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January 3rd, 2020 | #1 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 2,278
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Aeronauts
This film is about (really happened) the balloon flight of James Glaisher in 1862. Glaisher went seven miles into the atmosphere, higher then anyone had gone, and discovering there were several layers to it.
I enjoyed the film and it, like Current Wars (reviewed here earlier),depicting an early use of technology. Much like electricity was something new and now is so much of our lives, Glaisher's voyage into the atmosphere began a new world of our mastering the air. Think of it: seven miles on earth is nothing, but above us, a whole new world begins, and we only survive because of a thin crust of oxygen. Glaisher was a solid Victorian scientist, and is played by Eddie Redmayne, somewhat not so stolid. Also, his assistant/pilot was a man. Here it is Felicity Jones, and in true movie fashion, is a feminist, daredevil, and pretty much saves his life and struggles to keep the balloon going. Well, I expect that. Felicity's character, Amelia Wren, was sort of based on an earlier Frenchwoman who did a lot of balloon travel, and died in an accident. But we're used to this, because you need romance to sell a movie. Jules Verne never had women in his stories, but every movie has a woman in it somewhere. She also was an example of the carnival atmosphere of such travel...you had to bring in a crowd, and she does so with a showgirl outfit. Also, I caught the usual PC. Glaisher's assistant,another scientist, was of course played by an Indian, and in crowd scenes, you can see here and there black men and white women walking together. The English really have no fucking shame about this, or at least the BBC, but at least they made the men of the scientific institute all male, and were angered at Amelia entering it's ground, because ladies weren't allowed. But I think it is a good, if small film about early aviation, and reminds us what our race wanted to do when it set its mind to it. |
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