Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The Scottish Rite?



By now I'm sure many of you have heard about the suicide of famed British producer and director Tony Scott during the early hours of August 19, 2012. Scott was the younger brother of the even more acclaimed filmmaker Ridley, but had carved out his own impressive niche in Hollywood. Tony Scott was the director of The Hunger, Top Gun, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance (a personal favorite of Recluse's), Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, and Man on Fire, among many others. He had also worked extensively in commercials and had occasionally ventured into television shows (i.e. Numb3rs, which he co-produced with Ridley Scott). Of his suicide, the press has noted:
"Hollywood director Tony Scott has plunged to his death from a Los Angeles bridge after penning a suicide note - falling within feet of horrified tourists on a harbour boat cruise. 
"The 68-year-old, who directed films including Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II and Enemy Of The State, leaped from the Vincent Thomas Bridge at around 12.30pm on Sunday. 
" 'He landed right next to our tour boat, and many of us saw the whole thing,' a witness, who had been on the cruise around the Los Angeles Harbour, told TMZ. 
"Just weeks before his death, Scott was pictured looking dishevelled and wide-eyed as he left a dinner in Beverly Hills on July 23... 
"The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said an autopsy is planned and results could be expected as early as this afternoon.
"According to the Contra Costa Times, Scott climbed a fence on the south side of the bridge, which spans San Pedro and Terminal Island, at 12.30 p.m. on Sunday and leaped off 'without hesitation'.
Several people called 911 around 12.35pm to report that someone had jumped off the bridge, according to Los Angeles police Lt. Tim Nordquist. Police are interviewing witnesses.
"A dive team with Los Angeles Port Police pulled the body from the murky water around 3pm. It was taken to a dock in Wilmington and turned over to the county coroner's office.
"Investigators found a note in Scott's black Toyota Prius, which was parked on the bridge, according to the Los Angeles Times. It listed contact information for his wife.
"A suicide note was later found at his office but its contents were not revealed."
Director Tony Scott with his trademark red ballcap
The great and ever-prolific Loren Coleman has already posted a provocative piece on his blog questioning whether Scott's suicide was yet another case of the Killing of the Divine King. Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with this concept, a topic that I've addressed before on posts such as this. For those of your unaware I shall now engage in a brief rundown.

The concept of Killing the Divine King was first formalized by James Frazer in his legendary work The Golden Bough where he attempted to explain the gruesome rituals associated with the King of the Wood of Nemi during Roman times. More recently this concept was embraced by the great James Shelby Downard in an attempt to explain the ritualistic aspects of the Kennedy assassination. Downard's colleague and friend, William Grimstad, presented a skeptical account of Downard's theories in his synchro-mystic classic Weird America:
"Would you believe John F. Kennedy as a ceremonial king-who-must-die? I'm afraid there is a certain body of opinion, undoubtedly the farthest-out brain wave of assassinology yet, that maintains the killing was pulled off, not by the Russians, the Cubans, the CIA, or the Mafia, but by alchemists. As I understand the hypothesis, President Kennedy was for some reason chosen as The King (remember 'Camelot,' 'MacBird' and all that?) after the fashion of James G. Frazer and Mary Renault whose The King Must Die he had been given to read before his death."
(pg. 213-214)

Michael A. Hoffman, another researcher closely associated with Downard and Grimstad, had this to say of the sacrificial nature of Kennedy's death:
"The Killing of the King rite was accomplished at another Trinity site located approximately ten miles south of the 33rd degree of north parallel latitude between the Trinity River and the Triple Underpass at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Dealey Plaza was the site of the first masonic temple in Dallas. In this spot, which had been known during the 19th century cowboy era as 'Bloody Elm Street,' the world leader who had become known as the 'King of Camelot,' President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was shot to death."(Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare, pg. 83)

Is Scott's death yet another instance of these gruesome rites of antiquity? Initially I was rather skeptical of such a conclusion, but there are some strange aspects of this affair to consider. For one, there's Scott's not-so-subtle ties to the US Intelligence community. As I noted before here, one of Scott's most well known films, Top Gun, was essentially a collaboration between Hollywood and the DoD in which the Pentagon had final approval over the script. Top Gun was a major success for all involved, and led to a spike in military enlistments with its flag-waving jingoism.


