Best lines so far....

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June 11th, 2014 at 1:46:13 PM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
On the lecture series on Ancient Egypt (names to come), when discussing the last dynasty to rule Egypt:

"...and there were two younger girls, both named Cleopatra. The elder is Cleopatra six, the younger is our Cleopatra -she's Elizabeth Taylor."

BTW having now heard the story of Cleopatra, Caesar, Mark Anthony and Octavian from both the Roman side (in The History of Rome) and from the Egyptian side, I really ought to pray Netflix still stocks the Elizabeth Taylor movie.
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER
June 12th, 2014 at 7:21:45 AM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
The course is The History of Ancient Egypt, by Prof. Bob Brier.

The guy's really interesting. Some years back he took a human cadaver and mummified it in as best a way as he and his team could reconstruct ancient Egyptian emblaming techniques.

They learned a great deal (such as it takes 600 lbs of nitron to make one human mummy). But this modern mummy also serves as a control for the study of other mummies.
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER
June 16th, 2014 at 5:34:26 PM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
Quote: Nareed
BTW having now heard the story of Cleopatra, Caesar, Mark Anthony and Octavian from both the Roman side (in The History of Rome) and from the Egyptian side, I really ought to pray Netflix still stocks the Elizabeth Taylor movie.


The movie was still there. I watched it.

I'm a little disappointed. the movie was 3:45 hours long, which means th Netflix cut is missing about 15 minutes. I'm sure of it, as some scenes I caught when I watched bits and pieces were misssing. In this cut, you never know Anthony and Octavian started out as allies, for example.

Now, lots of historical details got cut out. Anthony's children with Cleopatra, for example. I've no idea if Cleopatra would have had a temple-like tomb (it doesn't seem right, but she was Greek and a Ptolemy). The anme "Augustus" gets thrown around quite freely at the and, when Octaviandid not receive the title from the Senate until well after Cleopatra's death. And there's a point concerning Caesar calling on Mithridates to save his bacon in Egypt that I just can't pin down. Not long before the inevitable crash of the First Triumvirate, Pompei had been sent to deal with Mithridates in Pontus (part of Turkey). It took him a while, too. Of course, there are several kings named Mithridates in Pontus and elsewhere.

It makes for a great sequence, though. Egyptians are attacking the palace, with Caesar and his men inside (and Cleopatra, too, but that hardly matters at this point). He sends out a detachment in a "turtle" formation (the formation is real) to deal with the enemy's artillery (ie catapults), then withdraws back inside and isntructs his officers to wait for dawn, after they insist an attack is in order.

When they ask what happens at dawn, Caesar asnwers "Don't you know? The Sun will come up, of course." And he lies down for a nap in the nearest couch.

BTW I found it highly ironic the actor playing Caesar is named Rex (Rex Harrison).

While the movie overall wasn't really that good (too much dialogue and too much telling the audcience what's going on rather than showing it), there are some amazing visuals I was really glad to see. Among these an overview of Alexandria, the inside of an Egyptian palace, Alexander's tomb (now lost to history, but it was somewhere in Alexandria), the Roman fleets at the battle of Actium, the Roman Forum, a Roman Triumph, Rome's Senate, Cleopatra's bath (amazing!), and of course Cleopatra's wardrobe.

The dialogue has its points, too, though sometimes Elzabeth Taylor carries on as though on the stage of a Greek tragedy. The way she lets Anthony know how much of a blunder he made by amrrying Octavian's sister is both long, detailed and cruel. At that point I began to wonder if she's mad at him for the bad political decision or for marrying another woman. Conveniently Anthony asks the question. The answer is "both."

I'll probably see it again in a few weeks.
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER
June 18th, 2014 at 7:29:57 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
Quote: Nareed
I'm a little disappointed


You know the movie was a flop. Everybody was disappointed. Haven't ever seen the whole thing, but I always got the idea that they thought the costumes would carry the whole movie ... the old it's a "costume drama" critique
I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]
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