In a recent interview with Indie Wire former Monty Python member Terry Gilliam had some rather interesting things to say about the themes that pervade Marvel movies and his absolute disdain for Black Panther.
Rather than issue a banal “It isn’t real cinematography” Gilliam goes into detail about the denigrating impact the movies’ core themes of having super heroes solve all our problems has on society. With the rising of nihilistic tendencies that made The Joker a smash hit for its representation of people who no longer believe they have the power to impact their own life, Gilliam’s point takes on a particular merit.
“What I don’t like is that we all have to be superheroes do anything worthwhile. That’s what makes me crazy. That’s what these movies are saying to young people. And to me it’s not confronting the reality of, you know, the quote-unquote human condition. You know what it is like to be a normal human being in difficult situations and resolving them surviving. I can’t fault them for the sheer spectacle, except it’s repetitive. You still have to blow up another city.”
Even his later critique of Black Panther continues the same philosophical underpinnings. Yet again when looking at people who legitimately believe Black Panther is what would be achieved under a black ethnostate there lies an undeniable truth in what he says.
“I hated ‘Black Panther. It makes me crazy. It gives young black kids the idea that this is something to believe in. Bullshit. It’s utter bullshit. I think the people who made it have never been to Africa. They went and got some stylist for some African pattern fabrics and things. But I just I hated that movie, partly because the media were going on about the importance of bullshit.”
The truth is civilization is typically built by a few great people and a commonality amongst its citizenry that is cultivated. When a people no longer embrace those core values, when those living in Rome are no longer Roman, but merely citizens of Rome it is only a matter of time before they will destroy that which greater men strived to build. To teach people that a civilization can be great without its people carrying in their spirit the essence that makes the civilization great is an outright deception of the worse order.
A lot of people believe ethnostates will be the magical cure for all that ails their culture, but in truth unless one cultivates themselves they often carry the very social diseases they denounce. Then people see themselves as victims, because we need to find something outside ourselves to be culpable for our own failings.
When asked whether he believed the Black Panther then was praised not on merit, but on this victim culture he could only utter an affirmative.
“We’re in the era of the victim. We are all victims. It’s all somebody else, abusing us, taking advantage of us. We are powerless, except except that we go out and do other things.”
One of the few things left in this world that continue to surprise me is when people despite an otherwise canny awareness of not just themes, but any aspect of life along with an ability to self reflect, but will still fall for the exact same thing they denounce. Like or hate Trump the fact that what he believes in works surpasses any idiosyncrasies of his behavior that may turn people off from him as a person.
Despite the attention grabbing headlines this interview has spawned, the only time Gilliam actually mentions Trump is in comparison to another individual whom he is having ongoing litigation against.
Paulo Branco, whom Gilliam calls a “psychopath. He’s the filmic version of Donald Trump. He’s an egomaniac, a megalomaniac, and a semi-psychotic and I also think schizophrenic…he makes Harvey Weinstein look like a really sweet guy to work with.”
At the very least we were not regaled with another Orange Man bad. Yet when considering his previous statements that he would denounce egotism needed to be self deterministic, megalomania needed to overcome obstacles, and semi-psychotic needed to not trap oneself in moral bindings the Zeitgeist hypocritically espouses is completely off.
How else does he expect people to get ahead and build civilizations? Does anyone think great kings even when compassionate were not all of those things? Alas, he misses the mark of his own ideas.