TV/Movies Megathread

[jimmy olsen]

I read an opinion that since there is no evidence of mandingo fights actually happening, a movie depicting them is tantamount to blood libel. While my gut reaction is to disagree, there is some logic in it. What do you think?

They're fucking slavers, guilty of theft, rape, and murder. Their reputation is already beyond terrible and can't really get worse.

[Malthus]

I read an opinion that since there is no evidence of mandingo fights actually happening, a movie depicting them is tantamount to blood libel. While my gut reaction is to disagree, there is some logic in it. What do you think?

They're fucking slavers, guilty of theft, rape, and murder. Their reputation is already beyond terrible and can't really get worse.

Well, there is that.

But also, I don't see why it is hard to believe it happened. Prize-fighting even among free people doing it willlingly was damn brutal at the time. Fighters were commonly badly injured in fights (the aforementioed Tom had his jaw broken in his last fight ... and KEPT fighting AFTER that until he was knocked out!).

Add slavery and really high stakes gambling to the mix and it is easy to believe that, on occasion, owners threatened losing slave fighters with death for losing.

[Barrister]

I read an opinion that since there is no evidence of mandingo fights actually happening, a movie depicting them is tantamount to blood libel. While my gut reaction is to disagree, there is some logic in it. What do you think?

They're fucking slavers, guilty of theft, rape, and murder. Their reputation is already beyond terrible and can't really get worse.

Well, there is that.

But also, I don't see why it is hard to believe it happened. Prize-fighting even among free people doing it willlingly was damn brutal at the time. Fighters were commonly badly injured in fights (the aforementioed Tom had his jaw broken in his last fight ... and KEPT fighting AFTER that until he was knocked out!).

Add slavery and really high stakes gambling to the mix and it is easy to believe that, on occasion, owners threatened losing slave fighters with death for losing.

Slaves were pretty damn expensive though - the rough estimates I've found are that a healthy adult male would go for very roughly $50,000 in today's dollars.  That's a hell of an investment, and not one you are going to throw away deliberately.

[Martinus]

I read an opinion that since there is no evidence of mandingo fights actually happening, a movie depicting them is tantamount to blood libel. While my gut reaction is to disagree, there is some logic in it. What do you think?

They're fucking slavers, guilty of theft, rape, and murder. Their reputation is already beyond terrible and can't really get worse.

Well, Jews killed our Lord and Saviour so it's not like they had stellar reputation before the blood libel either.

[Malthus]

I read an opinion that since there is no evidence of mandingo fights actually happening, a movie depicting them is tantamount to blood libel. While my gut reaction is to disagree, there is some logic in it. What do you think?

They're fucking slavers, guilty of theft, rape, and murder. Their reputation is already beyond terrible and can't really get worse.

Well, there is that.

But also, I don't see why it is hard to believe it happened. Prize-fighting even among free people doing it willlingly was damn brutal at the time. Fighters were commonly badly injured in fights (the aforementioed Tom had his jaw broken in his last fight ... and KEPT fighting AFTER that until he was knocked out!).

Add slavery and really high stakes gambling to the mix and it is easy to believe that, on occasion, owners threatened losing slave fighters with death for losing.

Slaves were pretty damn expensive though - the rough estimates I've found are that a healthy adult male would go for very roughly $50,000 in today's dollars.  That's a hell of an investment, and not one you are going to throw away deliberately.

Certainly - under ordinary circumstances. However, when you are talking about high-stakes gambling among the rich and degenerate, circumstances are not ordinary.

Allegedly, Tom Moleneux won his master $100,000 in dollars at the time (lord knows how much that would be worth in today's dollars), and as a reward was given his freedom and $500.

Giving a slave his freedom is as much of a cash loss to his master as killing him.

According to the account I read, that fight was a "freedom or death" affair - these incentives being thought up to make the fight, as it were, more interesting. We know as a matter of historical fact that the "freedom" part was true. His master, in other words, was willing to throw away his total value ... just because he won a fight. Why is it impossible to believe that he was willing to risk his death if he lost one?

[jimmy olsen]

I read an opinion that since there is no evidence of mandingo fights actually happening, a movie depicting them is tantamount to blood libel. While my gut reaction is to disagree, there is some logic in it. What do you think?

