Netflix recommendations

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by jlowrance, Sep 16, 2016.

  1. Stone

    Stone Member

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    I'm watching this for the second time.

    First time was over a year ago.

    It seems revised now.
    More powerful.

    Netflix is doing quality originals, it seems.

     
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  2. Stone

    Stone Member

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    I've watched a couple -- three? -- seasons of this, also. Worthy of time.

    I still prefer Vikings and pissed off Scots, but the latter are limited .

    .. until the Outlaw King is released ...

     
  3. Stone

    Stone Member

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    Outlaw King.

    I posted this upstream^,
    but here it is again.

    Hey, I'm half Scot, one third Irish,
    and the rest is Saxon & Norman.

     
  4. Stone

    Stone Member

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    Interview with two of main actors in Outlaw King, released one week from tonight.

    Based on viewing numerous "late night tv interviews", (all in one composite vid)
    Chris Pine is one of the ... most authentic actors I've ever seen.

     
  5. Stone

    Stone Member

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    One of several breakdowns i've watched over the last few days.

     
  6. Stone

    Stone Member

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    After errands downtown (small town N Maine) on bicycle, including a good dentist visit (all ok) and fresh food ahead of weekend rain/snow (an excellent time to pratice bushcraft skills ahead of winter, and while awating the stream for Outlaw King ( t - 48 hr), I'm watching Sea 4 of Peaky Blinders.

    Holy Crichey, what an opening.

     
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  7. Hammer

    Hammer Member

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    Peaky B is a helluva good series. Great cast. And that Nick Cave theme song just nails it.

    I'm pretty hooked on Homecoming right now.

     
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  8. IW17

    IW17 Member

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    I guess I need to give peaky blinders another chance. I watched the first two episodes and honestly I just couldnt like it.
     
  9. ManOfSteel

    ManOfSteel Member

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    You didn’t even scratch the surface.
     
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  10. Stone

    Stone Member

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    Well put, and I totally agree. It just gets deeper and deeper with each new season. The character development is so rich.
    ______

    In other news, I just watched the first half hour of Outlaw King during a late lunch; it started streaming today.

    Wow. WOW! I am very impressed so far. Casting, acting, costumes, sets, landscapes are all excellent. Chris Pine (Robert) is so effective, but so is every other character, the most surprising being his wife. The story line/screencast is well done and easy to follow. It was all I could do to pause it and get back to work. I'll watch it again from the beginning tonight, first of what will no doubt be multiple times.
     
  11. Stone

    Stone Member

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    Watched Outlaw/King.

    Three words. Epic. Stunning. Moving.

    Some of the best acting I've ever seen.

    Let's distinguish films (traditional movies ~ 2 hr) vs series (Game of Thrones, Vikings, Peaky, etc).

    This one has already made my top 5 films list.

    Dinner 2 is in the oven. I'm going to start watching it (O/K) a second time while I eat it.
     
  12. DiscoveryLover

    DiscoveryLover Member

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    I watched it last night. It was good, but moved pretty fast at the beginning.
    Took me a while to figure out what was going on, who was who, and what was what.
    Battle scene at the end was pretty good.
     
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  13. Stone

    Stone Member

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    I think it was easy for me to follow since I've studied that history a bit, and had read some written accounts of this particular film -- story line, etc - before it was released.
     
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  14. Hammer

    Hammer Member

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    Watched Outlaw King last night. It was ok, and the acting was good, though it didn't seem to me to do anything particularly original with a story that's been abundantly told already. But for some mindless, period-piece entertainment over a few pints, it held my attention well enough, and sometimes that's all I'm looking for.

    Finished the first season of Homecoming the other night. I thought it was one of the most original things I've seen in a while. If you give it a try, give it more than one episode - it's a slowly unraveling story that hooks you in with time. And I have to say, though I've never been much of a big Julia Roberts fan, she's pretty amazing in this.
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2018
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  15. Stone

    Stone Member

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    @Hammer , my friend, I find that I more often than not agree with your perspectives. But in this case, I don't. But that's OK. I'm NOT saying you're wrong, but that I see that film differently. Different folks, different strokes; beauty in the eyes of the beholder, and all that. (I have close friends who find the music I listen to boring -- I'm infamous for it here :rolleyes: -- and I think the same of theirs. But it's just a difference in perspective.)

    I don't find this film "mindless" at all. In fact, quite the opposite: I find it to be very thought-provoking. Several times while watching it, I said to myself, "Wow! That's really well-done." The best aspect for me is that the characters represent distinct personalities that portray a great range of personality types -- from loving, devoted, brave people willing to give their lives for what they believe to despicable psychopaths -- all in a span of two hours. They're not just faces on a battlefield, but real humans dealing with real issues in an ancient time under radically different conditions and social mores than now. And as a result, I experienced that full range of emotion, from joy to sorrow to fear, while watching it, and learned more about what it was like to live at that time in that place. It helps the story, the history, live for me.

    As for "a story that's been abundantly told already", where? What other film has addressed those events in such theatrical, make-it-come-alive fashion? Closest I know is M Gibson's Braveheart (but I suspect now that he misrepresented both history and personalities, especially Edward's son).

    Now, admittedly, I'm both a fan of historical fiction and a buff for UK history -- it's my genetic homeland where I'll likely be living next year for an extended stay -- and this bit of history in Scotland is as big and important as key years in the Revolutionary War and Civil War in the US. So I think it deserved to be told via such superb actors, sets, videography, editing, etc.

