Personal Note XLI

Yahweh in (יהוה‎):
Moses and the Burning Bush

Directing Films |
Friday – March 20, 2026

Movies or films are quite on the agenda these days, or at any rate they have been on the agenda, and perhaps this topic is slowly fading? Whatever the case I would like to share some personal notes and general observations about the production of films, as I believe that movies are important, especially in the overall direction of the culture, and in this sense it would be true to claim that indeed the direction is not only responsible for the immediate direction of the movie, but also for the general direction of the culture, and this makes the direction a very important person.

    It is quite clear to me that just about every movie that has been produced since the beginning of this industry, perhaps somewhere around 1902, has had an overall purpose, truly an agenda, and this agenda could be understood as a kind of moral, especially if the movie targeted towards children, but do not let this allude you, for all movies have some kind of message and agenda. Some movies, especially in certain and very graphic genres, can be said to have, at the very least, a very nihilistic message, and this is why such movies work to almost inoculate the viewer to Horror, because of course, at first the audience would not expect something quite so cruel and and mean, and their only natural response, once the emotional baseline has been significantly reduced, so almost to accept certain acts of violence to be okay, and this used to be the case with low forms of literature, read "Qualification", but the degeneration of meaning and of morality has truly accelerated with the advent of film. So yes, movies and in particular the direction of movies is something quite important, and I should use the word propaganda to describe movies, but since that word is so evacuated of meaning, I do prefer instead to rely on the word "normalization", but essentially you could say that propaganda and "normalization", at least within this context, amounts to the same thing. While I am no movie director and I am certainly not qualified in that regard, if such a qualification actually exists, I do believe that I am free to make observations about the propagation of information in the context of directing films, because this is, after all, what movies are about. It is also true that movies can do much more than lowering the emotional floor among the population, and the Horror genre is just one genre among others, and more often than not you will deal with the propagation of sentimentalism in movies, especially in the Action genre. Truly, can something capture the stupid populist mentality of Western man better than this vapid and profoundly empty genre? The entire Action genre treats the viewer as if he is a 10-year old boy who has yet to become differentiated in the domains of metaphysics; truly, the entire Action genre is in keeping with the democratic ethos, and whatever "value" contemplation ever brought to the world, it has no standing in the Action genre. Stupid, crude, and truly unqualified men of low mentality with the inability to control their impulses, truly the most primitive form of humanity, is what this genre caters to, and the fact that Action is such a popular, if not the most popular, genre speaks should speak for itself in the indictment against the modern mentality. Action movies direct the audience to act in the crudest and most corporeal way possible without delay and interruption by contemplation – a true monstrosity which goes to show the low mentality of the vast and overwhelming preponderance of people. The fact scene and every act is continually and almost instantaneously delivered is surely a sign of our times, or the End of History? Indeed, the moderns are so incapable of contemplation that they get "bored" almost instantaneously: under these circumstances, what else but total and complete chaos would satisfy the monstrous appetite for more corporeal stimulation, a veritable static noise?

    Of course, in the annals of history, you may speak of a kind of qualified writer and reader, thus it would be plausible, under the right cosmic circumstances, that there could be such a thing as a "qualified movie director", but no such person can be spoken of today for he simply does not exist. While I myself would be quite unqualified for such a role, I do believe that a movie director should aspire for certain heights, and if it is the case that the populist horde should inevitably fail to understand the message of the movie, this would be a good thing, as most people indeed are unqualified. Yes, you may say that the movie industrial complex caters only to the sensibilities of the mass, which by definition means the least qualified and the least capable, but the creation of a true masterpiece could only cater to very few men, men of true qualification, but this would not be possible under contemporary circumstances, as there are no masters of movie direction and also because there would be no demand thus no profit in such an enterprise. I do not believe that it even is the case that most movie directors believe themselves to direct anything, and not even the movie, because today the process of creating a movie has been "democratized", and it seems more likely that the engagement between producers and actors is what will lead to the production of movie and film; at least in the past you could speak of a certain commanding influence and general guidance, truly a form of direction, and this is the case when movies dating back to the early and middle parts of the 20th century are compared with the blabbering nonsense of mass produced sentimentalism of today. Indeed, the phenomena of "movie stars" and widely known "personalities" should speak for itself as well: who has even the slightest knowledge or concern for the movie director today? No-one, because there are no true movie directors in the 21st century, and really the individualism of "celebrities" and "influencers" have been allowed to overtake the role of directing the general course of the culture, but this should be expected in these times of continual upheaval and individuation. From a strictly profane perspective, it would make sense to spread out the propagation of sentimentalism, another sign of the modern mentality.

    Lastly, if there were true cinematic masterpieces, why should any importance be considered or placed on the part of the director or anyone else involved in the production of the film? A masterpiece speaks for itself, and the anonymity furnished by the masterpiece puts the master at the core of the metaphysical order of things, it makes him supra-individual, and only known to those of proper qualification.

Reginald Drax – March 20, 2026.