MovieChat Forums > mobocracy
avatar

mobocracy (846)


Posts


A more ideal casting No escape pods or shuttle? How did they maintain order among the passengers and crew? Why do films like this lean towards supernatural and nonsensical events? Is just me, or did Julia Roberts look artificially aged? I just watched "Black and Blue" and I got Trainspotting vibes Needs to pick up the pace Why isn’t he bigger? Production design really harms this show Not believable enough for noir, not surreal enough for an indie View all posts >


Replies


Tilda Swinton is her sort of peer in this regard. Tall and lean in a way that gives them both a lot of dramatic ability to become “ordinary” people. The first episode was a little slow, but it seemed to tighten up the pacing after that. I hope there's something in the next season which serves the moderate the potential power of the aliens. I liked this more than a lot of shows, but it's a bit nagging with this multidimensional quantum computer thingy. They could just use it to wipe ourselves out and then just show up to depopulated planet generally healed from whatever Armageddon we got ourselves into, mooting all the spy-vs-spy secret agenda they've been using since. The last bit you mention, the apparent technological prowess of the civilization -- building some kind of multidimensional quantum computer, a fleet of generation ships, advanced AI, etc -- suggests there were a bunch of other possible alternatives for their civilization besides fleeing to Earth. Which IMHO is part of the larger problem with interstellar aliens as a concept -- if they can conquer interstellar space travel spanning light years, what the heck is Earth to them anyway other than *maybe* a 7-11 stop for material resources they might find harder to grab elsewhere, and only this maybe if turns out that transmutation of elements even with limitless power sources isn't viable and the distribution of elements is wildly uneven on a galactic scale. And if they possessed the power to basically achieve omniscience over Earth with their quantum multidimensional computer, aren't there 1001 ways they can fuck with Earth civilizations to ruin any chance of resistance? Only making scientists crazy and sabotaging their research seems like unnecessary stealth and complexity. Haven't read the novel(s), but I feel like they somehow need Earth and its people for something and just letting us annihilate ourselves and letting Earth heal for 400 years isn't sufficient. A bit harsh. Plus, for most non-Japanese viewers the cultural differences can mask a lot of things. Fanny is pretty high on her moral high horse. It's probably something of a necessary indulgence to sell the idea that Fanny, who had few good financial options of her own, would reject a marriage into wealth. That your husband would cheat on you was more or less a given, but if it came with a sumptuous lifestyle which would mostly let you pursue your own interests and love affairs after a period of time and maybe an heir or two, it wasn't really up for much debate. If it wasn't for her relentless moralizing, it would have had to have been another man or an affair with Mary and a lesbian identity which was her motivating elements. I think that the film industry generally feels it needs to show period settings as "old" to help sell the time and place to audiences, even when the places they show were relatively new by in the era where they're set. There's probably also the issue with trying to deal with real-world historic settings which aren't practical to make "new looking" for historical accuracy. The outside of Kirby Hall is just plain old and they don't have the budget to make the exterior look only 50 years old. The Bertram family fortune seemed to have its origin in the plantations of Antigua, which probably means that they made their fortune and built Mansfield park within the last 50 years of the film's period era. So it not only wasn't that old, they would have had the money to keep it up. The forces working against this, though, were just the realities of what level of "decay" people of the era were willing to accept as normal, even among the upper classes. It's not like a can of paint for touching up the walls was down at the home store, nor did they have modern cleaning products, either, so I think things were a bit dingier than we'd expect today. It could also be that Mansfield was one of those country estates which had been bought as a partial ruin by the newly rich Bertram family, who then embarked on building a new wing to live in with the idea they'd refurbish what was still standing and integrate it later. Then there's also the idea that in an era of candles and lamps that some wing caught fire and just hadn't been rebuilt yet. I think this is the right answer. In addition to the kind of soft-focus "lesbianism" surfacing as a result of gender segregation and sublimated same-sex sexuality, there were actual lesbians as well. Given that marriage in the upper classes was still significantly about semi-arranged marriages focused on dynastic and financial advantage and not romantic love, even a lot of heterosexual marriages were about producing an heir and a spare and not much more. So its likely that upper class closeted lesbians would have been more present in society because escaping marriage wasn't really an option socially or financially. So you probably had both "frustrated" single women with no/limited sexual outlets and women who were lesbians circulating in the same circles operating in a highly gender-segregated world. It wouldn't surprise me at all if that resulted in a certain amount of sexual intimacy, in addition to there probably being secretive and covert networks among actual upper class lesbians, too. I haven't read the books, but the relationship between Mary and Fanny seems not unlikely to have been one where same-sex relations of some kind would have resulted. A true upper class woman like Mary who was possibly a lesbian would find a woman like Fanny, who lived in but was not of the upper classes and thus had fewer options for both marriage and sexual outlets, an ideal potential lover. You could also argue that Mary's willingness to marry the second-in-line heir who wanted to become a clergyman wasn't just a conniving path to the inheritance, but a desirable least-worst path for a woman who preferred the company of women since it would likely be less sexually demanding because Edward was something of a weaker personality overall. It was also normal for higher class women to have less fortunate women of higher class as essentially paid companions. Such a situation being taken advantage of as a covert means of carrying on same sex relations by seems likely. I think it’s long lack of availability on home video or streaming has amplified its image, especially since it’s a pretty dark role for Diane Keaton who was better known for her association with Woody Allen. It kind of becomes one of those cult 1970s films that’s supposed to be better than it is. It’s not a terrible film, but its more about its novelty and era than serious quality. Hard to know what the origin story of a tribe like this is. They probably had a history of hunting/ranging over a wide territory to raid for cannibalism. Not enough people just passing through close by for easy ambush. I also don’t see this as really long term phenomenon. Non-cannibalistic tribes were more numerous and certainly would have wiped them out. Any kind of contact with settlers would have led to them being exterminated by organized settlers or the army. He was a civil war veteran and apparently a surgeon then too. Experienced and with a useful skill, although his erratic personality and sensitivity to stories of massacre made it seem like he maybe had some PTSD from the war. He’s at least fit and capable of firing a weapon and the sheriff didn’t have much time to raise a Posse or a broad selection of people to choose from. View all replies >