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DVD
Publisher: Arete Communications
Format: NTSC
Actors: William Patrick Patterson
Winner of the WorldFest 2003 Gold Special Jury Award for Outstanding Excellence Gurdjieff's Legacy tracks Mr. Gurdjieff's struggle to establish the ancient teaching of The Fourth Way in the West. It covers the final period in his life, 1924 to 1949, and was shot on site at the Prieuré, Paris, Mont St. Michel, Lascaux, Monte Carlo, London, Lyne Place, New York, Mendham, New Jersey, and Avon cemetery. It traces Gurdjieff's life from his near-fatal car crash through to his giving meetings during the Nazi-occupation of Paris to his death in 1949. Examined in depth are the writing of his Legominism All and Everything and his relationships with Orage, Ouspensky and Bennett. Also included is the Rope and his final trip to the Caves of Lascaux.
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| watch this video - assuming this topic is in your aim... |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Excellent video. Provides objective input into Gurdjieff's early travels. Commendations to Mr. Patterson
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| Creation of Gurdjieff's Masterpiece |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I found this DVD, the third in the trilogy, to be the most intensely personal and moving of the three. In it the narrator, William Patrick Patterson, provides a history and context for understanding the creation of Gurdjieff's masterpiece, All and Everything. The film begins at the site of Gurdjieff's car crash outside of Paris in 1924, after which he decided to stop teaching and began to write. Patterson explains that the books Gurdjieff wrote are what he called Legominisms, a work intended to transfer esoteric knowledge undistorted through time. Now I know why the first book, in particular, was written in dense, complicated sentences, with bizarre vocabulary and a complexity that doesn't allow you to get comfortable. Having struggled myself to read All and Everything, I find it reassuring to learn that my emotional reactions and struggles were exactly what Gurdjieff intended.
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| Gurdjieff's Legacy |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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William Patrick Patterson's third video, Gurdjieff's Legacy, continues the trilogy of films detailing Gurdjieff's work with students, this covering the period from 1924 to his death in 1949. Having read Patterson's Struggle of The Magicians, I was moved by the visual representation of the ideas in the book, and it led me to not only re-read the book, but watch the film several times again for what I missed the first time. I eagerly await Patterson's next offering.
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| Completes the Trilogy with a Deft Hand |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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What is most striking in Gurdjieff's Legacy is how uncertain, even insane, world events were around Gurdjieff's establishment of the Fourth Way. The Second World War and the Occupation of Paris were obvious obstacles, but an even greater obstacle to Gurdjieff's stepping down his teaching was committed students. Ouspensky, Orage, and Bennett all abandoned Gurdjieff and he was left with naught but to create All and Everything. William Patrick Patterson, as in the other two videos he created, tells the story impartially and clearly, backing his narration up with historic documents from students, and fleshing the story out with compelling imagery. Watching this video makes me realize that Patterson's video trilogy is a work of art in its own right, one that requires attention and makes a deep impression: One feels for Mr. Gurdjieff's efforts; the energy required to bring his teaching to the West are insurmountable by any ordinary person. However difficult my little life may be, I do not live under these conditions with a life's mission so critical to humanity to realize. For this, there is a respect and gratitude both to Mr. Gurdjieff for having brought this teaching and to Mr. Patterson who has bravely and beautifully presented it.
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| Gurdjieff's Legacy |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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The third and final volume in the series The Life and Significance of George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, Gurdjieff's Legacy begins with Gurdjieff's car crash, the event that caused him to dramatically change his course of establishing the teaching for future generations. Whereas before, he had concentrated on training "helper-instructors" and having students at his Harmonious Development of Man in Fountainebleau-en-Avon, he realized that such training would not give the necessary results in the time that was given. Beginning the writing of his book All and Everything, Gurdjieff hoped it would act as a means of transmitting the teaching on a much wider scale. In this documentary, narrator William Patrick Paterson examines the process and result of this momentous task. Still looking at the student-teacher relationship, the viewer is introduced to the many groups and ways in which Gurdjieff worked with his students, including the Rope, his women's group; travels to the caves of Lascaux; voyages to America; and the meetings given in wartime Paris. Again, the music of Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartman is used to stirring effect. This, as with all the recently released DVDs in this series, is important viewing for anyone interested in the Fourth Way.
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