What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I don't think that's an accurate description of Elizabeth I. Sure, "power-hungry men" tried to usurp her authority, but she certainly wasn't held hostage by them. She was her father's daughter.

This version doesn't portray Elizabeth in quite the same way as, say, Jackson or Blanchett did.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Is it part of a wider fashion for gray everywhere?

You are right in your assessment. I think in film it has more to do with computer technology. Films used to be shot and
most of what you saw was what they captured on film. Now they can film anything and play with it in the computer, thereby
making a lot of movies look unreal to me.  It used to be if you saw a sky and there were clouds in it, and they captured some
beautiful looking sunset, that was really fulfilling to watch. If it was snowing it might not have been actual snow, but it was
something actually flying in the air. There was a scene in Mary Queen of Scots with snow flakes and I feel it was computer
generated.

[Jeff Wrangler]

This version doesn't portray Elizabeth in quite the same way as, say, Jackson or Blanchett did.

If it portrays her as weak and dominated by men, it's dead wrong. Glenda Jackson's performance--or, maybe I should say the way Jackson's part was written--is dead-on accurate, or as accurate as a dramatization can be, compared to everything I've read about the historical Elizabeth I, and I've read a lot about the historical Elizabeth I. (The same goes for Jackson's role in Elizabeth R.)

I'm not as familiar with the historical Mary Stuart, but as far as I have read, she was no prize. Yet everyone from Goethe (I think it was Goethe) onward wants to make her a tragic heroine.

Just sayin'.

[brianr]

Totally agree. I spent a year at university studying Reformation history, half spent on Continental Europe and half on UK, reading the original documents.  Elizabeth 1 was a very strong woman determined that no man should take advantage of her, probably why she never married and even why she finally signed Mary Stuart's death warrant. She was determined no-one should see any sign of weakness in her.

[B.W.]

I loved Cate Blanchett's performance as Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabeth Tudor) of England in Focus Features' film "Elizabeth" (1998).  Her performance in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (2007) was good too, but that film wasn't as good as the first movie.  Elizabeth I was a strong female ruler.  I'd love to see a major theatrical film about the rivalry between her and her older half-sister Queen Mary I (Mary Tudor/"Bloody Mary") of England.  Both sisters seemed to be pretty much uncompromising in their convictions and seemed to be pretty stubborn. Well, it isn't surprising, I mean look at who their father was.
 

[B.W.]

I certainly don't think that theatrical films today that are based on a historic person, place or event have that kind of quality that such films made in previous decades had.  However, I think that every film is a product of the time period in which it was made.  Someone had mentioned David Leans' film "Doctor Zhivago" (1965).  I like it, but it doesn't appeal to me quite as much as other similar films.  Movies have become more technologically advanced, that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can easily make a movie become more about style than substance.  Personally, I am one that feels good acting, character development, a good script and directing are even more important than a film's technical aspects.  If the acting, character development, script and directing style aren't as good, then the film merely just becomes eye-candy to me.  That is kind of how I feel about Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" (1993), there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of character development to me, the script is not that good to me, but it isn't that bad either and the acting is fine for what it is, but the performances weren't anything spectacular to me.  As far as the film's special effects go, they were brilliant for their time and still hold up pretty well, I think.  The film is visually stunning to watch and was an appealing piece of technical eye-candy to me.  It just didn't have as much substance as to what I would have liked.  These are just my own opinions.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Totally agree. I spent a year at university studying Reformation history, half spent on Continental Europe and half on UK, reading the original documents.  Elizabeth 1 was a very strong woman determined that no man should take advantage of her, probably why she never married and even why she finally signed Mary Stuart's death warrant. She was determined no-one should see any sign of weakness in her.

My area of concentration as both an undergraduate and a graduate history student was Colonial America, but the obvious background for European colonization of North America was "Ren & Ref" (Renaissance and Reformation), with a lot of reading of Tudor period history.

To this day books on Tudor history remain among my favorite for pleasure reading.

I'd love to see a major theatrical film about the rivalry between her and her older half-sister Queen Mary I (Mary Tudor/"Bloody Mary").  Both sisters seemed to be pretty much uncompromising in their convictions and seemed to be pretty stubborn. Well, it isn't surprising, I mean look at who their father was.

That would make for a very interesting film!

To anyone who might be interested, I highly recommend Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne, by David Starkey. It's the best book on Elizabeth I, and what she was up to during Mary's reign, that I have ever read.

However, I think that every film is a product of the time period in which it was made.

I guess thus has it ever been all the way back to Birth of a Nation.

[Flyboy]

I watched The 10 Year Plan last night on Netflix. Simple escape film. I liked it, even though there wasn't any in depth drama! 

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I think the talk of the way Elizabeth I is portrayed in the current film is getting off the rails, which means
I may have mislead some of you in some way that I'm not aware of, so I feel you should just see the film
and judge for yourself. So far, 5 people in my circle have seen it and all really liked it, including one with
Scottish ancestry who knows all about this history.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I certainly don't think that theatrical films today that are based on a historic person, place or event have that kind of quality that such films made in previous decades had.

Whenever anyone says "they don't make __________ like they used to" I have to disagree. There are just as many good films now about "historic persons, places and events"  as there were in the past. Just as many that are not, too, it's just that from the past the fine ones get remembered and the bad ones don't.

For example, just since 2010 we've had these good and great films: The Fighter, The King's Speech, The Social Network, 127 Hours, Moneyball, Argo, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Philomena, The Wolf of Wall Street, American Sniper, The Imitation Game, Pride, The Theory of Everything, Selma, The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, The Revenant, Spotlight, Hacksaw Ridge, Patriot's Day, Hidden Figures, Lion, Darkest Hour, The Post and Dunkirk, and I'm not saying this is all inclusive.

[B.W.]

My area of concentration as both an undergraduate and a graduate history student was Colonial America, but the obvious background for European colonization of North America was "Ren & Ref" (Renaissance and Reformation), with a lot of reading of Tudor period history.

To this day books on Tudor history remain among my favorite for pleasure reading.

That would make for a very interesting film!

To anyone who might be interested, I highly recommend Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne, by David Starkey. It's the best book on Elizabeth I, and what she was up to during Mary's reign, that I have ever read.

I guess thus has it ever been all the way back to Birth of a Nation.

Yeah, "The Birth of a Nation" (1915), a highly controversial and unashamedly racist propoganda movie, but it did have an overwhelmingly influence on the filmmaking industry.  I didn't see this film until I was much older, but heard about it growing up.  I found it offensive,  a laughingly absurd, but I recognized the film's legacy on the movie industry.  As for the colonization of America, I certainly don't think of a brave explorer whenever I hear the famed name of "Christopher Columbus" being uttered.  I think of the oppression and genocide that countless individual Native persons had to experience.  You had whole races of people being forced to work against their will as slaves.  So many institutions in America were pretty much the result of slave labor .  The country has a very dark and dreary past, yet the country has a lot of potential too.  I guess that is how it is in every country around the world as well.  Every country has a history that is filled with dark and positive events that helped shape it.  It makes the world a very complex and interesting place.

[B.W.]

Whenever anyone says "they don't make __________ like they used to" I have to disagree. There are just as many good films now about "historic persons, places and events"  as there were in the past. Just as many that are not, too, it's just that from the past the fine ones get remembered and the bad ones don't.

For example, just since 2010 we've had these good and great films: The Fighter, The King's Speech, The Social Network, 127 Hours, Moneyball, Argo, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Philomena, The Wolf of Wall Street, American Sniper, The Imitation Game, Pride, The Theory of Everything, Selma, The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, The Revenant, Spotlight, Hacksaw Ridge, Patriot's Day, Hidden Figures, Lion, Darkest Hour, The Post and Dunkirk, and I'm not saying this is all inclusive.

