What are you watching?

[Chuck]

I now watch nothing but football and Jeopardy. All the sitcom reruns from past decades aren't as funny as I remember and nothing new seems interesting.

[Solfe]

I'd assumed it was a military thing, generally, in the way it's an acute-care doctor thing, generally.
But I've recently been watching a lot of documentaries about military aircraft, and I've been struck repeatedly by the differing presentation styles of US and UK pilots. In one episode, an American pilot described how his aircraft weapons systems let him "rain down fire and fury on the bad guys"; a British pilot said that they allowed him to "persuade the opposition to keep their heads down". (Paraphrasing from memory, but that was the gist.) The contrasting rhetoric was a recurring theme across multiple aircraft and aviators. Small sample, though, and how people talk on television is almost certainly different from how they talk among themselves.

Grant Hutchison

The US pilot was probably trying to outdo the Transformers movie, "Bring the Rain" quote. If you don't like camera jitters and giant robots, the gist of the video is 2 A-10's sprays a robot with 30 mm shells. It doesn't work, so an AC-130 does the exact same thing with 105 mm shells. Its impressive, but for a Michael Bay film it understates exactly how much "BOOM" an AC-130 brings.

Oddly, there is a video out there where the crew of the AC-130 does persuade the enemy to keep their heads down, like the UK pilots say. Exactly how someone shows restraint a hail of shells is more impressive that actually hitting a target. It's pretty clear they could have sniped the guy with a large shell but they didn't.

Oh, for what I am actually watching, it's The Mandalorian. No spoilers, but the most recent episode had a character that leapt like a frog, which is looked exactly like Jim Henson style puppet magic. It was really cool. I do like practical effects over CG.

[grant hutchison]

The US pilot was probably trying to outdo the Transformers movie, "Bring the Rain" quote.

I think the movie connection goes the other way--that "bring the rain" was an existing militarism, same as "in the blind" was a common enough phrase in aviation long before it was brought to public attention by the movie Gravity. Might be wrong--I find I increasingly recall having heard something long ago when it was more recent, and vice versa.
Anyway, "fire and fury" was a fairly common oath, back in the nineteenth century; its use in a military context was more recently popularized by a person not unresident in a large white house at present.

I've been watching Now It Can Be Told, a 1946 docudrama made by the RAF Film Production Unit, detailing the training and activities of the Special Operations Executive in Occupied France. It stars two SOE agents, Harry Rée and Jacqueline Nearne, recreating their roles as agents "Felix" and "Cat" during the war. It's a remarkable piece of cinema.

Grant Hutchison

[Selenite]

I finally saw the 2018 biopic of Neil Armstrong, First Man yesterday. It came across as a rather sublime and singular film portrayal, given the usual heroic/rah-rah presentation on screen of spaceflight history I've seen in the past like, The Right Stuff and Apollo 13. I don't how close it is to portraying the actual man, but Armstrong as acted seemed to approach everything with the taciturn cool of an engineer, even death.

The recreation of the landing was pretty spectacular. Loved the music score. I kinda wish I had caught in when it was in theaters.

[grant hutchison]

I'm watching Berlin 1945, the BBC's excellent record of life in the city in that year, put together from diary entries, radio broadcasts, old family photographs and archive film. Pretty grim stuff, unflinching about violent death, and certainly not for everyone.
While most people I know seem to be seeking out light and fluffy entertainment for their lockdown viewing, I find I'm increasingly drawn to stories of how real people cope with unimaginable hardship. It certainly puts my own difficulties under current Covid restrictions into perspective.

Grant Hutchison

[eburacum45]

I've just watched A Night to Remember, the 1958 movie about the Titanic disaster. Apart from a few facts that were unknown until the wreck was discovered in 1985, this film is very accurate.

Reading about the movie on the Internet, I was interested to learn that a number of shots were appropriated from the German wartime propaganda movie, Titanic (1943). Goebbels wanted to make a film that exposed the problems of class and greed in the UK and the US. This makes me wonder - did Goebbels really think the Nazis were the goodies?

[Selenite]

Reading about the movie on the Internet, I was interested to learn that a number of shots were appropriated from the German wartime propaganda movie, Titanic (1943). Goebbels wanted to make a film that exposed the problems of class and greed in the UK and the US. This makes me wonder - did Goebbels really think the Nazis were the goodies?

Probably only in a very narrow and cold, "the strong must triumph over the weak" sense. Or the cultish, "it's us versus the world" death struggle sense. Good doesn't enter into it because it's simply an iron law of nature as Goebbels and his ilk saw it. I don't think anyone in the Nazi leadership ever for a moment got the sentimental idea in their heads that they were improving the lot of anyone in Europe other than other ethnic Germans. Even non-German friends and allies in their struggle got treated as vassals sooner or later if they were in reach.

