Almost 1,000 years after King Harold took an arrow in the eye, one of the most dramatic turning points in English history is finally to receive the cinema treatment.
Three feature films, with big-name backers and creative teams, are preparing to refight the battle of Hastings. They all plan to show the clash between Harold and William as the falling out of two comrades, using the trusted cinema combination of violence and contrasting love lives.
Other key battles in English history -- such as Agincourt, Waterloo, Trafalgar, the Spanish Armada and countless fights from the two world wars -- have been filmed, but Hastings has been ignored.
"It has everything -- a big-scale event, a turning point in European history and great human stories," said Tom Holland, the historian and author of Millennium. At the core of all three films will be the friendship of two "buddies" in which Harold goes to help William, Duke of Normandy, in battles against the Bretons before they fall out and come to blows at Hastings shortly afterwards.
The English king was killed just months after coming to the throne, opening the way to the Norman conquest.
#1
I can see Spike Lee bitching about the lack of blacks in the movie
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2008 11:16 Comments ||
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#2
It'll be the usual mess. The whole encompassing event that extends from before Edward's death, the Norse invasion of of Harold Hardrada [who's own story reads like a real life Conan] with the pretender Tostig [who's family power Edward broke in England iirc] defeated at Stamford Bridge [with an incredible standoff on the bridge that is to mimicked Boromir's last stand from LotR], to the final scene at Hastings all in 1066 would make an incredible series in and off itself. Don't expect the usual suspects to ever carry it off.
#4
William was a hardworking immigrant who brought his relatives along with him when he arrived to counter repressive and discriminatory Saxon immigration policies.
I will tell of the Battle of Hastings
As it happened in days long gone by.
When Duke William became King of England,
And Harold got shot in the eye.
It were this way...
One day, in October,
The duke, he was always a tough,
But having no battles at the moment,
He'd given his lads the day off.
Well, they'd all grabbed their boats and gone fishin'
'Til someone, in Conqueror's ear,
Says, "Let's go breeze up some Saxons,"
And Bill says, "By gum, that's an idea."
And turning around to his soldiers
He lifts up his big Norman voice
And says, "Hands up, who's going to England!"
That was swank, 'cause they had no choice.
Well they started away about tea time
The sea was so calm and so still
And at a quarter to ten the next morning
They arrived at a place called Beck's Hill.
Now King Harold arose there to meet them
His face full of venom and hate,
And he said, "If you've come for Regatta,
You've got here just six weeks too late!"
Well at this William rose, cool and haughty
And he said, "Let's have none of your cheek.
And you'd best have your throne re-upholstered,
I'll be wanting to use it next week!"
When Harold heard this defiance
In rage he turned purple and blue
And he shouted some rude words in Saxon,
To which William replied, "And you."
It was a beautiful day for a battle
And the Normans set off with a will
And when both sides were duly assembled,
They tossed for the top of the hill.
Well King Harold, he won the advantage
And on hilltop he took his stand,
With his cads and his knaves all around him,
On his horse, with his hawk in his hand.
It was a beautiful day for a battle
And as soon as the whistle was blown
Both sides started banging each other
Until swineherds could hear them in Kent.
Well the Saxons had best line of forwards,
Well-armed with both buckler and sword.
But the Normans had best combinations,
So when half-time came, neither had scored.
So William he calls for his cohorts
And he says, "Let's pretend we're beat.
And when we get Saxons down on level,
We'll cut off their means of retreat."
So they ran, and Saxons ran after,
Just exactly as William had planned.
Leaving Harold alone on the hilltop,
On his horse, with his hawk in his hand.
When William had seen what had happened,
A bow and an arrow he drew.
Then he ran right up to Harold and shot him.
He were offsides, but what could they do?
Then the Normans turned 'round with a vengence,
Giving back both parry and thrust.
Soon the fight was all over but the shoutin'
And you couldn't see Saxon for dust.
And when they returned to the hilltop,
They found Harold so stately and grand.
Sitting there with an eye full of arrow,
On his horse, with his hawk in his hand.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/21/2008 22:10 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2008 09:22 ||
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#1
As I've said here before, I saw the same kind of thing that this author is writing about in 2005 in South Africa. The crime is truly shocking, whites and Coloureds seem to be a disproportionate share of the victimized, and the government appears to be more concerned with criminal rights than victim's rights. I didn't meet one white person in my time there who wasn't either already in the process of emigrating or thinking very seriously about doing so.
Between the crime and the official moves to dispossess white farmers, SA is on the fast track to emulating Zimbob. They've got more to break down so it will take longer but eventually it will happen.
