TV/Movies Megathread

[HVC]

Talkies ruined cinema!

[Valmy]

Talkies ruined cinema!

Certainly put all those hardworking theater piano players out of work

[Liep]

His Dark Materials

Strong start, it seems intriguing and interesting. She looks like a less pale Jack White.

[Sheilbh]

Martin Scorsese bashes superhero movies in the NYT.

My favourite contribution to this debate has been Pedro Almodovar, whose basic point was he's indifferent to these films, but they need more fucking

I love that it's so incredibly on-brand but also a very fair point.

He has a point when he says Hollywood seems to increasingly be divorcing itself from quality film-making, and there used to be a tension between quality and commerce that had been very productive in ages past that it's no longer there. However, I'm not that dismissive of Netflix et al like he is though. The big silver screen is great and all, but I'm not that much of fetishist. If I can get quality visual storytelling in some form, and right now I can, I'm not that worried. It is true that the motion picture form is probably being threatened, since these platforms favor serialized productions.

Interesting stat from Mark Kermode based on some academic study. As a proportion the number of reboots and sequels and adaptations etc is the same as it has been in the past and tends to be fairly constant.

The volume has changes because there are more films and the genre has changed to superhero films rather than Frankensteins, or Draculas, or musicals, Westerns.

I think the potential liberationist angle of certain platforms is actually you can justify films that appeal to audiences that aren't normally served that well, because that works economically as a proportion of a platform in a way that, perahps, it didn't in the old cinema model.

Of course my main issue with Netflix is that too much of what they have is new and theirs

[viper37]

Sword of vengeance

Not a terribly bad movie.  But not much of a movie either.  Definately NSFV (Not safe for Valmy), given it is mostly nationalistic english propaganda inciting to hatred toward French.

1066.  After the battle of Hastings, the Normans began a terrible oppression of the North and a very cruel Lord and his two terribly cruel sons constantly bickering at who's the most terrible of the two are reigning with an iron fist over the North. 
[spoiler]
A lone Saxon warrior makes his way back to the North seeking vengeance.  As the movie begins, he is arrested by two Norman Knights who wants him to pay a toll for using the road.  What a very French and cruel idea- taxing people for services rendered!  Anyway, he proceeds to quickly kill them.

Later on, he meets a group of Saxon freedom fighters, all pagans and dressed like Vikings (they could have played extras in Vikings, really).  They ambush and capture him, intend on delivering him to the Normans for a ransom.  When the Normans show up, they decide to burn the village and rape a lone woman, unarmed warrior there.  Why?  We don't know.  Also, we still don't know anything about the Sword of Vengeance's motives...

Anyway, the valliant hero frees himself, kills all the Norman soldiers, mutilate one of the Lord's sons by forcing him to either take his own eye or be killed.  He chose... wisely?

Back at the Norman castle, the Lord finally comes back, he and his sons exchange a few words with French prononunciation to emphasize they really are French.  It's difficult to place a date on the events, but the Lord talks of open rebellion in France and King William wants all available troops to be sent to France.  Also, we finally learn that someone - most likely the lone warrior's father was treacherously killed by the Norman lord and that's the motive for vengeance.  No idea when that happenned though, but they seemed quite friendly with one another until he is stabbed.  It kinda ruins a friendship


So anyway, the Lord sends his other sons with more troops, the pagan Saxons kill all the Evil Christian Normans from France and capture the son.  They hold him captive to be exchanged to the Lord for their freedom.

Being a good evil lord, he accepts and sends his other son to recuperate his brother.  Ah-ah!  But the Evil Lord was only delaying until his other troops from France arrived.  The lone noble Saxon warrior knowing that the Evil Norman Lord would not respect his word kills the hostage in front of his brother.
THIS MEANS WAR!

So yeah, evil lord comes with all his might army and his surviving son to teach these stupid pagans a lessons.  So, yeah, being a master strategist as he is, knowing this lone Saxon hero made minced-meat out of all the soldiers he previously sent proceeds alone in the woods to find and kill him.  Ah-ah!  But in a surprising plot twist, he ends up being killed, and then his son& heir proceeds to march on the village to kill everyone, no quarters.

The lone noble Saxon warrior, his vengeance fulfilled decides to leave and abandon the other Saxons to their fate.  Or did he, really?  He comes back, in the nick of time, to save the village, kill every Norman soldier still standing, including the new Lord.  Everyone we knew by name in the movie, everyone we met in the beginning is now dead, Saxon and Norman alike, except the hero and some villagers we never met before in the movie.

THE END

[/spoiler]

So, yeah,  lots of battles.  Pagan saxons, Christian Normans.  Not much dialogue, not much plot.

[crazy canuck]

It had a lot of potential but the lack of lighting was off putting and the long drawn out dramatic scenes dragged on and on.

[The Brain]

Sword of vengeance

1066.  After the battle of Hastings, the Normans began a terrible oppression of the North and a very cruel Lord and his two terribly cruel sons constantly bickering at who's the most terrible of the two are reigning with an iron fist over the North. 

did they close the coal mines

[Valmy]

Definately NSFV (Not safe for Valmy), given it is mostly nationalistic english propaganda inciting to hatred toward French.

This film should be banned from all civilized society!

[Sheilbh]

The Normans are history's greatest monsters

Also, this novel is great on that time:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/02/the-wake-paul-kingsnorth-review-literary-triumph

[Valmy]

The Normans are history's greatest monsters

They brought truth, justice, and civilization to England

Ok not really...but feudalism was kind of an improvement.

[Sheilbh]

Ok not really...but feudalism was kind of an improvement.

Hwaet!? No it wasn't.

Anyway, the Anglo-Saxons broadly had a form of feudalism, despite the myths.

[crazy canuck]

Yeah, in what way was Normal rule an improvement for anyone other than the Normans? 

[Eddie Teach]

Of course my main issue with Netflix is that too much of what they have is new and theirs

Cheaper to make new stuff than pay the pound of flesh copyright holders demand I guess.

[HVC]

Yeah, in what way was Normal rule an improvement for anyone other than the Normans? 

Cool castles?

[Sheilbh]

Of course my main issue with Netflix is that too much of what they have is new and theirs

Cheaper to make new stuff than pay the pound of flesh copyright holders demand I guess.

Yeah. But I mean I'm interested in old stuff and niche stuff. I'll happily work my way through a box-set of Roger Corman movies or the lesser Rodgers and Hammersteins.