning of a thousand years being as one day to the Lord. That is to say, when God needs to get away from it all – including Himself – He’s already at The Cross dying.
This idea makes more sense if you consider the philosophical “Knowledge Argument”, aka Mary’s Room, originally set forth by Frank Cameron Jackson (born 1943), an Australian philosopher. It goes like this;
“Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. She specializes in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like ‘red’, ‘blue’, and so on. She discovers, for example, just which wavelength combinations from the sky stimulate the retina, and exactly how this produces via the central nervous system the contraction of the vocal cords and expulsion of air from the lungs that results in the uttering of the sentence ‘The sky is blue’. What will happen when Mary is released from her black and white room or is given a color television monitor? Will she learn anything or not?”
————– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument
There is no “right” answer, so you decide. However, I do believe Mary learns something new. Even if she doesn’t learn something new from a “hard science” point of view, surely she will experience that which cannot be studied in a lab …. for example, the “knowledge” of joy and wonderment at seeing – really seeing — a bright shiny red apple for the very first time. In other words, all the knowledge in the word of a particular thing, cannot suffice for the experience of that thing. Back to my previous example, then, God couldn’t truly know about death until He experienced it. And the only way to experience it was to become human.
Of course, not everyone believes in Jesus as a historical person or, even if historical, that he was God in the flesh. Not to worry. There is another Biblical possibility for God to experience death, and it’s birthed in the creation of man.
As a prelude to that idea let me first ask you, “Do we really know what gives life to our bodies?”. I say the answer is a resounding “No!”. Oh, sure, you can tell me all about the heart, blood, lungs, and all the other organs. You can then tell me about cells and its structure; the nucleus, membrane, cytoplasm, mitochondria, and so forth. But, all you’ve done is describe function, not life.
The problem of life is clearer at the microscopic/atomic level. About 96% of the mass of the human body is made up of just four elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen … and most of that in the form of water. The other 4% isn’t composed of some mysterious unknown stuff but, rather, from elements in the periodic table of elements. Elements readily available to any scientist. Yet, if that scientist looked at a single human atom taken from the heart, –maybe a carbon atom — could he find that “thing” which gives life? He certainly cannot.
“Well, not YET!”, you say. OK. So, let’s suppose that in the year 2525 (if man is still alive) scientists have the ability to completely construct a human being, atom by atom. Maybe the constructed body will somehow come to life when it’s all done? Unfortunately, logic dictates that if you can’t find, or create, life in a single atom, then merely multiplying the construction of this body with trillions more such atoms, then the final outcome will still be the same; a corpse … although a very good-looking one, I assume. And guess what? That’s Biblical!
You see, Adam came into being in at least two distinct steps. The first step was that God “FORMED the man from the dust of the ground”. People rush into reading the next phrase without thinking about what is going on here. What we have here is God himself acting like that scientist from the year 2525. So, lying there on the ground is a perfectly constructed man as Adam was built up atom by atom by the Creator. But, what is Adam’s condition? He is a corpse, dead as a doornail.
It is ONLY when God “breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils” that Adam “became a living person.” There you go … THAT’S what brings “life” to carbon atoms! The breath of God! I have no problem admitting our bodies are made of stardust. But, life itself? We all have the spirit of God (however you define that) within us.
So, what happens when we die? Does the life-giving Spirit within us go back to God or, does a part of God also die? The former indicates a “place” where our essence goes … perhaps, heaven. Fine with me. But, what if it’s the latter?
Well, I have this crazy wild theory substantiated only by my fantasies. I think a part of God dies. And, if some event occurs where all humans are wiped out – perhaps a plague of biblical proportions, or SMOD – then the universe will once more be as it was in Genesis 1:1 – without form and void. The universe will be, apart from God, totally dead and lifeless, again. Time and eternity will have come full circle.
And I wonder, what will God’s next “act” be? A do-over? “In the beginning ………”
It was marginally humorous.
