Meggie Macdonald

I recently went to see the new version of Clash of the Titans here in Canada, starring Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Mads Mikkelsen.  Through a very honest mistake, we ended up seeing the film without paying for tickets and, I can honestly say that the movie was worth every cent we paid for it.

If you want to watch for deep characterization, actors’ range, or a realistic plot, I suggest avoiding this film.  It almost virtually remakes the original 1981 version which, even when it came out nearly 30 years ago, was the kind of denigrating ’sword-and-sandal’ epic that makes everyone cringe.

However, I have to say that I sincerely enjoyed watching it (and not simply because Sam Worthington would be worth watching under any circumstances).  The film added a gritty element to what was previously terribly camp.  The ongoing jokes about Harry Hamlin’s hair in the 1981 version are a perfect example.  In the latest version, people get dirty, people die, and people get stuck in gigantic scorpions full of – naturally – green goo.  And it’s hysterical. 

This is one of those good bad movies that audiences will enjoy watching.  It’s fun, partly because the story itself is a bit of a romp, but also because the film tries to take itself seriously.  Ignore the drama, enjoy the game!

Charlotte Higgins includes her own joyous review on her blog with The Guardian here.

In a lovely little post on The Guardian blog On Culture, Charlotte Higgins relays her experiences as recipient of the 2010 Classical Association prize of 2010 for her contributions to public understanding of the classics.  In all honesty, I’ve not yet read either It’s All Greek To Me or Latin Love Lessons but, if reviews are anything to go by, both books present classics and classical culture in a way that encourages interest and pursuit.

Congratulations to Ms. Higgins.  I hope to follow her example and add something of my own to public consumption of Classical history.

Over this past weekend, the once mighty northern border of the Roman Empire – a stone wall stretching from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to the Solway Firth built by the Emperor Hadrian in AD 122 – was lit up with burning beacons to honour the men who once guarded the ramparts.  It is also a bid by Tourism UK to jumpstart the 2010 spring tourist season and, by all accounts, this is one powerful publicity stunt.

The wall once ran right across northern England for 117km and cut off the Caledonian ‘barbarians’ from the romanized civilians to the south.  Hadrian built it as part of his campaign of peace and stabilitythroughout the empire (he also had another border built along the farthest reaches of Roman Africa.   Following the massive expansion efforts under Trajan (including the conquest of Dacia in AD 106 and the campaigns against the Parthians beginning in AD 107), Hadrian was faced with a formidable task when he came to power following Trajan’s death in AD 117:  how to consolidate power and stabilize the Roman empire when it had been overstretched for far too long.  Among his various solutions – some successful, some not – were the construction of the wall in Britain and the huge pallisade across North Africa.

Among the benefits of such an undertaking, the construction of Hadrian’s Wall in Britain kept some potentially rebellious soldiers occupied with other tasks.  The wall took years to build as legionaries dug the foundation from the cold, wet clay-mud of northern England and built the forts and milecastles to maintain security at the Empire’s northern border.

The Wall is a rather surprising thing to see, particularly when you only realise after the fact that you have indeed seen it.  During one train trip to Edinburgh, the train I was on passed by a rural neighbourhood near the east coast and there, nestled in a little valley between the train tracks and a farm house, was a small pile of cut stone.  Nothing so spectacular as some of the taller sections and certainly less impressive than the restored section of the wall, this little bit of Hadrian’s political power was enough to catch in my throat all the history that it stood for, and still does stand for.

Also from The Guardian, here is a cute little video of the lighting of the wall this weekend.  THe music may be a bit schmalzy, but it’s a lovely event none-the-less.