I know exactly who I am. THE RULING CLASS | 1972

The Ruling Class (1972) directed by Peter Medak

Peter O'Toole as Jack Arnold Alexander Tancred Gurney - 14th Earl of Gurney

Arthur Lowe as Daniel Tucker

Kay Walsh as Mrs. Piggott-Jones

Patsy Byrne as Mrs. Pamela Treadwell

Here’s an odd one. The Ruling Class?

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Sienna: So, tell me, your Grace... How does it feel to be God?

Sun: (Wearing robes) Like a river flowing everywhere! I pick up a newspaper, and I'm everywhere! In Atlas, I'm holding a conference for equality in salary. In Vacuo, I'm dying of hunger as my family abandons me. In Mistral, I'm whoring myself out for a meager pittance. In Vale, I'm accepted an award for writing a best selling novel about ninjas. (Smiles as he removes his robes, revealing his normal clothes) I'm god-filled.

Ghira: Your... lordship, I present-

Adam: Out of my way!

Ghira: (Pulls Adam back) Wait, you impatient whelp! (Ahem!) Presenting the High Leader of the White Fang, Adam Taurus.

Adam: (Grumbles) Old fool...

Ghira: I heard that, Mr. Taurus.

Adam: Your... grace... I have documents for you to sign here.

Sun: What kind of documents?

Adam: Oh, don't worry about it, you only need to sign.

Sun: (Puts on glasses) Let me see...

Adam: No need to read it. You only need to sign. You trust me, don't you?

Sun: I do. I just put these glasses on because I feel cold. Where do I sign?

Adam: Here, here, and here.

Sun: ...Done!

Adam: Excellent, excellent. (Ahem!) "Let all who bear witness know and understand that I, Tony Redgrave-" WHO THE HELL IS TONY REDGRAVE?!

Ghira: He's Dante's pseudoname, you uncultured nit.

Adam: Your name is Wukong!

Sun: NEVER CALL ME THAT! Wukong is a name I reject absolutely! It's a name I put on a stick and roast over a roaring fire. (Makes crackling sound) Wukong is dead!

Sienna: Calm yourself. What should we call you then?

Sun: I am both the Sun and the Moon, and the stars, and the wind, and the mountains, and the seas, and everything around and in-between. But, if you'd like something simpler, Chuck, Buck, Big A, Cheryll, Carol, and I will know exactly who I am.

Ghira: You asked for the White Fang flag, sire?

Sun: Ah, yes! Thank you, Mr. Belladonna! Burn it!

Adam: Are you-?! That's our symbol of freedom! Our declaration of independence!

Ghira: There is a lot of history in this old thing.

Sun: A blade must be placed at the egg, Mr. Taurus! Pride and property, hatred and anger all must be split in twain, for love makes all men equal. I love you, my dear Adam. (Kisses Adam's cheeks) You may keep them if you feel so lost without them, but know that my light will guide you to salvation. (Turns to Ghira) Care to join me in the baths before lunch, Mr. Belladonna?

Ghira: (Looks at Adam, Drops the flag)

Sun: (Walks away) Enjoy yourselves while I'm gone! Relax! (Turns around, Smiles) Have sex. (Leaves)

Adam: ...My god!

Sun: (Pokes his head in) Yes?

Sienna: Nothing, your lordship. We were simply praising your name.

Luddites

Holding back the AI of today, will stop the space exploration of tomorrow. But it sure will make some billionaires even bigger billionaires. Which would you prefer? Being chained to the past will just make you slaves in the future.

al things considered — when i post my masterpiece #1193

first posted in facebook may 19, 2023

an artist active in bolivia [possibly joaquin castañón] -- "saint isidore the farmer" (ca. 1860)

"culture participates in imperialism yet is somehow excused for its role" ... edward said

"the spanish empire and its patent mercantile companies were the dominant colonial force in america from 1492 to 1832 [...] the colonial encounters and exchanges that established an 'american art' informed by european conventions are also responsible for the violence of forced religious conversions, removal from ancestral homes, and the enslavement of african and indigenous peoples in the hemisphere" ... special exhibitions gallery,  harvard art museums

"imperialism was born when the ruling class in capitalist production came up against national limitations to its economic expansion. the bourgeoisie turned to politics out of economic necessity; for if it did not want to give up the capitalist system whose inherent law is constant economic growth, it had to impose this law upon its home governments and to proclaim expansion to be an ultimate political goal of foreign policy" ... hannah arendt

"this dynamic composition portrays saint isidore the farmer, the patron saint of farmers and the city of madrid [...] his ability to navigate the politics of multiple cultures and religious traditions while maintaining his faith served as a poignant example for converts and priests" ... special exhibitions gallery, harvard art museums

"the conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much" ... joseph conrad

"here, saint isidore is shown dressed as a 19th-century gentleman farmer in the andes. the artist [...] depicts the saint performing one of his many miracles: causing fresh water to gush from the earth [...] the blending of the hagiographic with romanticized depictions of native farm life and dress contributes to the work's power as both an icon and a noteworthy example of costumbrismo: a romanticized approach to the pictorial representation of everyday life and folk traditions in the americas" ... special exhibitions gallery, harvard art museums

"and if all others accepted the lie which the party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'who controls the past' ran the party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past'" ... george orwell

"every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate" ... edward said

"everything americans have been taught over the years has been propaganda by the rich used to justify and maintain their control of power" ... al janik

Hey sorry but um. Your son. Yeah. The heir to the estate. He thinks he’s God. Yeah sorry about that.

