Am I Missing Something?
... View MoreThis is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.
... View MoreAmazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
... View MoreAn old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
... View MoreTo the Ends of the Earth is an exceptionally well written, directed, and acted film. It is probably the best sea voyage film I have ever seen. And I have see all three versions of Mutiny on the Bounty. The writers had an excellent trilogy by William Golding to work from. Benedict Cumberbatch is tremendous as the naive, somewhat pompous, self possessed Mr. Talbot. Jared Harris is formidable as Captain Anderson. The supporting cast is equally as talented, richly portraying characters from the early 19th century. However the real leading "character" is the ship, tossed and turned, battered and beaten. It determines the fate of all those on board.
... View MoreTo The Ends of the Earth is truly incredible. I watched it having been so impressed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the brilliant Sherlock. And he doesn't disappoint here, in fact once again in a performance wider in range perhaps than Sherlock he is amazing, as are the support actors. And it does help that the characters are well developed and that you care for them.To The Ends of the Earth also has some wonderful production values. You can never go wrong with luscious photography, gorgeous scenery and settings and sumptuous costumes, with a period detail so evocative you feel you are there living the moment(the first series I've seen do that since The Crimson Petal and the White). To The Ends of the Earth has all of this, and also a music score that is beautiful, haunting and rousing and never undermines or overshadows the drama/action.The story is rich, narrative-wise and thematically and always absorbing, and the dialogue intelligent and thoughtful while never feeling stilted. Overall, it is incredible and a must see. 10/10 Bethany Cox
... View MoreThe three-part series ended last night on PBS, which I believe was its first wide exposure to an American audience. The richness of its text and the unique quality of its filming are high points. It seems very novel to view and hear an action play employing the vernacular of Georgian England, Jane Austen's filmed drawing rooms being the primary example of that form of speech. Yet it is the scope of drama overwhelming the senses that makes quaint language fit perfectly into each and every scene. Such bold exposure to an old reality is evocative of literary giants like Tolstoy or Shakespeare while at the same time entertaining in the manner of a C. S. Forester or Patrick O'Brian sea saga. The universality of basic human condition lies at its center.Narrator Talbot as played by an actor with the almost perfectly appropriate name of Benedict Cumberbatch (surely not even Dickens could beat that one!) alternates between stodgy jingoism and extreme vulnerability, an acting tour de force. Indeed, I cannot recall among this very fine cast any misstep of interpretation. That is a tribute not only to the actors themselves, but to the director as well.The most impressive element, however, is how perfectly life aboard a man-of-war en route to Australia in the early 1800's is presented. That is especially true of how the motion of the ship becomes almost a character itself, something sea stories rarely take into account except as backdrop. Anyone who has ever experienced mal de mer in person will recognize it instantly, and appreciate all the more how difficult it must have been to recreate within the context of filming.This is no fanciful Pirates of the Caribbean. Some effort must be expended in attaining an understanding of its nuances.
... View MoreI saw the second part of this beautiful period piece set on a ship sometime in the 19th century. Golding's book must be responsible for some of the superb dialogue but everything else was good too! I especially liked the way they created the period and feeling of being on the ship so well. For me this had a feeling of completeness about it which I know I won't be able to convey in words... Perhaps it was the way they mixed in technical and historical details about sailing in the eighteen hundreds to the story without messing it up. Benedict Cumberbatch was excellent, as was the rest of the cast. It's not often a mini-series sends me to the "zone", but this one did.
... View More