John G. wrote about recent films: > > At a tangent, I just watched Slumdog Millionaire and Frost/Nixon. Both > depict events/mileux with "10 - 12%"* fiction thrown in. That's all > very well, but, short of subtitles indicating the 10 - 12%, for me > this undermines a considerable chunk of the value of the movie. (It's > not even as if the fictitious drunken phone call Nixon made in the > film added a great deal to his portrayal.) > > > *Quote from the real David frost. >
I have not seen either film yet, but did see an extended interview with Frost, in which he indicated that the stage play on which that film is based involved rearrangement of events to build dramatic tension, and Frost felt this was an acceptable liberty to take for that purpose. We have had some exchanges here before about historical films. I remember posting a note about Malick's "The New World" and why I enjoyed it. I neglected to mention that the love affair depicted between John Smith and Pocahontas, so central to the film's plot, is questionable at best, as she was only about 12 to 14 years old when Smith was captured. That either makes Smith the first British pedophile in North America, or the love affair has to be discarded as yet another case of creative liberty run amok. But what else is new? The Disney Pocahontas is like a Greenpeace volunteer, 400 years before her time. I am not sure how an interactive capability would even begin to cope with such things as this. But let's return to North Korea. Alan apparently has taken it upon himself to tutor us about that country. OK, I am game. Let's start with recent relations between the Koreas, and Kim Dae Jung's "Sunshine Policy" in particular. What does Alan think of the specifics of that policy? Surely he must be aware of it, and know about the positive atmosphere and framework agreement that resulted in the late 1990s. And Alan must surely be aware that Bill Clinton was about to fly to Pyongyang in December 2000 for an historic trip of reconciliation, but canceled that trip at the last moment when the Bush transition team informed Clinton that it would refuse to abide by the agreements that were to be signed between the US and the DPRK. And Alan must also be aware that Bush's meeting with Kim Dae Jung in early 2001 was an absolute disaster (I won't describe it here, but it was one of Bush's worst moments, and a total disgrace for the US), and that US-ROK relations suffered for the better part of the last 8 years as a result. But I am most interested in what Alan might find objectionable about the "Sunshine Policy", which held real promise as a breakthrough that would finally ratchet down tensions on the Korean Peninsula and pave the way for a long-term solution and eventual Korean unification. We are waiting, Alan. John M. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Persons posting messages to not_honyaku assume all responsibility for their messages. The list owner does not review messages prior to posting, and accepts no responsibility for the content of messages posted. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
