Outline for a Review of "Prometheus."

[Friedrich]

June 28, 2012 at 1:40 P.M. The size of the graphics at Google has
grown enormously at NYPL computer number #2, Morningside Heights
branch. I will do my best to write under these circumstances.

I do not know whether I will be able to post a full review essay of
"Prometheus." The constraints under which I write are very severe.
However, I may be injured by this cybercrime and censorship, I am sure
that the Constitution of the United States of America is more severely
damaged.

What follows is a draft of my outline for this movie review, for which
I have already done some reading, and which may be plagiarized by
Internet writers and others with a very poor idea of what I mean by
these categories. I will do my best to keep the review within a
feasible length. I am hoping for an essay like "'Dark Shadows': A
Movie Review."

I am sure that "Prometheus" is Mr. Scott's best film, even better than
"Blade Runner." It is certainly the Australian director's most
ambitious work to date.

The review of the film in "The New Yorker" is inadequate, at best, and
simply could not have been written by David Denby. Readers of this
magazine and Mr. Scott deserve better than the current media comments
on such an important film.

David Denby, "Prometheus," in "The New Yorker," June 18, 2012, at p.
86. (This review is shocking and cannot be attributed to David Denby.)

"Prometheus"

OUTLINE

Introduction: A Movie Review in Three Symbols.

A. Between Science and Faith.

I. THE RING: HERMENEUTIC CIRCLES.

A. Mythology, Philosophy, Science: Kubrick and Spielberg.

B. Fathers, Sons, Daughters, and Death: Plato, Shakespeare, Freud.

1). "Hamlet."
2). "MacBeth."
3). "The Tempest."
4). "King Lear."

C. Modernisms: T.S. Eliot's "Wasteland/Four Quartets" -- Joseph
Conrad's "Nostromo" and "Victory."

II. THE CRUCIFIX: RELIGION WITHIN THE PROVINCE OF REASON ALONE.

A. Deus Absconditus -- Genessis to Genetics: Eden and DNA.

B. "Solaris" and "Silent Running" -- Stanislas Lem and Lezsek
Kolakowski.

B. In Search of the Human? Philip K. Dick's Nightmares.
1). "I, Robot" Assimov, Bradbury, Ellison.

C. The Language of Cinema:
1). "2001, A Space Odyssey" and "A.I."
2). "Lawrence of Arabia" and the "Encounter Between Civilizations" --
A Tribute to David Lean.
3). T.E. Lawrence's "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom."

III. A SEVERED HEAD: PROMETHEAN AMBITION AND HUMAN AGGRESSION.

A. Darwin and Dawkins: "Selfish Genes" and "Evolution."

B. Scientific Hubris and the Destruction of Life.
1). Frankenstein and Dr. Faustus.
2). The Holocaust and Hiroshima.

C. Is Knowledge Death? "How badly do you want to know?"

D. Free or Determined: "They engineered us!"

E. Hope in a God Unseen -- Love as a Theology of Liberation.
1). "Where's my crucifix?"

Conclusion: Postmodernisms -- Life Against Death.