03-24-2008, 08:24 AM
Call me a whining little so-and-so, but my biggest gripe is, with the scadzillions spent on spectacle films (and, if luck is with the producers megascadzillions raked back in) the least they could do is get the costumes right.
I mean I don't care if Julius Caesar recovers from his wounds, fathers Octavian by Cleopatra and rules happily from Capri till Nero takes over - just please let his soldiers wear Montefortino helmets (not HBO ones) mail shirts (not studded leather cuirasses, however butch) oval curved scutums (not red-painted toilet doors dripping with more "bronzework" than even Victor Mature could credibly have lifted.)
The thing is, every film has to have a "look" (e.g. the comic-book hard-edgeness of Gladiator and 300). Hence, we get really gritty legionary helmets from the English Civil war, a battle scene shot by the same guys I'm sure who shot the landing scenes from Saving Private Ryan with wistful music to boot. Don't even get me started on the frisbee hoplite shields and Immortal katanas.
And, as long as there are Oscars for Costume design, no Art Director is going to be content with drag copied from the pages of history.
And, and, and...
Oh, mutter, mumble, whimper, gibber,....
I mean I don't care if Julius Caesar recovers from his wounds, fathers Octavian by Cleopatra and rules happily from Capri till Nero takes over - just please let his soldiers wear Montefortino helmets (not HBO ones) mail shirts (not studded leather cuirasses, however butch) oval curved scutums (not red-painted toilet doors dripping with more "bronzework" than even Victor Mature could credibly have lifted.)
The thing is, every film has to have a "look" (e.g. the comic-book hard-edgeness of Gladiator and 300). Hence, we get really gritty legionary helmets from the English Civil war, a battle scene shot by the same guys I'm sure who shot the landing scenes from Saving Private Ryan with wistful music to boot. Don't even get me started on the frisbee hoplite shields and Immortal katanas.
And, as long as there are Oscars for Costume design, no Art Director is going to be content with drag copied from the pages of history.
And, and, and...
Oh, mutter, mumble, whimper, gibber,....
Spurius Papirius Cursor (Howard Russell)
"Life is still worthwhile if you just smile."
(Turner, Parsons, Chaplin)
"Life is still worthwhile if you just smile."
(Turner, Parsons, Chaplin)