Oh, I wouldn't say that there haven't been any good films about historical places, persons and events that have been released over the past few years.  I thought that Universal Pictures' "Spotlight" (2015) and Paramount Pictures' "Selma" (2014) were both very good.  I guess I just prefer some of the older films.  I liked "American Sniper" (2014), I didn't read the biographical book that it based on, but from what I heard about the man who wrote it, Chris Kyle sounded like a person who had a thirst for bloodshed and was known to be a notorious liar.  It seems like the film glossed over those aspects of his personality.  I can understand Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper wanted to humanize him a bit more, but if the real Chris Kyle was really the way I've heard him described, I feel that the film was a bit dishonest in its portrayal of him as an
"American hero".  I do think it is very brave and heroic of people who fight in war for causes they believe in, but I imagine most people that fight in armed combat don't feel a sense of enjoyment when killing other people.  I think most have some amount of compassion for the people that they have killed. I thought "American Sniper" was a well-made movie, I just felt it was a rather dishonest portrayal of the real man who died tragically and so young, a young man who was brave enough to risk his life that also seemed to have some very bad intentions.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Sunday evening I watched part of Plymouth Adventure (1952). I'd seen it before, so I didn't watch the entire film.

It's kind of an odd picture. Rather than being based directly on history, it's based on a novel about the voyage of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower (which, no doubt, is why TCM chose to air it Sunday evening).

The plot revolves around a love affair between Christopher Jones, the master (captain) of the Mayflower, and Dorothy Bradford, wife of William Bradford. Captain Jones is played by Spencer Tracey, who doesn't do badly as a gruff, cranky, middle-aged sea captain. Gene Tierney is Mrs. Bradford, the leading lady, and I agree with a reviewer at IMDb who wrote that Tracey and Tierney had absolutely no chemistry. I guess they needed a "name" for a leading lady.

Van Johnson as John Alden was just ... weird. (In the movie Alden is called a carpenter, probably because people know what a carpenter does, but not so much what a cooper [barrel maker] does, and that's what Alden was, a cooper.) Lloyd Bridges was Robert Coppin, the First Mate of the Mayflower.

Since it's a matter of historical fact, I won't consider it a spoiler to say that once the Mayflower arrived in New England, Dorothy Bradford drowned. Some writers have wanted to speculate that her death was an accident and not suicide, but, c'mon, really? She went overboard while the Mayflower was riding peacefully at anchor in the shelter of what is now Provincetown Harbor. The movie makes her death a suicide, but Tierney and Tracey have so little chemistry that the first time I saw this film I didn't realize the suicide was supposed to be because she was caught between duty to her husband and love for Captain Jones. I just thought she did it because the captain lusted after her (she was a Puritan, after all).

Weird coincidence: Tierney suffered from mental illness and at least once really did nearly commit suicide.

The film won the Oscar for Special Effects, the storms at sea, and I think the effects are still pretty impressive, considering this was decades before CGI, back when Hollywood really could do magic. After the storms, I think the best thing about this movie is the Mayflower herself. The ship is pretty accurate, and the scenes of her setting sail are also pretty impressive.

[oilgun]

OMG!!! Lyle!! ....that was MY first Gay novel too!! Maybe it was the only one out at the time, who can say....plus, I think one of my first Gay mainstream films was the one with Harry Hamlin. Making Love.

Patricia Nell Warren's The Front Runner actually changed my life. It gave me the courage to accept myself and come out.

As for all the historical films featuring royalty being mentioned, the Queen I'm most looking forward to is Anne in The Favourite. I'd include the film's poster but I can't access photobucket for some reason. Olivia Coleman is apparently assured a best actress oscar nom. I hear the film isn't exactly historically accurate though.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_favourite_2018

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Gil, nice to hear about your experience with The Front Runner novel. I can totally see that!

Also, I have heard a lot about The Favourite so far.