Helloween Nightmare Theater: The Wicker Man with Austin Picard of the Underclass Podcast

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Okay, we're live. Hi, this is William Ramsey. Welcome to
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William Ramsey Investigates. On today's show, we have a very
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special guest. Returning guest, this will be our 11th episode.
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His name is Austin Picard. If you are watching this
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on my three YouTube channels that I still have, they
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haven't pulled him away from me yet. My ex-account, or
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watching this on Rumble or Substack, which is new to me,
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you'll see the logo for his podcast. Check it out.
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I'll put a link to his podcast in the show notes.
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Title of his podcast is The Underclass' Full Name, Austin
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Wade Picard. And we've done 11 shows on a variety
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of different subjects. We've covered the Delphi murders. We did
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a series on Operation Mockingbird. One of my favorite shows
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we did and one of the best responses that I've
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gotten from my audience is the one we did about
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the Order of the Solar Temple, which is an amazing story.
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We also covered Epstein files, the intake stuff, Atlanta child murders,
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where it was like, was there a larger network? And
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the answer is yes, after we did that. Catchers in
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the Rye, I was the guest on that one. And
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we also did, I feel like we did two on
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Epstein Files, something like that. But there are great shows,
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so check those out, either at William Ramsey Investigates or
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at The Underclass. But today I asked him to be
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on the show. I was kind of doing a theme
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on kind of scarier movies. And this one that we're
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covering today is The Wicker Man, which I believe came
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out in 1973, was released today. And, uh, it has
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an actor. I don't see much anymore. Edward Woodward is
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the main character, but it also has Christopher Lee. He
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was just really a living legend and deserves a show
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of his own. I mean, he's such an interesting guy.
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He's friends with, I think it was related to Ian Fleming,
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not just, but, uh, he actually, I think his royalty
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and just kind of, uh, but I mean, in all
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these great movies, the Lord of the Rings and goes
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on and a lot of, uh, kind of like horror
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story movies and things like that. I guess he was
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one of those people that said, I'd rather work than
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stay at home or something like that because he seemed
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to work all the time. But he's in The Wicker Man,
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and I remember watching this as a kid. I was
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kind of taken aback by it, but as watching it now,
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which I finished it today, it's really something else. There's
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a lot in here, and I'm glad that Austin has
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done a lot of research into the background. I just
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watched the movie. Austin was telling me about the music
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and some of these other people involved. So there's a
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lot to talk about and it's perfect for Halloween. So Austin,
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welcome back to the show.
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Man, thank you so much, William. As always, it's, it's
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always a great conversation when we get together and, and
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I look forward to these moments just because for one,
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you already know how much we tend to share in
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common in terms of what we, we focus on covering and,
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and then beyond that, just sort of what appeals to
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us in a certain way. And I think that might
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also have to do with the level of, of, uh,
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influence and the kind of significant impact that you have
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had on me in this kind of long, long standing way,
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just as you know, you know, I consumed your content
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for the longest time before we ever actually met. So it's,
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it's always surreal to come back to the table and,
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and just kind of bat around ideas with you. And it's,
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it's but specifically with this one, I thought I was
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excited that you, you asked me to come on for
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this specific film because for one, it just had this,
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profound impact and definitely resonated with me in terms of
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just this inverted moral doctrine and what I've been referencing
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as the inverted moral landscape and just Hollywood in general
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and what it very much represents and the deliberate co-opting
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of cultural touchstones to create false rebellions and things of
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that nature, which inevitably just derails, honestly, the the framework
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of modern society in a moral sense. And in that way,
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I very much view is just a sort of deliberate
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psychological operation aspect to it all that is very much
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injected into these pop culture touchstones that I just mentioned.
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So with The Wicker Man, I was originally introduced to
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it through, it was basically it was through the episode
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I covered the son of Sam case with obviously the
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Mori Terry book in regard to the ultimate evil and,
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and the son of Sam case with David Berkowitz, there
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was a connection to the wicked King wicker in the
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Jimmy Breslin letters. And I, I, I recall this being
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the initial reason for even watching the film because it
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was this son of Sam connection to, to the moniker
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and the Breslin letters and, And it's very strange because
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it seems as if, and again, like understanding that, that, uh, uh,
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it was like a daily news columnist, Jimmy Breslin, who received,
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I think the second handwritten letter from who was alleged
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the 44 caliber killer at the time for the son
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of Sam case. And, and within that letter, he specifically
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references one of his monikers being the wicked King wicker
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and also the 22 disciples of hell and, and, uh,
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and all of these other things. But what it spurred
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was effectively you had this kind of sophisticated wording and
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presentation of the letter itself that really kind of urged
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the investigators and the police at the time to arrange
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a private screening of the 1973 Wicker Man horror film
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due to these letters. And specifically, I thought, very interesting
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that that would even come up as if the you know, the,
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the investigators themselves felt the need to privately screen this film. Uh,
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it kind of shows the level of, of, of a
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cult following that it effectively gained over time. But honestly,
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this was directly after probably within four years time, it
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was 1977 with the Jimmy Breslin letters. And, and so
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that reference is coming what four years later, uh, as
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far as, uh, 1973 being the original date, the film
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was released. And, um, So that was my original motivation
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for watching the film. And then my first, you know,
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just seeing it and understanding as we were discussing privately
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just a moment ago, just kind of Hollywood's longstanding commitment
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to ancient Druidism or this, what seems to be kind
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of built on these pagan principles in a sort of way.
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And I always found it fascinating that to reinforce that idea,
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Just the notion of where Hollywood, the etymology of Hollywood
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land and what it comes from just derives from the
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wood of the holly tree, right? Which is the favorite
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wood used by druid magicians for their wands composition. And
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that part I thought was just in a way understanding
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and revealing that we should effectively attempt to break this
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spell being cast upon us by the industry of Hollywood.
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and understanding the level of psychological warfare being conducted on
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a daily basis through this pop culture medium. Um, it's, uh,
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I think it's necessary to understand that going in, right.
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And anytime you're, you're attempting to, uh, just provide a
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deeper film analysis. And, uh, I think a symbolic, not only, um, um, ideological,
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but also symbolic reference points that need to be addressed
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throughout the film itself. But I will say that beyond
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the Son of Sam introduction to this, my instant takeaway
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was essentially a rigid puritanical Christianity versus a group of
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pagan zealots is essentially what it was being represented as
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and presented to the audience as. And my natural instinct
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was to interpret this film as inherently requiring the audience
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to almost unknowingly and non-consensually participate in what ultimately becomes
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a successful pagan ritual throughout the course of the film's plot.
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Which is kind of, I mean, it's not in any
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way hilarious, but it is interesting in terms of the
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inevitable discovery that the fact that this film itself was
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adapted into a screenplay based off the David Penner novel
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which title was Ritual. And that alone.
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I didn't even know that, yeah.
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I mean, it just felt like it reinforced that concept,
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you know, when I did go digging and just very
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quickly inevitably find that fact out. And so it was
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also hard not to notice, by the way, that recently
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all of these strange reports regarding these deaths at Burning
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Man in 2026, which obviously... you know, makes it seem
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like these modern pagans still have to feed the proverbial
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wicker man, you could say, right? And I do think
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there's something to this, just as far as blood sacrifice
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involved in these pagan practices and what it looks like
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in modern day. But with Christopher Lee specifically, just to mention,
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because you had talked about this kind of legend that
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he truly became, and he really was an extraordinary life,
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one of the most extraordinary lives that I've ever you know,
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been exposed to the details of, and, and as far
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as he himself, he was the, I believe he was
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the son of an Italian countess or a contessa or something. And, and,
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and even was the descendant from Charlemagne, I believe.
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Charlemagne. Yeah, that's right.
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Right. So he didn't do basically this is interesting to
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me because he played a role that would later be Rasputin, right?
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And I think it was the 1966 film, the Hammer
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Film Productions which did a lot of the horror films
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including the Dracula film I think I just recently watched
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the horror of Dracula the original Christopher Lee Dracula performance
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and it was incredible I really did appreciate it I
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thought its execution was brilliant but and it is a
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I I'm shocked. I didn't realize even that, you know,
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we're in the October months and it's basically Hollywood or,
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I mean, Halloween is right around the corner and, and, uh,
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this very much is relevant. I would think in the moment,
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just understanding the, the, uh, the cult following it has
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gained over time as a British folk horror film.
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Right.
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And so, um, but yeah, beyond that, he was apparently
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also related to Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general. And, uh, Yeah,
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he's got just the strangest life. And I believe he
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had met the assassins of Rasputin and then also would
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later play him in a role in a film in
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one of the Hammer Film productions. And I think he
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even met his daughter. Rasputin's one of Rasputin's daughters he
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had actually met. And she told him, I watched a
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video clip not too long ago, where she says, Apparently
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she sits down with Christopher Lee and she tells him
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that he has her father's eyes.
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I just thought it was so strange. He has super
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creepy eyes, Rasputin does. That was like one of his
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notorious features was his like glassy, cruel blue eyes or whatever.
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Right. It is so crazy. And I think that he
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was at, when he was like 17 years old as well,
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he witnessed something the, I believe it was the final execution,
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public execution by the guillotine. And it was in Paris,
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I believe. And so he's witnessed the last person to
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ever be publicly executed by guillotine when he was 17
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years old, which again is very interesting. And he had
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a crazy military background where he is a member of
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the Royal air force at one point. And also the,
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I believe he was an intelligence officer in what became
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the SAS and which was just British special forces, obviously.
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But he was in World War II, I believe in
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North Africa, stationed at one point where he's essentially helping.
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He helped retake Sicily during his military campaign, I guess,
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as far as his service. And yeah, he has an
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insane background. Again, I think he contracted malaria like six
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times in one year. And again, he's just For some reason,
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he went on record with a statement at one point
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as well, saying, I've seen many men die right in
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front of me. So many, in fact, that I've become
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almost hardened to it. Having seen the worst that human
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beings can do to each other, the results of torture, mutilation,
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and seeing someone blown to pieces by a bomb, you
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develop a kind of shell. But you had to. You
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had to. Otherwise, we would never have won. which of
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course is a perspective of someone who engaged in the
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conflict on the ground level, I would think. But at
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the same time, it's not necessarily the proper framing of
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the conflict at large, I guess. I don't know, but
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it is interesting. And I think that knowing that he's
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related to Ian Fleming, right. Who's, who's creator and author
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of the James Bond characters. And, and I believe they
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were step cousins and also that, that, Ian Fleming had
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chosen Christopher Lee to actually play James Bond. He said
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he should actually be the one who played the role
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of James Bond. Um, but he, I think he was
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inevitably cast as one of the most memorable supervillains. And
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I forget which, which.
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One of the bond with the golden gun.
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That was the one.
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He was the man with the golden gun. Yeah.
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Yeah. And I forget his name in that film, but
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I thought it was very strategic and, you know, again,
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by design and almost symbolic in a way. He, like,
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represented death in general, in a sense. And, yeah, he
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was also a member of, I think it was the
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Special Operations Executive at the time, which inevitably was called, like,
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a strange, the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Which is just
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so weird. But all these missions of the SOE are
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apparently still classified to this day. So that's interesting in itself.
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But I know that his Tolkien relationship with Tolkien, I
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guess he met him in a pub randomly. This is
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the story. And so he's the only individual who participated
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in the production of the Lord of the Rings films.
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or just as a member of the cast, who actually
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had met Tolkien. And he apparently had even gone through
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the process of reading the Hobbit and the Lord of
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the Rings series once a year, is what he said
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on the record. For the majority of his life, he
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was reading these books once a year. And apparently the
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story is whenever he runs into Tolkien in a pub,
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Tolkien gives him his, his blessing to play Gandalf in
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any future Lord of the Rings adaptation into film. And
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I saw a, what's the name of Ian McKellen. Isn't
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that the name of the guy who played Gandalf? Okay. He,
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I saw a video of him actually a clip where
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he acknowledges he sat down with Christopher Lee and that
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Christopher Lee, he expresses that he has this cold demeanor
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and he just has these piercing eyes that just go
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straight through you. And he said that Christopher Lee told,
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told him exactly that, that, you know, when I spoke
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with Tolkien, he actually told me that I should be
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the one to play Gandalf and Ian McKellen, like was
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kind of a little bit intimidated by this interaction apparently
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is the way he presented it at least. And I
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thought that was funny, but yeah, he was also a
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great voice.
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Yeah. Oh, he does commanding booming voice.
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He really does, man. And I think that, um, I
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also saw a footage from Peter Jackson going on. I
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think it was like just behind the scenes footage of
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him on an interview talking about whenever Wormtongue, I believe
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it is, in the extended versions of the Lord of
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the Rings is where you actually get to witness the
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death of Saruman. I believe that's the character that he played,
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Christopher Lee. And so Wormtongue walks up behind him at
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the top of the tower where he's like, station or
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like you know being held prisoner essentially and and stabs
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christopher lee saruman's you know the character in the back
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and he reacts and then falls to his death down
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to the very bottom of of the tower uh into
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the water i believe but either way during that scene
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i guess peter jackson tried to go up to christopher
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lee and explain to him what a person would look
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like and how they would react if once they were
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stabbed in the back Christopher Lee looked back at him
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and explained in great detail that he was wrong and
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that actually that's not at all how a person would
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react if stabbed in the back because once being stabbed
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it forces all the oxygen out of your lungs and
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so essentially you would just go like you know it's
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basically what he was doing right I just thought it
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was interesting as well it's showing it was revealing of
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of his his not only his military war background but
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but just how close to, to death he really had been, uh,
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in his, his life. And, and it is just absolutely fascinating.
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He had this, he had this obsession over the history
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of public executions and he even, he claimed to have
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known the names of every official, uh, public executioner employed
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by England. And this dated all the way back to
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the mid 15th century. That's what he said that he
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knew personally. And, and, uh, He was a musician as well.
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I think he was an opera singer and a world
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fencing champion who spoke six languages. And he was into
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metal music. And he started a heavy metal band when
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he was like 88 years old. And it was titled Charlemagne, right?
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Which is based off of his own hidden genealogy in
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a way. And I think it was by the sword
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and the cross, which also like won awards of some
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kind in 2010 or something. Um, but yeah, anyway, I
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just thought these are all worthwhile things to mention as
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far as this individual, before I moved on, just knowing,
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you know, and he clearly has won all of these
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incredible awards. I think it was knighted at one point
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as well. And so, but to, to get it into
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the film, obviously, I think it's important to understand these
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occult ties to the film's adaptation, along with these, these
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very prominent figures or members of the production. who are
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openly expressing their deep interests in the occult. And this
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goes all the way back to, I mean, there's a
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video interview of Christopher Lee in 1975 that's very interesting
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that I'll pull here in a moment that I think
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you would find interesting.