Originally Scott's suicide was being blamed on inoperable brain cancer but his family quickly came out and debunked these claims. Thus, there is no clear motive for his suicide at this point, though there have been some interesting theories put forth. On his blog post concerning Scott, Loren Coleman ponders "Could Tony Scott, being a king of cinema mayhem, have been sacrificed (by his own hand through suicide) to bring balance back into the universe in the wake of what happened in Aurora? Was he thinking about what kind of society his movies had created?" Scott's suicide occurred almost a month exactly after the Aurora shooting, so that's certainly a possibility. What's more, Scott apparently began to act erratically on July 23, historically the beginning of the Dog Days of Summer. The Aurora shooting had several strange overlaps with the Dog Days and Sirius (the Dog Star, whose helical rising was the basis for the Dog Days celebration) which I've chronicled before here.



the Dog Days (top) and Tony Scott on July 23, 2012 (bottom)
However, I doubt it was just Aurora Scott was filling guilty about if such motivations are in fact what drove him to suicide. Scott's checkered past as a military propagandist who has glorified the American Empire surely weighed heavy upon his soul as well. Perhaps later films such as Enemy of the State were his attempts at atonement. Apparently, it didn't work as his suicide indicates. Oddly, Scott's suicide comes a month after the military, whose ranks he helped swell over the years, just experienced an all time high in suicides this past July. 

The military aspect of Scott's death is further re-enforced by the location of Scott's death. Scott jumped from the Vincent Thomas Bridge, which connects San Pedro on one side and Terminal Island on the others. Terminal Island, a place originally called 'Rattlesnake Island,' has a rather grim history. In the early 20th century it was home to several thousand first and second generation Japanese immigrants. After the outbreak of WWII, many of these Terminal Island residents were rounded up and put in internment camps. Their community on Terminal Island was razed and replaced with a training field for the Naval Reserve. A few years later the Long Beach Naval Shipyard would be established there and would remain a major hub for the Navy until being closed in 1997.


Terminal Island is also home a Federal Correctional Institute. It housed several high profile inmates such as Al Capone, Timothy Leary and a pre-Helter Skelter Charles Manson, who served two terms there, once in the late 1950s and the second just before he was released in 1967. The second time around was apparently highly beneficial to Manson.
"In June 1966, Manson was transferred from McNeil Island to Terminal Island in San Pedro, California. At this time, friends remember Charlie as fanatically dedicated to his music. One person who served time with Charlie --and became impressed with his musical abilities --was Phil Kaufman, then serving time on a federal marijuana rap. 
"In the Terminal Island prison yard, Kaufman encountered Charlie playing guitar one day, and afterwards gave Manson contacts with people involved in the Hollywood music scene. Toward the end of 1967, these contacts would allow Charlie entrance into Universal Studios to record some demos. Kaufman later went on to become a bit of living legend himself, road-managing some of the biggest names in rock and roll, such as The Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris and Frank Zappa, along the way earning the dubious title 'Road Mangler.' "
(The Shadow Over Santa Susana, Adam Gorightly, pg. 13)

Phil Kaufman is one of those curious counterculture figures who pop up around any number of weird events from that era. Famously, he was the roadie that stole Gram Parsons' body and burned it at Joshua Tree National Park in some kind of bizarre ritual. Manson, before famously begging officials to not release him from Terminal Island, also made some other curious contacts there.
"Manson had by this time perfected a sort of technique on the guitar, taught to him by Terminal Island inmate Al Karpis (the last surviving member of the Ma Baker gang), and had begun writing his own songs. Manson had also learned the basics of Scientology from another inmate, Lanier Ramer (or 'Raymer'). It was that combination --music and Scientology --that comprised the only education he had of the real world outside prison walls. But it was enough."
(Sinister Forces Book I, Peter Levenda, pgs. 203-204)
Indeed. Whether Manson factored at all into Tony Scott's decision to kill himself in the shadow of Terminal Island is impossible to say at this point, but Manson is the chief pop culture icon associated with the area.

Another curious aspect of the location of Scott's death, and possibly its most blatant link to the Killing of the Divine King, is the latitude line that runs along Terminal Island (and presumably the bridge Scott jumped from): the thirty-third parallel. The thirty-third parallel plays heavily into Downard, Grimstad and Hoffman's theories concerning the Killing of the Divine King, as noted above. The thirty-third parallel also appears near the first atomic bomb explosion at the Trinity Site in New Mexico.
"Other occult rituals for the Creation and Destruction of Primordial Matter were played out in the general area of the 33rd degree of north parallel latitude in Truth or Consequence, New Mexico, near the Trinity Site. 
"There are 33 segments in the human spinal column which, according to occult lore is the vehicle of the fiery ascent of the Kundalini serpent force which resides in the human body. 33 is the highest degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry. Near the Trinity Site a derelict shack was symbolically dubbed 'McDonald House.' The Creation and Destruction of Primordial Matter occurred exactly on the Trinity Site, the 'Place of Fire,' with the explosion of the first atomic bomb, culminating untold thousands of years of alchemical speculation and practice.",
(Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare, Michael A. Hoffman II, pg. 83)

Downard and Hoffman considered the explosion of the first atomic bomb at Trinity to be the first step in what they dubbed 'the Creation and Destruction of Primordial Matter.' The second stage was the Killing of the Divine King, which was accomplished with the Kennedy assassination. Both events happened on or near the thirty-third parallel. Numerous other strange and bloody events have also happened around the thirty-third, which I've chronicled here.

