Connor Ratliff 🎭 Profile picture
Sep 18, 2020 8 tweets 6 min read Read on X
I never liked church as a kid, but when they passed around a petition asking everyone to boycott our local movie theaters if they showed Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation Of Christ, I was **done** with The Catholic Church and organized religion forever. (I was 12.) ImageImageImageImage
I didn't know anything about TLTOC and had yet to see a Scorsese film, but I remember the priest describing the film as "pornographic" and it sounded like bullshit to me. I had no interest in seeing the movie but there was no way in hell I was going to stop going to the movies. Image
Eventually, when I saw the film a few years later on VHS, it confirmed that they had been lying about the movie, which was better than any sermon I had ever heard. It's basically It's A Wonderful Life but with Jesus seeing what it would be like if he wasn't the son of God. Image
Of course, my gut feeling that the Catholic Church was lying about something turned out to be accurate. But it made me forever skeptical about whenever people get all worked up about any movie or TV show that they haven't seen yet. ImageImage
I got really mad when I saw TLTOC, thinking back to how easily everybody in that church was signing that petition; I don't remember if local theater got the film, or if they were even going to in the 1st place. I just knew I would stop going to church the second it was an option. Image
Of course, within a few years I would also see Life Of Brian, which had come out in 1979; it was more deliberately provocative but also more thoughtful than any of the knee-jerk protests it attracted. I am now always immediately skeptical when a film is being declared an outrage. ImageImage
Recommended viewing: the TV debate feat. @JohnCleese & Michael Palin vs. pious windbags Malcolm Muggeridge & Mervyn Stockwood-- the latter two spend the entire conversation ducking the serious points being made & engaging in some pretty dull sarcasm...
ImageImageImageImage
In hindsight, there was also a fair amount of "Look! Over There!" to these kinds of protests. As long as ppl were mad about these shocking movies that few of the protesters had actually seen, it would distract from the real life horrors the church was actively covering up. ImageImageImage

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More from @connorratliff

Oct 4, 2020
Given where we are now-- Day 3 of @realDonaldTrump in the hospital, infected with COVID-19-- it's worth a look back at the timeline of what happened with Herman Cain.

June 20th: attends Trump rally in Tulsa. No mask.
June 25th: no more lockdowns
June 26th: Biden wants a mask mandate. Cain disagrees.
Read 16 tweets
Oct 2, 2020
It is a symptom of how insane @realDonaldTrump has made things that ppl are confidently speculating on the possibility that this is a last minute piece of political theatre in which they are faking a full outbreak & quick recovery in order to change the subject yet again
I'm sure someone will write a clear-eyed breakdown of exactly how complicated it would be to stage something like this, and what is the minimum number of ppl who would have to actively/knowingly participate in the lie in order to pull it off.
It strikes me as far beyond his capabilities-- not that he wouldn't have the WILL to do it, or that he couldn't find ppl to go along with it-- but this would require a certain amount of discipline & self-control. An impressive amount.
Read 4 tweets
Sep 18, 2020
"The what is doing what?" asks one commenter.

news.avclub.com/the-george-luc…
"Mr. Flute" approves. Image
"Bass Ackwards" is having a hard time believing and a hard time remembering. Image
Read 6 tweets
Sep 8, 2020
Hi @jimmyfallon! I do a podcast called @DeadEyespodcast and I would love to talk to you for an episode! DM me! ImageImageImageImage
I was supposed to be in the same BoB episode YOU were in, @jimmyfallon!

Even if you only have 5 minutes to talk to me about your experience, it would mean so much.

[Previous guests include Seth Rogen, Jon Hamm, Aimee Mann, etc] Image
Oh yeah, the podcast is about how I was fired by Tom Hanks the day before I was supposed to film my scene; I was told the reason was that he saw my audition tape & thought I had "dead eyes"!

Here is a link to the podcast, @jimmyfallon/@FallonTonight:
headgum.com/dead-eyes
Read 4 tweets
Sep 3, 2020
Beginning my personal re-watch of #Studio60ontheSunsetStrip in prep for the 9/20 @GLucasTalkShow 17-hour watchathon to raise money for @BCEFA bc I haven't seen it since it first aired & I wanna see it again as myself b4 watching it in character as "retired filmmaker George Lucas" Image
Also: @patrickcotnoir is working so hard in preparation for this one that the least I could do is watch all 22 episodes again before watching them a 3rd time for our show.

I think this is the watchathon Patrick was put on earth to produce. Image
Taking stock during my Studio 60 re-watch:

I have performed improv in front of 2 actors who were on Studio 60, and I was in a movie with 2 others.
Read 7 tweets
Aug 31, 2020
September @criterionchannl line-up includes 5 great films by @AlbertBrooks!

I hope that some day he will record commentary tracks for these films, because I know almost nothing about how they were made and I would give anything to hear him talk about that. Image
Barring that, I would like someone smart to sit down and interview @AlbertBrooks about how he made these movies. They are among the greatest films anyone has ever made and I'd just love to hear him talk about them. Image
I wish there was a book or podcast for @AlbertBrooks that was similar to the conversations Truffaut documented with Hitchcock or Bogdanovich had w/Orson Welles.

Who would be the best person to do this? ImageImage
Read 4 tweets

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