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I think I've seen it. It's pretty much been bandied
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about where he gives a warning not to indulge in
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the occult. Because it's been alleged that he had an
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occult book collection and was therefore an occultist. And just
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to break in before we get to Wicker Man, one
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of the other interesting ties of his Hammer films is
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I believe these were two Hammer films. One is The
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Devil Rides Out. Yes. And the other one, it's also
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done by Dennis Wheatley. I know. That's the basis. When
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Ian Fleming wrote James Bond, he said he was basing
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it on Dennis Wheatley.
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Oh, my God.
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Yeah. So if you read my book, Children of the Beast,
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you'll see the part about Dennis Wheatley where he gets
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a copy of Magic and Theory Practice signed to him
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from Alistair Crowley.
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That is so hilarious.
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You see this interspersing connections between Wheatley, Fleming, Christopher Lee.
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And so this double rides out like some of these
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characters that are the first character, the shift that's in
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Casino Royale is based on Crowley. So, like, you just
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see these guys are growing up in the same thing.
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I wouldn't be surprised if Christopher Lee had a Crowley
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story or just knew people around him. But these guys
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all kind of, they knew of each other. Like, I mean,
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Crowley was a known figure. Crowley, when they had, when
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the whole story of the guy who flew to England,
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the 3rd Command of the Nazis, like, Crowley sent a
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letter to Fleming's boss and offered his services. And that
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letter's extant, so people know that. So Fleming was aware
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of that during World War II. It's just really incredible stuff.
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I mean, there's a video of Christopher Lee saying, yeah,
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I used to play golf with Ian Fleming all the time.
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That's so great.
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They were like the lead buddies, yeah.
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Yeah, and it is fascinating to look into the personal
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history and kind of the background of these individuals in
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the production, because not only was Dennis Wheatley I mean,
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Christopher Lee absolutely confesses the fact that essentially he was
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deeply involved as far as had a deep knowledge of
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the occult. And he was introduced to the subject. And
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he says this as much by his friend and author,
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Dennis Wheatley, which became apparently this occult consideration and knowledge
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became an obsession after he read the works of Aleister Crowley.
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being introduced by Dennis Wheatley, which is so incredible knowing
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that I think it was actually Anthony Schaefer was the
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screenwriter that he had collaborated with in this effort to,
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I believe it was Anthony Schaefer who agreed to work
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with specifically Christopher Lee, trying to adapt a horror film
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based on old ancient pagan principles, what they called the
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old religion. And he made a statement in regard to the, like,
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there's an amazing independent article where he makes a statement
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at the end of the article and he addresses exactly
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what I believe the motivation and inspiration for this, uh, uh,
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really the plot in itself, because it's not necessarily a
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direct adaptation of the novel ritual by David Penner. It's
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more of like a loosely based upon the novel, uh,
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And then they take these creative kind of liberties with
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the product and inject their own perspective, which is, I believe,
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what honestly happened. Because they were trying to do something
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different than what was being done with the Hammer production
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films that they were a part of with the Dracula
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image and everything else. And so this was when Schaefer
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and so you have, I believe, Anthony Schaefer and Christopher Lee,
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they go and... I believe they give like 15,000 British
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pounds to, for the rights to the novel to David Penner, right? Who,
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who wrote the novel ritual and Anthony Schaefer instantly begins
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working on the screenplay for the film adaptation. And Lee
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was so dedicated to having this film made. He even
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gave his services for free, right? He, he, he said
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he'll forego his, his, his fee because the production's budget
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was so small. So it very much shows how much
396
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I believe they were devoutly committed to the principles embedded
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in the production of this film. And they admitted it
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as much as well. So you see, it was in 2011,
399
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I think, when that interview was conducted. It was a
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00:24:18.299 --> 00:24:21.779
Q & A session at the University of... It was
401
00:24:21.819 --> 00:24:25.579
like a college in Dublin, I think it was. And
402
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They asked Christopher Lee if it was true that he
403
00:24:28.619 --> 00:24:33.380
had this huge collection of occultism-related literature and things like that.
404
00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:37.380
And he did ultimately admit, I think the very same
405
00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:41.509
year in another interview, that he did own around 12,000
406
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because the original Bandit About number was like 20,000 books.
407
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So at one point, he did actually admit to owning 12,000
408
00:24:50.210 --> 00:24:52.750
books on the occult in this interview with The Telegraph,
409
00:24:53.190 --> 00:24:56.819
which was also in 2011. But he seemed to definitely,
410
00:24:57.200 --> 00:24:59.279
beyond a shadow of a doubt, take Satanism and the
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00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:04.230
occult and the practice of black magic seriously at a
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very real level. And even, as you mentioned, publicly warning
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people of the dangers of practicing black magic. And that
414
00:25:12.369 --> 00:25:15.430
was an interesting statement that he made in that interview, right?
415
00:25:15.470 --> 00:25:17.539
Or in that clip. And I think that was from
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the 1975 clip where he says that he had... No, no,
417
00:25:22.200 --> 00:25:25.440
he's older in this clip, if I remember correctly. because
418
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he essentially talks about how he met people who claim
419
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to be Satanists, who claim to be involved with black magic,
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who also claim that they not only knew a lot
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about it, but as, uh, he says, he certainly, uh,
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00:25:40.109 --> 00:25:44.029
you know, has not been involved and he warns everyone. Never, never,
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never is what he says. You will not only lose
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your mind, you will lose your soul. So the fact
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that he, he does say that is definitely, I, I, uh,
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I thought was worth acknowledging, but at the same time,
427
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it was in 1975 when he admitted that it was
428
00:26:00.119 --> 00:26:04.140
during the filming of Dennis Wheatley's classic occult novel, To
429
00:26:04.180 --> 00:26:08.140
the Devil a Daughter, that Lee gave an interview on
430
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his thoughts about Satanism, black magic, and why occult beliefs
431
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were so prevalent in the 1970s.
432
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I don't know if I can play this and get
433
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away with it on YouTube. Okay. This is it. I
434
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will just show the video. You can check it out.
435
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You'll not only lose your mind, but you'll lose your soul.
436
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He's clearly older here. He lived to a ripe old age, 90-something.
437
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I think this was 2011.
438
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You can see that online, although that's a weird lapel
439
00:26:39.809 --> 00:26:43.690
badge he's got on there. This is what, for people
440
00:26:43.750 --> 00:26:48.029
who don't know what Dennis Wheatley looks like, this is
441
00:26:48.069 --> 00:26:51.160
what Dennis Wheatley looks like. this Dennis Wheatley was kind
442
00:26:51.180 --> 00:26:54.869
of the Stephen King of his era, certainly in the UK.
443
00:26:54.910 --> 00:26:58.170
So he's very well read. He's lost favor in the States,
444
00:26:58.829 --> 00:27:01.450
but back in, he was very prolific writer on fiction
445
00:27:01.569 --> 00:27:07.190
and nonfiction, but people bought his paperback. So before other optional,
446
00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:11.779
other media options, he was, uh, very wealthy and, uh,
447
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had a lot of connections, a lot of friends and connections, Fleming, Crowley, um,
448
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And there's actually, like you talk about the speech by
449
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Christopher Lee, there's another speech about Wheatley warning about the
450
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occult too. He's like, the occult's real, the powers are real.
451
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Don't mess around with it. I wonder if I can
452
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find that.
453
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Yeah, I wonder why. Because they obviously were very much
454
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involved in practicing these occult principles at a certain level,
455
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I have to imagine, or they wouldn't. But to say,
456
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to kind of warn people in that way is interesting
457
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to me. And I do think, just knowing Dennis Wheatley, right?
458
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He's known as this kind of, for these occult novels, really, right?
459
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Just as this British author who's written all these horror
460
00:27:58.970 --> 00:28:04.029
and occult novels. And basically the 1934 novel, The Devil
461
00:28:04.109 --> 00:28:08.369
Rides Out, which Christopher Lee stars as the Duke, I
462
00:28:08.430 --> 00:28:11.509
forget the name of the Duke, but he stars in
463
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that film adaptation, and I believe it was in like 1968,
464
00:28:15.740 --> 00:28:18.799
it was also the Hammer film adaptation of The Devil
465
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Rides Out that he claimed to, he said kind of
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two things at once where he says that this was
467
00:28:26.599 --> 00:28:29.180
his favorite role playing the Duke in The Devil Rides Out,
468
00:28:29.220 --> 00:28:32.619
but then he also claims that Lord Summer Isle was
469
00:28:32.680 --> 00:28:36.720
his favorite role in The Wicker Man. But what's so
470
00:28:37.140 --> 00:28:41.380
interesting about Dennis Wheatley is not only these fascinating occult connections,
471
00:28:41.460 --> 00:28:45.309
but He's, yes, personal friend and colleagues of Christopher Lee,
472
00:28:45.329 --> 00:28:48.309
but also happens to be an admitted occultist with direct
473
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ties to the City of London, the Secret Society, which
474
00:28:52.109 --> 00:28:54.880
is also known as the Ghost Club. Did you see
475
00:28:54.940 --> 00:29:00.660
whenever he, I guess, whenever he was initially kicked out
476
00:29:00.700 --> 00:29:04.339
of school, basically, is what occurred, right? Which is strange
477
00:29:04.420 --> 00:29:06.809
that just the story of that alone, like he admitted
478
00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:10.690
to not really, he was expelled at one point for
479
00:29:11.430 --> 00:29:13.890
I think it was Dulwich College he was studying at
480
00:29:13.930 --> 00:29:19.910
at the time. And I believe he mentions something to
481
00:29:19.930 --> 00:29:23.180
that effect as far as forming a secret society in
482
00:29:23.299 --> 00:29:25.819
his introduction to The Devil Rides Out. And he actually
483
00:29:25.900 --> 00:29:30.460
did apparently form a secret society and was expelled from
484
00:29:30.519 --> 00:29:37.329
this Dulwich College apparently. And yeah, I guess after his expulsion,
485
00:29:37.829 --> 00:29:41.990
he becomes this British merchant and officer, cadet or something.
486
00:29:42.039 --> 00:29:47.559
And that's when his military sort of career begins. But anyway,
487
00:29:48.579 --> 00:29:51.259
there's a full interview with him.
488
00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:53.319
It's very long. This is just part of it that
489
00:29:53.359 --> 00:29:56.160
I found, but it's him in his older age. And
490
00:29:56.180 --> 00:29:59.650
I think I have a copy of it in my book,
491
00:29:59.690 --> 00:30:02.079
Children of the Beast, where he talks about his relationship
492
00:30:02.099 --> 00:30:04.920
to the occult. Because a lot of his books were
493
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.519
occult related. They were inspired. One is they use dark forces,
494
00:30:09.599 --> 00:30:14.079
which was ostensibly fictional, but it's basically about occult Nazis.
495
00:30:14.480 --> 00:30:18.730
Like he's like, these guys are occultists, man. That's so ridiculous. Yeah.
496
00:30:18.930 --> 00:30:22.890
So these guys all grew up in World War II. Fleming, Lee, Wheatley.
497
00:30:23.890 --> 00:30:25.809
Very important kind of historical nexus.
498
00:30:26.009 --> 00:30:29.670
Oh, yeah. Yeah, especially just knowing that they're personal friends
499
00:30:29.710 --> 00:30:32.670
with Aleister Crowley all along, all the while. It's just
500
00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:35.559
every step of the way it has to be addressed
501
00:30:35.660 --> 00:30:39.420
that not only was this Ghost Club, it had what,
502
00:30:39.819 --> 00:30:43.720
Julian Huxley as a member. I mean, it's absurd the
503
00:30:43.759 --> 00:30:47.750
level of the membership and knowing that I believe much
504
00:30:47.789 --> 00:30:51.259
of his books were entirely ghost. I think he even
505
00:30:51.359 --> 00:30:56.029
did create a new occult library that was dedicated to, yeah,
506
00:30:56.069 --> 00:30:58.910
the Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult. I totally forgot
507
00:30:58.930 --> 00:31:03.609
about that. And he basically edited all these short stories,
508
00:31:03.670 --> 00:31:06.430
like a collection of these short stories. And it was
509
00:31:06.529 --> 00:31:10.769
between the years 74 to 77. And there's a series
510
00:31:10.809 --> 00:31:16.410
of like 45 paperback reprints from specifically this British publisher.
511
00:31:16.950 --> 00:31:19.930
And the heading is the Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult.
512
00:31:21.490 --> 00:31:23.720
And so you see, like, he selects all these titles
513
00:31:23.779 --> 00:31:28.339
that are clearly, you know, the occult-themed novels involving Aleister
514
00:31:28.380 --> 00:31:32.799
Crowley and H.P. Lovecraft. No, no, no. I'm sorry. It
515
00:31:32.819 --> 00:31:37.190
was Helena Blavatsky. The Theosophy Society as well, you know,
516
00:31:37.250 --> 00:31:41.329
being very much represented, which is always the case, right?
517
00:31:41.509 --> 00:31:45.890
And so in this sort of context, it seems to be.
518
00:31:46.670 --> 00:31:49.970
But anyway, just knowing that is interesting. Go ahead.
519
00:31:50.569 --> 00:31:53.730
This is the famous copy of Crowley's Magic in Theory
520
00:31:53.750 --> 00:31:58.609
and Practice, Equith to Wheatley. This is definitely Crowley's handwriting.
521
00:31:59.069 --> 00:32:00.470
You can see it right there. I'll put a link
522
00:32:00.490 --> 00:32:02.099
in the show notes so people can just go over it.
523
00:32:02.410 --> 00:32:05.529
It's at the Dennis Wheatley Museum. And it says, Dennis
524
00:32:05.589 --> 00:32:10.470
Wheatley from Aleister Crowley with the phallic A in of
525
00:32:10.549 --> 00:32:14.650
that sublime Hungarian bouquet. So he's talking about, I think,
526
00:32:14.730 --> 00:32:18.859
a wine or something like that. In memory of that
527
00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:23.420
sublime bouquet. And then he has the astrological symbols. And
528
00:32:23.440 --> 00:32:26.640
then he adds B666 there. That's not there. And then
529
00:32:26.660 --> 00:32:30.759
he writes in, published for Dennis Weedly only, this unique
530
00:32:30.779 --> 00:32:33.859
copy of Magic, Theory, and Practice. So that's Crowley. I'll
531
00:32:33.880 --> 00:32:35.519
put a link to the show notes, guys. You can
532
00:32:35.539 --> 00:32:36.019
check it out.
533
00:32:36.619 --> 00:32:41.079
This is just absurd, right? It's not like six degrees
534
00:32:41.140 --> 00:32:45.500
from Kevin Bacon. This is like two degrees from Aleister Crowley.