The happiest of birthdays in the afterlife to one of my all time favorite actors, to my hero, Peter O’Toole!

Lagniappe Podcast: The Ruling Class (1972)

For this lagniappe episode of The Swampflix Podcast, Boomer, Brandon, and Alli discuss the blasphemous, satirical comedy-musical The Ruling Class (1972), starring Peter O’Toole as a British noble who believes he is Jesus Christ. 00:00 Top 10 List math16:42 Subjective star ratings 24:07 Madame Web (2024)35:09 Showgirls (1995)40:10 She-Devil (1989)42:57 Amélie (2001)46:38 Radiant Is the Blood of…

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Peter O'Toole

The Ruling Class (1972) directed by Peter Medak

Peter O'Toole as Jack Arnold Alexander Tancred Gurney - 14th Earl of Gurney

"but if you're pro-union, why are you anti-cop-union?" because cops are not laborers. what cops do is not labor. they are enforcers of the laws that oppress laborers and exist solely to protect capital. don't bother me with stupid questions.

🛑 STOP asking me to make the post rebloggable. i refuse to let a bunch of anticommunists, libertarian anarchists, neoliberal spooks, and other pro-cop fascists pass around their bad-faith additions on a post if i can help it (which i can, by disabling reblogs) while others of you are saying some really misguided, off-topic shit, and it’s pissing me off.

please get your facts straight before embarrassing yourselves on the internet. for fucking ONCE in your lives.

i am not “redefining labor” i SAID that cops are not LABORERS (EXPLOITED WORKERS) unionizing to receive better working conditions for the betterment of their fellow workers. they actually DO participate in collective bargaining, and OTHER, ACTUAL LABOR UNIONS also use collective bargaining power to protect their members! if you argue otherwise, i’m sorry but that is a lie. and also NOT what i was FUCKING SAYING! that's not the point of this!! the derailing and misunderstandings of what a LABOR UNION IS that occurred in the short time this post was rebloggable was too insane not to shut off reblogs!

COP unions, LIKE I SAID IN THE ORIGINAL/ABOVE POST, ARE UNIFIED IN DIAMETRIC OPPOSITION TO THE LIBERATION OF WORKERS, AS IN PEOPLE WHO DO LABOR (WHICH DOES NOT INCLUDE THE LITERAL ARMED PROTECTORS OF CAPITAL)

NO OTHER UNION BASHES, KILLS, OR ARRESTS STRIKING WORKERS LIKE COP (OR PRISON GUARD) UNIONS DO.

if you agree with the post so much that you NEED it on your blog or whatever, post a screenshot of the original post with this part cropped out and leave me the fuck alone! THANK YOUUU!!!!!!!

and to the wiseasses saying screenwriters and actors "aren't laborers, either," are you just fucking stupid actually?

History as I was taught it and Egyptians stories the way they were told to me. What I learned was that everybody lose. Men married to their cousines got drunk to deliver their wives the sex they had in the marriage contract. (Yes, it's in the contracts! If the man denies his wife sex, she can complain to the Imam or the man's family. I know of examples of this. Homosexuality is not an excuse to say no, btw... This is what happens when sex is considered a right and not an act of physical, mutual love.💔)

History usually tells us more about what shouldn't be than what should... #mylifemystory #memories #justsayin'

Peter O'Toole in The Ruling Class (Peter Medak, 1972) Cast: Peter O'Toole, Arthur Lowe, William Mervyn, Coral Browne, Michael Bryant, Alastair Sim, Carolyn Seymour, Harry Andrews, James Villiers. Screenplay: Peter Barnes, based on his play. Cinematography: Ken Hodges. Production design: Peter Murton. Film editing: Ray Lovejoy. Music: John Cameron. The Ruling Class is one of those movies that don't know when to stop. Up to and including the scene in which Jack (Peter O'Toole) is judged sane by an obviously dotty authority after he discovers that they are fellow Old Etonians, Peter Medak's film, which has a screenplay by Peter Barnes derived from his play, is an often amusing, sometimes hilarious blend of the kind of skewering of British eccentricity and class consciousness found in the Ealing Studios movies of the 1950s, with some of the surreal cheekiness of the Monty Python skits and films. Then the whole thing turns dark, as Jack discovers that he isn't God but instead Jack the Ripper. It's a shift in tone that might have worked, if it hadn't been delivered with such heavy-handedness as the flashes that show the members of the House of Lords as desiccated corpses shrouded in cobwebs. Believe me, we have gotten the point by then. There's a good biting satire of about 100 minutes inside this 154-minute film, including a few buoyantly daffy musical numbers. The Ruling Class remains worth seeing for O'Toole's performance, which earned him one of his eight unsuccessful Oscar nominations, along with some delicious work from Arthur Lowe as the communist butler who stays on with the Gurney family to torment them after he gets a £30,000 bequest in the late Earl of Gurney's will; Harry Andrews as that nutty nobleman; Alastair Sim as a befuddled bishop (Sim makes even the act of sitting down funny); Coral Browne as the sardonic Lady Claire; James Villiers as her upperclass twit of a son; William Mervyn as the perpetually scheming Sir Charles; and Carolyn Seymour as Sir Charles's mistress, brought in to pretend to be Marguerite Gautier, the Lady of the Camellias, whom Jack/God believes to be his wife. But the nihilism into which the film descends casts a pall over even these performances.