TV/Movies Megathread

[Josquius]

In totally unexpected news I've just found out they've made a TV adaptation of earth abides.
Something which has long been one of my favourite books but always seemed to be the only person to know.

[Syt]

Not exactly Breaking Bad, but a fun watch while playing Victoria 3.

I think it's by the same writer as Downton Abbey, presumably embracing his Edith Wharton.

I still haven't watched Downton Abbey. 

[HVC]

Maggie Smith

[Sheilbh]

I still haven't watched Downton Abbey. 

Oh I've never watched. I think I'd hate it and be driven into a rage (Although I love Gosford Park).

The writer is a Tory peer who lives in Dorset which is where my mum and dad live - and, to his credit, he routinely judges local amdram competitions or contributes little scenes for shows etc.

[Barrister]

I still haven't watched Downton Abbey. 

Oh I've never watched. I think I'd hate it and be driven into a rage (Although I love Gosford Park).

The writer is a Tory peer who lives in Dorset which is where my mum and dad live - and, to his credit, he routinely judges local amdram competitions or contributes little scenes for shows etc.

I've never sat down to watch Downton Abbey, but my wife has, and I've seen many many bits and pieces of it.

I don't think you'd be driven into a rage by it.

[HVC]

I still haven't watched Downton Abbey. 

Oh I've never watched. I think I'd hate it and be driven into a rage (Although I love Gosford Park).

The writer is a Tory peer who lives in Dorset which is where my mum and dad live - and, to his credit, he routinely judges local amdram competitions or contributes little scenes for shows etc.

I've watched it. I actually think you'd enjoy it.

[Barrister]

From what I've seen - it's very much about the lives of both the aristocrats but also their servants in equal measure.

Given the time period (1910s-1920s) it's also very much the "end or the era" when it comes to big manor homes with lots of servants, which is also one of the themes I think.

I don't know your tastes well enough to say if you'd enjoy it - but I don't think you'd hate it.

[mongers]

I still haven't watched Downton Abbey. 

Oh I've never watched. I think I'd hate it and be driven into a rage (Although I love Gosford Park).

The writer is a Tory peer who lives in Dorset which is where my mum and dad live - and, to his credit, he routinely judges local amdram competitions or contributes little scenes for shows etc.

So a bit like Richard Drax?     

[Tamas]

From what I've seen - it's very much about the lives of both the aristocrats but also their servants in equal measure.

Given the time period (1910s-1920s) it's also very much the "end or the era" when it comes to big manor homes with lots of servants, which is also one of the themes I think.

I don't know your tastes well enough to say if you'd enjoy it - but I don't think you'd hate it.

Of what little I have seen it it depicts the idealised versions of those lives and that society in general.

I feel like You Rang M'Lord? Is probably a far more realistic portrayal :p

[Barrister]

Of what little I have seen it it depicts the idealised versions of those lives and that society in general.

As stupid as it is for two guys who haven't watched a show to argue about it - I think you're wrong.

[crazy canuck]

From what I've seen - it's very much about the lives of both the aristocrats but also their servants in equal measure.

Given the time period (1910s-1920s) it's also very much the "end or the era" when it comes to big manor homes with lots of servants, which is also one of the themes I think.

I don't know your tastes well enough to say if you'd enjoy it - but I don't think you'd hate it.

Of what little I have seen it it depicts the idealised versions of those lives and that society in general.

I feel like You Rang M'Lord? Is probably a far more realistic portrayal :p

No, I wouldn't say that.  The best parts are when the focus is on the staff and their troubles.  But if you mean that the Lord and Lady are too good to be true, then yes.  That bit is idealized.

But all that pales in comparison to when Maggie Smith is on screen.  It is worth watching just for that.

[HVC]

Of what little I have seen it it depicts the idealised versions of those lives and that society in general.

As stupid as it is for two guys who haven't watched a show to argue about it - I think you're wrong.

There's only one way to solve this. Sheilbh, watch it. It'll end a languish argument so it's the moral and right thing to do

[Sheilbh]

So a bit like Richard Drax?     

I have yet to see his name on the notice board of the Dorchester Costa

As stupid as it is for two guys who haven't watched a show to argue about it - I think you're wrong.

As a third guy who hasn't watched the show, I'm with Tamas.

Of country house stuff though I do love Remains of the Day (book and film).

[Admiral Yi]

I watched Downton Abbey twice through.  The upstairs romances are maudlin, the downstairs romances are touching.  The man and lady of the house are a little too perfect for you class warriors, but there are plenty of dickhead nobles to even things out.

[Savonarola]

Lady Snowblood (1973)

I don't care what anybody says, any films in which they shove an eight year old girl into a barrel and roll her down a hill just to toughen her up is okay with me.

At the beginning of the Meiji era a group of fraudsters murders the new teacher in their village; accusing him of being a conscription officer.  Then they murder his child and gang-rape his wife.  She kills one of her assailants and gets sent to prison.  There she seduces one prison guard after another until one of them knocks her up.  She dies in childbirth but gives instructions to the women in prison that her child is to be an Asura Demon and exact vengeance on three surviving murderers.  The child is sent to a Shinto priest who trains her by rolling her down a hill in the aforementioned barrel, or sword fighting her with live steel.  She survives her training and then hunts down the remaining assailants and kills them in a series of increasingly exciting sword fight.

This was one of the main inspirations for Kill Bill; Tarantino even uses one of the songs from the film in Kill Bill and one of the lines in translation is "You and I have unfinished business".  I also see how he got the idea for combining Samurai films with Spaghetti Westerns; as the setup is very similar to the Lee Van Cleef Death Rides a Horse^1. even the number of assailants is the same (Kill Bill upgrades the number of targets to revenge to five from four). 

The film is a little more sophisticated than most chambara pictures.  The setting of a country in transition and how it's modernizing (and militarizing) in large part drives of the plot.

1.) And, yes, I've seen an awful lot of B movies (though nowhere near as many as Quentin Tarantino.)  Writing that I was reminded of a conversation that I had with my brother, where I described the plot to Six String Samurai and asked him if he remembered watching it.  He replied, "No, but that does sound like something we would have watched."