What are you watching & why? (splain)

Ok, I finished just finished watching "13 Lives" (twice) and will probably have to "watch" it again . . .

Thirteen_Lives_(2022)_Hindi_Dubbed_Movie.jpg


because 1/2 of the movie is spoken in Thai (subtitled) and about 1/4 of the movie is silent (as in there's no dialog, only "action" sequences) that you have to watch to understand what's going on. The other 1/4 is in English, only because it involves the English speaking actors in the movie.

Fact is, when I say that I've "watched" a movie or show on TV, most of the time I'm on my computer while it's on the TV and I'm mostly just "listening" to it.

This works for most movies/shows but not this one, which is why I'm going to have to "watch" it again on my BIG SCREEN and actually look at it while I "watch" it. LOL! 🤣

But I think I got the gist of it. So, this is my take on it.

It appears to me that Ron Howard (the director) tried to make the film as accurate as a documentary in terms of the details of the rescue. So, it's very interesting (at least it was to me) from this POV but it's more a documovie -- a re-creation of the rescue -- than a movie per se. So, there's very little original "acting" in it.

Howard does a very good job at explaining the political and operational complexities of the rescue and how difficult it was to accomplish. The impossible diving conditions -- the distance/dive time, heavy currents, poor visibility, very narrow passages -- as well as the circus of people waiting for news of the rescue outside -- the politicians, military, law enforcement, priests, parents & other family members, lookie-loos, new media, divers, support staff - - food, medical, etc -- and on and on.

Don't know if it's true or not but British divers who finally led the rescue (because of their cave diving experience) were ready to give up the 12 kids and the coach for dead (since they were so deep in the cave) but managed to come up with a radical way to extract them safely, which Howard focused on at the end obviously for dramatic effect.

If you'd like to verify the factual accuracy of the movie, here's a journalist's of the rescue which the movie follows almost to a "T":

The Full Story Of Thailand's Extraordinary Cave Rescue

Vigo Mortensen and Colin Farrell carry the picture for this American viewer but there is also a lot of Thai cultural stuff going which for the most part I didn't get but the movie was still interesting and entertaining to me nonethess less.

Update 08/08/2022:

Watched the entire movie again last night on my "big screen" and it really is BETTER if you watch the whole thing from beginning to end. Saw a lot of things that were subtitled and noticed more the in the dialog-less action scenes that I missed before. ;)
 
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Just finished watching James May:Our Man in Italy, last night. Fun show if you’re a fan of Jame’s May’s pedantic delivery. A little ridiculous, in the same vein as BBC TopGear.

We watched Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes a few weeks ago. My wife actually enjoyed that one too. Food tourism with a bit of history. Emphasis on traditional regional cuisines. Really fun show. Strongly recommend.

Started watching Tea With Mussolini, this morning while I work. 1999. Judi Dench and Cher star. Not finished yet but good so far.
 
The Amazing Virginian said:
As mentioned earlier, been watching mostly documentaries for the past few months. NatGeo. Smithsonian, PBS, Great Courses, etc. History/biography/war, science, art, religion etc. The kind of stuff that would have made Newton Minnow proud.

Most recent was "Hemingway." Why? All the experts say he was a great writer, maybe the most "important" American writer of the 20th century. I've never understood it. Same with James Joyce. I've tried and tried, but I cannot ever make it straight through "Ulysses." Hemingway and Joyce both seem self-indulgent to me. Like a lot of "modern" writers (e.g., Salinger and Vonnegut), and some "modern" film makers (e.g., Kubrick and Malick). Maybe you had to be there? Or maybe I'm just not bright enough to see the genius. Anyway, I hoped that maybe this documentary would enlighten me. It didn't.

Still, I liked "Hemingway" the documentary better than I've ever liked Hemingway the writer. It's a Ken Burns / PBS joint, in three two-hour parts, so if you've seen his other documentaries then you know what to expect. I've enjoyed most (not all) of his documentaries, and really only hated a couple (I'm looking at you, "Baseball"). This one is pretty standard for his work . . . overall I'd give it a 7/10. I think it gave a good sense of who Hemingway was, what he believed, and how he lived his life. And Lord knows it's chock-a-block full of other "eminent" writers and literary critics effusively discussing his writing. However the genius still eludes me.

