Kenneally played the brother who led the retreat for the boys. He also wrote Schindler's Ark, which Spielberg turned into a movie.
Specifically, I'd like to know the quote concerning balls and bird wings and eternity, which his character made by way of analogy. One of the highlights of the film.
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Thomas Kenneally's experience as a young seminarian would have helped drive this performance ... read "Homebush Boy" about his experiences of growing up Catholic in Sydney in the '40's and '50's.
As far as I remember; the ball is a metal sphere the size of the sun, and every million or so years a bird brushes its wing against it. Eternity is even longer than it would take for the sphere to wear away.
I haven't seen the film for about 25 or so years (I saw it on TV), but this scene (and the peeking at the woman scenes in the pool) have stuck with me.
BTW, I just saw "Noise" tonight, with another take on eternity.
I just watched this a few days ago and this analogy also stuck with me. He was explaining eternity to emphasize how long being subjected to the tortures of being damned to hell forever would be. This is my recollection: "Imagine a sphere of solid metal, the size of the sun; every ten thousand years a sparrow flies by and brushes its wings against it; when that metal sphere is worn to nothingness, you will still be [suffering in hell if not saved, etc., etc.]". Even not believing in hell and damnation and all that, this is still an awesome concept of the immensity of time to try to grasp. I just mailed this back to Netflix, or I would have made a short clip of this scene and saved it.
shareWhat if the Sparrow on his third orbit realised he was making no progress so he carried a thermo nuclear device on the fourth lap and detonated it at the right time?
No cash here!! Here, no cash!!! Cash, no!!!! Robbo? No Cash!
Thanks for the replies...I'm only back here again because I've been deleting a lot of posts I don't want to clutter up my posting history anymore! Lucky for me I got some good replies!
So, thanks.
P.S. I'm an atheist now (and was when I wrote this thead), and carrots or sticks don't work on me anymore!
The speech about eternity in this film is very similar to a similar speech from the book "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (1916) by James Joyce. I guess it's possible that the writer of this film was inspired by that book.
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