I’m a little bit exhausted by every single video presentation made in the modern era having to include homosexuality, infidelity, perversion, miscegenation, etc. like there is some kind of check list issued before anyone can get a production done. Because of that it comes across as just another hacky, pro-narrative experimental film doing everything it can to be mainstream and (ironically) inoffensive to TPTB and their worldview, while it labors to be unique and cutting edge.
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
A give it a B for concept and C- for execution.
Too deep for me. One thought-reading Isaiah 38:1-6, it would indicate God does not necessarily know the future. He makes a pronouncement on Hezekiah dying, but then changes his mind and lets him live. You can’t change your mind if you know exactly what you will decide in the future. Either that or God lies, which is theologically unacceptable.
There are other examples in the Bible where God changes his mind-can’t do it if you can see the future and don’t lie!
Anyway, that’s how I read it.
HF
Wow. Talk about missing the forest for the trees.
Hard to believe you were a standup comedian, because, although you do write well (the next Steinbeck!!) humor literally never makes an appearance in any of your posts.
Anyway, thanks for playing.
Yeah, well, you want funny, there’ll be a cover charge and two drink minimum. Otherwise I’ll just be myself.
But since you brought it up- back in the day when comics watched other stand-ups perform they’d stand in the back of the room and analyze the content, how the jokes were constructed, tag lines, call-backs, etc. You earned a reputation for either being genuinely funny and original or you were tagged as a hack- someone who regurgitated a thousand well worn bits that had been done to death by everyone else who had ever held a microphone- “dogs and cats are different”, “white people can’t dance”, etc, etc. 80% were hacks.
I may have “missed the forest for the trees”, but when every single commercial, program, movie or any other media piece includes the EXACT SAME laundry list of MSM icons it becomes impossible to ignore and it’s not only offensive, it’s boring and it’s lame. Hack work.
Here’s the thing, the creator had a great idea with tons of potential in it, but it was ruined by the inclusion of “popular” memes, most of which didn’t add to the film or improve it, they just sent signals that it was an acceptable, establishment product. Bummer. The single funniest moment was the “that’s the last word” back and forth between the gunslinger and the offstage voice with the long pause at the end. It was good writing, genuine and it didn’t rely on some PC shout-out. Go back and watch it again and tell me I’m wrong. If I want references to screwing a sheep or a whore with an itchy vagina I’ll watch a Judd Apatow movie.
You asked for responses, I gave you mine. I wasn’t looking for agreement, I was just adding my 2 cents.
He who sits in heaven shall laugh, The Lord shall hold them in derision , Then He shall speak to them in His Wrath. Psalms 2: 4-5 .God has a sense of humor. God has Wrath. Shall hold them in Derision are the Nations of the world.
Behold , the Nations are as a drop in a bucket and are counted as the small dust on the scales….. all the Nations before Him are as nothing and they are counted by Him as less then nothing and worthless..Isaiah 40. Read the whole chapter.
I think the Bible in clear. God has all power. God knows the beginnings from the End .He owns everything including your ass and soul.What’s not to like?
Stucky as I have said before you think to much which is not bad within reason. All these so called SMART people rationalize their way away from faith in God to faith in Evolutionary biology which is silly. It takes more faith to believe in the theory of evolution then God.
It is an interesting topic . I’m going to give you a B+ for effort.
Wowza! Stuckey’s getting all philosophical and shit. I like it! Very interesting and challenging. From a cerebral approach, I can appreciate HSF’s input above.
However, from a spiritual/faith perspective, I think the vid above (which is funnier than hell! 🙂 ), perhaps, portrays “sin” & our need for a Savior more than anything.
I was with it right up ’til you said: “I think a part of God dies.” I don’t think this is possible. WE do, or don’t. But not God. Who knows for sure?
Some things are just “faith”. “Reason” can’t get there.
I once read in a fortune cookie: ” ‘Ignorance never settles a question”.
