Seen any good films lately? [2]

Nebraska is good. If you like small stories and quirky small town personalities you'll probably get a kick out of it. It's up for six Oscars this weekend, probably won't win any, but they definitely deserve them.

ok. so i saw that lego movie yesterday, even though it was dubbed it was awesome. i don't think i have laughed so much in like years it was me and the quartet, and like.. we were the oldest there if u look past a mom... also i think we were like ten people in the teathre, mostly kids..

Just watched Hitchcocks last English film 1938 'The Lady Vanishes' absolutely glorious stuff, cant believe I have never seen it before, its packed full of wonderful characters, it was a real feel good film.  

I like it when people get passionate with films, inspires me to watch

Yeah good film.
Both interesting and a shame he never came back to make another UK based film again. I wonder why.

Cause he ditched the zero and got with a hero.

It gives me a funny feeling to watch that film though, considering in a couple of years the 2WW started. Its definately a mirror of the times it was made and quite fascinating how it deals with the Englishman abroad. Its quite zenophobic but speaks volumes about how much confidence the English used to have in themselves, something that for half a century we seem to have had to hide and feel ashamed of, as if being English was something we had to apologize for, the Empire the colonies, the fact that a hundered years ago we did what we did to India and Africa, its funny how much guilt an English person feels about things that happened a century ago, Ireland included. Its funny that its bad form to make Germans and Italians feel guilty about the war, but the English are fair game when it comes to being told we were Imperialists, but I think our battered self confidence got a boost during the Olympics, it was no longer shameful and bragging to fly the flag, it was good to be proud of being English again and we didnt need to hide our pride of being English for 5 minutes.

they are running this film again at my local cinema as it won the Oscar. its Beyond stunning. its probably going to be one of my favourite films ever. my god it IS beautiful.      heartbreaking, mad, its like watching the Fall of Rome 21st century style.

That does look visually sumptuous.
Is the main character meant to have gone to Rome from Scotland? (the opening song is an old Scottish one about being far from the Highlands)

"it was no longer shameful and bragging to fly the flag, it was good to be proud of being English again and we didnt need to hide our pride of being English for 5 minutes."- Mrs Figg

This is why I think independence is good for both countries, if England embraced its own culture and heritage and refound itself again. Ironically we could be excitedly going on this journey together instead of fighting against it.

3 review dudes talk thoughtfully about the film.

Has anyone seen Argo? I got the DVD cheap a while back but haven't got around to watching it.

I liked The Town and Gone Baby Gone alot, though I'm less sold on Ben Affleck as an Actor...

Pettytyrant101 wrote:That does look visually sumptuous.
Is the main character meant to have gone to Rome from Scotland? (the opening song is an old Scottish one about being far from the Highlands)
 

eh?? he's Italian from Rome.   

Well all his opening line in the trailer says is 'I came to Rome at age 26'- and it doesn't say where from, and its said over a Scottish song lamenting being far from home.
So I just wondered if that choice was because he had come to Rome from Scotland or if it was just meant to denote the general sense of being far from home.   

Pettytyrant101 wrote:"This is why I think independence is good for both countries, if England embraced its own culture and heritage and refound itself again. Ironically we could be excitedly going on this journey together instead of fighting against it.  

its not about any lack of embracing our culture and Heritage. we dont have any problems with that. its more about not taking on board 100 year old guilt anymore. if we can let that go, and if we can stand up instead of cringing when someone accuses us of being Imperialist Usurpers, slave traders, colonialist dictators etc etc, and have the courage to say fuck off thats in the past, judge us how we are NOW. then England will get its mojo back. Scottish Independence will not make one iota of difference to the average English person.

I think it will. I think it will help England rediscover itself, a fresh start. I think it will help overcome that sense of guilt. I think it will make England look for inspirations to its greatest achievements and be able to accept them even if they happened amidst disagreeable attitudes and practices.

I dont think so, we just need to stop with allowing people to give us the guilt trip shit. we dont need to rediscover ourselves, we have a deep and abiding sense of self, of history and culture, we have just been hammered for far too long by ex-victims with one or two axes to grind. The Ozzies seem to have got over things just fine. considering. I like their tough no nonsense attitude towards the past, mind you they were the English 100 years ago so maybe thats why we get on ok now, (apart from the sporting rivalry) they seem to be closer to us than the Scottish, which is weird when you think about it.

I don't know if Australia is the best example of a country that has successfully moved on from its history of oppression since there are still a lot of issues facing the aboriginal community, considering the Stolen Generation phenomenon only ended in the 1970s and they still face discrimination from both the public and the government on a regular basis. (To be clear, this is not to single Australia out -- plenty of other countries including the US have unresolved histories with racism and/or imperialism -- and it's not directed at any individual Australians either.)

Yeah, there are Native Americans still alive who were taken out of their homes as children and shipped off the institutional schools where their language and culture were beaten out of them.  Petty's story reminded me a lot of those stories.

These things happened, as did the Japanese-American internment camps during WWII. I've met people who had their whole farms taken from them and were locked up like prisoners of war just because of their last name.  They were allowed to go home after the war, only to find their farms and homes had been sold, and they had nothing left.

These are all part of our mutual history as Americans. I agree with Mrs Figg and Petty that there's nothing to be gained by pointing fingers and placing blame, but on the other hand they're never going to heal if we don't at least acknowledge that they happened, and that they SHOULDN'T have happened.  

