I nitpick because I care, damnit!
Apr. 17th, 2007 01:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ink_n_impWell, that was a long and arduous battle against my computer, but for once, 'Nella rides forth victorious!
I've been gnashing my teeth against my computer, trying to get this damned screen shot (hint: it was windows media classics that came in at the 11th hour and saved the day. *heaps the program with laurels!*) You see, I watched "The Madness of King George" today, an absolutely smashing movie that I highly recommend. I've always wanted to give King George the III a hug, he always seemed like a decent enough chap, and this movie only makes me want to hug kings more. I enjoyed it immensely, and recommend it to all.
HOWEVER….
Not 13 minutes in and I both had already fallen in loved with the movie, and was writhing in pain on the floor to my roommate's great amusement because of it.
Now, there's a WHOLE lot of historical inaccuracy I can overlook for the sake of plot, or for staging ease, or just because the director says "fuck all, it'll look cooler this way"*. I myself like it when things look cooler. The point is I can take historical inaccuracy with a grain of salt, because it's a MOVIE. It's FICTION (even when they are "Based on true events"). The point is to tell a story and that's THAT.
But nothing makes my jaw drop faster, my eyes roll backwards and foam start to come from my mouth than historical inaccuracy due to SHEER LAZINESS. And I know this is a very, very, petty and silly thing, but for ME to notice it within the 1.2 seconds it shows up on the screen makes it a GLARING act of LAZINESS, so glaring that I must take issue.
I ask you my friends. For a movie taking place in 1789, what is wrong with this globe that King George is pointing too?
Oh god! Oh god thehumanity HISTORICAL INACCURACY!!!
Here's a brief review over why this map made 'Nella's jaw drop (i.e. all the things that are on this globe that most definitely weren't there in 1789):
1) Louisiana Purchase, 1803: We all know this one. Napoleon, having realized that creating an European empire takes a lot of moolah, decides to sell the Louisiana Territory ('tehrritorie¢, if you are saying it in an OUTRAGEOUS French accent).
Proof, of course, that Jefferson always managed to WIN, and without really doing anything to deserve it.
*glare*
2) Adams-Onis Treaty: This treaty, signed in 1819, was the diplomatic equivalent of John Quincy Adams** sitting on top of the Spanish foreign minister Luis de Onis and threatening him with a wet willy and a sound pounding unless he cried "UNCLE!! UNCLE!!! FLORIDA IS YOURS!! EVERYTHING ABOVE THE 42 PARELLEL AND TO THE PACIFIC IS YOURS!! THE RIVERS ARE YOURS!! JUST LET ME GO FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!"
Needless to say, John Quincy Adams (and a lot of historians afterwards) considered it his single greatest contribution to American diplomacy.
3) Treaty of 1819: 1819 was a good year for American land grabbing. Not only did we wrestle the Spanish government into submission, but we got our 49th parallel border with Canada ok'ed by the British government. However, this line wouldn't be really set in stone until the Oregon Treaty of 1846, and the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. Which leads me to my LAST point…
4) The Webster-Ashburton Treaty: This mother fucking treaty wasn't signing until 1849!!!!!! And yet THERE'S MAINE IN ALL IT'S GLORY ON GEORGIE'S GLOBE!!! GOOD GOD, IT'S A GOD DAMN TIME TRAVELING GLOBE!!
…ahem.
This treaty was a sneaky, sneaky back handed win of Webster's which cemented the border between Maine and Brunswick, as well as the eastern border between America and Canada at the 49th parallel and extended that border to the Rockies. Also, as I recall from my high school history textbook, the only reason we have all of what we have of Maine is because Webster's ace was "Franklin's map", a map SUPPOSEDLY draw by Ben Franklin which proved that America had owned and therefore STILL owned more of Maine than Brunswick would have liked.
Conclusion? American: 1. Canda: PWNED!1!1!!!
So, just to recap...
*sigh*
I know this 'twas a silly rant, but COME ON. This movie takes place RIGHT AFTER the American Revolution had been won (…make that lost, as this is a movie about King George). You don't go out of your way to draw attention to King George's anger and disappointment over losing the colonies and then bullshit with a globe representing a 1850-ish American geography!!! Shame on you, movie, shame on you and this lack of attention to detail!!!
FOR SHAME
*See "300" for an example of this
** The then Secretary of State who would later be forced, while PRESIDENT, into giving an interview to a female journalist because he had a habit of skinny dipping in the Potomac than she found out about, and exploited to her journalistic advantage. HELLO WHY HAS NO ONE MADE A MOVIE ABOUT THIS?!?!?!