535
00:32:45.819 --> 00:32:48.859
I don't even understand what we're seeing here, but it's
536
00:32:49.769 --> 00:32:52.849
It should be a direct implication as to what I
537
00:32:52.910 --> 00:32:57.170
mentioned earlier on. Just understanding what Hollywood was ultimately constructed
538
00:32:57.210 --> 00:33:00.670
and built on, I believe, was this kind of subversion
539
00:33:00.849 --> 00:33:04.420
of reality itself in this occult framework. And I think
540
00:33:04.460 --> 00:33:07.619
the last time we had a discussion, I basically said
541
00:33:07.660 --> 00:33:10.500
something to the effect of, I believe that there are
542
00:33:10.519 --> 00:33:15.809
esoteric occult ideologies permeating covertly all throughout modern society. And
543
00:33:15.869 --> 00:33:21.589
I believe these ancient pagan principles exist. sort of this
544
00:33:21.670 --> 00:33:27.599
level of ancient druidism as well. It's uncanny and undeniable
545
00:33:28.039 --> 00:33:32.779
that it's clearly been injected into so many of these, again,
546
00:33:32.819 --> 00:33:37.480
cult-following pop culture reference points. And to see The Devil
547
00:33:37.539 --> 00:33:42.650
Rides Out and how Christopher Lee is... Obviously, during this time,
548
00:33:42.750 --> 00:33:46.569
it would seem they were practicing these principles and trying
549
00:33:46.630 --> 00:33:51.339
to bring them to you know, the public in this,
550
00:33:52.900 --> 00:33:56.140
what almost seemed like a sinister influence operation to some
551
00:33:56.180 --> 00:34:00.160
degree or another, and ultimately is what it feels like.
552
00:34:00.220 --> 00:34:05.569
But I will say, just knowing that this individual, Dennis Wheatley,
553
00:34:06.930 --> 00:34:10.489
he's got the craziest background. He's considered to be one
554
00:34:10.510 --> 00:34:13.389
of the highest authorities on Satanism and the practice of
555
00:34:14.309 --> 00:34:19.000
exorcism and black magic. And And this is all just
556
00:34:19.079 --> 00:34:22.639
like it shouldn't surprise anyone, you know, at this point.
557
00:34:22.699 --> 00:34:26.940
But for for us to realize that he had such
558
00:34:27.300 --> 00:34:30.739
a direct, you know, a personal relationship with one Christopher
559
00:34:30.780 --> 00:34:33.309
Lee and and I think directly had a role to
560
00:34:33.349 --> 00:34:36.210
play in urging him to continue down the path of
561
00:34:36.429 --> 00:34:39.550
presenting these these pagan principles. I believe it was in
562
00:34:39.590 --> 00:34:43.030
the plot of The Devil Rides Out. You see the Duke, right,
563
00:34:43.110 --> 00:34:49.710
which is who who Christopher Lee plays. Honestly, it's all
564
00:34:49.750 --> 00:34:54.190
about this devil-worshipping cult that essentially attempts to rescue and
565
00:34:54.210 --> 00:34:59.940
disrupt a May Day ceremony that involves the devil appearing
566
00:35:00.039 --> 00:35:02.139
under the guise of the goat of Mendez. It's like,
567
00:35:02.539 --> 00:35:05.840
I'm telling you right now, it's just as creepy as
568
00:35:05.880 --> 00:35:07.780
the Wicker Man, if not more so, right?
569
00:35:08.159 --> 00:35:11.239
I forgot to mention, but that lead figure is based
570
00:35:11.300 --> 00:35:13.969
on Crowley. The lead figure in Devil Rides Out is
571
00:35:13.989 --> 00:35:17.110
based on Crowley. According to Wheatley himself. You can hear
572
00:35:17.150 --> 00:35:20.010
him recite certain things. We could do a show on
573
00:35:20.050 --> 00:35:22.050
The Devil Rides Out next. We should.
574
00:35:22.449 --> 00:35:23.679
We should, man.
575
00:35:23.929 --> 00:35:27.059
But he literally starts reciting Crowley stuff. It's in the
576
00:35:27.139 --> 00:35:30.219
power of the will. This funny English guy with his
577
00:35:30.719 --> 00:35:33.760
strange delivery. It's like, it's the power of your mind
578
00:35:33.840 --> 00:35:37.420
over the will. He says that, and it's total Crowleyism. Yeah,
579
00:35:37.440 --> 00:35:40.880
he knows it. So these guys take stuff from reality
580
00:35:40.920 --> 00:35:42.960
and put it into their fiction.
581
00:35:44.179 --> 00:35:44.900
No doubt about it.
582
00:35:44.920 --> 00:35:47.690
But it's interesting you say these changes happening in the world.
583
00:35:48.150 --> 00:35:51.329
It's such an important point because we're being subjected to
584
00:35:51.349 --> 00:35:53.849
them all the time through the culture. And that's what
585
00:35:53.949 --> 00:35:56.809
Crowley said. He's like, we've got to put this information
586
00:35:56.909 --> 00:36:00.480
everywhere and into politics. And that's what people like. They
587
00:36:00.539 --> 00:36:04.719
have this view that these guys are like lonely old
588
00:36:04.780 --> 00:36:08.739
hermits at the top of some big tower just writing
589
00:36:08.800 --> 00:36:11.710
occult stuff by themselves. They're not. Crowley's mixing it up
590
00:36:11.769 --> 00:36:16.110
and training people. He was, I mean, he had kind of,
591
00:36:16.150 --> 00:36:18.590
some people said he had the work ethic of like
592
00:36:18.639 --> 00:36:22.019
a Puritan, even though he's like a Satanist. And I
593
00:36:22.099 --> 00:36:25.099
think that there's some, yeah, it's scary because he really
594
00:36:25.139 --> 00:36:27.900
kind of was a Puritan, believed or not. That's kind
595
00:36:27.920 --> 00:36:34.780
of what the Plymouth Brethren were. So, yeah, it's the
596
00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:37.489
20th century, just like he says, the culture's suffused with
597
00:36:37.510 --> 00:36:39.329
these esoteric ideas.
598
00:36:39.409 --> 00:36:40.289
We'll call them esoteric.
599
00:36:40.309 --> 00:36:40.690
We'll talk.
600
00:36:41.750 --> 00:36:45.380
I mean, that's the, it's just, it feels to me
601
00:36:45.460 --> 00:36:48.960
like just, by the way, that, that ghost club and
602
00:36:49.019 --> 00:36:52.500
secret society that Dennis Wheatley was a member of, it was,
603
00:36:52.599 --> 00:36:55.679
had direct ties to, I mean, launching the city of London,
604
00:36:55.719 --> 00:36:58.739
but direct ties to Cambridge, I believe. And, and it
605
00:36:58.840 --> 00:37:03.610
had like, this was in, I believe Charles Dickens was
606
00:37:03.679 --> 00:37:06.460
counted as a member of as well. And so it
607
00:37:06.519 --> 00:37:09.320
wasn't just Julian Huxley and, and all of these, these
608
00:37:09.400 --> 00:37:13.409
figures that are extraordinarily prominent and had, had a, uh,
609
00:37:13.949 --> 00:37:18.429
just a extraordinary effect on the, really the kind of
610
00:37:19.150 --> 00:37:23.070
path of modern society at large. And also the, the
611
00:37:23.289 --> 00:37:25.889
mind control agenda, I think with very much came out
612
00:37:25.929 --> 00:37:29.530
of Tavistock. I understand that the Tavistock international nodes were
613
00:37:29.550 --> 00:37:32.420
set up through the process of the Esalen Institute, West
614
00:37:32.500 --> 00:37:38.610
coast version of implementing the, that level of really what
615
00:37:39.269 --> 00:37:43.230
was not just ideological subversion utilized. It was almost like
616
00:37:43.690 --> 00:37:50.599
an attempt at starting and almost introducing subconsciously into the
617
00:37:50.679 --> 00:37:54.159
minds of the vast majority, this notion of the new
618
00:37:54.340 --> 00:37:58.900
age framework of the age of Aquarius. And in many ways,
619
00:37:59.360 --> 00:38:01.360
what would be the dawning of a new age in
620
00:38:01.380 --> 00:38:04.550
this sort of ideological sense. And And I think if
621
00:38:04.590 --> 00:38:07.769
you could imagine a world where subconsciously the vast majority
622
00:38:07.829 --> 00:38:12.269
embrace internally these principles without knowing it, which is very
623
00:38:12.329 --> 00:38:15.969
much a reflection on this inverted moral doctrine we witnessed today,
624
00:38:15.989 --> 00:38:20.780
it feels like we're playing, we're sort of eating out
625
00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:22.579
of the palm of their hands at this point in
626
00:38:22.679 --> 00:38:27.699
terms of the psychological warfare, you know, engineers. But yeah,
627
00:38:27.900 --> 00:38:31.340
at the very least, I do encourage anyone who's interested
628
00:38:31.719 --> 00:38:34.929
to go and look into the history of the ghost
629
00:38:34.989 --> 00:38:38.750
club and, and, uh, just the various meetings that were
630
00:38:38.789 --> 00:38:41.489
logged and things of that nature. And also the membership.
631
00:38:41.510 --> 00:38:44.349
I mean, they were involved in seances and things like it,
632
00:38:44.909 --> 00:38:48.500
and that's what's recorded, right. Which is just, uh, again,
633
00:38:48.599 --> 00:38:53.039
always worthwhile and, and kind of the overexposing yourself to,
634
00:38:53.119 --> 00:38:56.639
to these weird societies. But I will say in regard
635
00:38:56.699 --> 00:38:59.610
to the, um, the conflict over the final cut of
636
00:38:59.619 --> 00:39:03.190
the film, I thought it was interesting because Christopher Lee,
637
00:39:03.730 --> 00:39:07.699
He firmly believed that EMI, which was the studio that
638
00:39:07.800 --> 00:39:14.780
absorbed British Lion Films mid-production, had deliberately sabotaged or destroyed
639
00:39:14.920 --> 00:39:17.599
or even hid away the original negative of the film.
640
00:39:18.380 --> 00:39:21.280
And this is when I discovered there was this article
641
00:39:21.889 --> 00:39:24.989
from The Independent. And it's really in the end, it
642
00:39:25.070 --> 00:39:28.650
reveals the screenwriter himself, who was personally friends with Christopher
643
00:39:28.690 --> 00:39:32.579
Lee and collaborated with him on adapting the film as
644
00:39:32.619 --> 00:39:36.760
a screenwriter from a novel, Ritual, David Penner, to The
645
00:39:36.800 --> 00:39:41.989
Wicker Man. He had a devout commitment to paganism and
646
00:39:42.210 --> 00:39:45.690
admitted as much. And it was very, very interesting that
647
00:39:46.010 --> 00:39:50.179
it came through the context of this this independent report
648
00:39:50.699 --> 00:39:55.110
that was from December 20th, 2001. And the headline says
649
00:39:55.170 --> 00:39:58.710
a very nasty piece of work after years of cock
650
00:39:58.789 --> 00:40:01.670
ups and recrimination, the director's cut of the wicker man
651
00:40:01.730 --> 00:40:04.869
is being shown on television. So is everyone happy now?
652
00:40:06.110 --> 00:40:06.789
Apparently not.
653
00:40:06.929 --> 00:40:07.130
Right.
654
00:40:07.150 --> 00:40:10.849
And that was basically the, the, the implication in, in
655
00:40:10.949 --> 00:40:13.780
the article, once you read through it. And, and so
656
00:40:13.960 --> 00:40:20.909
Anthony Schaefer essentially had, He had died not long before
657
00:40:20.969 --> 00:40:24.449
this controversy was playing out to its end in a
658
00:40:24.670 --> 00:40:27.469
certain way. But he went on the record saying some
659
00:40:27.510 --> 00:40:32.389
very interesting things. And Christopher Lee himself, he suspected that
660
00:40:32.590 --> 00:40:37.329
it was British Lion Management that deliberately defiled and buried
661
00:40:37.369 --> 00:40:42.320
the finished film. And that Schaefer, the screenwriter, and Hardy,
662
00:40:42.340 --> 00:40:45.150
the director, Robin Hardy, I believe is the name, became
663
00:40:45.590 --> 00:40:50.710
estranged after completing the film because, uh, uh, essentially, oh,
664
00:40:50.809 --> 00:40:54.530
and Brit, Brit Aikland, right. Who's the female who plays, uh,
665
00:40:55.179 --> 00:40:59.900
I believe she's the, um, what do they call, uh, the, uh,
666
00:41:00.440 --> 00:41:03.119
the green man in was the name of the actual
667
00:41:03.340 --> 00:41:06.619
end that was, uh, uh, she was the innkeeper's daughter,
668
00:41:06.679 --> 00:41:10.170
I believe. And, um, she's the one who's basically a
669
00:41:10.190 --> 00:41:13.269
fertility goddess. If you remember when she walks and how
670
00:41:13.289 --> 00:41:16.949
he goes into the bar that night or the end, um,
671
00:41:17.409 --> 00:41:21.860
you see many people, the, the, the townsfolk essentially gathering at,
672
00:41:22.070 --> 00:41:24.889
at the pub. And, and, uh, this is the green
673
00:41:24.909 --> 00:41:26.989
man in, in the green man, by the way, I
674
00:41:27.409 --> 00:41:29.690
do think it's very important for people to know the
675
00:41:29.730 --> 00:41:35.210
pagan symbol of the green man, because as we're speaking privately, the,
676
00:41:35.409 --> 00:41:39.269
the final cut of the film is, actually opens up
677
00:41:39.389 --> 00:41:42.630
with what looks to be a full frame zoom in
678
00:41:43.130 --> 00:41:45.469
on the face of the pagan symbol of the green man,
679
00:41:46.030 --> 00:41:50.030
which you see all these, it's like foliage around his head. Yeah,
680
00:41:50.489 --> 00:41:53.449
it's interesting. That is, I thought it was strange the
681
00:41:53.489 --> 00:41:58.179
way that they full frame zoom into this face to
682
00:41:58.280 --> 00:42:01.440
even open the film. This is the very first frame.
683
00:42:02.099 --> 00:42:07.260
And so that is obviously intentional. And beyond that, to
684
00:42:07.320 --> 00:42:10.039
see it reinforced throughout the film, understanding what the green
685
00:42:10.079 --> 00:42:13.449
man very much represents, is it's a direct connection to
686
00:42:13.469 --> 00:42:18.090
the May Day Festival celebrations. And so this idea of
687
00:42:18.210 --> 00:42:21.690
rebirth or renewal, as I mentioned, the Age of Aquarius,
688
00:42:22.289 --> 00:42:26.869
I think this is ideologically intentional as well, right? It's
689
00:42:26.909 --> 00:42:31.650
not only being injected into pop culture for any other
690
00:42:31.710 --> 00:42:34.690
purpose than to subvert ideology, in my opinion. And so
691
00:42:35.170 --> 00:42:40.289
I view this as a subconscious layered approach of subversion
692
00:42:40.429 --> 00:42:43.469
in that sense. And so you see how the rebirth
693
00:42:43.510 --> 00:42:46.710
and renewal of the end of spring and, and the
694
00:42:46.769 --> 00:42:52.449
upcoming harvest, it's a, it's a, just the etymology or
695
00:42:52.570 --> 00:42:56.739
sort of like cultural reference or history and, and, and
696
00:42:57.360 --> 00:42:59.340
impact is, is fascinating.