You can only sweep so much dog poo under the carpet before people start to notice the smell. 

I understand what you are saying, never forget the past, otherwise we dont learn anything and make the same mistakes. What I am talking about are constant references to past oppression, an unhealthy harking back and that can lead to a sense of grievance and victimhood, a blaming of other people for whats going wrong now rather than letting it go. Terrible things happened to everyone at some stage in the near and distant past, we were all under someones boot at one time or another, whether it was Imperial Rome or Stalin. Obviously if some group is seriously oppressed now, then that is another matter entirely,and should go without saying thats terrible,  but I wasnt referring to that side of things. I just dont think modern people should be held responsible for things their ancestors did.

Obviously if some group is seriously oppressed now, then that is another matter entirely,and should go without saying thats terrible- Mrs Figg


How serious does it have to be? How do you define serious when talking about things a culture might hold important?
I dont hold the english people of today responsible for outlawing the language back then, but I do blame Westminster for letting it continue to die off during my lifetime.
It only changed when we won devolution, before that it was not taught in any schools, it was frowned on, and considered a near dead language of no use.
That happened in large part because Westminster would not fund the teaching of it, the BBC would not fund programming in it the press (then all based out in Fleet St, London) did not print in it, they just saw no value in it.

Or to give a more recent example, when the current coalition came to power the first thing Chancellor Osbourne did was raid North Sea oil, swooping in and taking a massive one off tax for the good of the UK economy (they had a hole to plug)- but it was to the cost of the Scottish economy- research and development (which employs a lot) expansion of new fields all got cancelled, the markets got nervous as now they didnt know how much they might have to pay the government in the future or if again after they had paid their taxes they would get hit with another 'one off' tax raid.
It was reckless from a Scottish perspective and cost us jobs and revenue- but it was good for the Treasury and the South of England.

This is clearly not the Highland Clearances, or the banning of culture, its more subtle than that and I dont even think West minister does it deliberately, it just seems like no regard or consideration is given to Scotland and we are ignored save in those areas where we are 'useful' from a Westminster perspective.

I have a 'before' and 'after' perspective- I've lived almost exactly half my life in a country which was ruled from Westminster, and half my life where power has been split between the Scottish Parliament and Westminster- and the difference is tangible.
Culture is celebrated where before is was being quietly suppressed or seen as a national embarrassment.
I prefer the new attitude to the old.

thing is Westminster is not responsible for letting the Language die off during your lifetime, the Scottish people are. Its not banned anymore and in these politically correct ethnic hugging days where you get a job if you are a black Lesbian with one leg, theres more help for ethnic stuff than ever before, theres nothing to stop you all saving your Language yourselves. Its daft to blame Westminster, the Welsh have fought hard to keep their Language alive, there are huge poetic festivals and everyone speaks it and its alive in all walks of life, the people themselves have taken charge of its destiny, to say to a Welsh person that Westminster was trying to slowly kill their Language would be met by ridicule and laughter.

The situation in Wales is quite different, the language there never got close to becoming extinct, the BBC for decades have had Welsh language programming, newspaper an books were printed in Welsh, its spoken in schools.
Because of Scotland's geography and the language only hanging on at the extremes, there was no funding of it in any of these areas, funding controlled by Westminster, as they could not see the benefit in doing so.
That the appetite was there, and the desire to keep it alive among the Scottish people has been proved by how much it has grown since devolution.
One of the first, unpredicted, consequences of devolved power was to save our cultural past from extinction.
And the difference was that before we were ruled by Westminster, and after we were ruling ourselves.

Oh, and we also have our festivals- the MOD probably being the largest yearly one-



From when it was in my home town a few years ago-

malickfan wrote:Has anyone seen Argo? I got the DVD cheap a while back but haven't got around to watching it.

I liked The Town and Gone Baby Gone alot, though I'm less sold on Ben Affleck as an Actor...

I bought it for my parents awhile back. I haven't seen it yet, but they seemed to enjoy it, and that's saying a lot because they never watch movies.

Scotland has one of the best funded and generously endowed educational systems in the UK if not the best. Is that Westminsters doing? or is it the Scottish government? to say that there is no funding for languages is ludicrous, while I was searching for courses and funding for my studies i was blown away by the sheer magnitude of help Scottish citizens get for education, they have grants coming out their arses its so generous.
If Gaelic in Scotland is dying its because people cant be arsed Learning it, not because of geography. I am half Welsh nearly my whole family live in North Wales and non speak Welsh because they cant be bothered and it doesnt seem relevant, but if they picked up a book and made the effort, like I should, there are many little adult education classes dotted around. there is no excuse, if its important enough you make it happen.

But thats my point- thats precisely whats happened since devolution, now kids can speak it, parents are given dictionaries and help sheets on the language so they can help their children with homework.
Scotland has an excellent education system, something we are proud of, and we have always controlled large areas of it, but not crucially the funding, to fund Gaelic would mean taking money for other lessons, training teachers, providing coursework- and all the politicians were answerable to Westminster as there was no Scottish Parliament. So they baulked at doing it.
Since devolution the language has had a resurgence, we even finally got a dedicated channel to the language, BBC Alba.
But none of it happened until post devolution. The two things are clearly connected.