    For those not familiar with the story, here's a good overview. It'll help you pick up on the story and who the characters are more quickly, and appreciate what the producers, directors and actors are trying to do with the film.
     
  16. Hammer

    Hammer Member

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    Yeah, Braveheart is the obvious (and I would agree - inferior) comparable example, though of course that was about William Wallace, not Robert the Bruce. But at the same time, it also felt like the same formula used in Braveheart, and just about every other movie that seems to get made about that time period in history:

    1) Underdogs suffer terrible oppression and have no choice but to stand up to evil monarchy, despite their inferior numbers and technology. In case you have any doubts about how evil the monarchy is, they'll continually be presented as thoroughly unlikeable and doing unspeakable things without remorse until you are convinced. The underdogs, on the other hand, will be virtuous, brave, have beautiful families back home who are rooting for them and just want to grow potatoes and make babies in peace.

    2) Underdogs suffer painful (and painfully predictable) defeats and their rebellion seems on the verge of collapse. Are they doomed to a life of oppression? Where will they find more men to fight? Will their homeland ever be free from the cruel foreign king?

    3) Everything is leading up to the Huge Battle. Underdogs eventually prevail against incredible odds, as you knew they would from the beginning. Final scene - the lovers are reunited in some scenic location after freedom has been attained. Cue the dramatic, heart-swelling music, fade to black, add historical footnote.

    Of course, this is also the entire narrative of lots of other movies beyond just those focusing on this subject. I suppose it could be considered "historically accurate" if leaving out huge chunks of the story amounts to accuracy, and if we trust that the actual story hasn't been largely idealized over the the last 800 years. But still - there was just nothing about it that wasn't completely predictable and full of stereotype, even if one knew nothing about the historical account.

    Like I said - enjoyable enough, but it just felt like a story I've seen over and over and over again, with slight changes in the particulars. It's a timeless tale, but also a formula, and for good reason - it's been focus-tested and proven to work. :)
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2018
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  17. olderguy

    olderguy Member

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    Watched the Last Outlaw last night. Good movie for a cold Saturday night. Starting Homecoming today on a cold snowy Sunday.
     
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  18. Stone

    Stone Member

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    Thanks for your substantive, thought-provking response, @Hammer. A big part of why I like this forum so much, have remained in it for seven years (albeit punctuated by a year long absence in the middle <ahem>) is that there are a large number of people here who write effecively, are willing to offer their views, backed up with details, respectfully (unlike, say, Faceplant, where I no longer participate at all).

    Reading your post, then rereading it again with more coffee, I see more deeply into our differences in perspecitve about this film. Again, at least in my view, there's no "right" or "wrong" here, just those differences in perspecitve, including I believe ... how to say? ... what we hope to get from the experience of watching a film. I'll get back to that below.

    But before I forget: we mostly agree on the notion of "formulaic" (use of "formulas") in film making. Especially in Hollywood and the new sources like HBO, Netflix, etc. Their bottom line is not made of historical (or any kind of) accuracy, but what gets people to watch their film ... er, buy their product. It's more about $ than truth. There's even a bit of formulaic in Game of Thrones, which breaks the mold in other ways (who lives, who dies, and why). However, the same formulaic nature is seen in propaganda films by governments and their opponents, including the US, so Hollywood and Netflix are not alone.

    This discussion is also motivating me to do more ... reading about all this: Robert (this morning, I learned that he was the eighth!), Edward, their families, personalities, legacies, legends, and the ... sociopolitical context of the time within which all this unfolded. That is immensely complex in this case with many angles.

    Plus, my perpsecitve is driven equally as much by my study of how to use film to engagingly tell a story, whether it be historical fact, legend, fiction or fantasy. While most people my age are retiring, I'm preparing to start a new company, with at least some operations based in Scotland, with a goal of telling a story -- albeit quite a different one (with many elements that unfolded, so to speak, in Scotland over hundreds of millions of years -- using "film" (in my case, no "film" at all; it's all digital). So watching how producers/directors tell a story, regardless of "accuracy", is as important to me if not more so than entertainment.

    And I want to seek opinions about this film from a bunch of Scots that I "know" (in the same way that I know most of you: online forum), and that's going to take a week or two. Plus my finger is still healing from a cut, and typing right now takes maybe 5X longer than usual :eek:, so I'll get back to you later ....

    We might even split this discussion out into its own thread because it involves more than just Netflix recommendations.
     
  19. Hammer

    Hammer Member

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    Thanks for the response, Stone! You make a lot of valid points, and I think some nights I'm more willing to suspend the "film critic" in me than I was that night, for whatever reason. I watch plenty of things that are far more poorly acted and formulaic than Outlaw King was! :D

    I'm an avid history buff as well, and if you haven't checked out this podcast, you really should:

    https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/

    You might find "The What-Ifs of 1066" and the "The Celtic Holocaust" particularly interesting.

    He leaves his podcasts free for a certain period of time, and then the older episodes can be purchased. But trust me - it's $1.99 well spent.

    I like the idea of a 'historical discussion' thread. As long as it doesn't drift into modern-day politics. ;)
     
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  20. Stone

    Stone Member

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    My pleasure, friend. I'm enjoying this. :)

    Oh, my, I will DEF check this out ... maybe even tonight. I love celt stuff, and an ancestor on my father's side fought with William at Hastings and was awarded a castle for it (Shipbrooke south of Liverpool; no longer standing).
    I can guarantee it won't do that. I left Faceplant in part because of all the politics -- which I literally just don't do -- and I'm here because this forum (in its wisdom) prohibits discussion of politics (and religion). :cool:
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2018
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