I've been gnashing my teeth against my computer, trying to get this damned screen shot (hint: it was windows media classics that came in at the 11th hour and saved the day. *heaps the program with laurels!*) You see, I watched "The Madness of King George" today, an absolutely smashing movie that I highly recommend. I've always wanted to give King George the III a hug, he always seemed like a decent enough chap, and this movie only makes me want to hug kings more. I enjoyed it immensely, and recommend it to all.
HOWEVER….
Not 13 minutes in and I both had already fallen in loved with the movie, and was writhing in pain on the floor to my roommate's great amusement because of it.
Now, there's a WHOLE lot of historical inaccuracy I can overlook for the sake of plot, or for staging ease, or just because the director says "fuck all, it'll look cooler this way"*. I myself like it when things look cooler. The point is I can take historical inaccuracy with a grain of salt, because it's a MOVIE. It's FICTION (even when they are "Based on true events"). The point is to tell a story and that's THAT.
But nothing makes my jaw drop faster, my eyes roll backwards and foam start to come from my mouth than historical inaccuracy due to SHEER LAZINESS. And I know this is a very, very, petty and silly thing, but for ME to notice it within the 1.2 seconds it shows up on the screen makes it a GLARING act of LAZINESS, so glaring that I must take issue.
I ask you my friends. For a movie taking place in 1789, what is wrong with this globe that King George is pointing too?
Oh god! Oh god the
Here's a brief review over why this map made 'Nella's jaw drop (i.e. all the things that are on this globe that most definitely weren't there in 1789):
1) Louisiana Purchase, 1803: We all know this one. Napoleon, having realized that creating an European empire takes a lot of moolah, decides to sell the Louisiana Territory ('tehrritorie¢, if you are saying it in an OUTRAGEOUS French accent).
Proof, of course, that Jefferson always managed to WIN, and without really doing anything to deserve it.
*glare*
2) Adams-Onis Treaty: This treaty, signed in 1819, was the diplomatic equivalent of John Quincy Adams** sitting on top of the Spanish foreign minister Luis de Onis and threatening him with a wet willy and a sound pounding unless he cried "UNCLE!! UNCLE!!! FLORIDA IS YOURS!! EVERYTHING ABOVE THE 42 PARELLEL AND TO THE PACIFIC IS YOURS!! THE RIVERS ARE YOURS!! JUST LET ME GO FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!"
Needless to say, John Quincy Adams (and a lot of historians afterwards) considered it his single greatest contribution to American diplomacy.
3) Treaty of 1819: 1819 was a good year for American land grabbing. Not only did we wrestle the Spanish government into submission, but we got our 49th parallel border with Canada ok'ed by the British government. However, this line wouldn't be really set in stone until the Oregon Treaty of 1846, and the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. Which leads me to my LAST point…
4) The Webster-Ashburton Treaty: This mother fucking treaty wasn't signing until 1849!!!!!! And yet THERE'S MAINE IN ALL IT'S GLORY ON GEORGIE'S GLOBE!!! GOOD GOD, IT'S A GOD DAMN TIME TRAVELING GLOBE!!
…ahem.
This treaty was a sneaky, sneaky back handed win of Webster's which cemented the border between Maine and Brunswick, as well as the eastern border between America and Canada at the 49th parallel and extended that border to the Rockies. Also, as I recall from my high school history textbook, the only reason we have all of what we have of Maine is because Webster's ace was "Franklin's map", a map SUPPOSEDLY draw by Ben Franklin which proved that America had owned and therefore STILL owned more of Maine than Brunswick would have liked.
Conclusion? American: 1. Canda: PWNED!1!1!!!
So, just to recap...
*sigh*
I know this 'twas a silly rant, but COME ON. This movie takes place RIGHT AFTER the American Revolution had been won (…make that lost, as this is a movie about King George). You don't go out of your way to draw attention to King George's anger and disappointment over losing the colonies and then bullshit with a globe representing a 1850-ish American geography!!! Shame on you, movie, shame on you and this lack of attention to detail!!!
FOR SHAME
*See "300" for an example of this
** The then Secretary of State who would later be forced, while PRESIDENT, into giving an interview to a female journalist because he had a habit of skinny dipping in the Potomac than she found out about, and exploited to her journalistic advantage. HELLO WHY HAS NO ONE MADE A MOVIE ABOUT THIS?!?!?!
