The Free Design

Last night I went to see a film with Cath Da Costa, an older woman I can rely on. It was Super Tuesday (or, Two-up Tuesday, as I like to call it) at the Hoyts Cinema at Victoria Gardens. On these Super-Tuesdays an adult ticket sells for the price of $9.50, making it a relatively cheap night out. The film we went to see was American Gangster, a film about the violent, yet immensely profitable, world of organised crime.

The film portrayed a fairly dark picture of New York City in the late 60s and early 70s. The streets were overrun with heroin and the police-cops were on the take. Gangsters had a free-reign in the city and they used it to obtain considerable wealth for themselves, their associates and those in the police-force willing to assist them. But there was one cop who couldn't be bought, one cop who was committed to the ideals of the job. Richie Roberts (played by Russell Crowe) had a nose for crime and he wasn't going to rest until its foul stench had been eliminated. He wasn't just interested in the small-time pushers, he wanted to get to the source. The kingpin.

Frank Lucas (played by Denzel Washington) was initially the driver for New York's premier Afro-American gangster, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson. Upon Bumpy's death, Lucas used what he had learned to expand his drug-running business beyond Harlem into all 5 Boroughs and into New Jersey, and at the same time making himself more powerful than the traditional Italian families who controlled organised crime in the city. However, he didn't count on there being one cop who wasn't going to play be his rules and eventually his reign would come to an end.

Whilst a film like American Gangster, that is based on a true story, can provide insight into society's ills and give us hope that justice will prevail, so can a film like the 70s science-fiction film Grey's Thoughts. Through ideas and themes, which may not be based on reality, a film such as this can make an important commentary on civilisation. Unfortunately, the US Government has attempted to remove all evidence of Grey's Thoughts's existence because it is believed that some aspect of the film relates to an uncomfortable truth about the AIDS virus.

Like Richie Roberts in the film American Gangster, there needs to be someone who is willing to take a stand. I believe that art should in no way be censored. I believe in the value of an open society. That is why I have written the following poem about the film Grey's Thoughts. I realise by doing this I am placing myself and those close to me at risk, however I'm hoping that the further exposure this poem will bring to the film will go some way to releasing it from its suppression.

It's dangerous to think in the future
It's dangerous to know the truth
There's a war going on
There's a war in our minds

Form a line! Form a line!
Don't step out, don't fall down
Form a line! Form a line!
Don't ask questions, don't get sick

The more we know the worse our condition
It is those who seek answers who are dying
Is it knowledge that harms us?
Is it questions that damage our health?

Dr Grey, is the Government corrupt?
Dr Grey, are they telling us the truth?
How can we submit to these controls?
What is it like to be truly free?

It's not the thoughts that are killing us
It's not the knowledge we pursue
They're spiking the water! They're spiking our tea!
They don't want us to know, they don't want us to be free