697
00:42:59.559 --> 00:42:59.739
Yeah.
698
00:43:00.280 --> 00:43:00.980
True detective.
699
00:43:01.820 --> 00:43:03.619
I thought of a true detective the whole time I
700
00:43:03.639 --> 00:43:04.579
was watching this movie.
701
00:43:05.099 --> 00:43:05.300
Right.
702
00:43:06.050 --> 00:43:09.989
It was reminiscent of that or yeah. So it really
703
00:43:10.030 --> 00:43:11.030
was the same symbols.
704
00:43:12.130 --> 00:43:16.019
Agreed. And I think that just knowing the cultural celebrations
705
00:43:16.079 --> 00:43:19.980
in terms of like, even, even in the current moment,
706
00:43:20.119 --> 00:43:23.360
as far as the modern relevance of, of the cultural symbol,
707
00:43:23.420 --> 00:43:25.619
like the green man is still embraced in so many
708
00:43:25.679 --> 00:43:29.469
parts of the world, but by various ideological movements that
709
00:43:29.909 --> 00:43:33.349
include modern paganism. Uh, and do you know how they,
710
00:43:33.369 --> 00:43:37.639
do you know how they sort of, uh, The window
711
00:43:37.699 --> 00:43:44.019
dressings that appeal to the general public are provided through
712
00:43:44.599 --> 00:43:48.840
sort of the false lens of environmentalism, right? So it's
713
00:43:48.940 --> 00:43:52.219
all about concerning yourself with the environment and being closer
714
00:43:52.260 --> 00:43:56.079
to nature and in touch with your own, you know, human, right?
715
00:43:56.119 --> 00:43:58.780
It's like the deification of your own self and it's
716
00:43:58.840 --> 00:44:01.489
self-deification at a certain level as much as they have
717
00:44:01.530 --> 00:44:07.010
this perverted relationship with reincarnation. which in its own right
718
00:44:07.050 --> 00:44:10.980
is fascinating, but you have not only the resurrection and
719
00:44:11.000 --> 00:44:16.059
the cyclical rebirth, which is also a parallel to, you know,
720
00:44:16.860 --> 00:44:20.619
in a way, it's a parallel to the biblical context
721
00:44:20.739 --> 00:44:24.179
of Christ's resurrection in a sense. And so you see
722
00:44:24.260 --> 00:44:27.659
how this is being played, not only through the lens
723
00:44:27.760 --> 00:44:31.849
of these pagan zealots, but also how it parallels directly
724
00:44:31.949 --> 00:44:37.199
to that of rigid puritanical ideological framework as well right
725
00:44:37.340 --> 00:44:40.699
which howie the the protagonist obviously represents in the film
726
00:44:41.139 --> 00:44:44.559
itself but it is a an alleged reminder the green
727
00:44:44.599 --> 00:44:49.739
man of uh of our mortality and a man's connection
728
00:44:49.840 --> 00:44:52.619
to to the earth and so it's this sort of
729
00:44:54.070 --> 00:44:57.730
uh i think it's it's Again, I don't want to
730
00:44:57.769 --> 00:45:00.429
be long-winded on this specifically, but I did think just
731
00:45:00.530 --> 00:45:02.889
for people who are unaware of that fact, it is
732
00:45:02.969 --> 00:45:07.510
about this sort of mortality and decay. But more than
733
00:45:07.590 --> 00:45:11.820
that as well, there's modern pagans and Wiccans that implement
734
00:45:11.860 --> 00:45:17.159
this neo-pagan tradition, which is usually honoring the green man
735
00:45:17.239 --> 00:45:20.440
as a deity of the forest, and this divine masculinity
736
00:45:20.679 --> 00:45:25.019
is what it allegedly represents, which understanding the divine feminine
737
00:45:25.039 --> 00:45:28.710
is And how that's exploited as well, especially considering the
738
00:45:28.750 --> 00:45:32.829
gender wars being conducted in the current moment, I think
739
00:45:32.909 --> 00:45:36.309
is very interesting. So it's still very much a modern
740
00:45:36.349 --> 00:45:39.440
symbol that echoes back to these ancient fertility rituals and
741
00:45:39.480 --> 00:45:42.800
things of that nature. And so people should at least
742
00:45:42.940 --> 00:45:48.099
understand that. And yes, that is the actual sign outside
743
00:45:48.159 --> 00:45:49.780
the Green Man Inn, right?
744
00:45:49.800 --> 00:45:53.000
There it is. One of the things, there are parallels
745
00:45:53.059 --> 00:45:56.090
between the Wicker Man and True Detective in that There's
746
00:45:56.150 --> 00:45:59.139
different versions. I guess I saw a different version than
747
00:45:59.619 --> 00:46:01.500
was released to the public. I saw the one that's
748
00:46:01.579 --> 00:46:06.619
on archive.org. I was watching the end of True Detective
749
00:46:06.719 --> 00:46:10.769
on Netflix. It's not the original True Detective. They edited
750
00:46:10.869 --> 00:46:13.150
out one of the whole parts of the last scenes.
751
00:46:13.170 --> 00:46:20.989
The very important finish of True Detective where he's going
752
00:46:21.070 --> 00:46:26.210
through his complete catharsis at the end. with Woody Harrelson's character,
753
00:46:26.230 --> 00:46:28.929
and it was edited. And I was like, this is
754
00:46:28.969 --> 00:46:32.070
the most important part of the whole eight episodes. And
755
00:46:32.090 --> 00:46:35.550
they also edited out part of the parts where Rustin
756
00:46:35.590 --> 00:46:39.690
Cole is clearly hallucinating, like he's having, or whatever, he's
757
00:46:39.710 --> 00:46:43.280
having these trippy sings in the sky and birds and
758
00:46:43.320 --> 00:46:45.420
stuff like that. So they took out a lot of
759
00:46:45.460 --> 00:46:49.880
that complexity for whatever reason, and that's the real danger
760
00:46:49.900 --> 00:46:52.809
of Hollywood movies not just for it's a cult thing,
761
00:46:52.849 --> 00:46:57.639
but it's editorial, like things where they can like sabotage
762
00:46:57.679 --> 00:47:01.659
the artistry of the original artist, much like whatever happened
763
00:47:01.679 --> 00:47:04.500
with Wicker Man. So we're in like Eyes Wide Shut territory.
764
00:47:04.539 --> 00:47:05.619
What's the original edit?
765
00:47:06.260 --> 00:47:12.349
Yeah, exactly. And understanding there was all this controversy, it just,
766
00:47:12.809 --> 00:47:17.389
to me, it felt as if And understanding, like, I'll
767
00:47:17.429 --> 00:47:20.190
send you that article from The Independent because it's so
768
00:47:20.269 --> 00:47:24.840
interesting to actually see, especially the final statement that's made by,
769
00:47:25.510 --> 00:47:29.380
at least on the record, by the Schaefer, the individual
770
00:47:29.460 --> 00:47:35.400
who actually had adapted the screenplay, Anthony Schaefer. Let me read.
771
00:47:35.199 --> 00:47:38.679
This Uwe Huber statement just for the audio. Another version
772
00:47:38.719 --> 00:47:41.539
has the producers thank Lord Summerisle for the insight into
773
00:47:41.559 --> 00:47:45.860
the islands of cult practices. The 102-minute cut as the
774
00:47:45.920 --> 00:47:48.460
scene at the church at the beginning, I watched the
775
00:47:48.460 --> 00:47:53.300
90 minute cutter, actually one hour, 33 minutes, strange numerology,
776
00:47:53.320 --> 00:47:54.980
but that's the cut that I saw.
777
00:47:55.900 --> 00:47:56.099
Yeah.
778
00:47:56.619 --> 00:47:56.800
Yeah.
779
00:47:56.820 --> 00:48:00.489
There's several different cuts and, and, uh, there's the original,
780
00:48:00.570 --> 00:48:03.630
obviously theatrical release. Then you have the director's cut and
781
00:48:03.650 --> 00:48:07.570
the final cut. And each of these versions are, are basically,
782
00:48:07.590 --> 00:48:11.130
you know, you have scenes removed, uh, you have edits
783
00:48:11.429 --> 00:48:15.510
that were made in post-production. You have, uh, At one point,
784
00:48:15.929 --> 00:48:20.650
they even hid the final negative, apparently. And this is
785
00:48:20.710 --> 00:48:23.210
what Christopher Lee was so upset with. Because again, I
786
00:48:23.289 --> 00:48:26.889
think there was absolutely, as I mentioned before, a merger
787
00:48:26.949 --> 00:48:31.510
within the production, right? As far as this mid-production merger
788
00:48:31.929 --> 00:48:36.159
for who was actually involved as the studio. And so
789
00:48:36.610 --> 00:48:40.980
that alone, I think, the issue was that obviously the
790
00:48:41.019 --> 00:48:44.980
individuals who screened the final cut they were opposed to
791
00:48:45.300 --> 00:48:49.940
vehemently opposed apparently to the actual human sacrifice playing out
792
00:48:49.980 --> 00:48:53.280
at the end and and they wanted a better ending
793
00:48:53.380 --> 00:48:56.360
to even be uh sort of injected into the film
794
00:48:56.400 --> 00:48:58.949
before it was ever released and so you had all
795
00:48:59.010 --> 00:49:02.230
this controversy in an interesting way but you also have
796
00:49:03.190 --> 00:49:06.030
yeah this there's so many that i do believe the
797
00:49:06.070 --> 00:49:08.510
scene in the church is extraordinarily important and we were
798
00:49:08.570 --> 00:49:11.289
discussing that i think maybe privately i can't remember now
799
00:49:11.849 --> 00:49:16.059
but but Basically, it was the fact that the film itself,
800
00:49:16.119 --> 00:49:18.849
not only does it open with the Green Man, but
801
00:49:18.989 --> 00:49:24.019
the original opening. scene of the film itself is Howie
802
00:49:24.219 --> 00:49:28.340
engaging in communion at the actual church. And what looks
803
00:49:28.440 --> 00:49:31.429
to be... Did we mention this on the show itself?
804
00:49:31.710 --> 00:49:32.250
I can't remember now.
805
00:49:32.269 --> 00:49:32.769
I don't think so.
806
00:49:32.789 --> 00:49:32.989
Yeah. Okay.
807
00:49:33.730 --> 00:49:37.610
You had mentioned this woman right here, right? It's not her.
808
00:49:37.650 --> 00:49:39.329
I'll show her the other one. I don't know, but...
809
00:49:39.989 --> 00:49:43.989
I didn't include it in my PDF. Let me find it.
810
00:49:44.949 --> 00:49:50.550
There she is. The last thing that they show before
811
00:49:50.650 --> 00:49:54.769
they pan to the opening credits is a picture of
812
00:49:54.829 --> 00:49:57.469
this woman. I'm trying to figure out, is she from
813
00:49:57.510 --> 00:50:04.039
the island? She has the flowers and stuff on her
814
00:50:04.480 --> 00:50:08.239
lapel or whatever. Is that person from the island?
815
00:50:08.929 --> 00:50:13.510
After you mentioned that, it just instantly triggered the thought
816
00:50:13.570 --> 00:50:19.849
that this is where the anonymous tip came from, to
817
00:50:19.969 --> 00:50:23.010
lure him back to the Summer Isle, to the island
818
00:50:23.690 --> 00:50:27.949
obviously known as Summer Isle, on these false pretenses of
819
00:50:27.989 --> 00:50:31.380
an abducted 12-year-old child, or at least a missing 12-year-old child.
820
00:50:32.039 --> 00:50:36.179
And so obviously the cult itself, this pagan group of
821
00:50:36.800 --> 00:50:40.570
pagan zealots, They had done their research, and you see
822
00:50:40.650 --> 00:50:44.369
Lord Summerisle, Christopher Lee's character, reveals that much, that he actually,
823
00:50:44.710 --> 00:50:48.590
they had done painstaking effort in investigating him himself and
824
00:50:48.630 --> 00:50:51.289
his background and who he was as a person. And
825
00:50:51.369 --> 00:50:53.789
so due to the fact that he fit the perfect
826
00:50:53.869 --> 00:50:58.969
character profile for the human sacrifice is ultimately why he
827
00:50:59.010 --> 00:51:02.219
was chosen as the target to lure to the island
828
00:51:03.119 --> 00:51:06.989
for the inevitable ritual sacrifice of the Wicker Man to
829
00:51:07.030 --> 00:51:13.210
take place for the year's upcoming harvest. And the interesting
830
00:51:13.329 --> 00:51:17.289
aspect of them, like, acknowledging, you know, exactly the characteristics
831
00:51:17.369 --> 00:51:23.570
that he presented personally that made him the perfect candidate
832
00:51:23.670 --> 00:51:28.300
for ritual sacrifice in this context is fascinating alone, but
833
00:51:28.710 --> 00:51:31.179
But I do find that very interesting because I missed
834
00:51:31.219 --> 00:51:35.679
that in my first watch through and and didn't necessarily connect.
835
00:51:36.119 --> 00:51:36.500
Right.
836
00:51:36.599 --> 00:51:38.920
That obviously this seemed to have been this kind of
837
00:51:38.980 --> 00:51:42.059
pagan spy who was who was in the at least
838
00:51:42.119 --> 00:51:44.340
in the scene during the communion who could have at
839
00:51:44.400 --> 00:51:48.349
least potentially been the one responsible for the anonymous tip.
840
00:51:48.570 --> 00:51:54.389
So but with the the final cut controversy, it's crazy
841
00:51:54.429 --> 00:51:58.260
because Christopher Lee had these grievances against Michael Dealey. who
842
00:51:58.280 --> 00:52:02.980
was this incoming manager director at British lion, who Lee
843
00:52:03.059 --> 00:52:05.900
claimed declared the wicker man to be one of the
844
00:52:05.900 --> 00:52:09.570
10 worst movies he had ever seen. And also that
845
00:52:10.409 --> 00:52:15.150
he was vilifying the wicker man as fans, fans of
846
00:52:15.409 --> 00:52:18.409
this devil piece of basically is what he was saying.
