Quote from Rice

This is one we will definitely want to see. Or perhaps I should say need to see. The topics of slavery, the Civil War (still referred to by some Southerners as the War of Northern Aggression, if that tells you something), the period of Reconstruction, and the still-smouldering racial resentments and biases in the US are all a part of our troubled and troubling history.

I'm currently watching 12 Years A Slave and it's just as hard to watch at times.

Also on Netflix by the way...

Finally saw Wag The Dog, a delicious political satire with Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffman.

It may be a satire, but in this day and age anything is possible.

This very British film is also worth a watch. Not satire as such, but very clever.

Watched a couple of good films recently.

Concussion, with Will Smith where he plays a Nigerian doctor who discovers a link between concussion in NFL players over a long period leading to mental illness. Will Smith played the part perfectly and it was bitter sweet at times.

Murder In The First (1995) with Kevin Bacon playing a prisoner on Alcatraz in 1938 who was savagely treated as a punishment for trying to escape and locked in a dungeon for three years. The later court case is gripping and the ending quite takes your breath away for man's inhumanity to his fellow man.

Quote from Rice

We can’t get A Very British Coup on Netflix where we are right now. But want to see it when we get back to Argentina. Sounds really good.

I don't think it will be on Netflix. I acquired it by other means.

Watched Selma last night and not being American, this was even more education for me about segregation in the US during the 60s and especially Martin Luther King Jr's relationship with President Johnson (LBJ).

Superbly acted, maybe a little too much Hollywood gloss, yet it focuses on a pivotal event for the rights of black Americans struggling to exercise their legal rights to vote, in the face of vicious intimidation from everyone concerned, not least George Wallace, J Edgar Hoover and Sheriff Clark.

It's the kind of film you have to stick with, because at times it's very slow moving, yet examines each personality very closely.

Selma is a town in Alabama, by the way.

My first time watching Billy Elliot (where have I been??) which is a gem of a film in so many ways.

Do not open this spoiler...

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was captivating, not least for Francis Mc Dormand's performance as a mother seeking justice for the rape and murder of her daughter.

We've just finished Wanderlust, a British series about a couple who find that their sex life isn't what it used to be and about how they inadvertently find a way to spice it up.

But more than that, it explores how they arrived at that point and how it affects the lives of friends and family, not least their three children.

The series comes over as black comedy at first and the acting is first class in what could have been a titillating sex romp, but that side is handled with a lighter touch.

She is a therapist and he's a teacher in an ordinary town in Hertfordshire just north of London and what i liked about the short series is that it wasn't pretentious and could take place in almost any small town anywhere.

I'd give this five stars, easily.

Just finished The King, a modern interpretation of parts of Shakespeare's Henry IV and Henry V, seemingly targeted at millennials.

It's common knowledge that much of Shakespeare's Henry V is based on hearsay, yet his pre-battle speeches at Harfleur ('Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.') and Agincourt ('We band of brothers') have become the stuff of legend and remain the most stirring battle speeches of our time.

The King portrays Henry (Hal) as a pacifist and reluctant leader, a fop to Catherine of Valois and I found Timothee Chalomet's (an American) performance as Hal to be too 21st century and not in the slightest bit convincing. In fact, he seemed reluctant to carry out any of the deeds that the real Henry V actually carried out.

The battle scenes were very realistic and the cinematography was superb, but...

This is yet another nod to the PC millennials, diluting and revising both Shakespeare and history into easily digestible snack bites for the sensitive.

Here's Henry V's speech at Harfleur, as written by Shakespeare:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let pry through the portage of the head

Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it

As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,

Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,

Have in these parts from morn till even fought

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.

Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here

The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;

For there is none of you so mean and base,

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

Here's his speech at Agincourt:

What’s he that wishes so?

My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:

If we are mark’d to die, we are enow

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer men, the greater share of honour.

God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.

By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,

Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;

It yearns me not if men my garments wear;

Such outward things dwell not in my desires:

But if it be a sin to covet honour,

I am the most offending soul alive.

No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:

God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour

As one man more, methinks, would share from me

For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!

Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,

That he which hath no stomach to this fight,

Let him depart; his passport shall be made

And crowns for convoy put into his purse:

We would not die in that man’s company

That fears his fellowship to die with us.

This day is called the feast of Crispian:

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.

And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’

Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,

But he’ll remember with advantages

What feats he did that day: then shall our names.

Familiar in his mouth as household words

Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,

Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember’d;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

The shorter, condensed version from The King:

You expect of me a speech?

I have only one to give.

It is the same one I’d give were we not standing on the brim of a battlefield.

It is the same one I’d give were we to meet in the street by chance.

I have only ever hoped for one thing: to see this kingdom united under this English crown.

All men are born to die. We know it. We carry it with us always. If your day be today, so be it. Mine will be tomorrow.

Or mine today and yours tomorrow. It matters not.

What matters is that you know in your hearts that today you are that kingdom united.

You are England, each and every one of you. England is you. And it is the space between you.

Fight not for yourselves. Fight for that space. Fill that space. Make it tissue. Make it mass. Make it impenetrable. Make it yours! Make it England! Make it England! Great men to it, captains, lords. Great men to it!