Patton

Since I first saw the film Patton when I was in Jr. High, I have always liked it.  But I recently saw it on DVD, and was reminded that Francis Ford Coppola mostly wrote the screenplay (with Edmund North), hardly someone I would associate with such a film.  Francis wound up giving the commentary on the DVD.

He explained how he wrote the screenplay early in his career, and tried to bring out the real Patton's mystical side after reading several biographies about him - so he could make the film appeal to both a conservative military audience, as well as a youthful anti-war audience.  He says this midway approach got him fired as the screenwriter (as well as his opening with Patton in full dress in front of a huge American flag).  Other screenwriters were hired, but they turned out unsatisfactory.  Finally, someone remembered that "the kid" had written a screenplay.  They found it mostly satisfactory, and sent it to Edmund North to clean it up, though he mostly kept a large portion of what Coppola had originally written.

Since Francis is a director, but not on this film, he describes how he didn't know how the filming of the film actually occurred.  However, what is better, he describes what he was thinking as the various scenes in the film pass by (except for those he didn't write).  He obviously found the real person of Patton deeply fascinating, and this comes across in the film.

Anyway, I highly recommend watching the film on DVD and hearing his commentary.

The Confession - Book XIII

St. Augustine - Tiffany Window - Lightner Museum

It's taken me over 7 months to both read and finally write this post on Book XIII.  It's the most prayerful and praising book in the entire Confessions, so sometimes it is hard to focus on the line of argument.  However, for Augustine, prayer and praise is part and parcel of a confession.  So he begins Book I this way, and ends Book XIII, the last book, this way.

And yet, in the midst of all this prayer and praise, Augustine addresses some of the most important doctrines in Christianity in Book XIII.  For example, he addresses The Trinity; the utter dependency of all mankind, both individually and corporately, upon God, including faith (and any inclination toward faith); the importance and sacredness of the Sabbath.  He reviews the opening chapters of Genesis which deal with the creation, and allows for a broad range of interpretation from its language (showing the influence of Ambrose upon him), so that he uses much of the language as a metaphor for the sinfulness of man as well as a metaphor for the Church.

Augustine also briefly reviews the story of his own conversion (told elsewhere in The Confessions in more detail) in order to emphasize his point of man's tendency to turn away from God, but also of how God can draw even the most perverse person to himself - so that even while the weight of inappropriate sexual desire can can keep a soul down in material things, God can transform it into love which, like a flame, reaches upwards closer to God.

I will list here all (with links) of my postings on the Books within The Confessions:

• Introduction
• Book I
• Book II
• Book III
• Book IV
• Book V
• Book VI
• Book VII
• Book VIII
• Book IX
• Book X
• Book XI
• Book XII

I hope you have enjoyed my summary of Augustine's Confessions.