847
00:52:18.449 --> 00:52:22.190
Like this is a, an art piece for the devil
848
00:52:22.269 --> 00:52:25.940
essentially is what I believe the incoming managing director for
849
00:52:25.960 --> 00:52:29.920
the new production company involved with the production of the
850
00:52:29.960 --> 00:52:35.000
film was, was becoming vehemently opposed to it in post-production
851
00:52:35.039 --> 00:52:39.239
it seems. And, and so what, what's even more interesting
852
00:52:39.320 --> 00:52:43.599
is that you have this, this falling out where it's
853
00:52:43.659 --> 00:52:46.619
declared to be unsaleable at one point, whenever the final
854
00:52:46.679 --> 00:52:50.610
screening is conducted. And, and I think the, the film
855
00:52:50.750 --> 00:52:57.570
screenwriter who I've been mentioning by the what's his first name? Anthony,
856
00:52:58.360 --> 00:53:03.360
Anthony Schaefer. He, he went on record about the wicker
857
00:53:03.380 --> 00:53:06.480
man and said that when the lights went up after
858
00:53:06.840 --> 00:53:10.099
the screening, they just said, is that it? Don't, don't
859
00:53:10.139 --> 00:53:14.789
the cavalry come like Jesus, it's a bit heavy, isn't it?
860
00:53:14.860 --> 00:53:16.739
That was one of, that was one of the statements
861
00:53:16.800 --> 00:53:21.940
from the people involved with the production. So yeah, it
862
00:53:21.980 --> 00:53:25.630
seemed as if they, they were definitely opposed at that time.
863
00:53:25.710 --> 00:53:28.429
And so it led to all this, this controversy and
864
00:53:28.449 --> 00:53:31.329
you see how, how these prints were then sent all
865
00:53:31.409 --> 00:53:33.789
over the place. And there were 12 minutes, I think
866
00:53:33.909 --> 00:53:38.550
originally a cut from the film. And this was what
867
00:53:38.590 --> 00:53:41.570
allowed Dealey to even release it as, as a supporting
868
00:53:41.630 --> 00:53:44.639
feature apparently. And so otherwise I don't think he would
869
00:53:44.679 --> 00:53:48.079
have allowed it to have been released. So you see
870
00:53:48.139 --> 00:53:51.820
how Christopher Lee was upset whenever there was a lot
871
00:53:51.840 --> 00:53:55.840
of dialogue that had been lost and and and i
872
00:53:55.900 --> 00:53:59.579
think uh he he claimed until his death the original
873
00:53:59.639 --> 00:54:03.360
negative was used as road fill during the building of
874
00:54:03.400 --> 00:54:11.909
a motorway that's insane it's i'm never surprised anymore william.
875
00:54:11.769 --> 00:54:15.989
No i'm not either right so there was it has
876
00:54:16.030 --> 00:54:18.570
to be like a just a show showing this shenanigans
877
00:54:19.349 --> 00:54:21.969
what happened on some of these film sets. Like everybody has, oh,
878
00:54:21.989 --> 00:54:25.289
this is a very orderly, you know, put together process.
879
00:54:25.389 --> 00:54:27.639
I mean, it's lucky if it's that way. They're usually
880
00:54:27.820 --> 00:54:31.800
super chaotic. Somebody said it was like filming, trying to
881
00:54:31.860 --> 00:54:35.179
film while you're on a roller coaster is really what
882
00:54:35.199 --> 00:54:37.440
like being a director is. And I think that that's
883
00:54:37.480 --> 00:54:40.630
a really good metaphor because there's just like so many
884
00:54:40.670 --> 00:54:45.469
things going on, actors and outside forces and other people's
885
00:54:45.530 --> 00:54:49.380
agendas and so on. This is the perfect example of
886
00:54:49.440 --> 00:54:49.940
this film.
887
00:54:50.679 --> 00:54:54.280
Right. Yeah. Buried in a landfill under the bridges of
888
00:54:54.340 --> 00:54:58.619
the M3 is what Christopher Lee said. So that's what
889
00:54:58.639 --> 00:55:01.739
it looks like may have happened to some of the
890
00:55:01.800 --> 00:55:05.409
original negative at the very least. And so if it
891
00:55:05.469 --> 00:55:09.150
was accidentally dumped in a waste disposal, which someone else
892
00:55:09.210 --> 00:55:14.050
did make a claim saying, who knows? But Christopher Lee
893
00:55:14.090 --> 00:55:17.150
said that he doesn't know whether instructions were given to
894
00:55:17.170 --> 00:55:20.050
destroy it. or to hold it somewhere under another name,
895
00:55:20.510 --> 00:55:24.250
but he believed that the negative still existed and, and that, um,
896
00:55:24.289 --> 00:55:30.159
Dealey even apparently thought it was possible. Who's that individual who, who, uh,
897
00:55:30.300 --> 00:55:33.800
obviously created the 12 minute edit, uh, for, for the
898
00:55:33.840 --> 00:55:36.699
cut that was originally released, uh, part of the new
899
00:55:36.739 --> 00:55:41.730
production company. And, and he himself basically, you know, said
900
00:55:41.769 --> 00:55:45.949
that It was possible, I guess, what Christopher Lee had said,
901
00:55:45.989 --> 00:55:47.889
but he was trying to push back on it and
902
00:55:47.989 --> 00:55:51.570
essentially said that these are paranoid fantasies as far as
903
00:55:51.630 --> 00:55:55.429
the deliberately secreted away. But you would imagine he would
904
00:55:55.449 --> 00:55:57.460
feel the need to say that to protect his own
905
00:55:57.980 --> 00:56:01.599
reputation to some extent. But there was an uncut print
906
00:56:01.860 --> 00:56:04.760
of the Wicker Man, which was traced to these offices
907
00:56:04.840 --> 00:56:11.030
that were originally, apparently, Roger Corman, this film legend, was
908
00:56:11.199 --> 00:56:14.989
a United States legend, I guess, in the film industry.
909
00:56:16.050 --> 00:56:19.849
He had made all these suggestions for the cuts. And
910
00:56:19.889 --> 00:56:24.630
this was basically on behalf of this new merger and
911
00:56:24.710 --> 00:56:28.500
Dealey himself. And so that's apparently where they said some
912
00:56:28.539 --> 00:56:32.460
of these uncut prints were found in Corman's offices. And
913
00:56:32.500 --> 00:56:36.000
so that was even used to strike dupe negative elements
914
00:56:36.059 --> 00:56:38.639
for new prints and to create a new master for
915
00:56:38.659 --> 00:56:41.760
a director's cut video. So that's how we inevitably got
916
00:56:41.840 --> 00:56:46.079
the released, uh, 102 minute running time, I think, uh,
917
00:56:46.199 --> 00:56:49.780
at that point. But, uh, but there was another version, right.
918
00:56:49.820 --> 00:56:52.980
Which is basically the, the Holy grail of the cult
919
00:56:53.039 --> 00:56:55.780
followers of the wicker man, you know, in a sense,
920
00:56:56.469 --> 00:56:58.800
but they call them the Corman's vaults as well. And,
921
00:56:59.469 --> 00:57:03.349
but I do think there's, there's definitely an, an, an, there's,
922
00:57:03.510 --> 00:57:07.539
there's a, an, apparently another negative that was never an
923
00:57:07.780 --> 00:57:10.280
original negative that was never released to the public as
924
00:57:10.340 --> 00:57:13.820
far as we know. And, and so, but, but here's
925
00:57:13.900 --> 00:57:16.019
the part of this that I wanted to tell you,
926
00:57:16.099 --> 00:57:19.679
because I thought was extraordinary that, that they went on
927
00:57:19.719 --> 00:57:22.820
the record making these statements that were so revealing to
928
00:57:22.860 --> 00:57:26.099
the ultimate goal and hidden agenda behind the film's plots
929
00:57:26.179 --> 00:57:29.590
and the entire purpose, I think. And that was that
930
00:57:31.030 --> 00:57:34.550
essentially you had, by the way, I think it was, um,
931
00:57:35.760 --> 00:57:38.320
the U S DVD release was like three minutes shorter
932
00:57:38.360 --> 00:57:40.539
than it should be at one point. And, and, uh,
933
00:57:41.199 --> 00:57:44.440
it was, um, Christopher Lee still thought it could, it
934
00:57:44.519 --> 00:57:47.570
could do with being 10 minutes longer even. So, so
935
00:57:47.650 --> 00:57:50.449
there's all a controversy with even some of the, the
936
00:57:50.590 --> 00:57:54.789
release for DVD, uh, at the time in the United States. But,
937
00:57:55.510 --> 00:57:57.289
but yeah, so there's a lot, there's like a myth
938
00:57:57.489 --> 00:58:00.190
that's behind the final cut of the wicker man at
939
00:58:00.230 --> 00:58:03.550
this point, this that's, um, kind of developed over time.
940
00:58:04.329 --> 00:58:08.409
But here's what Christopher Lee claims, right? He believes that
941
00:58:08.429 --> 00:58:11.190
there is a touch of paganism. Listen to this, William.
942
00:58:11.230 --> 00:58:14.989
This freaked me out. So this is his personal perspective
943
00:58:15.090 --> 00:58:18.400
on this film. There's a touch of paganism in all
944
00:58:18.420 --> 00:58:21.639
of us insofar as we do all depend on the
945
00:58:21.719 --> 00:58:24.840
elements which have been there since the dawn of time.
946
00:58:25.800 --> 00:58:29.599
Robin Hardy, the director, agrees. He says that the idea
947
00:58:29.820 --> 00:58:35.739
that this rather happy singing song loving society could come back.
948
00:58:36.039 --> 00:58:38.480
And the only price was that we had to burn
949
00:58:38.519 --> 00:58:43.579
the occasional policeman. Sounds pretty good. That was the director
950
00:58:43.619 --> 00:58:50.179
of the films quote as for Anthony Schaefer, right? This individual, uh, uh, who,
951
00:58:50.440 --> 00:58:54.260
who wrote the screenplay and film adaptation of, of David
952
00:58:54.300 --> 00:58:59.150
Penner's novel ritual to become the wicker man script. Well,
953
00:58:59.210 --> 00:59:03.280
he himself, uh, had a very strange declaration that he
954
00:59:03.320 --> 00:59:06.489
made toward the end of his life. And he says,
955
00:59:06.510 --> 00:59:10.920
I look forward to the day when we are pagans again.
956
00:59:12.099 --> 00:59:14.539
We'd have a much better time of it. I think
957
00:59:14.559 --> 00:59:17.159
we'd have a lot more fun, a lot more belief,
958
00:59:17.500 --> 00:59:20.920
a lot more faith, and a lot more immediacy with
959
00:59:20.960 --> 00:59:25.530
the things unseen. Wow.
960
00:59:25.610 --> 00:59:28.230
So it's like a pro-pagan kill the Christian thing.
961
00:59:28.230 --> 00:59:29.489
1973.
962
00:59:29.489 --> 00:59:33.869
Somebody asked, is this like Rosemary's Baby and the Exorcist?
963
00:59:34.590 --> 00:59:38.409
It's certainly like Rosemary's Baby because that was close to this,
964
00:59:38.489 --> 00:59:42.789
I believe. Wow, you just see this cultural change. Golden
965
00:59:42.829 --> 00:59:45.510
Bough is a huge influence on Arnie. Golden Bough is
966
00:59:45.550 --> 00:59:51.039
kind of like the pagan workbook. I don't even know
967
00:59:51.059 --> 00:59:53.800
how to put it, but my understanding is it's like
968
00:59:53.840 --> 00:59:57.260
that kind of anthropology of this kind of stuff. I
969
00:59:57.280 --> 00:59:58.440
don't know what else to say.
970
00:59:59.650 --> 01:00:05.090
Yeah, and just I know we can end whenever you're ready, honestly, William.
971
01:00:05.519 --> 01:00:07.539
See if we got any questions or anything.
972
01:00:08.039 --> 01:00:09.659
Okay.
973
01:00:09.760 --> 01:00:12.440
I got a few more slides. What's really shocking, like
974
01:00:12.460 --> 01:00:14.719
when I watch this as a younger, I didn't know
975
01:00:15.400 --> 01:00:17.559
the scene. There's a lot of music and stuff. It
976
01:00:17.940 --> 01:00:22.139
suffuses the film. It's super bawdy. Like it's really like
977
01:00:22.239 --> 01:00:25.659
almost like porno music. No, I put it like these
978
01:00:25.699 --> 01:00:26.929
are all dirty old people.
979
01:00:27.780 --> 01:00:31.039
Right. And you see how they're treating the innkeeper's daughter,
980
01:00:31.219 --> 01:00:35.380
who I believe her name is Willow, right? The daughter
981
01:00:35.539 --> 01:00:39.519
of the green man innkeeper, right? Which is very interesting
982
01:00:39.579 --> 01:00:42.909
in itself. And you see how this kind of, it
983
01:00:43.010 --> 01:00:47.409
seems to be this overtly sexualized, she's a fertility goddess
984
01:00:47.469 --> 01:00:49.730
is what she represents in a way. And I think
985
01:00:49.750 --> 01:00:53.550
that's important to understand in regard to that strange moment
986
01:00:53.590 --> 01:00:56.889
where they're testing his faith, right? Because I believe he's,
987
01:00:58.480 --> 01:01:01.159
she attempts to seduce him. And that's when he reveals
988
01:01:01.579 --> 01:01:04.460
to them, and I believe even the audience publicly, that
989
01:01:04.900 --> 01:01:08.960
he's a virgin and he's maintaining his purity, you know,
990
01:01:09.019 --> 01:01:13.090
for his wife whenever, I believe he's even engaged to
991
01:01:13.119 --> 01:01:15.369
be married at this point. I'm not even certain, but
992
01:01:15.829 --> 01:01:18.929
I'm pretty sure that was the case. And just knowing that,
993
01:01:19.550 --> 01:01:22.829
you know, they're openly, I mean, he's so thrown off
994
01:01:22.929 --> 01:01:25.909
when he first arrives because he, first of all, he, he,
995
01:01:26.050 --> 01:01:29.519
he witnesses the fact that, that, and it's disturbing as
996
01:01:29.559 --> 01:01:33.159
hell to him that this small community of, of are
997
01:01:33.260 --> 01:01:37.280
openly worshiping, you know, the old pagan Celtic gods of
998
01:01:37.340 --> 01:01:40.400
their ancestors is basically what it is. And, and they're
999
01:01:40.420 --> 01:01:43.260
having orgies in the open fields and children are being
1000
01:01:43.320 --> 01:01:46.750
taught the phallic importance of the maypole and, and, and
1001
01:01:46.829 --> 01:01:49.989
in their schooling. And, and they even are like, for
1002
01:01:50.230 --> 01:01:54.610
treating whooping cough by placing toads in the mouths, right,
1003
01:01:54.690 --> 01:01:59.199
of the children. And I think that it was interesting
1004
01:01:59.219 --> 01:02:05.099
to also notice the church and graveyards being desecrated, also
1005
01:02:05.280 --> 01:02:09.340
actively being used for reincarnation rituals, which is basically just
1006
01:02:09.420 --> 01:02:14.239
this burial ritual of pagan community members who believed in reincarnation.