So, was director Tony Scott the latest victim of the thirty-third parallel, which some researchers have dubbed the death line? I've yet to see any concrete evidence emerge, but the synchronicity and twilight language of this event is most curious. The association of Scott with 33 is especially dubious. As noted above, 33 is the highest degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry (which most Masonic conspiracy theories center around) and now Tony Scott has committed suicide along the thirty-third parallel.

How synchronicistic.


6 comments:

  1. That same day probably there were many suicides. Why would this one be the important one?. Because the person who supposedly commited suicide was part of the military - industrial - Congressional - Hollywood complex.

    Will any analysis or pointed out coincidence change the way the "complex" works?. No. Only organized political activism will force a change in the way the "complex" works.

    Anyway, the special effects team was more important in "TOP GUN" than Tony Scott:

    http://perucine.blogspot.com/2012/08/operativo-britanico-tony-scott-asesino.html

    AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER. Junio/June 1986. Páginas/pages 28-33.

    Pages 28, 30.
    "Miniatures, pirotechnics for Top Gun
    by George Turner
    (...). Gutierrez has that rare combination of artistic and technical aptitudes that go into the makeup of the better visual effects experts. He was born in Atlanta, March 23, 1947, the son of a career Air Force man and a nurse. He studied art at the University of Nevada and the San Francisco Art Institute, in the meantime learning the fundamentals of filmmaking through self study. With a Bolex 16mm purchased on time payments) he made a documentary about a San Francisco Street Preacher, Brother Jim, and changed his major to film. Through the honors system he was awarded an apprenticeship with Korty Film, where he remained for five years as an animator and cowriter for the "Sesame Street" and "Electric Company" TV shows.
    In 1982, Gutierrez was asked by Philip Kaufman, producer for Warner Bros. and the Ladd Co., to storyboard The Right Stuff and next was hired to create the visual effects for this highly realistic film about America´s space program. USFX maintains a basic staff of about a half-dozen persons, but expands accordingly when a large project comes along. The company has its own model shop, stage, blue screen facilities and several motion control systems.
    (...).
    "With Top Gun, we picked up where we left off on The Right Stuff," Gutierrez said as Top Gun was reaching the post-production stage. "We had a body of knowledge from havin dealt with so many eccentric setups and that gave us a leg up on Top Gun, which was a notch more difficult because pyrotechics were involved. We had helium balloons, wires and even a World War II PT boat camouflage rig to create clouds on the ground. We could create really dense high clouds right on the ground and we could run out planes through these."

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  2. Jorge-

    Excellent points, especially about the special effects. It is interesting to consider how much these mega directors are made by their crews. As far as Tony Scott's films go, I was always struck by the use of cinematography. Jeffrey Kimbell was the cinematographer on "Top Gun" as well as my favorite Tony Scott film, "True Romance."

    Still, no one can compare to Robert Richardson... I mean, he even made DeNiro look like a real director.:) I'm kind of amazed Scott never got around to hiring Richardson, considering how he aped his style in later films.


    -Recluse

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  3. Thanks! I mentioned the crew because the co-owner of USFX was "the son of a career Air Force man and a nurse." He stated that:"With Top Gun, we picked up where we left off on The Right Stuff."

    "The Right Stuff" was another military supported project.
    Is this a pattern (like in "Inside The LC
    The Strange but Mostly True Story of Laurel Canyon and the Birth of the Hippie Generation" by David McGowan)?

    Who are/were military brats?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_brats

    Jeffrey L. Kimball was in charge of additional photography in "U Turn" (1996)[directed by Oliver Stone] while Robert Richardson was in charge of photography.

    http://www.cinematographers.nl/PaginasDoPh/kimball.htm

    Jeffrey Lane Kimball worked for John Woo in "WINDTALKERS" (2000) a movie censored by the U.S. Department of Defense.

    Mr. Kimball worked for Mr. Woo before that in "MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II" (1999.) We are well aware of the acknowledgement to the CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY in the end credits of "MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE" (1996.)

    He worked in "The Specialist"(1994) [directed by the Peruvian filmmaker Luis Llosa.] That movie states that there are assassins who work for the CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY who think that The Agency should kill only "bad" guys. :-D

    He was part of "The Expendables" (2009) which is not about world peace.

    Is "True Romance" about a MKUltra victim gone wild? :-)

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  4. Jorge-

    LOL!!! I never even thought of "True Romance" in that sense. I've totally got to go back and watch it again now that you've brought that up.

    I suspect CIA and the DoD have final cut over virtually anything associated with any aspect of US imperial forces --Hell, they probably always have, but with the budgets tent pole releases require nowadays no studio is going to turn down such outside help even if it requires a 'few' concessions over creative control.

    Apparently Jose Padiha is learning this the hard way in the midst of his "Robocop" reimagining.:)


    -Recluse

    ReplyDelete