1066: The Battle For Middle Earth

[Beorn]

Or am I being paranoid? I hope so because I'd like to believe this was one of the best things I've seen on TV for a long time.

You're just being paranoid.

The last part was just as good as the first part. I was actually finding myself getting really angry at the treatment of the villagers by the Normans, and was glad to see a bit of retribution had later on.

I'd like to have this introduced into the school curriculum and shown and discussed in class.
As Oswiu was saying just before; I remember at school having a lot of attention paid towards the Romans(nothing about the Celts...at all!), then it was the Vikings and how great they were , then it was straight onto 1066 and a very pro-Norman coverage of the events.

This movie could redress that disparity and hopefully ignite a movement of proud ethnic Englishman graduating from school fully knowing their rightful place in history.

[Freomæg]

You're just being paranoid.

Thank you for reassuring me. Such is the mind of a cynic. I suppose I spend so much time looking for the propaganda in all TV programmes that it's difficult to accept when one has none.

DVD available to buy on the 25th here. £11.99. Should be available worldwide.

[Beorn]

Just reading the reviews from the papers, and have to say the reviews were typical for the papers that produce them.

Let's look at what the idiot...journo from the Guardian had to say:

They're calling this drama, and there is a half-hearted attempt to personalise it. So a young boy in the Sussex hippy village of Crowhurst is drafted into the army on his wedding day. And over in the fjords, a warrior leaves his hot Scandi rock chick behind. But it doesn't really amount to much: the script is pretty excruciating, there's no character development, and to be honest, when they've got all their clobber on, it's hard to tell who's Leofric and Tofi, and who's Snorri and Ealfrith. Hard to care, really.


No, this was more battle re-enactment than drama. One for those people who like to dress up and play soldiers in the woods at weekends. If your thing is big hair and shouting, blood and extreme violence (all of which are my things), then it is quite good fun. Or god gamen, as they - possibly - said back then.



Guardian

The times thought it was a "loony" production:

This ambitious/loony production aimed to topple the old top-down history of kings v kings. King Harold, therefore, made but one brief appearance. Instead the story was told from grunt-level by conscripts from a single Sussex village. Although this made economic sense for the fight scenes - a cast of literally several had been recruited from a battlefield re-enactment society - this microcosmic approach did give the misleading impression that England's defeat by William the Conk could be blamed on little Crowhurst. We'll just have to remember how well this hamlet of peace-abiding beekeepers did against the Vikings at Fulford and Stamford Bridge. How did they win? Let's just say, it's not only the Germans who don't like it up 'em.

The Times

I suppose the Independent is the best we'll get to some agreement:

Whatever, it is good to see a remarkably eventful year finally getting the dramatic attention it has lacked for so long, and Ian Holm, the narrator of the two-part dramatised documentary 1066: the Battle for Middle Earth, which concludes tonight, makes up for lost time, packing every syllable with portentousness. It is not Holm's fault that the production should have run on consecutive mornings at 10, rather than consecutive evenings at nine. Its natural audience is a cross-legged, nose-picking one, shepherded into a parquet-floored school hall by a history teacher with dandruff.

The Independent

[Treffie]

As Oswiu was saying just before; I remember at school having a lot of attention paid towards the Romans(nothing about the Celts...at all!), then it was the Vikings and how great they were , then it was straight onto 1066 and a very pro-Norman coverage of the events.

Yes, same here - it makes me mad I say - MAD!!!

[Freomæg]

Just reading the reviews from the papers, and have to say the reviews were typical for the papers that produce them.

Just when I thought I couldn't hate these rags any more . Still, I wonder if I'd have been put off of liking it had these tools-of-brainwashing given it rave reviews.

[Treffie]

Thanks Wat - I'll watch this tomorrow night and see what I think of it.

[Beorn]

You can now download the first part here.

Give it a day or two and I'm sure part two will soon be alongside it also.

[Beorn]

With thanks to Chlodovech over at Skiddi, who reminded me to get round to posting the online copies.

1066: The battle for Middle Earth. Pt.1

1066: The battle for Middle Earth. Pt.2