[grant hutchison]

The Nazis had a huge shift in perception of the UK around 1939-40. The British were seen as natural Aryan allies up to that point, and then just a bit misguided, and then as the war really got going the Brits were recast as bloated imperialist plutocrats, the natural enemies of National Socialism. America came in for Goebbels's ire at around the same time, because the American press were vocally critical of Nazism.

The Nazis saw themselves as promoting a sort of fierce and heroic community of Germanic people, Blut und Boden, so to that extent saw themselves as good people serving good ends, who were conspired against by those who were inferior, jealous or misguided.

Grant Hutchison

[ngc3314]

Since our schedules changed utterly in mid-March, I've embarked on the Great Lockdown DVR Festival of Horror and Science Fiction Movies. Averaging almost one a day, encompassing the good, the bad, the ugly, and the barely-describable. Last night I came across Between Two Worlds from 1944, which plays like a very stylish noir, 2-hour episode of the Twilight Zone. Once all the characters on the ship realize that they are dead, a launch approaches from the mist carrying the Examiner who will dispatch each of them to their ultimate fates.

It's Sidney Greenstreet.

I can imagine someone starting a religion from there.


[I will spare everyone comment on the film in which an underwater zombie bit a shark.]

[Gillianren]

The thing people seem to me to fail to understand is that everyone tends to think they're the good guy. It's human nature.

I don't know if I've mentioned it lately or indeed at all, but I've binged all of Tasting History on YouTube several times through and heartily recommend it to anyone interested in history or food.

[geonuc]

Since our schedules changed utterly in mid-March, I've embarked on the Great Lockdown DVR Festival of Horror and Science Fiction Movies. Averaging almost one a day, encompassing the good, the bad, the ugly, and the barely-describable. Last night I came across Between Two Worlds from 1944, which plays like a very stylish noir, 2-hour episode of the Twilight Zone. Once all the characters on the ship realize that they are dead, a launch approaches from the mist carrying the Examiner who will dispatch each of them to their ultimate fates.

It's Sidney Greenstreet.

I can imagine someone starting a religion from there.


[I will spare everyone comment on the film in which an underwater zombie bit a shark.]

I'll see if that's available to me. Sounds good.

In terms of bad - very bad - old science fiction, I'd recommend avoiding Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965).

[Jim]

I'll see if that's available to me. Sounds good.

I remember it. It is worth the watch.

[ozduck]

The thing people seem to me to fail to understand is that everyone tends to think they're the good guy. It's human nature.

I don't know if I've mentioned it lately or indeed at all, but I've binged all of Tasting History on YouTube several times through and heartily recommend it to anyone interested in history or food.

And of course there is the Mitchell & Webb 'sketch' about this very point - which has possibly been posted on here before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWvpvlT9pJU

[grant hutchison]

Growing up (and then later professionally) I met a few people who really believed they were the bad guys. And they were absolutely right.

Grant Hutchison

[geonuc]

Wu Assassins. It's holding my interest so far. If you don't like martial arts fight scenes, it might not be your cup of tea.

[schlaugh]

Season 4 of The Crown, which introduces Margaret Thatcher (played by X Files actress Gillian Anderson) and Lady Diana, portrayed by Emma Corrin. Elizabeth Debicki will have the Princess Diana role in later episodes. I'm also looking forward to Jonathan Pryce's version of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Coming up in Episode 4; the Falklands War.

[grant hutchison]

Season 4 of The Crown, which introduces Margaret Thatcher (played by X Files actress Gillian Anderson) and Lady Diana, portrayed by Emma Corrin. Elizabeth Debicki will have the Princess Diana role in later episodes. I'm also looking forward to Jonathan Pryce's version of Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Coming up in Episode 4; the Falklands War.

Just don't mistake it for a docudrama. Much of it is completely fabricated.

Grant Hutchison

[schlaugh]

Just don't mistake it for a docudrama. Much of it is completely fabricated.

Grant Hutchison

So I understand. It’s merely entertaining.

[grant hutchison]

So I understand. It’s merely entertaining.

Any other family in the world would have sued it off the air by now, I think.

Grant Hutchison

[schlaugh]

Any other family in the world would have sued it off the air by now, I think.

Grant Hutchison

Ha. Indeed.

I've also heard that HRH has watched some of the show, with both appreciation and dissatisfaction. No official word, of course.

