(no subject)

Note to self:  Never ask a colleague to peer review a recent movie release....

When I bewailed yesterday's trauma at the cinema, one of my colleagues piped up with "Oh, I went to see The Eagle last night.;.  So I asked her what she thought of it, and she winced and said, "I don't really think it portrayed Roman Britain very well."  Her verdict went as follows:  just like Gladiator, with a small budget.  We deconstructed it a bit further, and my memories of the book/BBC version didn't correlate very well with her reports about the film, so...  I have my doubts,

The question is...  Do I read the book again before I see the film, or just say 'sod it!!' and go to the cinema and try and make the best of it???

There's another problem.  I haven't read the book since I was a kid.  I don't think that's going to pose too much difficulty - I'm quite happy to think myself into the mindset of an author working back in the days of Roman archaeology when the work of Wheeler et. al. reigned supreme.  But I find it more difficult to forgive shoddy research in the 21st century. There's a wealth of sources available, so if you're going to make a good stab at reinterpreting a perfectly good story, you might as well make good use of them.

It was another fine day at the nitroglycerine hills today.  Our buildings have almost all been demolished, though their rather sinister blast banks remain.  The colleague I was working with declared that the landscape looked like Narnia.  I begged to differ, sticking with my previous interpretation of Osgiliath.  Pretty and picturesque, with a little taint of Morder lurking in the background.

And now it's Friday!  Hoorah!!

(no subject)

Note to self:  Never ask a colleague to peer review a recent movie release....

When I bewailed yesterday's trauma at the cinema, one of my colleagues piped up with "Oh, I went to see The Eagle last night.;.  So I asked her what she thought of it, and she winced and said, "I don't really think it portrayed Roman Britain very well."  Her verdict went as follows:  just like Gladiator, with a small budget.  We deconstructed it a bit further, and my memories of the book/BBC version didn't correlate very well with her reports about the film, so...  I have my doubts,

The question is...  Do I read the book again before I see the film, or just say 'sod it!!' and go to the cinema and try and make the best of it???

There's another problem.  I haven't read the book since I was a kid.  I don't think that's going to pose too much difficulty - I'm quite happy to think myself into the mindset of an author working back in the days of Roman archaeology when the work of Wheeler et. al. reigned supreme.  But I find it more difficult to forgive shoddy research in the 21st century. There's a wealth of sources available, so if you're going to make a good stab at reinterpreting a perfectly good story, you might as well make good use of them.

It was another fine day at the nitroglycerine hills today.  Our buildings have almost all been demolished, though their rather sinister blast banks remain.  The colleague I was working with declared that the landscape looked like Narnia.  I begged to differ, sticking with my previous interpretation of Osgiliath.  Pretty and picturesque, with a little taint of Morder lurking in the background.

And now it's Friday!  Hoorah!!