1007
01:02:14.940 --> 01:02:21.289
And to understand... just the role of reincarnation in pagan practices,
1008
01:02:22.349 --> 01:02:27.750
it essentially justifies ritual murder. And to me, their glorified
1009
01:02:27.789 --> 01:02:32.489
concept of death is a direct clash with Christianity. And
1010
01:02:32.789 --> 01:02:38.320
to understand that really modern society and what I like
1011
01:02:38.340 --> 01:02:41.039
to call, as I said earlier, the inverted moral landscape
1012
01:02:41.099 --> 01:02:45.019
is only a direct reflection of these perverted pagan principles
1013
01:02:45.139 --> 01:02:49.110
being subconsciously embraced. And so You have this pop culture.
1014
01:02:49.130 --> 01:02:53.739
And also, I made this point just as far as
1015
01:02:53.760 --> 01:02:58.019
an example, pornography, right? How much of a negative, profound
1016
01:02:58.079 --> 01:03:01.579
impact it's had upon not only young men, but also
1017
01:03:01.639 --> 01:03:06.630
young women. And for just this profound impact in many ways,
1018
01:03:06.730 --> 01:03:11.650
rendering what seems to be a significant portion of society
1019
01:03:11.730 --> 01:03:18.179
morally bankrupt at this point. And it feels like, we
1020
01:03:18.300 --> 01:03:22.480
are almost residing in what you could call modern Babylon, right?
1021
01:03:22.599 --> 01:03:27.380
And it's up to us to attempt to utilize discernment
1022
01:03:28.000 --> 01:03:31.099
and expose the very root cause of our culture war
1023
01:03:31.159 --> 01:03:35.219
conflicts designed by, you know, for the very purpose of
1024
01:03:35.340 --> 01:03:38.969
what seems to be creating discordian division. You know, it's
1025
01:03:39.010 --> 01:03:45.710
like this discordianism ideological philosophy in a sense, but So
1026
01:03:45.789 --> 01:03:48.409
Howie's staying at the Green Man Inn, as I mentioned, right?
1027
01:03:48.449 --> 01:03:52.389
Green Man, pagan symbol. And the landlord's daughter attempts to
1028
01:03:52.429 --> 01:03:55.190
seduce him, but he resists. And this is when he
1029
01:03:55.269 --> 01:04:00.510
explains that he's engaged and he's trying to reserve his
1030
01:04:00.650 --> 01:04:05.409
purity for sex for marriage. And he notices these photographs
1031
01:04:05.469 --> 01:04:08.880
that are celebrating the annual harvest, the May Day Festival harvest.
1032
01:04:09.760 --> 01:04:12.940
And each feature this young girl as the May Queen
1033
01:04:13.039 --> 01:04:16.960
dressed in white, exactly. around that year's harvest.
1034
01:04:17.059 --> 01:04:17.280
Right.
1035
01:04:18.139 --> 01:04:22.000
And, um, and so he, he notices that, yes, that
1036
01:04:22.099 --> 01:04:26.280
picture from the prior years, May day celebrations, uh, was
1037
01:04:26.760 --> 01:04:30.960
curiously and suspiciously missing from, from the wall. And so
1038
01:04:31.159 --> 01:04:34.530
the photograph, uh, obviously the landlord tells him it was
1039
01:04:34.570 --> 01:04:37.630
broken or something, I think is what happens. And, and, um,
1040
01:04:38.110 --> 01:04:40.469
and then he even goes to, to the point of after,
1041
01:04:40.550 --> 01:04:44.190
after seeing the maypole phallic maypole celebrations and the teachings
1042
01:04:44.230 --> 01:04:46.739
at the school, um, He walks into the school, and
1043
01:04:46.760 --> 01:04:51.429
I think he even looks at the registration or some
1044
01:04:51.449 --> 01:04:55.130
of the school's register of some kind where he's looking
1045
01:04:55.170 --> 01:04:57.929
for Rowan's name, and he finds her name. And this
1046
01:04:57.989 --> 01:05:00.610
is after he asks all the students and even the
1047
01:05:00.650 --> 01:05:04.389
teacher who deny her existence, just like everyone else in
1048
01:05:04.429 --> 01:05:08.429
the town, including the mother of Rowan, allegedly, right? And
1049
01:05:08.449 --> 01:05:13.170
I think her name was Mae Morrison Rowan. mayday for
1050
01:05:13.190 --> 01:05:16.469
the mayday celebration it just really felt like everything was
1051
01:05:16.530 --> 01:05:22.630
intentional in regard to that and um so what's so
1052
01:05:22.690 --> 01:05:26.389
strange is that he's he's then directed to what is
1053
01:05:26.510 --> 01:05:29.250
alleged to have been rowan's grave right yeah that was
1054
01:05:29.329 --> 01:05:31.750
the ridiculous orgies out in the middle of the fields
1055
01:05:31.829 --> 01:05:34.610
but but yeah had to have been disturbing for a
1056
01:05:34.659 --> 01:05:37.519
man such as this right with the the principles he
1057
01:05:37.840 --> 01:05:41.349
he held dear and and close to his heart, which
1058
01:05:41.369 --> 01:05:45.550
was precisely why he was chosen. But anyway, it's just
1059
01:05:45.760 --> 01:05:51.119
interesting to know that not only was he directed to
1060
01:05:51.360 --> 01:05:56.360
what was alleged to have been her grave, he basically
1061
01:05:57.019 --> 01:05:59.400
digs it up and reveals a March Hare, I think.
1062
01:05:59.860 --> 01:06:02.059
It was like a dead March Hare that was in
1063
01:06:02.159 --> 01:06:05.449
the grave. And if you remember, when he goes to
1064
01:06:06.250 --> 01:06:09.010
The original is like a bakery and a home that's
1065
01:06:09.070 --> 01:06:11.789
also a post office that the mother of the missing
1066
01:06:11.809 --> 01:06:16.909
12-year-old girl, Rowan Morrison, is running and living at. And
1067
01:06:17.070 --> 01:06:22.510
with what seemingly her other daughter, who's not missing, and
1068
01:06:22.570 --> 01:06:27.530
who's drawing these pictures of a March Hare. And when Howie,
1069
01:06:27.610 --> 01:06:32.280
the protagonist, walks in to investigate and ask questions to
1070
01:06:32.300 --> 01:06:35.880
the mother on her missing child, who also seems to...
1071
01:06:36.260 --> 01:06:40.039
strangely deny the very existence of her own child, obviously,
1072
01:06:41.079 --> 01:06:47.889
you see these, not only are there baked goods and
1073
01:06:47.949 --> 01:06:50.289
all these things that are in the shape of March hairs,
1074
01:06:50.969 --> 01:06:55.190
but you also see what seems to be a direct
1075
01:06:55.730 --> 01:07:00.389
reference to spirit cooking, in my opinion, right? Because at
1076
01:07:00.550 --> 01:07:02.969
one point, Howie goes to the missing girl's home, and
1077
01:07:03.159 --> 01:07:06.840
as he's visiting the mother, it seems to be really
1078
01:07:06.860 --> 01:07:11.300
this nonstop March Hare symbolism, as well as this strange
1079
01:07:11.340 --> 01:07:14.199
connection to the spirit cooking. And the only portion removed
1080
01:07:14.260 --> 01:07:16.480
from one of the cakes that is in the shape
1081
01:07:16.619 --> 01:07:21.099
of a child happened to be the location of the genitals.
1082
01:07:22.039 --> 01:07:23.780
And as you can see in this picture, and that's,
1083
01:07:24.519 --> 01:07:25.760
that's to me, she's.
1084
01:07:25.570 --> 01:07:28.820
Got the circular swirl on her, on her fricking arm too.
1085
01:07:29.360 --> 01:07:31.469
The whole meadow symbol, right? So it's all there.
1086
01:07:32.730 --> 01:07:35.909
I didn't even notice that William. What the hell, man?
1087
01:07:36.329 --> 01:07:39.230
I can't believe it. Yeah. This is all really dark.
1088
01:07:39.789 --> 01:07:43.130
I mean, they, they, even the, the guys, the, um,
1089
01:07:43.809 --> 01:07:47.449
like there's all kinds of, uh, hexagrams and there's like
1090
01:07:47.570 --> 01:07:50.849
walking around with totems of these kids. So it's like
1091
01:07:51.130 --> 01:07:54.869
spirit cooking where they're training them with totems and cakes
1092
01:07:54.929 --> 01:07:59.380
and stuff to eat. This is the same thing in this, but, uh,
1093
01:08:00.309 --> 01:08:03.889
One of these is really interesting is this whole story
1094
01:08:03.929 --> 01:08:08.139
where he's talking to her. The conversation or the dialogue
1095
01:08:08.239 --> 01:08:12.460
is that she's like, what is this? What does she say?
1096
01:08:12.860 --> 01:08:17.819
Something about Aphrodite. This is a sacrifice to Aphrodite or
1097
01:08:17.840 --> 01:08:18.600
something like that.
1098
01:08:19.199 --> 01:08:20.289
Oh, my God.
1099
01:08:20.420 --> 01:08:25.619
She says sacrifice for Aphrodite, death and rebirth. And then
1100
01:08:25.680 --> 01:08:28.920
he comes in and he says the classic kind of
1101
01:08:29.100 --> 01:08:32.840
anti-God stuff while he's down with obviously the left eye
1102
01:08:32.920 --> 01:08:37.260
only showing. You have no duty to God. Nobody kneels here.
1103
01:08:37.920 --> 01:08:41.319
Nobody kneels before God, right? And it's just like, so
1104
01:08:41.619 --> 01:08:46.250
they're philosophizing all of this pagan, anti-Christ type stuff. And
1105
01:08:46.270 --> 01:08:48.909
then it goes straight to the Maypool. Yeah.
1106
01:08:49.229 --> 01:08:52.409
And she's dancing naked in the room next to him.
1107
01:08:52.909 --> 01:08:56.319
almost summoning him to the wall on the opposite side
1108
01:08:57.039 --> 01:09:01.899
of the other room. And he's again it seems as
1109
01:09:02.039 --> 01:09:06.260
if they're testing his faith but this is also like
1110
01:09:06.279 --> 01:09:10.000
a moment where it's interesting because I saw.
1111
01:09:09.760 --> 01:09:13.340
They're testing everybody's faith that's why they made it so
1112
01:09:13.420 --> 01:09:18.449
freaking graphic so you're in the point of the guy's
1113
01:09:18.510 --> 01:09:21.569
character Woodard, Edward Woodard, or what was his character's name?
1114
01:09:22.029 --> 01:09:23.989
Yeah, I believe that. Or Howie.
1115
01:09:24.430 --> 01:09:29.369
Yeah, Howie, whatever. So we're all watching and everybody else
1116
01:09:29.430 --> 01:09:32.250
is in on it. That's the whole thing. Everybody's in
1117
01:09:32.350 --> 01:09:35.250
on it. It's like Rosemary's Baby in that sense.
1118
01:09:35.670 --> 01:09:38.899
They are the initiates. All of them witches.
1119
01:09:39.260 --> 01:09:40.439
All of them witches, guys.
1120
01:09:41.140 --> 01:09:43.619
Absolutely. And you see how she was this sort of
1121
01:09:43.720 --> 01:09:48.039
Aphrodite love goddess in regard to the fertility nature of
1122
01:09:48.119 --> 01:09:52.359
the what the villagers looked at her as and, and, um, uh,
1123
01:09:52.500 --> 01:09:56.539
as she's singing this, this strangely, like it is almost
1124
01:09:56.619 --> 01:09:59.260
like a siren, you know, some kind. And, and, uh,
1125
01:09:59.819 --> 01:10:01.819
and she says at one point, how a maid can
1126
01:10:01.880 --> 01:10:04.699
milk a bull and every stroke, a bucket full, like
1127
01:10:04.739 --> 01:10:07.699
there's just so, so, so much strangeness in the lyrics,
1128
01:10:07.899 --> 01:10:11.850
you know, that, that is worthy of, you know, being noticed. And,
1129
01:10:12.350 --> 01:10:15.270
And I think there's something to do with the martyrdom
1130
01:10:15.569 --> 01:10:20.270
aspect of, and through the perspective of the Catholic Church
1131
01:10:20.350 --> 01:10:22.939
at one point, I thought was potentially a part of it,
1132
01:10:23.020 --> 01:10:28.159
but not necessarily, you know, worth really going over. I
1133
01:10:28.920 --> 01:10:32.220
just thought that, you know, it's interesting knowing that you
1134
01:10:32.260 --> 01:10:35.199
see the meeting between Howie and Lord Summerisle. I think
1135
01:10:35.220 --> 01:10:38.930
it's the first time they meet. And Lord Summerisle explains
1136
01:10:39.409 --> 01:10:42.829
one of their fertility rituals was, where you clearly see
1137
01:10:42.890 --> 01:10:45.890
these naked women jumping through the fire in the middle
1138
01:10:45.909 --> 01:10:50.449
of a rock formation with the intention of apparently becoming
1139
01:10:50.550 --> 01:10:56.699
pregnant through parthenogenesis, which is otherwise known as reproduction without
1140
01:10:56.739 --> 01:11:01.220
sexual union. And so, again, just to know that, and
1141
01:11:01.239 --> 01:11:06.039
for him to have explained that in the moment as well, just, again,
1142
01:11:07.239 --> 01:11:11.270
very revealing. And in terms of how he's martyred them, just...
1143
01:11:11.609 --> 01:11:14.210
I felt the need. I mean, at this point it's
1144
01:11:14.289 --> 01:11:19.250
necessary to address. I mean, Lord Summerisle himself explains to
1145
01:11:19.289 --> 01:11:23.470
Howie that he specifically was lured to Summerisle by these
1146
01:11:23.529 --> 01:11:27.270
pagan zealots who deliberately lead him to believe that a
1147
01:11:27.310 --> 01:11:32.689
missing girl was being held captive against her will. Now it's,
1148
01:11:32.949 --> 01:11:36.810
you know, confirming to him that what he, what he
1149
01:11:36.850 --> 01:11:40.590
is sort of like He's very suspicious of the fact
1150
01:11:40.630 --> 01:11:43.210
that he believes that last year's harvest had failed, which
1151
01:11:43.250 --> 01:11:46.329
it clearly did, and the fundamental practice of their religion
1152
01:11:46.390 --> 01:11:48.800
calls for a sacrifice to be made to the sun god.
