Which was kind of interesting, and led me to this:
Which in turn led me to this review which ends with this sentence:
Read ''Summer for the Gods'' for that well-told story. For the trial of the century, rent the movie.
And made me consider that law professors don't know that much about history. And even about the power of powerlessness, about the real value of humility and self-awareness and, while those things don't spring exclusively from religion, they are more emphasized in religion than in atheism, New Atheism, or agnosticism.
It also reminded me that I'm getting really tired of reading the pontifications of people who are proudly ignorant of the subject they denounce, and left wondering what that says about the state of our public discourse and even our national discussion of public policy. And how what we don't need is an opposing voice shouting down opponents, but an advocate for self-examination.
Yeah, like that'll happen!
Well, the play, Inherit the Wind got it right there was a trial and it was about the teaching of evolution in Tennessee. Other than that it pretty much got everything wrong, yet I've had many people who hold degrees, some of them from great institutions of learning, some of them with PhDs who believe it was history and not fiction . They're not so different from the people who believe Gone With The Wind was history, not to mention Birth of a Nation, only the ideologies served differ.
ReplyDeleteI watched the movie Einstein and Eddington and, though I liked the movie, the historical liberties taken sort of ruined it for me. If there were any way to do it, honestly, I'd require them to observe basic standards of historical accuracy. Lying about history is a proven danger that does, actually, get people killed.
Larry Krauss is, as George Takei would put it, a douche bag.
In defense of the play and the movie, neither ever pretended to be a documentary.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, as that poster indicates, if you think the movie and history are coterminous, well, as long as it sells tickets.....