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Recommended movies etc on Netflix/Amazon Prime II

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Just watched Sam Mendes' 1917 on Prime in uhd, fabulous movie, stunning visuals/ one take technique draws you right in and is powerfully effective but oh my, why oh why did they use what sounds very like auto tune on the "Wayfaring stranger" song? Incongruous to say the least.

Just watched it last night. I agree, a visual feast and totally absorbing. I struggle to understand why anyone would find most of it 'far fetched'. It portrayed chaos. War is largely chaos.

RE; Wayfaring Stranger. I'd go further and ask why they used the song at all. Poetic Licence taken way too far IMHO, and an unnecessary indulgence. A blot on an otherwise superb film. Although the song long pre-dates WW1, I'd be very surprised if it was current among soldiers comprising 'The Devons' in 1917, pre-radio/TV and so on. It's not even well known among the general population now. It is also an American song.
One other thing which I baulked at a bit. When the two protagonists set out to work their way through the lines, they trudged, apparently unconcerned, through puddles and mud, when a little thought would have allowed them to avoid many. Having spoken to my Grandfather, who served in WW1.. about the horrors of 'Trench Foot', and even the basic necessity to stay dry and as comfortable as possible.. I doubt many serving soldiers would have been so casual about getting wet and cold.

Still overall 1917 is as good as any film I've seen about WW1 and better than most, with the possible exception of 'All Quiet'..etc.

The 'Wayfaring Stranger' episode reminded me of the TV series 'Flambards', back in the late 1970s, which was set during WW1. I didn't follow it closely, because to me it made little sense. It made even less when at some sort of Harvest supper.. one of the characters launched into 'The Shoals of Herring'... a song not written until around 1960... by Ewan McColl.
 
the far fetched bit might relate to the first wave Devons et al going over the top and being annihilated, this surely would have alerted the leaders that the Germans hadn't infact withdrawn and had set a trap? From the research we did for our WW1 film, normal practice when communications were compromised was to use carrier pigeons to send messages forwards and to the rear. That aside, I enjoyed the film and spectacular imagery.
 
Watched the 1st episode of The Crown Series 4 tonight and enjoyed it.
I wonder if I'm alone in being sure I know the piece of music that plays the episode out but not being able to put my finger on who it is?
 
It’s a complete hatchet job on the firm!
Certainly the tone seems to have changed. The younger Queen in series 1 and 2, played by Claire Foy (brilliantly, I thought), seemed to be viewed in a sympathetic light, as she was, in her words, a young woman just starting out in public service. Series 3 and that part of Series 4 that I've seen so far, shows a middle-aged woman, personally inhibited, tone-deaf and out of touch with the real world, the very personification of the stiff upper lip of the British upper classes. I can imagine this to be true - after all, in a world of immense privilege and bowing and curtseying flunkeys, how can it be otherwise? But then, part of the problem is that the British largely want their monarchy to be on this higher plane, perhaps as a reminder of a time when Great Britain really was great - after all, when the Queen was born, a substantial chunk of the atlas was coloured red (in fact, after the First World War, the area had actually increased). And Walter Bagehot, the great 19th century authority on the British Constitution, warned about letting light in on the magic.

Should the monarchy ever be replaced, I hope that lessons are learned from the potential alternative on the far side of the Atlantic...
 
I watched episode 1 the new season of The Crown. Very enjoyable, as always. I was surprised by how it presented the funeral of Mountbatten - a ballsy move, I thought from what is, at heart a quite concervative programme.
 
We've been having a bit of an Aussie drama binge. Wanted [Netflix] is good - two strong female lead characters - a chance happening at a bus stop leads to them being bundled into a car boot and kidnapped. They find themselves caught up in a larger criminal conspiracy, and go on the run across Australia.
We'd already watched The Code [Netflix] when it was on BBC4 a while back.
Secret City [Netflix again] is a good political thriller, with (amongst others) the superb Jacki Weaver playing a gloriously loathsome character (much as she does in the similarly enjoyable Goldstone - a sequel to Mystery Road which has been discussed upthread, IIRC - which was on the Beeb recently).
 
Watched the 1st episode of The Crown Series 4 tonight and enjoyed it.
I wonder if I'm alone in being sure I know the piece of music that plays the episode out but not being able to put my finger on who it is?
Anybody?
Having slept on it there are definite similarities with the last 60 seconds of' a track by The Alan Parsons Project called 'The Gold Bug' - around the same time (1980) as well.
 
I watched episode 1 the new season of The Crown. Very enjoyable, as always. I was surprised by how it presented the funeral of Mountbatten - a ballsy move, I thought from what is, at heart a quite concervative programme.
Just finished the season. It does tend to play slightly fast and loose with the facts sometimes, and extrapolates rumours into facts, but there's no denying that it is beautifully done and superbly acted. I'm guessing that Chuck Windsor will not like his portrayal at all...
 
Just finished the season. It does tend to play slightly fast and loose with the facts sometimes, and extrapolates rumours into facts, but there's no denying that it is beautifully done and superbly acted. I'm guessing that Chuck Windsor will not like his portrayal at all...
I remain fascinated by its ambiguity. I'm a republican (not that it keeps me awake at night) and there's just enough overt and implied critique to keep me watching without feeling like a gullible idiot. On the other hand, I can imagine staunch royalists loving it too (partly, I suspect, because it hardly ever criticises Madge directly). The narrative structure and aesthetics (lavish attention to detail, fetishisation of the symbols of monarchy) are both conventional so, in that sense, it's deeply conservative. I'm still enjoying it though (episode 4 next)!
 
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