Just my two cents…
Good points. Either one believes the tomb was empty after 3 days, or not. The 11 remaining apostles, went from scattering in fear, & in the case of Peter denying his teacher 3 times, to becoming the most courageous souls on earth in the face of horrible deaths, save John who died of old age. Did they all do that for a lie? CS Lewis said there was no halfway with the Teacher. Either he was the Son of God or a lunatic. Its up to the bar patron’s to decide.
Fuck.
Just came back from the chicken coop where my Rooster, frostbit comb and all, was no longer. Found him half hour later with his shoulder half chewed off. Think it was my German Shepherd who my wife let out alone which I have been asking her not to do for years. Happy fucking valentines day. Then I get cheered up by a very funny short movie by Stucky that made me laugh. But then HSF has to be all moral and shit, but he is right. You don’t have to resort to certain crap to be funny, even though it was. Was it’s God’s wish that everyone in the movie died, or almost everyone? Was it God punishing everyone for their sins? What about forgiveness and free will ?
What about my poor Rooster who is no longer?
Fuck.
Lost my Leghorn rooster about a month ago. Pigs got him. I miss his crowing in the morning, have to wait a few months before I can raise up a new cockerel to replace him. Hard to believe something like a bird can grow on you.
I feel ya, CO2.
I’m with HSF on this one. I would have liked it a lot better if I’d just turned 15.
Personally, I have always considered roosters to be the “Paul Revere” of poultry…
I remember that flick from some years back. Still funny, to me.
But my funny bone is very ticklish. Dry humor, puns, limericks, racist jokes, religious jokes, subtle stuff, slapstick, whatever: Easy for me to at least get a chuckle out of most anything. I guess that’s why my wrinkles come from grinning. 🙂
But I rarely look for messages and/or deep meaning. I just never have worried about how many pin-headed angels can make it to the dance floor…
I still miss Bob Hope and Jack Benny and others of their era.
Except for some commenters here, all the rest of you, including down voters, can go such my Hairy Ballz. I’m sick and tired of trying to find new or offbeat (yet, interesting) stuff to post. Eat shit and die. Really.
Stuck, I LMAO! As an aside, it’s interesting how HSF reacted to this. Guess he don’t like Larry the Cable Guy, either. To me, when smart people go out of their way to do/say stupid shit it’s fkn hilarious!
Red Skelton, RIP 🙁
Anyway, on God. Most assume God is infinite. I wonder. Further, if God is infinite, Godkind has only allotted a certain amount of life force to this experiment called humanity.
This goes a long way toward ‘splainin’ why we seem to get stupider as our numbers rise.
I hear you’re almost 7 feet tall- so it follows you’d have a huge fkn head.
I don’t mean like Trump. Rather, space for a large noodle.
Thanks. Highlight of my day!
How can anyone not like a film narrated by RON SWANSON.
Hey Stuckmeister – as a long term, ubiquitous internet animal – I will tell you this – this was one of the most unique & thought provoking post I’ve ever seen. It’s rare, & you are one of the reasons that TBP is so special. Fuck the down votes. I’m a fan of yours. I have been for some time. Your fan club is far bigger than you think. Waaay more than down votes here on this thread. You are fearless in putting yourself “out there” and inspire waaaay more people than you think. Dont stop. If you did, we would all bee the less for it. This is true….
Stucky , I liked your post . I thought it was interesting. Cheer up .Just because the world is collapsing all around you doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the ride.
Undivided , I second what you said about Stucky.
I’m sitting here with my earphones watching the movie. Letting out a laugh occasionally. My wife who is playing candy crush looks over at me like I’m nuts!! Actually, I thought it was pretty original even with the political correctness. Can God really know all of our inner thoughts, our secrets., our “dark”
side?? Shit!! I’m screwed!!!
Dammit tah hades Stuck dont git yer panties in a wad, and tape them man boobs down afer goin in public.
Loved the short skit. It was like Rod Serling doing comedy.
John, of Biblical Lore, wrote something to the effect “No one has seen God”
Could it have been govt. Could it have been that old Serpent that tricked Eve. God?
Guess we will never know. But apparently no one gets out alive.
