TV/Movies Megathread

[FunkMonk]

I could watch Jeremy Irons play Adrian Veidt all day. 

[celedhring]

I could watch Jeremy Irons play Adrian Veidt all day. 

He's so deliciously deranged 

Always look forward to his scenes in every episode.

[Sheilbh]

Currently in the middle of The King, about Henry V.  Nice production values, but I don't see what this rendition adds, except for a band's worth of pretty boys poncing around in armor.

Saw that yesterday. I think the point was to tell the story of Shakespeare's play without the difficulties of Shakespearean language. Because otherwise I don't see the point of keeping Shakespeare's inventions (the Dauphin's death, Falstaff) in the movie.

Also you are far better off watching the BBC series of History Plays the Hollow Crown for this

Out of interest did it keep the Henry V massacring prisoners of war - the "Is Henry V a war criminal?" question?

Also... His Dark Materials show seems... okay I guess? It went a bit through the motions in the first episode, and although I didn't really find anything displeasing, I wasn't impressed by much either. it kinda felt like a Harry Potter film without magicians in it. Mrs Coulter seems nailed on, though, which is a big plus.

I loved it

[Admiral Yi]

Out of interest did it keep the Henry V massacring prisoners of war - the "Is Henry V a war criminal?" question?

Yes and mostly no.

There's a scene preceding the battle in which the greasy diabolical Dauphin slits the throats of some angelic English boys gallavanting in the woods.  Hal says in response he will execute the prisoners captured at Harfleur (?), but Falstaff talks him out of it.

[Sheilbh]

I could watch Jeremy Irons play Adrian Veidt all day. 

He's so deliciously deranged 

Always look forward to his scenes in every episode.

It doesn't strike me as a million miles from just Jeremy Irons, multi-millionaire actor who bought a castle in Ireland and enraged the local community by painting it peach and mused about marrying his son to avoid inheritance tax

[Habbaku]

Out of interest did it keep the Henry V massacring prisoners of war - the "Is Henry V a war criminal?" question?

Yes and mostly no.

There's a scene preceding the battle in which the greasy diabolical Dauphin slits the throats of some angelic English boys gallavanting in the woods.  Hal says in response he will execute the prisoners captured at Harfleur (?), but Falstaff talks him out of it.

Yi skipped the battle, and so missed the change of heart there. It's a throwaway line--Hal is approached by a captain of his and is mentioned that they cannot properly corral their prisoners and the French are regrouping. What do we do, sir? Hal responds with an order to kill them, and then the scene stops and it's not mentioned again.

It's consistent with his change from philanderer to serious king, of course, but is curiously tossed aside.

[Sheilbh]

Yes and mostly no.

There's a scene preceding the battle in which the greasy diabolical Dauphin slits the throats of some angelic English boys gallavanting in the woods.  Hal says in response he will execute the prisoners captured at Harfleur (?), but Falstaff talks him out of it.

Interesting. They've removed Shakespeare's central ambiguity that Hal was a wonderful prince but a horrible King.

In the play he rejected Falstaff in Henry IV Part II, and Falstaff died without seeing him again, which is described poignantly by all the (beloved) comic characters from the Henry IV plays. He's brutal against internal plots. And in the play Henry kills the French prisoners before he receives a letter saying the Dauphin has committed a similar crime (they're placed right next to each other).

[Admiral Yi]

Yi skipped the battle, and so missed the change of heart there. It's a throwaway line--Hal is approached by a captain of his and is mentioned that they cannot properly corral their prisoners and the French are regrouping. What do we do, sir? Hal responds with an order to kill them, and then the scene stops and it's not mentioned again.

It's consistent with his change from philanderer to serious king, of course, but is curiously tossed aside.

Asoka.

Any mention of the raid on the baggage train by the local hedge knight that prompted the historical killings?

[Habbaku]

Nope. The film handles it almost verbatim as I've stated--a brief mention after the battle and a snap decision to have them all killed.

[Josephus]

I thought putting Henry in Verdun was really stupid.

[Oexmelin]

The scene in the Harfleur subway makes up for it, though.

[celedhring]

Martin Scorsese bashes superhero movies in the NYT.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/opinion/martin-scorsese-marvel.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage&fbclid=IwAR1-RxnuIH43revPq-w7ZU9UY6zl9Yu5gLDiqID8qx_aNHbVnEUiPhMdJM8

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.

[Malthus]

Martin Scorsese bashes superhero movies in the NYT.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/opinion/martin-scorsese-marvel.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage&fbclid=IwAR1-RxnuIH43revPq-w7ZU9UY6zl9Yu5gLDiqID8qx_aNHbVnEUiPhMdJM8

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.

One of the things I keep coming back to: every era has its 'live' art forms, where creators are willing to take risks and do things differently - where there is the sort of excitement that gets young people thinking 'I want to do that', creating stuff on their own, sharing with friends, gradually moving into the public sphere.

At the same time - some art forms lose that, become risk-averse, start to repeat the same things over and over again, create an orthodoxy that is stultifying, often because that's the best way to get paid.

It's a bit of a seesaw, as both impulses exist at the same time (to innovate and create exciting things, and to settle down into a profitable orthodoxy). When you involve big business in the process, as you must when distributing art widely, the pressure to be monotonously productive is high - naturally enough. At the same time, settling too deeply into an orthodoxy is somewhat dangerous, even from the business perspective - because ultimately the business needs to latch on to innovators for the next thing they can milk.

Seems clear enough that superhero movies are a good example of the 'settled into an orthodoxy' end point: they reliably make money, as long as that is true the business will love them. Fact is that with home TV equipment getting better all the time, there is less and less reason to go to specialized movie-houses to see films -- its expensive and inconvenient - which can only hasten that process.

[Syt]

Problem is that we're increasingly inundated with media to consume, with everything competing for attention - games, books, movies, TV shows, etc. - to the point of oversaturation. I expect that at some point there will be either a plateau or a severe downturn.

I feel a lot of companies are banking on engagement rather than entertainment, hyping their products to create FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out, where people engage with a product just to "keep up with everyone." If everyone's watching The Walking Dead, reads Harry Potter, listens to Drake, shouldn't you too, to be part of the group?

[Syt]

Anyways, History Buffs talks about the Midway trailer from a historicity point of view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKxsgcO-EwA