1153
01:11:49.300 --> 01:11:52.399
But he is under the impression, Howie the protagonist, that
1154
01:11:52.520 --> 01:11:57.060
he's there to save the young girl, Rowan Morrison, who
1155
01:11:57.220 --> 01:12:01.159
is set to become the ritual sacrifice for this year's
1156
01:12:01.680 --> 01:12:06.170
May Day Festival and upcoming harvest. But Lord Summerisle then
1157
01:12:06.380 --> 01:12:09.420
proceeds to explain to him the conditions which inevitably led
1158
01:12:09.539 --> 01:12:13.699
to his selection for martyrdom. And of course, this is
1159
01:12:14.520 --> 01:12:22.039
not really addressing the kind of ritualistic provocation that was
1160
01:12:22.159 --> 01:12:26.239
set up for him to essentially follow the path and
1161
01:12:26.319 --> 01:12:30.760
voluntarily include himself as a participant in the May Day
1162
01:12:30.819 --> 01:12:35.140
Festival rituals that were being obviously conducted that day. and
1163
01:12:35.380 --> 01:12:38.779
where he would ultimately be led as the ultimate sacrifice
1164
01:12:38.819 --> 01:12:41.750
at the end. But the point being is that he
1165
01:12:41.789 --> 01:12:46.550
was selected for martyrdom due to this specific ideological framework
1166
01:12:46.590 --> 01:12:50.729
that these pagan zealots were practicing. And that was that
1167
01:12:50.869 --> 01:12:55.449
animal sacrifice, sure, that works, it's fine, but their acceptability
1168
01:12:55.529 --> 01:12:59.189
is limited. So a young child is even better in
1169
01:12:59.229 --> 01:13:02.510
their mind, but not nearly as effective as the right
1170
01:13:02.590 --> 01:13:07.180
kind of adult. So Howie's devout commitment to Christianity and
1171
01:13:07.239 --> 01:13:10.720
his job as a police officer causes him to become
1172
01:13:10.760 --> 01:13:14.180
the convenient target because he meets the conditions for the
1173
01:13:14.239 --> 01:13:19.220
perfect human sacrifice to appease the old Celtic pagan gods.
1174
01:13:20.159 --> 01:13:23.909
So what we have in the form of the protagonist
1175
01:13:23.949 --> 01:13:27.449
of this film is a voluntary virgin who arrived of
1176
01:13:27.510 --> 01:13:29.750
his own free will with the power of a king
1177
01:13:29.869 --> 01:13:34.010
dressed as the fool or king for a day, right?
1178
01:13:35.449 --> 01:13:40.539
ultimately martyred after unknowingly participating in a human hunting ritual performance,
1179
01:13:40.640 --> 01:13:43.579
because that's truly what seems to have been conducted in
1180
01:13:43.619 --> 01:13:46.479
regard to allowing the young girls. I know it's a
1181
01:13:46.520 --> 01:13:50.979
May Day celebration festival aspect of, of the ritual, but, and,
1182
01:13:51.149 --> 01:13:55.250
and if you remember, there are these, I believe seven nights,
1183
01:13:55.489 --> 01:13:57.869
I'm trying to remember now, I believe the number was
1184
01:13:57.909 --> 01:14:03.810
seven nights, pagan nights who, who, uh, form the form,
1185
01:14:03.829 --> 01:14:09.090
the pentagram, of sorts around, it was the beheading ritual, right?
1186
01:14:09.109 --> 01:14:14.350
And the whole time you're wondering, like, even though you
1187
01:14:14.409 --> 01:14:18.420
know that the end of the film will almost definitely
1188
01:14:18.479 --> 01:14:22.060
be how we, as the human sacrifice and the wicker man,
1189
01:14:22.300 --> 01:14:27.100
you almost expect someone to actually be decapitated throughout this process, right?
1190
01:14:27.140 --> 01:14:30.720
As you're watching it, but then instead they do a
1191
01:14:30.779 --> 01:14:34.289
false beheading. It was a mock beheading. just, it's one of,
1192
01:14:34.520 --> 01:14:41.189
it's a ritual to apparently appease one of the, as
1193
01:14:41.229 --> 01:14:43.890
far as lower in the hierarchy of pagan gods, right?
1194
01:14:43.930 --> 01:14:47.010
And so it's another one of the rituals conducted on
1195
01:14:47.029 --> 01:14:52.960
the May Day festival day and celebrations process. But I forget, again,
1196
01:14:53.220 --> 01:14:57.579
the actual term of this specific ritual, but it is
1197
01:14:57.640 --> 01:15:01.750
a part of the overall ultimate goal of achieving the
1198
01:15:01.789 --> 01:15:07.210
next year's upcoming harvest. And so the beheading, the ritual
1199
01:15:07.729 --> 01:15:10.609
of the beheading is fascinating just to kind of go
1200
01:15:10.689 --> 01:15:14.430
through that experience as an audience member. But at the
1201
01:15:14.470 --> 01:15:20.010
same time, you do see that in regard to, you know,
1202
01:15:20.029 --> 01:15:22.210
this voluntary Virgin King for a day and how they
1203
01:15:22.289 --> 01:15:27.710
sort of provoke him into becoming the fool voluntarily, I
1204
01:15:27.750 --> 01:15:31.750
always thought it interesting that Christopher Lee, he inverted his
1205
01:15:31.850 --> 01:15:37.510
own gender. Honestly, he dresses as a woman to conduct
1206
01:15:37.609 --> 01:15:41.430
the ritual itself. And he begins to dance with Howie,
1207
01:15:41.710 --> 01:15:45.850
who's dressed as the fool and voluntarily participating, thinking that
1208
01:15:45.949 --> 01:15:50.729
he is ingratiating himself covertly into the ritual practice to
1209
01:15:50.770 --> 01:15:54.079
then inevitably save the young girl whenever the time comes.
1210
01:15:54.479 --> 01:15:57.819
But in reality, it was all a ploy. to have
1211
01:15:57.920 --> 01:16:01.720
him further reinforce the commitment to the ritual, which was
1212
01:16:01.800 --> 01:16:06.720
playing out unbeknownst to him. They obviously knew he was
1213
01:16:06.760 --> 01:16:09.810
the participant behind the mask. And you see Christopher Lee,
1214
01:16:09.850 --> 01:16:13.689
when he's in this gender inverted role, he's dancing along
1215
01:16:13.729 --> 01:16:16.210
with Howie, trying to get him to be more animated
1216
01:16:16.630 --> 01:16:20.090
throughout the ritual. And as soon as he began to
1217
01:16:20.130 --> 01:16:27.020
voluntarily dance, that is the voluntary participation they were hoping
1218
01:16:27.100 --> 01:16:31.920
to evoke out of him. And so just to kind
1219
01:16:31.960 --> 01:16:35.619
of put a bow on it, it feels as if Howie,
1220
01:16:36.020 --> 01:16:40.739
just knowing that he obviously is trying to convince them
1221
01:16:40.779 --> 01:16:43.520
that the crops failed because fruit was never going to
1222
01:16:43.590 --> 01:16:47.670
naturally flourish or even grow on these islands. He even
1223
01:16:47.750 --> 01:16:54.010
stated at one point before he's really ultimately stripped and
1224
01:16:54.069 --> 01:16:57.399
placed into the wicker man, I think he tries to
1225
01:16:57.439 --> 01:17:00.859
convince them, at least quickly and briefly, says that the
1226
01:17:00.920 --> 01:17:04.380
following year's sacrifice would call for the execution of you yourself,
1227
01:17:04.460 --> 01:17:08.560
Lord Summerisle, like that sort of thing, and to no avail, obviously.
1228
01:17:08.619 --> 01:17:10.989
But it seems as if that is the implication, is
1229
01:17:11.029 --> 01:17:15.789
that the pagan Lord Summerisle himself, who is essentially the
1230
01:17:15.869 --> 01:17:22.939
head of this ancient denomination, celtic pagan cult uh right
1231
01:17:23.000 --> 01:17:24.979
is is uh and his father i believe is the
1232
01:17:25.100 --> 01:17:28.539
one who originally founded this cult on the island um
1233
01:17:29.500 --> 01:17:33.119
it's interesting to note just just clearly that he himself
1234
01:17:33.350 --> 01:17:38.609
would inevitably become the the next potential human sacrifice if
1235
01:17:38.670 --> 01:17:42.149
the gods were not appeased by this year's uh ritual
1236
01:17:42.229 --> 01:17:46.899
burning of the wicker man and man just there is
1237
01:17:47.079 --> 01:17:51.869
a a profound like again watching this film, whenever they're
1238
01:17:51.890 --> 01:17:55.560
conducting the ritual of the hunt and that dance, they're
1239
01:17:55.640 --> 01:18:02.479
singing this pagan folk music. They're essentially these ancient pagan
1240
01:18:02.539 --> 01:18:05.199
folk songs and nursery rhymes and things of that nature.
1241
01:18:05.260 --> 01:18:09.770
And what's crazy is that they actually had members of
1242
01:18:09.819 --> 01:18:13.409
the production who were cast in the production form a
1243
01:18:13.470 --> 01:18:16.170
band and create the musical score for the film itself.
1244
01:18:16.270 --> 01:18:20.210
And so they all participated as you know, within the
1245
01:18:20.250 --> 01:18:24.710
musical score. And knowing that I felt as if it
1246
01:18:24.750 --> 01:18:29.609
felt like musical mind control, musical manipulation. I thought I
1247
01:18:29.649 --> 01:18:33.960
couldn't get that folk song that was being sung through
1248
01:18:34.000 --> 01:18:36.560
the ritual dance that he is the fool king for
1249
01:18:36.600 --> 01:18:39.039
a day. I could not get that out of my
1250
01:18:39.119 --> 01:18:42.460
mind for days on end after the fact. And I
1251
01:18:42.500 --> 01:18:46.939
had this interesting thought, like what is attached to those
1252
01:18:47.020 --> 01:18:52.319
musical notes? Like it's very, who knows, but it feels profound.
1253
01:18:52.399 --> 01:18:58.220
And to me, it felt as if, again, not only
1254
01:18:58.319 --> 01:19:04.340
are they forcefully manufacturing consent and participation in what ultimately
1255
01:19:04.399 --> 01:19:09.180
becomes a successful pagan ritual, but I think that They
1256
01:19:09.220 --> 01:19:12.640
wanted something that would stand the test of time within
1257
01:19:12.779 --> 01:19:16.630
the scope of their ideological framework. And I think it
1258
01:19:16.670 --> 01:19:19.569
has done that very thing. And I also think, unfortunately,
1259
01:19:19.590 --> 01:19:25.329
it has had just a sort of extraordinary level of
1260
01:19:25.430 --> 01:19:30.859
influence that I don't think people are equipped to understand necessarily, right? Yeah.
1261
01:19:31.810 --> 01:19:35.069
This is 9-11, guys. This is like a foreshadowing of 9-11.
1262
01:19:35.750 --> 01:19:38.750
And all of that control, and all of the predicates
1263
01:19:38.810 --> 01:19:41.729
leading up to it, it's very occult, this whole thing
1264
01:19:41.770 --> 01:19:44.430
of leading them in, getting the right person in the
1265
01:19:44.489 --> 01:19:49.670
right place, the mockery, the occult mockery, the pre-ritual, and
1266
01:19:49.710 --> 01:19:52.649
literally at the end, somebody made a comment here, Philly Chick,
1267
01:19:52.689 --> 01:19:56.750
about the old gods. Literally at the end, Lord Summerisle said,
1268
01:19:56.789 --> 01:20:00.640
the old gods are not dead. And then He says,
1269
01:20:00.739 --> 01:20:03.039
God is dead. This is like a classic thing from
1270
01:20:03.079 --> 01:20:06.739
that time. Like they're saying it. And it's a subject
1271
01:20:06.800 --> 01:20:08.899
of a Christian country. But one of the kickers is
1272
01:20:08.979 --> 01:20:12.779
this whole notion of everything is under control. These occultists
1273
01:20:13.119 --> 01:20:15.579
have this notion. And most people who haven't studied the
1274
01:20:15.600 --> 01:20:18.550
cult may not be aware of it. But literally, Lord
1275
01:20:18.619 --> 01:20:26.850
Summerisle states, you were controlled for every thought and action
1276
01:20:26.949 --> 01:20:29.979
since you've been here. So this is the whole thing
1277
01:20:30.039 --> 01:20:32.800
is that they all had him set up just like
1278
01:20:32.840 --> 01:20:36.140
they had Rosemary set up and Rosemary's baby. They're all
1279
01:20:36.220 --> 01:20:39.420
in on it like guy. So this is all the
1280
01:20:39.500 --> 01:20:42.420
same themes in here. And it's all very deaf. It's
1281
01:20:42.439 --> 01:20:45.119
all very intentional. I included these in here because this
1282
01:20:45.199 --> 01:20:48.560
is like the classic high level of cultist motif. It
1283
01:20:48.579 --> 01:20:53.380
reminded me of like going to see Dr. Ziegler and
1284
01:20:53.460 --> 01:20:56.500
Eyes Wide Shut. Like you're going into his lair. And
1285
01:20:56.520 --> 01:20:59.319
he's well-dressed, and he's giving you his whole ideology and
1286
01:20:59.359 --> 01:21:02.640
all that stuff. And he's kind of like the hapless
1287
01:21:04.390 --> 01:21:07.949
doctor or whatever. So, like, there's just so much in
1288
01:21:07.989 --> 01:21:10.510
this film. When you watch it again, I missed everything.
1289
01:21:10.550 --> 01:21:13.449
And then the animal heads, this is all occult stuff.
1290
01:21:14.069 --> 01:21:17.039
They pop up. And then you mentioned, like, spirit cooking.
1291
01:21:17.619 --> 01:21:20.399
It's all real. This is the witch's hand motif. They
1292
01:21:20.439 --> 01:21:23.939
don't explain it in the film. But this is something that...
1293
01:21:25.069 --> 01:21:29.960
It's from, like, occult alchemy books and stuff. One of
1294
01:21:30.000 --> 01:21:34.460
the other things that they're doing subtly in their presentation is, like,
1295
01:21:34.619 --> 01:21:38.350
all of the pagan girls are babes. They're all blonde-haired,
1296
01:21:38.409 --> 01:21:42.850
blue-eyed Swedish women. So, like, there's no, like, oh, you know,
1297
01:21:42.909 --> 01:21:46.590
this kind of witch-looking woman, like, looks like a hag
1298
01:21:46.630 --> 01:21:50.069
or whatever with gnarly teeth and a big nose. They're, like, almost,
1299
01:21:50.140 --> 01:21:52.119
and they show them nude a lot. Like, I think
1300
01:21:52.199 --> 01:21:54.140
one of these other ones is not even here. So
1301
01:21:54.149 --> 01:21:55.380
that's not a coincidence.
1302
01:21:56.279 --> 01:21:59.020
Look at this cue card that I pulled just to
1303
01:21:59.100 --> 01:22:02.720
show you, because I thought this is at the final scene, right?
1304
01:22:02.739 --> 01:22:04.859
Where the, the burning of the wicker man, and this
1305
01:22:04.899 --> 01:22:07.560
was on set at, on the production of the film
1306
01:22:07.619 --> 01:22:13.609
itself that I just pulled it. I thought was again, revealing, right?
