Europe: 1850 to 1900 (war, Roman, European, interior)
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I loved the first franchise of Sherlock Holmes with Downey Jr. You can almost see the beauty of the London Bridge in the process of construction. And there is a sequence in a shipyard, where a frigate is inverted upside down and is under construction.
But I just saw the second one and I came away enamoured with the scenes of Europe in that age, especially France and Switzerland.
I had a scent of the industrial revolution and the post-enlightenment/Romanticism movement. From the gypsies to the Anarchist ideologues of France to the bankers to the peace summit in Switzerland falls, the movie is sprinkled with all my favourite parts of European history.
Other catchy parts include a steam engine through the French countryside, antique interiors of homes and hotels.
Now off to the scary part - a look into one of the war factories of pre-WWI Germany. The guns, the grim interiors and the intensity of the shells and mortars, and especially, a giant shelling gun nicknamed the Hansel, stuff like which must have been deployed in the oncoming WWI. Makes you wonder how the armies of the time survived this form of brutality - especially the shelling Holmes and Co. endure as they escape the factory.
No matter how grim the war part was, the various aspects of European life of the time left me with a smile - except the absence of wenches in tight corsets and deep cleavages
Let's discuss the Europe of this age. Anything goes!
I love this period of European history, even more so if we start the clock at 1800-1900. I am especially fascinated by how nationalism grew at this time and specifically the unification of Germany is fascinating to me. Good thread idea, I'll be reading!
I haven't seen the movie but one must remember it is fiction and not intended as historically accurate. Sounds like good cinimetography however.
But London during the late 19th century, during the height of the industrail revolution, wasn't that rosey. London was an extremely polluted and grimy city. Coal buring factories covering the city with a layer of dark grime. Workers were expolited. Tons of homeless. Children as young as 5 working 18 hours a day. Terrible stench from trash and horse excrement in the street. Lots of crime. Any accurate film should have captured that.
As far a Wenches and cleavages? Well we are talking about the Age of Victoria.
I haven't seen the movie but one must remember it is fiction and not intended as historically accurate. Sounds like good cinimetography however.
But London during the late 19th century, during the height of the industrail revolution, wasn't that rosey. London was an extremely polluted and grimy city. Coal buring factories covering the city with a layer of dark grime. Workers were expolited. Tons of homeless. Children as young as 5 working 18 hours a day. Terrible stench from trash and horse excrement in the street. Lots of crime. Any accurate film should have captured that.
As far a Wenches and cleavages? Well we are talking about the Age of Victoria.
This. Everybody thinks that life in this period was something out of a Merchant Ivory film, when the truth is that lots of people toiled in poverty to create the Beautiful Life for a small percentage of the population.
There's a movie about this age (it takes place around 1895 or so) by Andrzej Wajda called The Promised Land. Made in 1975, it's still visually stunning. The story focuses on 3 friends - a Pole, a German and a Jew building a factory together, I saw it a long time ago but this thread made me want to see it again.
Yac.
Obviously, there was great social and technological change in Europe as many struggled for upward mobility. Life was good for a privileged few, but real change came slow for the masses. The following links give some interesting capsule descriptions of that era:
An American corollary to that era was the Gilded Age. Many pine for the "good old days," but a look at Otto Bettmann's book, "The Good Old Days: They were Terrible," might be a reality check. One reviewer said it was like having one's own time machine.
Now off to the scary part - a look into one of the war factories of pre-WWI Germany. The guns, the grim interiors and the intensity of the shells and mortars, and especially, a giant shelling gun nicknamed the Hansel, stuff like which must have been deployed in the oncoming WWI. Makes you wonder how the armies of the time survived this form of brutality
Well....they didn't.
What you have during that time is the build up of modern artillery and machine guns.....but the old guard in europe, with no skin in the game...kept the standard tactic of "charge them" well into WW1 which led to mass slaughter.
If you are ever in the KC area, they have arguably the best WW1 museum in the world there and it's not all about guns and bullets. There is extensive attention paid to other dynamic forces of the time including womens suffrage etc. They also have a "tank" which is pretty rare.
when the truth is that lots of people toiled in poverty to create the Beautiful Life for a small percentage of the population.
Before the machine age, anyone living well did so at the expense of a great deal of labor by others. The great Greek and Roman cultures had a third of their populations under slavery. Before personal car ownership, transportation involved owning stable with numerous horses, a blacksmith to keep them shoed, a stable master to see to their food and medical needs, a carriage driver and repair person to get the beasts all hooked up to the wagon. Doing laundry was an all day chore, maintaining a household required a staff of servants.
The moral outrage over slavery or endentured bondage did not arise until modern machinery came along to replace their services.
And to a lesser degree, this dynamic is still in operation. Your being able to buy cheap goods at target or WalMart requires third world sweatshop labor..somewhere.
This. Everybody thinks that life in this period was something out of a Merchant Ivory film, when the truth is that lots of people toiled in poverty to create the Beautiful Life for a small percentage of the population.
actually in the UK and France at least wages were rising in this period, and life becoming somewhat more tolerable for the working class - note London, for all its troubles, drew immigrants from ireland and from central and eastern europe in this period, and French cities drew immigrants from Italy and iberia.
This also a time when improvements are being made to sanitation systems in London, Paris, and Hamburg, and when the science of public health is emerging. This book http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Map-Stev.../dp/1594489254 is fascinating on that.
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