The blurb below from IMDB, said The Palace was not happy with the depiction of the relationship between Charles and Prince Philip following the death of Lord Mountbatten, with Philip unhappy that Charles was chosen by Lord Mountbatten to perform the primary funeral reading, a choice Mountbatten apparently specified in a 500-page funeral plan for his own death.

Buckingham Palace objected vehemently to the portrayal of Philip and Charles prior to Mountbatten's funeral. They insisted that Philip was nothing but compassionate and supportive of Charles and his grief.

[schlaugh]

Just don't mistake it for a docudrama. Much of it is completely fabricated.

Grant Hutchison

So I understand. It’s merely entertaining.

[Spacedude]

We've been watching a new sci-fi series on fox called "NEXT". (Spoiler alert....) >>>

The series combines 2 apocalyptic scenarios - An AI trying to take over the planet, and to fully accomplish that goal the AI will create a lethal virus to completely wipe out the human race. Fun times huh.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Last night on sci-fi they had Clash of Titans, Assassins Creed move and Exodus:Kings and Gods, a pretty epic night.

[Trebuchet]

Last night on sci-fi they had Clash of Titans, Assassins Creed move and Exodus:Kings and Gods, a pretty epic night.

But WHICH Clash of the Titans? Harryhausen version for me!

[The Backroad Astronomer]

It was the newer one, that channel usually have movies over the weekend and I normally don't watch them but I just felt like it last night.

[grant hutchison]

Rewatching In Time, a movie I still find enjoyable and annoying in equal proportion. A mix of Logan's Run, Soylent Green and Peter Hamilton's "Commonwealth" novels. Time is literally money. Everyone over the age of 25 has a countdown clock, measuring out their lives, and they earn and spend lifetime. When the clock hits zero, they die. It's a metaphor, an endless source of repurposed puns and a plot that could have kept a good science fiction writer going for years, but instead it got this one shaky and poorly scripted outing in 2011. Sigh.

Oh, and unless Amanda Seyfried was issued with CGI feet, she really needs to enter the Stiletto Sprint.

Grant Hutchison

[CJSF]

Rewatching In Time, a movie I still find enjoyable and annoying in equal proportion. A mix of Logan's Run, Soylent Green and Peter Hamilton's "Commonwealth" novels. Time is literally money. Everyone over the age of 25 has a countdown clock, measuring out their lives, and they earn and spend lifetime. When the clock hits zero, they die. It's a metaphor, an endless source of repurposed puns and a plot that could have kept a good science fiction writer going for years, but instead it got this one shaky and poorly scripted outing in 2011. Sigh.

Oh, and unless Amanda Seyfried was issued with CGI feet, she really needs to enter the Stiletto Sprint.

Grant Hutchison

Is this the Justin Timberlake film? If so, I did like it, overall, in spite of (or maybe because of) its flaws. The ending was inevitable, which is sorta on brand for a movie about time, I suppose.

CJSF

[grant hutchison]

Is this the Justin Timberlake film?

Apparently it is. I only recognized Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy and Olivia Wilde. So that's Justin Timberlake ...
There's an interesting little extra on the blu-ray, which details a bit more of the back-story. It's a concept that really had the legs to go farther.

Grant Hutchison

[Gillianren]

Been watching The Repair Shop, on Netflix. It's definitely one of those "I need something pleasant and heartwarming" shows; people bring in their family heirlooms to a thatched workshop full of restoration experts. A painting with a dart hole in the lips. A cradle that had been in the family for five generations with a large hole in the canework. A sea chest that an ancestor had with him on the China trade. A pair of figurines that were all that survived when the person's parents' house was destroyed in the Blitz two weeks after their wedding. Just an amazing assortment of things, most of which have charming stories--it's entirely possible they've been made up, I suppose, because "I found this in a thrift store" doesn't quite have the same effect, but I'm pretty sure I've seen episodes where they bought the thing because it was a thing they'd always wanted, and they treated it as perfectly reasonable.

Either way, the moment of the reveal, where the item has been completely restored, gets me every time.

[ozduck]

We have been on a bit of a nostalgia bent lately. Over the last couple of days we have watched two Glynnis Johns movies - "Miranda" (1948) and "Mad about Men" 1952. These are the movies in which Ms Johns played a mermaid - complete with a rubber tail. We watched them in the wrong order but that made no difference to our enjoyment. "Miranda" is the far superior film with a witty and occasionally risqué script. The second one is a bit laboured but does have some nice colour photography of Cornwall. Ms Johns also gets to sing a little song in her own inimitable style. What I had forgotten a bit was how stunning Glynnis Johns was in her younger days.

Then to top it off we watched her in a performance of the song Steven Sondheim wrote specifically for her - "Send in the Clowns"