Political correctness Hh? Seems to me the skit was mocking it.IMO.
Id like to see the producer do one of the idiot crop of preznutial candidates.
Stucky, your write up was far more interesting and thought provoking than the video.
HSF, I read the comments before I watched the video, and you are right. Ive noticed the gay thing especially, a lot more often lately too. I really don’t give a shit what two adults want to do with each other, and don’t have anything against gay people, but I am getting sick of having it thrown in my face all the time, and have it sneaking into nearly everything nowadays to give the impression that its completely normal. It isn’t. Again, to each his own, but its getting out of hand. One of the many reasons I dumped my TV subscription recently. I was watching the show “black sails” recently, and it turns out, half way through the second season, the main character was run out of England for having a gay affair with some nobleman’s son. WT fucking F? Comes completely out of left field. Granted, some certain things make a lot more sense now, but an entertaining and semi-historical show about pirates from back before the revolutionary war is now basically a gay love story.
I too read the comments and Stucks opinion before watching the miniflick. Sue me. Just wanted to see if it was worth watching. It was. Thx again Crabby Patty.
King James (yeh the same as the bible version) was *spoiler alert* a homosexual, Gator.
@kill bill, don’t even care about the bible stuff. Im not a believer.
Stucky,
Never let the down votes get you down. As someone once said – they are a sign you are being read. People are paying attention to what you have to say. I’d be more concerned if I’d just put all that effort in and nobody bothered to comment at all.
But I gotta agree with HSF on the video. It sucked. On the other hand your essay was thought provoking and could easily stand alone without reference to the programming you posted.
Consciousness is a mystery and I never get tired of reading about it. Keep thinking and writing.
Francis
Stucky says: Hard to believe you were a standup comedian, because, although you do write well (the next Steinbeck!!) humor literally never makes an appearance in any of your posts.
I’m actually enjoying HSF’s cynical take on comedy. I like some funny stuff but comedians seem to be like mimes, something to avoid. I’ll tell you why, I have listened to too many great sermons to waste 2 hours listening to a comedian who has no important message or anything worth repeating, just a bunch of chuckle prompts.
Stuck, true story. I got so into the bible that every other story sounded like a cheap knock off. I can see how HSF can have a jaded view of comedy routines and comedians.
Remember when MJ had beaten everybody so bad he had to go play baseball to find some challenge?
I came here because I found your shit challenging. I don’t buy all of it all the time but it’s better than hanging out with the bush league for years on end. You know the type: name it and claim it, health and wealth promoters who nonetheless insist that you hand over a set amount of your paycheck.
Anywho, I respect you both, you both turned away from something at the top of your game and came here to enlighten us poor saps. Thank you.
I went back to read your essay.
I have read in the bible that everything that is has been and will be. That suggests the answer to your final thought.
Somewhere else, God describes himself as one who lives, was dead and lives forever. The point being that the death that God condemned man to can be overcome because he did it as a man.
There is no need to fear death, it can be overcome. God is love, and perfect love casts out all fear (even of dying). God knows the day of your death and grieves.
Remember that it was David who said his sin was ever before him, God casts your sins into the abyss and remembers them no more after you are cleansed, forgiven.
There were some other things you asked but these border on philosophy and the splitting of hairs.
I’m not the bad guy here. You try listening to that fucking barnyard Romeo bragging each morning about doing all the chickens and you’ll understand the saying, let sleeping dogs lie.
Stucky,
God told me to tell you that you have a rare case of Internet Tourette Coprolalia, which is incurable, but that you serve a useful function here at TBP. So buck up there net cruiser. Keep searching for the answers.
I know you threatened to gouge Gryf’s eyes out for disagreeing with him and he told you how to find him and that I would rip your nuts off.
Don’t worry. I would never touch your little trouser worm and make you have to squat to pee.
Arf!
Jesus loves you can be a comforting thought. Except in a Mexican prison.
