Tales of Home [6]

Hey! Halloween is very scary- load of freeloading kids wanting to dip my sporran. Bloody terrifying

fireworks on Halloween? Not a bad idea. We only get a big dose of that on independence day, and a much smaller dose on new year's day.

We always get fireworks this time of year.
Its one of those weird Brit things- November 5th is Bonfire Night- when we celebrate killing Catholics by putting a 'guy' on a bonfire and burning it in memory of killing Guy Fawkes for trying to blow up Parliament and make the country catholic (Thats what the opening of V for Vendetta is all about).



Fireworks are a big part of the celebrations so there are a lot of them about in shops this time of year.

We have Bonfire Night, 5th November, when all hell breaks loose. Im surprised only one set of determined like minded gung ho men have had the balls to blow Parliament up ? Wonder how things would have been if Guy Fawkes had succeeded ?

I love that film !

Me too. Off the top of my head the only comic book films I rate as any good are V and Watchmen.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Me too. Off the top of my head the only comic book films I rate as any good are V and Watchmen.

I loved Watchmen (it's also the only graphic novel, other than the hobbit adaption, that I've read) but I hated V for Vendetta (though I watched it five or six years ago), I like a few comic book movies, but they always end up being generic overblown and cheesy, and rather too similar to each other. I guess they are a bigger cultural icon in the North America, as alot of people I know seem to be getting rather bored with them (that isn't stopping Marvel and DC pumping out over 20 between them in the next ten years...)..

I liked "Watchmen", I like loads of different films. I dont just stick to one genre. Tho, the films I dislike the most are "chic flics " Blah !

No Divine Secrets of the Wandering Steel Magnolia Sisterhood for you?

Well then, you may be stuck with Die Hard 9: Fast and Furious Transformers Edition then.

my god, the things you find Eldo

I hated V for Vendetta - Bungo


I'd recommend it for a rewatch

Its an odd one for me V as like LotR's I went into it already a big fan of the source material.
And like LotR's the film is very different from the graphic novel. Arguably it even changes the point of it with regards the main character, who in the comic is an anarchist.
He doesn't just want to bring down the existing society, he wants chaos. He commits acts of terrorism in which people die.
And there are a ton of major character changes to Evey too. In the comic she does not work for the State television station, and she is younger, fifteen I think, and at the start of the novel she is about to go out after curfew for her first night trying to survive by prostituting herself.
And there are a mess of narrative changes too, a notable one immediately being the films climatic building explosion is the first act of terrorism by V in the comic.

Given the similarities between source material and film changes in V and LotR's I could be excused of some hypocrisy in attacking PJ for his changes and for liking V the film, and being able to separate out film from source and appreciate both in the case of V.

My answer to that would be I think V changes the message in a manner designed to give it a broader resonance in a variety of places and cultures across the world (this seems to have been successful judging by the V masks worn by anti-government protestors in a variety of causes across the world) whereas the comic is a critique of the Thatcher government and its principles. And whilst it is very effective at that it is a rather narrower target and very UK centric in much of its reach. Like punk it was not a story for the ages really but reactionary to the times, and best appreciated and understood therefore by those living in those times.
So for a film designed to be seen globally I think altering that aspect to be a global message about totalitarian regimes rather than a parochial one was justified and even a good thing.

PJ on the other hand undermined Tolkien's central premise for the sake of convention.
The hero must be proactive in the outcome, he must be presented with a clear choice, he must choose the right choice. Oh and if a high ledge is present, dangle him off it for added convention. Lava below is a bonus.
PJ didn't widen the message for a broader target (you couldn't anyway as Tolkien picked the most universal theme there is for humans, death and passing), PJ did not try to convey and important new meaning to the original. He just stomped on the original and replaced it with nothing at all, smoke and mirrors.

My other argument would be V is a well constructed, well put together narrative, both in the writing sense and the sense of the narrative of cinema (although I think one thing that throws some people on first watch is that it is not structured like a traditional comic book blockbuster or an action film, though it has elements of both, for an American team its actually very European in its structure and feel, and not just becuase of setting)

LotR's I don't think is well written or structured.
Its not well written by the standard of the source material quality.
It is also poorly structured in many places with PJ's now common last minute changes, rushed ideas, and last second scripting, affecting them for the worse.

So basically my message to all is-

Go watch V for Vendetta its a better film.
And read the comic too as its just as good whilst not the same at all.

And dont watch PJs LotR's as its not a good film.
But read the book because its a billion times better whilst, fortunately, being not the same at all.

My only comment is, I've never seen whilst quite so overused whilst reading a comment.

Good word I shall declare it my word of the day.

Fact is, I've never seen you use while. I may have seen you use during and when.. But as far as whilst goes, we Americans never use the damn thing. Hear it in film and radio accompanied by the appropriate accent, but would be flabbergasted to hear it in person...consider it rather fossilized.

Its in common use here. Crops up a lot in new reporting oddly enough things like "Whilst the police detained the suspect in custody further arrest were made" or "whilst the court was in recess the judge ordered.." ect

Hey I just counted and I think, given how drunk I am I think, that I only use 'whilst' four times. Thats not 'overused', especially as the last one was a deliberate repetition of the previous statement for symmetrical comic effect. Bloody Americans, no appreciation of the language

I remember in... tenth grade I had used the word 'whom' in a text in English class. The teacher said I shouldn't use 'whom' because it was easy to use wrong. I asked if I had used it correctly, and I had. So I used it anyway. Fight the powah! Or smthn I dunno...

See Halfy- even Fjordians know how to do it and they have to learn it!

We learn the British version of the language though.

Or I guess you would say we learn the language.

The campy version of the language, you mean?

{{{Since we were making fun of German in the other thread... }}}

halfwise wrote:Fact is, I've never seen you use while.  I may have seen you use during and when..   

That's because duringst and whenst would sound funny

Actually, it would be poetic, I think. Let's see..

Though I amst no native speaker
of the English Language
I do enjoy its playfulness
Duringst my long years in school
They told us: "Write not whom, but who!"
To whom did they think they were speaking?
I will have my whom and my whenst
and whilst my teacher this may detest
He can but say: you passed the test!
For 'tis right, though perhaps not best.

Poetry, folks.