Good morning here I am again…worked in the yard today, and now working at the computer. I’ve also set up a luncheon for a meeting with someone who wants to lists her jewelry with me. Are you a communist or a capitalist> >>>A Democrat or a Republican>>>>young or old….Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Pagan or none of the above….What makes your day, gets you high, gives you satisfaction? Do you golf, ride cycles, read, or surf the net? I’d really like to hear from you and I’d really like to stop hearing from those idiot spam pornographers who waste my time. Maybe I can get a reverse spell to all of them from one of my Wicca friends.
No OUTLANDER (at least not new) until 5/30—Jamie Fraser has to stay nailed to a table while Claire views fuzzy coes’ and Black Jack gets his jollies and then after that how long do we wait for the next season (cause this is the last one this season)?
OK so we’ve done remakes of movie, and TV shows—so it’s just the normal course that brings us to Reality Remakes
I’m talking about making movies about reality—well sometimes when applied to movies and TV that is a much abused word with a seriously stretched realism. But so often we take accomplishments, disasters, historical events and/or lives among others and place them in books or just straight to scripts that end up on stage, screen and the boob tube for all to see and in some cases remember more than the actual person, place or thing that it was based on.
We seem to be obsessed with disasters and the most glaring of these and one undoubtedly the most dealt with is the Titanic. That unlucky and obviously not “unsinkable” ship that went down on it’s maiden voyage when it sideswiped a ice berg–berg 1 Titanic a big ZERO
I do not know what public TV would do without this ship (and Adolph Hitler). There have been countless studies and every other week there’s a new “final theory” on why she went down so fast (hint big whole in her side), whose fault it was and what the major contributing factors were. There are also issues with the number of deaths in steerage vs. those in the more expensive classes. (if you don’t believe the rich and famous have it better than the rest of us just look at the punishment given to celebs for crime as opposed to the poor slob on the street) and on and on and on.
The first film about the disaster was made 49 days after it happened and is actually about the star’s surviving in a life boat (which she really did http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic_in_popular_culture ) told a bit more graphic and in flash backs. There were two more produced that year (one German and one French both silent) and another (Danish) the next.
Since then there have been 22 more movies made on the subject and 23 TV movies or Titanic-themed episodes on regular shows.
Other disasters that made cinematic history are
San Francisco Earth Quakes 1906 Disaster by the Bay: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 (2006)
and 1989: Surviving the San Francisco Earthquake of 1989 (2004, TV movie)
Even the Great Flood of Biblical Fame: The Great Flood (2012)
and Historical Legend: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
To name a few.
Yes disasters plague our dreams, fill our news feds, enlarge our libraries and feeds our legends.
Then there are people some wonderfully kind and humane like Mother Theresa and some horribly bad like the afore mentioned Hitler, but mostly like the rest of us somewhere in between, but thru genius, bravery, birth or a combination of all those plus a bunch more they caught the conscience of the —if not king–then more like commoner who reads and/or watches.
Case in point one Elizabeth Tudor, lived in a broken home, mother died while she was still young and she existed through a series of step mothers (two died young as well) and divorce and re-marriage. Even abuse at the hands of an older sister. This could describe millions out there, but this particular young woman went on to be one of the longest reigning as well as most famous monarchs of England and hence she became a story to be told and re-told.
Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (1912)
(Queen Elizabeth, US title) was the first movie I could find about her was and was actually French and about her affair with Essex–naturally.
The earliest talkie movies about Elizabeth was about one of her sea captains—Drake of England (1935) and another about one of her cousins: Mary of Scotland (1936), whom she eventually had beheaded: (with Hepburn in the title role). Young Bess (1953) featured her princess years and Jean Simmons in the title role. Other actresses who have brought the character to life include Betty Davis, Dame Judith Anderson, Glenda Jackson, and Helen Merrin. My favorite is Cate Blanchette who played the queen in two excellent movies: Elizabeth (1998) and the last one on the queen that’s been made The Golden Age (2007) which is the 27th counting movies she plays a major part in on both TV and movies and one documentary.
Other royalty in the public eye include Cleopatra (famous for Roman lovers, rebellion and snakes), and Nicholas and Alexandra (actually related to English Royalty as well as their weird adviser Rasputin, all of which ended badly) and Nell Gwyn who while not royalty spent a lot of time up close and personal with the king. And there were the Bible kings Saul and David.
Bible Characters abound including Jesus, Moses (most recently) as well as Noah and Gabriel to name a few.
Outlaws (Billy the Kid), Warriors (Joan of Arc, General Custer and David Crocket barely dint this category) and Presidents (Lincolin–getting murdered results in another disaster film category) are just a few of the arenas that films have pointed their camera on.
Obviously there’s other categories in the realm like warfare both new and ancient (some of which like the Little Big Horn could also be filed under persons and disasters as well), sports (from high school through the Olympics) and romances (like Elizabeth and Essex) and so on and so forth.
“Each of us is a book waiting to be written, and that book, if written, results in a person explained.”
― Thomas M. Cirignano, The Constant Outsider
