Boudica Movie

[Ghostmojo]

I have to say that the only people who could do the Boudicca film justice are the English. As an American, our movies tend to settle into 90-110 minutes of CGI garbage, balls of fire, no script, and heaps of hooey.

The average American has little or no decent knowledge of history (our culture is based on the "Express" microwave drive-thru mindset)so a rich character like Boudicca would go over most people's heads.

That's big of you to say that - and in some instances I would agree with you. My own gripe would be aimed specifically at Hollywood rather than the average American. I think the propogation of history in American society (based on my own experience of living there for a while) is quite insular and parochial. This is not altogether surprising. The business of nation-building has tended towards introspection and inclusiveness rather than accurate depictions of history around the world. There was a time when even Hollywood did actual look far and wide for its source material, but since the days of what I would call the US Neo-Imperialist World View (post Reagan/Bush/PNAC etc.), the focus has tended to be upon American-only subjects. Hence the spate of WW2 films where nobody but GIs ever rushes up a Normandy beach or battles fanatical Nazis.

More alarming has been the recent tendency to rewrite history into the Americanis(z)ed mould. That is a worrying process because it clouds real history with modern myth-making. When the average Los Angeleno kid surveyed in recent times thought WW2 was sometime in the 1950s we should start to be concerned. When Hollywood promotes 'history' as commercial product where there are no rules at all - then we should be really worried.

There is a long list of pseudo history in recent years that mixes fact with fantasy and only the student of real history can actually see the distortions. Films like Memphis Belle; U-571; The Patriot; and others, have all suffered fromn this to a greater or lesser extent. The proposed new version of The Colditz Story chronicling the great American escapes from Oflag 4C is really just taking the piss! :evil:

However, having said that, I enjoy some of the America Civil War epics and that is a subject that surely only the US can do real justice to? It is also a case in point (and a reassuring one too) that some of the most expressive and well-informed commentators on this site hail from across the Atlantic.

So there is hope after all! Don't be too hard on yourselves! :lol: