I recently had an opportunity to watch a movie, in the movie the main characters are all seated around a dining room table, they are all historians, professors at their craft and are discussing famous people and their whereabouts in time.
The discussion soon turns to a competition, and it goes like this:
The first professor says, “Athens, 416 BC. — Euripides premieres his Electra. Two rivals attend, Sophocles and Aristophanes. And two friends, Socrates and Plato. Intelligence was there.”
The second professor says, “I can top that. Firenze, 1504, Palazzo Vecchio, on facing walls, two painters: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. An apprentice: Raffaello. A manager: Niccoli Machiavelli.”
The last professor chimes in and says, “Philadelphia, USA, 1776-1787. Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Hamilton and Madison. No other country has been so blessed.”
The competition is of course over, and the other two professors concede that the last professor has won.
That in my opinion is one of the greatest quotes from a movie I have ever heard.
Makes you think about our country and what The Framers were trying to do, also this being a French film (sub-titles) it shows the tremendous amount of respect that the film maker and/or writer had for our country and those gentlemen. It's a shame that this is no longer the case when it comes to our leaders. Although, there really is no comparison with our elected officials today, at least I haven't found one.
The movie if you get the chance to see it is called, The Barbarian Invasions, and it is definitely on my top-10 list of foreign films.
Regards,
Jim