I apologize for coming unhinged. To those I offended, I apologize. Thank you to those who offered kind words of encouragement. That’s why I come here …. to get encouraged AND pissed off! Mission accomplished.
I’ve never had such stress selling other homes. So, early last week we called the plumber for what we were sure was a minor problem. It turned out to be a $2,000 problem. Then, yesterday, on fuckin’ Valentines Day, at around 11:AM we get a call from the realtor scheduling service ….. someone wants to see the house in TWO hours!!! Fuck that shit. I said “No! I told you people we want 24 hour notice, now stick to it!”. Ms Freud thought I was nuts — “We’re trying to sell the house, why are you turning people away??!!”. So, we had a lovely blowup argument on The Day Of Love. Maybe I really should buy St. Joseph and bury his ass upside down.
Not to mention my parent’s health is going south faster and faster, and my libtard seester and I apparently are no longer talking. Fuck. I thought being 60 years old was supposed to be the beginning of the Golden Years. Oh well …. maybe next year.
Thanks, again.
Carry on.
Where to begin:
Film was ok. It made me laugh, but nothing special about the writing…no new ideas…and no surprise at the Reservoir Dogs ending. It made me think about the movie Paycheck…no great movie, but thematically similar in that knowing the future makes us destroy ourselves. Which in turn always makes me think about something Tony Robbins says about fundamental human needs–the first two are 1) certainty 2) uncertainty. Which in turn makes me think along the lines of paradoxes. Things that cannot be true, but are.
This brings me right in to your comments, Stuck. Great insights, great questions…far greater in breadth and depth than anything in the film, The nature of time is the big one that has been on my mind lately. It is a fundamentally vital question from both a philosophical and a physics perspective. Your insight about God seeing all times at once, reminds me of Vonnegut’s Tralfmadorians. They show up in a few places, but most notably in Slaughterhouse Five..which begins “Billy Pilgrim had become unstuck in time.” Also, you have come up with a very rational list of the attributes of God…but have you considered the irrational. That which cannot be true, but is?
HSF – I completely get what you’re saying about modern memes always showing up…I guess production people always assume tough, moral men are boring. All part of a Fourth Turning in my mind. It’s funny, I think there would be wide acceptance of good old-fashioned strong, moral men in TV and film, but producers, directors and executives are terrified of coming off as racist/sexist. Personally, I don’t let these kinds of things get in the way of story….to me Story is everything. However, I watched the Martial last night (good solid Story, flawless physics) and I couldn’t help but notice that the mission commanders are almost always women or minorities. It’s one of those things that once you have seen, you can’t un-see. Another example is vomiting. My wife hates to see people vomit…since I met her, I have noticed how ubiquitous it is in film and TV shows. Nearly every scripted hour has at least one vomiting episode. I look at this as lazy writing as well.
“Stranger Than Fiction” is a 2006 movie which also deals with a “protagonist narrator”. Will Ferrell in a serious role, Dustin Hoffman and other big names. It got an 85% on RT and the entire movie is avilable on youtube. Been watching clips of it and read some reviews. Seems like a pretty good movie … also with interesting moral questions.
Another possible explanation: God turns a blind eye to the future of humanity, both collectively and individually. God serves as spiritual adviser when called upon, but meant it when he left us the Earth and everything in it to struggle with by means of our own free will, choices and in opposition to the Devil, who subverts a great many of us.
Maybe watching what happens down here keeps God engaged. I believe God roots for us, and longs for us to ask advice. God told us that we are made in his image and likeness — perhaps that translates a lot more broadly than most imagine…
Oh Christ, Stucky!
Glad you feel better now. For a big guy, your skin seems thin as an onion.
I gotta give Quinn credit here- he lets a guy who posts articles about eating horse pussy opine on God.
Carry on.
acetinker
I’m dealing with a LOT of shit right now, and sometimes The Shit wins. That pic in the thread about success …. that’s me.
Of course I can opine about both God and horse pussy! WHO do you think created horse pussy? hmmm? And for the record …. the article was about a guy FUCKING a horse.