Tag Archives: History

Rome Season 3 Cancelled

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It’s been known for a while now, Rome, another superb HBO show has been cancelled and will end after only 2 seasons. Main reasons: lack of viewers and too expensive. [ source ]

Granted, Rome was originally intended as a mere miniseries but spawned into a full series after the network saw the quality of the scripts. Unfortunately for HBO and any other network, viewer numbers are everything, esp. when the cost for the entire first season is around 100 million U$. We cannot really blame HBO when the viewers rather prefer crap over intelligent, quality TV series. If more people would have watched shows like Rome, Deadwood, Firefly, Invasion they would not have been cancelled, easy as that. Networks need to make profit and have to provide what the majority wants to see and if the majority wants to see crap then they have to give them crap. Besides, what network are you looking for when you want to watch quality shows? HBO, right?

Rome will end on March 25th 2007.

Walt Disney Treasures: On The Front Lines (2004)

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Walt Disney Treasures: On The Front Lines“Walt Disney Treasures: On the Front Lines” stands out from the rest of the Walt Disney Treasure releases simply because of its historical context. It contains 32 shorts and a full-length feature film “Victory through Air Power” originally released between 1941 and 1945. This makes “On the Front Lines” the most anticipated release of the Treasures series and rightly so. Shorts like “Education for Death” or “Der Fuehrer’s Face” have lost nothing of its potency and putting them into context really shows you the power of the media machine. Most of the material was made for propaganda purposes, supporting the war effort at home and some are educational hence the entertainment factor may not always be given but the historical context of these make them fascinating for generations to come.

Read on for a brief synopsis of the most prominent shorts or click here for the full DVD review over at eyecravedvd.com.

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Rome – Kalends of February

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The final episode of the first season of “Rome” ends with the ides of march so poignantly titled “Kalends of February”.

Rome - Kalends of February
“Thus ever for tyrants!” Cassius declares, raising Brutus’ hand in the air.

A powerful and dramatic season finale ending in anger, grief, murder, revenge and death and yet there also is forgiveness and redemption. How will it all unwind? We will have to wait until the start of season 2 in 2007 to find out. Production of the next 12 episodes begins in March 2006. Alternatively you can brush up on Roman history (44 B.C.) in order to find out what the next epic conflict will be about.

So much is for certain: Niobe will not come back. “Rome” is no Romero Zombie Zoo, so you can stop speculating! She is dead. Gone. Pushing up the daisies, joined the choir invisible. She is a late Niobe! R.I.P.

Hotel Rwanda (2004)

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Hotel Rwanda“An oasis in the desert”. That is what it’s called and that is what it was. 11 years ago a genocide happened and the world stood by and let it happen. Making a movie about it might heighten the awareness of the already educated but will it prevent anything? No. Let me quote Jack:

[after Paul thanks him for shooting footage of the genocide]
I think if people see this footage, they’ll say
“Oh, my God, that’s horrible”
and then they’ll go on eating their dinners.

This sums *us* up pretty much, sadly. Sidenote: Musically “Check the Meaning” by Richard Ashcroft springs to mind as it fits perfectly to that image (Human Conditions).

Hotel Rwanda is a good movie and it is also a disturbing one in as much as it shows and even shames me as to how little I actually knew and still know about recent history. It also angers me. Even now, the next day, I am still angry. These atrocities happen again and again and we stand by. What could we have done? Nothing? I can recommend watching this movie but be advised that it will probably upset you unless you are indifferent to genocide (you’d be surprised how many people do not know what it means or find the word cool…) and mutilations of little children by hate filled men with machetes that only cost 10 cents… well at least someone made money out of that…
8/10