I'll come back later and list all these documentaries I've been watching and give them each a simple 0-10 rating, but it's way too much to give a real meaningful review of them all.
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I've watched almost all of the documentaries that Ken Burns has ever produced. At least 24 out of the 33 films shown on this list on Ken Burns' website:

Ken Burns - The Films

While some weren't as "interesting" as others to me, I'd give each of them a "10" in terms of their educational value and can't say that I "hated" any of them. I own a copy of "Baseball" (all 9 parts plus "The 10th inning"), "Jazz" (10 parts) and "The Vietnam War" (4 parts) and, since I actually bought/paid for them, I'd rate them each a 10 overall. :)

I saw Burns' films on Muhammad Ali and Hemmingway on PBS and liked them both and I'd give Ali a 10 and Hemmingway an 8. I can't really equate the documentary about Hemmingway with his books. I had no problem watching the film and/or reading various of his books in their entirety. Never tried to read Ulysses and never will. LOL! ;)

I was holding out buying a copy of Burns' 4 part film on Ali, because PBS was intially asking $79 for it but prices have since dropped to $29 on Amazon. So, there's no excuse not to buy it now.
 
sgt1372 said:
I saw Burns' films on Muhammad Ali and Hemmingway on PBS and liked them both and I'd give Ali a 10 and Hemmingway an 8. I can't really equate the documentary about Hemmingway with his books. I had no problem watching the film and/or reading various of his books in their entirety. Never tried to read Ulysses and never will. LOL! ;)
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Only "Ulysses" was by James Joyce...so I don't quite follow the non-sequitur. Oh, I guess I do, if you're referring to its length. (It's great, by the way.) I've also read quite a bit of Hemingway.

Here's a non-sequitur...

...Back in 1975 or 1976 when I was a young pup, I worked at the old Abercrombie & Fitch on Madison Avenue in NYC as a salesman in the "Backpacking & Mountaineering" department on the 8th floor.

One of my customers was Mary Hemingway, Ernest's widow, to whom I sold a one of a kind, hand made, copper tacked, lapstrake cedar Adirondack canoe which was absolutely magnificent and cost a small fortune at the time. She purchased it and had me ship it to Mariel and Margaux Hemingway in Ketchum, ID.

She paid me a great compliment when she told me "Papa would have liked you". I was beaming for days.

Met quite a few celebrities on that job including Jackie Onassis, Roy Scheider, Jack Nicklaus, Lillian Hellman, etc etc. It was an interesting time.
 
Couple on Hulu this week:

Prey - great movie. Beautiful scenery, kickass action

Reservation Dogs - heard this series got good reviews, synopsis didn’t really appeal to me. Tried it out anyway and really like it. Kind of like a chilled out Letterkenny and Native instead of Canadian.
 
Just watched "Black Phone" on Peakcock.

iu


It's one of those psycho-dramas that Ethan Hawk seems to enjoy acting in. It wasn't entertaining enough for me to actually focus my attention on it while it was running on my TV, except at the end, which went as I predicted.

Only the details of HOW it would end drew my full attention which for me as a cross between "Silence of the Lambs" and "Kiss the Girls." If/when you see the film, you'll know what I mean.
 
Mr Inbetween https://g.co/kgs/fyw82Y

I was seeing shorts on YouTube and thought to check it out. Glad I did. 3 seasons. Australian performers. About a hit man. Dark, evil, but my type of humor. I do recommend.

30 minute episodes. Scott Ryan plays as Ray Shoesmith and is phenomenal, in my opinion. Not saying it's compelling, believable, or otherwise. I will only say that I enjoyed it.
 
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Just binge watched Season 1 of "The Undeclared War" on Peacock, which was just released a couple of days ago. It's only 6 episodes long.

iu


It's about political cyberhacking/warfare, the manipulation of social media and fabricated "news."

Won't go into the political ins & outs here -- which is verboten -- but, while the show is based in England, it raises issues particularly germaine to recent history in the USA. The lead actress is kinda annoying but there was enough uncertainity and suspense to still make the show interesting to me.

The ending of Episode 6 is provides a sufficient conclusion but is still ambiguous enough to set up a 2nd Season, which I'll watch if there is one.
 
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