1307
01:22:13.710 --> 01:22:18.289
Because the cue card itself, it reads everyone, obviously just
1308
01:22:18.390 --> 01:22:21.899
everyone in the cast, I would assume everyone, Mighty God
1309
01:22:21.939 --> 01:22:26.520
of the sun, accept our sacrifice and be appeased. Bountiful
1310
01:22:26.560 --> 01:22:31.829
goddess of our orchards, accept our sacrifice and make our
1311
01:22:31.869 --> 01:22:35.050
blossoms fruit. And it's just interesting to see a cue
1312
01:22:35.090 --> 01:22:37.850
card like that on a Hollywood set, right? I mean,
1313
01:22:37.909 --> 01:22:41.890
obviously it's much more independent back in 1973 with the
1314
01:22:41.949 --> 01:22:45.630
production of this film, but it's hard not to just
1315
01:22:45.729 --> 01:22:47.970
kind of notice, you know, like these are.
1316
01:22:49.789 --> 01:22:52.729
This is what the purpose of the film was, to
1317
01:22:52.789 --> 01:22:56.869
ingratiate these principles within your subconscious mind. Whether you're aware
1318
01:22:56.909 --> 01:22:59.310
of it or not, that is where your level of
1319
01:22:59.369 --> 01:23:02.649
discernment comes into play. And I think it's so important
1320
01:23:03.250 --> 01:23:10.529
that we remind ourselves not to just mindlessly consume any medium, right?
1321
01:23:10.590 --> 01:23:13.010
I mean, honestly, we have to be so very careful
1322
01:23:13.550 --> 01:23:18.729
of what could potentially be layered into it as this ultimate,
1323
01:23:19.859 --> 01:23:25.430
profoundly negative way in which it could obviously deliberately deceive
1324
01:23:25.470 --> 01:23:29.350
you and at least lead you down a path, ideologically speaking,
1325
01:23:29.409 --> 01:23:33.689
into embracing ideas that are entirely self-defeating. And I think
1326
01:23:34.210 --> 01:23:37.170
that's what we see as far as the building blocks
1327
01:23:37.270 --> 01:23:40.489
of modern society is everyone is out there acting in
1328
01:23:40.529 --> 01:23:46.380
their own worst interest. Why on earth? Why would you
1329
01:23:46.460 --> 01:23:52.079
ever participate in in this self-defeating ideology and then internalize
1330
01:23:52.100 --> 01:23:54.260
that and move forward as if you have the answers
1331
01:23:55.060 --> 01:23:55.699
to life.
1332
01:23:57.380 --> 01:23:59.600
It's one of those things, if you're a pagan, you
1333
01:23:59.640 --> 01:24:02.819
probably really like to watch this. Somebody else who's on
1334
01:24:02.840 --> 01:24:04.819
the fence or a Christian is like, oh, this is
1335
01:24:04.859 --> 01:24:07.470
a horror story. For somebody else, it's like, yeah, we
1336
01:24:07.489 --> 01:24:11.630
got this Puritan jerk who's oppressing us. Let's get him
1337
01:24:11.670 --> 01:24:13.909
from the church and burn him.
1338
01:24:13.949 --> 01:24:18.789
They try to act like it's his fault that his
1339
01:24:18.890 --> 01:24:24.970
Christianity is essentially blinding him to empathy and nuance and things.
1340
01:24:25.270 --> 01:24:27.770
This is what the pagans believe, right? So as far
1341
01:24:27.840 --> 01:24:32.960
as this interesting notion of these pagan principles set up
1342
01:24:33.140 --> 01:24:38.279
as a mirror of modern society is honestly what it
1343
01:24:38.340 --> 01:24:42.420
has become. And this is much more than the cyclical
1344
01:24:42.460 --> 01:24:47.539
nature of sort of the the seasonal sacrifice you could
1345
01:24:47.579 --> 01:24:50.640
say in a way, right? Just understanding the earthly elements
1346
01:24:50.680 --> 01:24:54.220
that are imbued in, into this ideological framework that the
1347
01:24:54.260 --> 01:24:58.300
pagans do practice. But the sexual repression of the Christian
1348
01:24:58.359 --> 01:25:01.949
Puritan and, and the death of the body, it's like, uh,
1349
01:25:02.069 --> 01:25:07.489
this disrespectful nature of approaching this incarnation. Honestly, as much
1350
01:25:07.529 --> 01:25:09.989
as that's how I view it, as much as I'm aware,
1351
01:25:10.390 --> 01:25:13.850
this is our only moment. in this physical incarnation that
1352
01:25:13.890 --> 01:25:18.239
I don't know for a fact, but I will say,
1353
01:25:18.260 --> 01:25:23.300
I think we need to very much appreciate what this life,
1354
01:25:23.460 --> 01:25:27.000
and I've been trying to say very often, prioritize what
1355
01:25:27.039 --> 01:25:32.470
matters most, because I recently rewatched Vanilla Sky, right? And
1356
01:25:32.510 --> 01:25:37.529
it had another profound impact on me. Just, yes, Gnostic
1357
01:25:37.590 --> 01:25:40.510
principles absolutely drenched all over the plot, but at the
1358
01:25:40.550 --> 01:25:43.840
same time, you can internalize certain aspects of it in
1359
01:25:43.880 --> 01:25:46.850
this extraordinarily positive way. And the way in which I
1360
01:25:46.909 --> 01:25:52.270
choose to embrace those concepts are essentially to try and
1361
01:25:52.310 --> 01:25:55.390
remain present in the moment as much as we possibly can,
1362
01:25:55.489 --> 01:25:59.819
because this life is temporary and fleeting. And we need
1363
01:25:59.840 --> 01:26:02.159
to focus on the little things as much as we can.
1364
01:26:02.199 --> 01:26:05.859
And that's what that film helped reinforce. So I just
1365
01:26:05.880 --> 01:26:11.310
wanted to mention that as well, knowing these kind of like, manipulative,
1366
01:26:11.449 --> 01:26:15.180
ritualized roles of the townspeople in Summer Isle and how this,
1367
01:26:15.380 --> 01:26:18.239
so much of this, as far as the fertility rights
1368
01:26:18.359 --> 01:26:24.760
and this, like, sort of idea of what will inevitably
1369
01:26:25.000 --> 01:26:29.319
result from... Go ahead, sorry. Were you saying something, William?
1370
01:26:29.840 --> 01:26:33.420
No, no, no, no. Okay. I was just sniffling over there.
1371
01:26:33.439 --> 01:26:36.159
Okay, I'm sorry about that. But yeah, so I just
1372
01:26:36.199 --> 01:26:40.399
think that it is this... what seems to be a
1373
01:26:40.479 --> 01:26:45.720
sort of, it's in a way an attack and a
1374
01:26:45.760 --> 01:26:50.020
direct attack on hopefully at least in the minds of
1375
01:26:50.060 --> 01:26:55.750
the pagans, they hope to rob the average person of
1376
01:26:56.590 --> 01:27:00.850
having even an opportunity to engage in a realistic belief system.
1377
01:27:00.989 --> 01:27:03.800
I truly believe this. And I think that they hope to,
1378
01:27:04.979 --> 01:27:07.899
you know, in a way subvert the concept of belief and,
1379
01:27:08.409 --> 01:27:13.210
and hopefully collapse the, in a way, it fully will
1380
01:27:13.270 --> 01:27:17.649
collapse the notion of an individual being willing to even
1381
01:27:17.720 --> 01:27:22.039
engage in what could be called and chalked up to
1382
01:27:22.180 --> 01:27:25.880
as fundamentally, you know, referred to as faith, right? You
1383
01:27:25.920 --> 01:27:29.340
could say, but in a sense, to act as if
1384
01:27:29.659 --> 01:27:35.729
faith should be viewed over fertility as in value, as
1385
01:27:35.810 --> 01:27:39.229
if it's competing, It's like these pagans are so strange
1386
01:27:39.289 --> 01:27:43.029
in the way that they kind of view the moral
1387
01:27:43.109 --> 01:27:47.300
framework of reality. And I think it's inverted at every level.
1388
01:27:47.340 --> 01:27:52.640
And so in no way do I appreciate the justification
1389
01:27:52.659 --> 01:27:55.199
that the pagans will utilize to act as if this
1390
01:27:55.460 --> 01:27:59.720
is kind of morally superior. It's a superiority complex in
1391
01:27:59.779 --> 01:28:03.850
a sense that's almost like that self-deification within occultism in
1392
01:28:03.869 --> 01:28:07.149
these new age societies. like the temple of set, what
1393
01:28:07.210 --> 01:28:10.859
is the black flame? It's self deification. That's exactly what
1394
01:28:10.880 --> 01:28:14.859
it is. And, and I think that's what these ancient,
1395
01:28:15.619 --> 01:28:19.979
you know, pagan principles and, and, and sort of Druidic,
1396
01:28:20.840 --> 01:28:24.130
you know, in, in many ways, but, but yeah, I
1397
01:28:24.170 --> 01:28:28.689
think that's what they all inevitably do prop up and, and,
1398
01:28:28.829 --> 01:28:34.939
and facilitate. But man, This is one of those that
1399
01:28:34.960 --> 01:28:37.149
you'll never forget if you sit down and watch it.
1400
01:28:37.180 --> 01:28:39.909
I'll tell you that. If you really watch it, it's...
1401
01:28:40.050 --> 01:28:42.449
like they packed it full of everything. They didn't leave
1402
01:28:42.489 --> 01:28:49.850
anything out. The scary connections to Marina Abramovich are just like, whoa,
1403
01:28:49.899 --> 01:28:52.800
she's definitely doing something pagan because they got this right
1404
01:28:53.600 --> 01:28:58.100
in 73. Just like acclimating people to human sacrifice or
1405
01:28:58.180 --> 01:29:02.819
eating cannibalism or something. I don't know. Austin thanks for
1406
01:29:03.300 --> 01:29:10.000
coming on great research as usual thanks everybody for listening
1407
01:29:10.039 --> 01:29:12.359
we had 250 live listeners thanks for all the comments
1408
01:29:12.399 --> 01:29:16.489
and everything and thanks for the super chat the mustache
1409
01:29:17.170 --> 01:29:19.130
I appreciate some of these people you guys knew more
1410
01:29:19.670 --> 01:29:21.850
about the movie than I did that's for sure so
1411
01:29:21.930 --> 01:29:25.409
thanks for all the comments the people in my chat
1412
01:29:25.689 --> 01:29:28.060
are really smart on some of these subjects.
1413
01:29:27.739 --> 01:29:30.560
I feel the same way I'm very proud of the
1414
01:29:30.659 --> 01:29:34.340
audience that I have accumulated over time because they seem
1415
01:29:34.359 --> 01:29:37.960
to always inevitably tip me off to very extraordinarily interesting
1416
01:29:38.020 --> 01:29:42.439
things that open up additional rabbit holes, of course. Somebody
1417
01:29:42.460 --> 01:29:43.880
said there's a 9-11 in here.
1418
01:29:43.920 --> 01:29:48.899
I missed it. Oh, my God. Number of Adore scenes, 9-11.
1419
01:29:48.939 --> 01:29:51.479
So it's power number, guys, which is like this is
1420
01:29:51.560 --> 01:29:54.020
all foreshadowing. I'll have to go back and watch it again.
1421
01:29:54.060 --> 01:29:59.770
I'm sure I missed stuff. Austin, 90 minutes done. where
1422
01:29:59.810 --> 01:30:02.149
can people find you under class and what else you've
1423
01:30:02.170 --> 01:30:02.680
been working on?
1424
01:30:03.680 --> 01:30:09.979
Yeah. Honestly, it's the, what is it? The, the pillars
1425
01:30:10.020 --> 01:30:12.199
of the temple of Solomon ritual, you know, it's like
1426
01:30:12.239 --> 01:30:14.199
that sort of thing in a way, as far as
1427
01:30:14.220 --> 01:30:18.739
the nine 11 context of like, just seeing, you know,
1428
01:30:19.260 --> 01:30:22.100
September 11th happened like that to me was so much
1429
01:30:22.140 --> 01:30:24.779
a part of the occult symbolism that, that had this
1430
01:30:24.880 --> 01:30:28.229
revelation of the method pop culture impact. It was truly
1431
01:30:28.289 --> 01:30:33.319
a sense of, the walking in Boaz or whatever, right?
1432
01:30:33.359 --> 01:30:35.800
The pillars of the temple of Solomon ritual. And I
1433
01:30:35.880 --> 01:30:38.840
think that, but anyway, you already know how much I
1434
01:30:38.880 --> 01:30:42.159
appreciate you, William. Anytime I get the opportunity to have
1435
01:30:42.180 --> 01:30:45.399
a conversation with you, it's something I very much look
1436
01:30:45.420 --> 01:30:49.760
forward to. So I typically learn a lot anytime we
1437
01:30:49.800 --> 01:30:53.220
have a conversation as well. So that's always a blessing.
1438
01:30:53.840 --> 01:30:56.270
And I got nothing but love for you, man. You
1439
01:30:56.310 --> 01:30:59.569
know this, so. I appreciate you as always. And, and yeah,
1440
01:30:59.590 --> 01:31:04.189
the underclass podcast for anyone who, who isn't already subscribed, uh, please,
1441
01:31:04.250 --> 01:31:07.069
if you, if you can subscribe on YouTube and, uh,
1442
01:31:07.210 --> 01:31:09.909
like and share, obviously if, if, um, anything I've ever
1443
01:31:09.949 --> 01:31:12.430
done resonates with you and you have the means to
1444
01:31:12.470 --> 01:31:16.810
support me as well, uh, patreon.com slash the underclass podcast. And,
1445
01:31:16.829 --> 01:31:19.409
and at least there are some incentives as well for
1446
01:31:19.430 --> 01:31:22.649
the patrons and a paywalled show that I do with
1447
01:31:22.750 --> 01:31:27.020
Brad Binkley from the propaganda report podcast. And, and also
1448
01:31:27.159 --> 01:31:30.619
Sam Tripoli from tinfoil hats. And it's called whatever this is.
1449
01:31:31.340 --> 01:31:33.199
And it's one of my favorite things that I get
1450
01:31:33.220 --> 01:31:36.069
to do on a weekly basis. So, um, thank you
1451
01:31:36.109 --> 01:31:36.850
as always, brother.
1452
01:31:37.489 --> 01:31:39.609
Yeah. Check it out guys. And I think our next
1453
01:31:39.630 --> 01:31:42.409
show will be Dennis Wheatley and the devil rides out.
1454
01:31:42.649 --> 01:31:45.750
We should probably look at them both back to back because, uh,
1455
01:31:45.930 --> 01:31:48.229
we get some Christopher Lee and get some more lore
1456
01:31:48.829 --> 01:31:51.170
out into the public. Cause Wheatley himself was really an
1457
01:31:51.210 --> 01:31:55.279
interesting guy, but, uh, thanks everybody for listening and, uh,
1458
01:31:55.340 --> 01:32:00.420
check out. Austin cars, the underclass podcast. Thanks so much, everybody.
1459
01:32:00.970 --> 01:32:01.869
And thanks for the super chat.