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Is anyone else worried that DA is becoming a little too "preachy". Episodes about worker's rights, women's rights, gay rights, and now race relations.... I'm all for "look at how far we've progressed as a society since those times", but can't I draw that conclusion for myself?
The 1920s was a time of enormous social change, you can't have a period drama without some of those changes.
From the last paragraph: "Actually, the linguist in me wouldn't have minded more of that unsettled feeling. A historical novel or screenplay should give us a translation, not a transcription. And a great translation allows us to hear the alien language rustling in the background. What would it be like to have a Lincoln we couldn't so comfortably and easily make our own?"
Yes, I heard a part of it going home. It was interesting.
From the last paragraph: "Actually, the linguist in me wouldn't have minded more of that unsettled feeling. A historical novel or screenplay should give us a translation, not a transcription. And a great translation allows us to hear the alien language rustling in the background. What would it be like to have a Lincoln we couldn't so comfortably and easily make our own?"
Yes, exactly. One halmark of period pieces some don't like is they sound 'stilted'. They use old fashion words some haven't a clue what they mean. They aren't emotional and out there. But then in past times respectable people DID speak formally. They used and pounded into their kids to use please and thank you. The taught keeping things to yourself instead of letting it all hang out. Even the 'lower class' tended to be more reserved.
If you did it pure the people today are going to feel disconnected from them The best adaptations of period works allow them to be looser in infromal, private places but preserve the standard elsewhere. I think this is why some find period boring, since the people might as well be from the year 2500 if you can't see beyond what you know.
I wouldn't want to see a Lincoln who talked just like people do today, or had the attitudes and preconceptions of today, over those of his time. You *can* show that someone from another time was equally human but did not think like you, had not grown up like you and would not make the same decisions that would be made today. One of the wonderful things about anything 'period' is it takes you somewhere else and if there is real historical accuracy (I hate history light) you might end up sitting down and asking yourself if that was my life, if all I knew was that they knew, what *would* I have said and done. This brings in the basic human connection of whats programmed in and what is inner core we have to think about.
What I really hate is when historical settings/characters are done for the modern taste to the extent they represent someone's agenda and you lose completely who they were.
Yes, I heard a part of it going home. It was interesting.
Along with the way the first world war evened out the misery and death, and pulled resources from whereever you could, the 20's were the real watershed between the culture of before and now. Women did personal things like ditching the heavy corsets for smaller lighter ones, and sometimes none at all. They also rose as women to demand more of socieity than they got. Not every women marched, but it effected every woman that for the first time, they could vote. They were no longer a genteel version of property.
If this didn't show in a show like Downton Abbey, then it would be missing its mark. Young people who grew up since the war, as well, did not know the world before and would help bury it. I don't see it as preachy, but more dealing with the seed change in western society. Its one of the things which makes this time period interesting.
Regarding the stilted language, that reminds me of old Hollywood movies that were about ancient Greece or Rome or Biblical times and all the actors had English accents. I think even Russell Crowe used an English accent in Gladiator.
Is the new African American character supposed to be a love interest for Rose to create a new scandal?
Yes, exactly. One halmark of period pieces some don't like is they sound 'stilted'. They use old fashion words some haven't a clue what they mean. They aren't emotional and out there. But then in past times respectable people DID speak formally. They used and pounded into their kids to use please and thank you. The taught keeping things to yourself instead of letting it all hang out. Even the 'lower class' tended to be more reserved.
If you did it pure the people today are going to feel disconnected from them The best adaptations of period works allow them to be looser in infromal, private places but preserve the standard elsewhere. I think this is why some find period boring, since the people might as well be from the year 2500 if you can't see beyond what you know.
I wouldn't want to see a Lincoln who talked just like people do today, or had the attitudes and preconceptions of today, over those of his time. You *can* show that someone from another time was equally human but did not think like you, had not grown up like you and would not make the same decisions that would be made today. One of the wonderful things about anything 'period' is it takes you somewhere else and if there is real historical accuracy (I hate history light) you might end up sitting down and asking yourself if that was my life, if all I knew was that they knew, what *would* I have said and done. This brings in the basic human connection of whats programmed in and what is inner core we have to think about.
What I really hate is when historical settings/characters are done for the modern taste to the extent they represent someone's agenda and you lose completely who they were.
That is why I don't like watching a Shakespeare play done in modern dress.
I'm watching Murder on the Orient Express (2010), with David Suchet as Hercule Poirot. I know I've seen it before, but totally forgot about this character:
Edward Masterman, a valet, played by (drumroll please).... Hugh Bonneville! So funny to see him in this role.
And I saw Mr. Carson playing a corrupted police chief in a movie last night.
"Say it ain't so, Joe."
I don't want to see Mr. Carson in any role where he is a bad guy.
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