They're fucking slavers, guilty of theft, rape, and murder. Their reputation is already beyond terrible and can't really get worse.

Well, there is that.

But also, I don't see why it is hard to believe it happened. Prize-fighting even among free people doing it willlingly was damn brutal at the time. Fighters were commonly badly injured in fights (the aforementioed Tom had his jaw broken in his last fight ... and KEPT fighting AFTER that until he was knocked out!).

Add slavery and really high stakes gambling to the mix and it is easy to believe that, on occasion, owners threatened losing slave fighters with death for losing.

Slaves were pretty damn expensive though - the rough estimates I've found are that a healthy adult male would go for very roughly $50,000 in today's dollars.  That's a hell of an investment, and not one you are going to throw away deliberately.

If the only reason they're not killing people is that it would cost them money then they're objectively horrible people.

[lustindarkness]

The Hobbit, liked the movie and look forward to the rest. Did not care for adding Radagast, did not really add much to the story, also the Stone Giants.

[Ideologue]

Bad news for Ideologue's Movie Reviews.  CountDeMoney broke into my house and stole my TV. So who knows what my opinion of Park Chan-Wook's Vengeance Trilogy will be?

***
Burglary 2 (2013).  A lazy sequel to Burglary (2008) with not nearly as much action.  All they stole was my television (and, in fairness, its power cable).  The HDMI cables, the Blu Ray player, the stacks of hundreds of DVDs and BDs, and, thank you Christ on your terrible Cross, both my computer with its collection of priceless acquired materials and my collection of priceless acquired cats, were all left unmolested.  It's sort of crazy, because the computer weighs half what the TV does, if probably worth more, and there are garbage bags ten feet from the movie case.  I don't usually say I could've done it better, but I could've cleared this place out of everything valuable in about five minutes.  One point of interest in that I finally discovered where the draft in my house was coming from, as apparently the window on my door has been open since I fucking got here.  So now there's a hole in the screen and I'm sure my cats will have a wonderful time with the army of cockroaches that is assembling as we speak, due to the unseasonably warm weather.  (Yes, it must be said, they did fail me.  But I'm glad they're safe.) D

[Jaron]

Hope it doesn't turn out to be a trilogy.

[Josquius]

Bad news for Ideologue's Movie Reviews.  CountDeMoney broke into my house and stole my TV. So who knows what my opinion of Park Chan-Wook's Vengeance Trilogy will be?

***
Burglary 2 (2013).  A lazy sequel to Burglary (2008) with not nearly as much action.  All they stole was my television (and, in fairness, its power cable).  The HDMI cables, the Blu Ray player, the stacks of hundreds of DVDs and BDs, and, thank you Christ on your terrible Cross, both my computer with its collection of priceless acquired materials and my collection of priceless acquired cats, were all left unmolested.  It's sort of crazy, because the computer weighs half what the TV does, if probably worth more, and there are garbage bags ten feet from the movie case.  I don't usually say I could've done it better, but I could've cleared this place out of everything valuable in about five minutes.  One point of interest in that I finally discovered where the draft in my house was coming from, as apparently the window on my door has been open since I fucking got here.  So now there's a hole in the screen and I'm sure my cats will have a wonderful time with the army of cockroaches that is assembling as we speak, due to the unseasonably warm weather.  (Yes, it must be said, they did fail me.  But I'm glad they're safe.) D

You need a gun. That'll keep the crooks away. :usa:

[Ideologue]

Doesn't help much if I'm not here, unless one rigs an automated apparatus (or, let's be realistic, have someone more mechanically inclined rig it for me).  However, springtraps are, for unfathomable reasons, unlawful, even in the USA.

[Gups]

Up to date with Breaking Bad. It really is the GOAT TV drama.

[Ed Anger]

I have your tv Ide. You cats demanded I intervene in your movie watching habits.

[Neil]

Man, it must suck living in a place full of blacks and whites addicted to meth.

[Habbaku]

Doesn't help much if I'm not here, unless one rigs an automated apparatus (or, let's be realistic, have someone more mechanically inclined rig it for me).  However, springtraps are, for unfathomable reasons, unlawful, even in the USA.

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