They could reverse this, or at least slow it down considerably, if they allowed wider legal gun ownership and use. The ANC government severely curtailed those rights after 1994; the criminals now know that there are almost no ways a citizen can use a firearm in self-defense that are both legally justifiable and rationally possible. For the ANC government, that's a feature, not a bug.
#2
The shole continent is going to regress to its state in 1800 with the exception of enclaves where outsiders come to get the minerals they can't get elsewhere. Lot's of opportunity for the nest Joseph Conrad.
#3
the government appears to be more concerned with criminal rights than victim's rights.
Because it's a feature, not a bug. It's slow-rate ethnic cleasing through independent contracting proxies (and sometimes, as for farm attacks, probably straightforward proxies, with some organization behind them). Disarming the "right" population is a feature too.
#5
I used to go to Carlton Center in mid-seventies Johannesburg. Last I heard, that building - then the largest in Africa - had closed. It also had the only skating rink in the Continent. It might sound racist, but black leaders are more concerned with taking their cut, than with economic stability. The country stopped working when white rule ended. You may have noticed that Oprah invests in SA schools, but not businesses.
Iran's Gulf neighbour, the United Arab Emirates, has signed a deal worth $3.3 billion to buy missiles from US firm Raytheon, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
The US Defence Department said in September it had proposed the sale of air defence systems and helicopters to the UAE with a total potential value of more than $9 billion. The main item in the Pentagon-proposed package was Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, worth up to $7 billion. The system is built by Lockheed Martin Corp with a system radar from Raytheon Co.
The National, an Abu Dhabi based-newspaper, said the deal was to buy Patriot missiles.
The proposed package included up to $121 million for Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Systems from Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. "The agreement ... includes technology, training and supply of the medium-range missile system, which is part of a multi-tiered defensive shield the UAE Armed Forces is building to protect the nation from perceived threats in the region," it said.
Gulf Arab nations have voiced concern over Iran's nuclear programme and urged a peaceful solution to a standoff between Tehran and Washington over the Iranian atomic plans.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2008 09:39 ||
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An election in Bangladesh is usually a chance for an ordinary voter to make a quick buck, enjoy a free meal and perhaps even grab a souvenir t-shirt at a campaign rally. For the man in the street, it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between the parties and candidates; they rarely live up to their campaign promises anyway.
This year things are different. "No-one is offering us money or anything else this time," said Abdul Jalil, a rickshaw puller in the capital, Dhaka. "Previously, we would get cash or other gifts during elections." Bangladesh goes to the polls on December 29 for a parliamentary election the interim government says will be the cleanest in years -- if not the country's history. The election, the ninth since independence in 1971, will end nearly two years of mostly emergency rule and return the country to democracy.
For the forthcoming poll, the election commission has introduced strict rules restricting spending by candidates, banning vote buying or influence peddling and outlawing cash giveaways -- standard fare in almost all previous ballots. Such abuses scarcely raise an eyebrow in the impoverished country of more than 140 million people, the majority of them illiterate. For many, a free lunch at a campaign rally would be their only meal of the day; a giveaway shirt or shawl their only new item of clothing for the year. "I thought I'd earn some money by joining rallies or marches, but this year there is nothing," said Abdul Karim, a tea vendor in Rangpur, who explained how previously he had been paid to add his voice to rent-a-crowds or to distribute party pamphlets and posters. Bangladesh is usually a riot of colour at election time, with campaign posters vying for attention on every wall -- and party workers are not above sabotaging their rivals. But this is now banned, and candidates are restricted to hanging only black and white pictures in public places. Big rallies are restricted to the two main candidates for prime minister, Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia Yet some things never change -- many Bangladeshis remain as sceptical as ever that the election will bring change to their lives. "We hoped for change in the past, it didn't happen," said Rafiqul Islam, 50, from Shibganj. "We don't expect it to come this time."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2008 09:50 ||
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BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday said a certain party wants to obtain power and form a puppet government through an undercover deal with the caretaker government.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2008 00:00 ||
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The Archbishop of Canterbury has likened Gordon Brown's recovery plan for the economy to "an addict returning to a drug". Dr Rowan Williams, who only yesterday claimed he does not consider the reaction of politicians before speaking out, said he was worried about the Government's plan to spend its way out of recession.
He also claimed the financial crisis could be good for society as it would provide a "reality check" to irresponsible spending and get-rich-quick schemes, and may encourage a return to volunteering and charity.
Asked about the Prime Minister's "fiscal stimulus" package, which includes cutting VAT and increasing public borrowing, the Archbishop told Radio 4's Today programme: "I worry about that because it seems a little bit like the addict returning to the drug. When the Bible uses the word 'repentance', it doesn't just mean beating your breast, it means getting a new perspective, and that is perhaps what we are shrinking away from."
"What I'm worried about is anything that pushes us straight back into the kind of spiral we were in before. It is about what is sustainable in the long term and if this is going to drive us back into the same spin, I do not think that is going to help us." He said people should not "spend to save the economy", but instead spend for "human reasons" such as providing for their own needs. Interesting. I'd have never thought he'd have the capacity to issue even this small serving of common sense, even with the required sprinkling of PC-speak about "sustainability"...
#1
Don't get too excited. As a self-confessed "hairly leftie", Williams is just looking for an excuse to bash capitalism. His typical leftist inhumanity is betrayed by the fact that: "he also claimed the financial crisis could be good for society as it would provide a "reality check" to irresponsible spending and get-rich-quick schemes, and may encourage a return to volunteering and charity." In other words, the suffering of millions of innocent people who are losing their jobs and homes is worth a poke the eye for the non-collectivist social order. He'd prefer something more akin to the old days of servitude and serfdom to the likes of archbishops, where people are content to work for nothing and give much of what pittance they have to pontificating parasites.
In terms of worst-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico. Some forms of collapse in Pakistan would carry with it the likelihood of a sustained violent and bloody civil and sectarian war, an even bigger haven for violent extremists, and the question of what would happen to its nuclear weapons. That perfect storm of uncertainty alone might require the engagement of U.S. and coalition forces into a situation of immense complexity and danger with no guarantee they could gain control of the weapons and with the real possibility that a nuclear weapon might be used.
The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police, and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by the Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone.
h/t Westhawk. Did the US Joint Forces Command really publish this?
#2
Intervention in Mexico by the US would be pointless, because its problem will be much like Pakistan. And the Mexicans will be equally obstinate about Americans in Mexico.
Parts of northern and southern Mexico will be like FATA and the NWFP. Bandito leaders will arise and the central government and the army will be internally divided and weak.
The average Mexican doesn't want a civil war, so it won't look like a civil war at first. Instead it will look much like this current drug war between gangs.
The D.F. will remain untouched, like with their last civil war. A whole handful of other countries will want to involve themselves, however.
THE governor of the Bank of Spain has issued a bleak assessment of the economic crisis, warning that the world faces a "total" financial meltdown unseen since the Great Depression.
"The lack of confidence is total,'' Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said in an interview with Spain's El Pais daily. "The inter-bank (lending) market is not functioning and this is generating vicious cycles: consumers are not consuming, businessmen are not taking on workers, investors are not investing and the banks are not lending.
"There is an almost total paralysis from which no-one is escaping,'' he said, adding that any recovery - pencilled in by optimists for the end of 2009 and the start of 2010 - could be delayed if confidence is not restored.
Mr Ordonez recognised that falling oil prices and lower taxes could kick-start a faster-than-anticipated recovery, but warned that a deepening cycle of falling consumer demand, rising unemployment and an ongoing lending squeeze cannot be ruled out. "This is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression'' of 1929, he said.
Mr Ordonez said the European Central Bank, of which he is a governing council member, will cut interest rates in January if inflation expectations go much below two per cent.
#1
"This is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression'' of 1929, he said.
Of course talking like that really encourages one to go out and spend money you do have. /sarcasm off
When are these dolts and pols going to learn that MSM lives for crisis. They'll make one up if necessary to sustain their last gasp of air. It's time to gag it boys. Less talk, more real hard decisions and actions.
#3
P2K, the magnitude of this "crisis" is due exactly to the fact that the girly-men in charge of the central banks and treasuries are pissing in their pants in front of everybody. You can't blame the press for reporting what will sell papers.
Some think the Depression was aggravated by the untimely death of Benjamin Strong, not only his judgment and decision making, but the confidence he inspired. Bernanky and especially Paulson are frightening the markets by their palpable insecurity and fear. The Messiah should give Paul Volker a lot of air time.
#5
Wait a minute, I thought Robin Hood the Socialists were in power in Spain. That is supposed to make you immune to economic slumps and make everyone equally poor wealthy.
The world's top diplomat for Islam called on Friday for an end to efforts to equate the religion with terrorism and said the 'demonization' of Muslims around the world must be fought. But speaking soon after the U.N. General Assembly passed an Islamic-sponsored resolution condemning "defamation of religion" for the fourth year in a row, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said his group was committed to respecting freedom of expression.
" Attempts to equate Islam with terrorism should be stopped. Stereotyping and demonization of Muslims should be combated "
Head of the OIC
There was a "rising tide of incitement to religious hatred and discrimination and intolerance targeting Muslims," he told a meeting called by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) at the United Nations in Geneva. The 57-nation OIC, based in Saudi Arabia, represents 1.5 billion Muslims.
"Attempts to equate Islam with terrorism should be stopped. Stereotyping and demonization of Muslims should be combated," said Ihsanoglu, a Turkish history professor who became OIC Secretary-General in 2005.
Freedom of speech
" (OIC) is not to protect religion against critics based on objective and rational interrogation...(it) is firmly committed to respect for freedom of expression, which is a fundamental human right "
Ihsanoglu
In a statement on Ihsanoglu's remarks, Geneva spokesman for the International Humanist and Ethical Union Roy Brown argued that Islam was often linked to terror because perpetrators of many terrorist acts identify themselves as Muslims.
Critics of the OIC -- including countries who voted against the "defamation" motion at U.N. headquarters in New York on Thursday -- say many Islamic states use defamation or "blasphemy" laws against minorities and free-thinkers.
Referring to the U.N. vote, in which for the first time since the OIC introduced a "defamation" motion in 2005 more countries voted against or abstained than voted for, Ihsanoglu said the motives of the Islamic grouping were misunderstood.
The aim of the OIC, he declared, "is not to protect religion against critics based on objective and rational interrogation". The body, he added, "is firmly committed to respect for freedom of expression, which is a fundamental human right."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Since Muslims are into jihad and jihad equals terrorism I think the Muslims are creating the links to terrorism.
#7
As has been said an untold number of times on Rantburg; as long as we are dealing with a barbaric mindset some 1400 years old, the chances of changing it are nill.
The respected turkish diplomat should not fret. Obviously those demonizing Islam are frightened-and rightly so. The most educated and elite in western countries are converting to Islam. Just read the list! And many more in the highest ranks of western society want to do so...but are scared of the repurcussions.
I am sure that some of the writers, even at the fascist Rantburg, want to become Muslims but are scared of their fellows. Frank...stop hiding what is in your heart!
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the U.S.A and Britain, among the caucasians, at that! No wonder the demonizers are scared.
And these demonoizers know what will happen to the vested interests once Islam becomes the megapower it is destined to be.
So don't worry, noble diplomat. Just wait and see!
Posted by: W. Churchill has been pooplisted ||
12/21/2008 12:28 Comments ||
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#9
Justice under another name.
And no, Justice, despite your most fervid fantasies Western men and women do not swoon at the thought of Islamic penises. Just thought I'd let you know since there seems to be some confusion on this point.
Neither December 25 nor January 7, but June 17 is Jesus Christ's real birthday, says an Australian astronomer who used a computer software and St. Matthew's Gospel as a reference point to calculate the new date. The astronomer's research coincides with Quranic verses on the Messiah, which suggest that Mary gave birth to Jesus during the summer season.
Christians may be celebrating a different date from the actual one Jesus was born on according to Dave Reneke, news editor of Sky and Space magazine, who recreated the night sky around the time of Christ's birth using a complex charting software that allowed astronomers to map the night sky as it would have appeared more than 2000 years ago.
" We traced the movement of planets back 20 centuries. And it revealed the exact date of Christ's birth as June 17 in the year 2BC. "
Dave Reneke, Australian astronomer
"It is like a digital map where we can move forward in time as well as backwards," he told AHN in Australia.
Dave Reneke said he figured out the puzzle of the Bethlehem star. He explained that the 'guiding star'--one of the Bibles most enduring symbols--that led the three wise men to a stable in Bethlehem where Jesus was born was most likely a conjunction of planets Venus and Jupiter.
Together they formed a bright single 'beacon of light' suddenly appearing in the sky, which would have been visible to the naked eye across the eastern dawn sky as the two planets moved across the constellation of Leo on June 17, 2BC.
Previous theories speculated that the celestial phenomenon mentioned in the Bible was a supernova or even a comet. "We traced the movement of planets back 20 centuries. And it revealed the exact date of Christ's birth as June 17 in the year 2BC," he told the UK's Daily Telegraph. "December is an arbitrary date we have accepted for Christmas but it doesn't really mean that is when it happened," he said.
Matthew's gospel and the Quran agree
Reneke's reference point, Mathew's gospel, coincides with Quranic references to the birth of Jesus Christ as both texts place the event in the summer season.
While Mathew's gospel placed the nativity at somewhere between 3 B.C. and 1 A.D, allowing Reneke to locate the planetary movement to an accurate date in 2BC, the Quran notes that Mary went into labor during the summer time as she was instructed by the Angel to eat dates, summer fruit, from a nearby tree after giving birth to Jesus.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"...the Quran notes that Mary went into labor during the summer time as she was instructed by the Angel to eat dates"
Because we should base our science on the psychotic break of a slaver/child rapist who lived six hundred years after the events in question.
#3
Many theologians have speculated aspring or summer birth previously because the shepherds were in the field. A winter birth was the rainy season. December 25th was a Roman pagan holiday, Saturnalia, I think, and the Roman Catholic Church adopted this date to get the people to celebrate something worthwhile because people are loathe to give up partying. It's the reason for the season that matters.
#4
Danielle,
IIRC 12/25 was the birthdate for Mithra, one of the main competitors of early Chritianity. Like Christmas trees, the early christians simply took good ideas from the pagans and made them their own.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/21/2008 15:19 Comments ||
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In talks in Tehran, which was held concurrent with an exhibition of agricultural products from ALBA member states in Tehran International Fairground, Iran's Commerce Minister Masoud Mirkazemi, Venezuela's Light Industry and Commerce Minister William Contreras and Nicaragua's Industry and Commerce Minister Orlando Solorzano agreed on cooperation in commerce, customs, investment, transportation, industrial and agricultural products as well as banking facilities. ALBA comprises of Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba.
Mirkazemi said that Iran is interested in expanding cooperation with ALBA member states and it considers that all nations are entitled to economic growth and modern technologies. Trade exchanges among the three countries are not at a desirable level, he said.
Mirkazemi proposed the establishment of a shipping line linking the three countries, which was welcomed Venezuela and Nicaragua. Contreras, for his part, said that ALBA member states are committed to cutting its dependence on North and turn to the South, especially Iran. Expressing pleasure over development of commercial cooperation with Iran, he also said that the international financial crisis can be encountered by strengthening cooperation with friendly states and promoting economic infrastructures of developing countries.
Nicaraguan minister also commended Iran's achievements and voiced his country's readiness to develop cooperation with Iran. Nicaragua is interested in Iran's investment in Nicaragua's agriculture, animal husbandry and food industry, given its rich water resources.
Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said yesterday that Congress must release the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue package, warning that emergency loans to the nation's automakers have all but depleted the funds available to stabilize the still-fragile financial markets. You pissed away the first half of it already?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
So, you're saying making the loan to the nation's automakers has jeopardized the stabilization of the financial markets by taking money intended for the monetary market and putting it into failed businesses? I know a good team that took a bankrupt war torn country and installed both a viable economy and a vibrant [if colorful and perverse at times] democracy recently. You might want to look them up for some adult supervision to your problems [not that you will until it's really too late to salvage a lot and avoid even greater pain and agony].
#3
If Paulson asks for the extra rescue funds, Frank said he would draft legislation on mortgage mitigation
You have to admit the Democrats sure are clever with their semantics. Mortgage mitigation, sure sounds a lot better then rewarding irresponsible behavior doesnt it?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Iran's Gulf neighbour, the United Arab Emirates, has signed a deal worth $3.3 billion to buy missiles from US firm Raytheon, a newspaper reported on Saturday. 
An election in Bangladesh is usually a chance for an ordinary voter to make a quick buck, enjoy a free meal and perhaps even grab a souvenir t-shirt at a campaign rally. For the man in the street, it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between the parties and candidates; they rarely live up to their campaign promises anyway. 
For the forthcoming poll, the election commission has introduced strict rules restricting spending by candidates, banning vote buying or influence peddling and outlawing cash giveaways -- standard fare in almost all previous ballots. Such abuses scarcely raise an eyebrow in the impoverished country of more than 140 million people, the majority of them illiterate. For many, a free lunch at a campaign rally would be their only meal of the day; a giveaway shirt or shawl their only new item of clothing for the year. "I thought I'd earn some money by joining rallies or marches, but this year there is nothing," said Abdul Karim, a tea vendor in Rangpur, who explained how previously he had been paid to add his voice to rent-a-crowds or to distribute party pamphlets and posters. Bangladesh is usually a riot of colour at election time, with campaign posters vying for attention on every wall -- and party workers are not above sabotaging their rivals. But this is now banned, and candidates are restricted to hanging only black and white pictures in public places. Big rallies are restricted to the two main candidates for prime minister, Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia Yet some things never change -- many Bangladeshis remain as sceptical as ever that the election will bring change to their lives. "We hoped for change in the past, it didn't happen," said Rafiqul Islam, 50, from Shibganj. "We don't expect it to come this time."
The Archbishop of Canterbury has likened Gordon Brown's recovery plan for the economy to "an addict returning to a drug". Dr Rowan Williams, who only yesterday claimed he does not consider the reaction of politicians before speaking out, said he was worried about the Government's plan to spend its way out of recession.
