Best. Bond girl. Ever. Or, What I Thought of the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games

[miss_s_b]

In case anyone was wondering, I bloody loved it. From Isembard Kingdom Brannagh spouting the Tempest and chewing on a stogie to Paul McCartney going off key like we knew he would, and it not really mattering, I loved it.

Highlights for me included:

• The inflatable pig over Battersea power station


• London Calling seamlessly blending into the Pomp and Circumstance march


• Brannagh's sideburns, and him joyously doing The Actor's Stance from Blackadder


• SuffragISTS! THANK YOU DANNY BOYLE!


• The Windrush, and the Jarrow marchers


• The fact that there were several people in wheelchairs in several of the segments, and they were just there, taking part, being a normal part of things, which is how it should be


• Similarly, non-white people in all segments of the history bit, no whitewashing.


• Yes, Rowan Atkinson was silly, but dammit, we're British, and we do silly so well


• 86 year old Bond Girl in debut parachute jump


• Headbanging to Bo Rhap around the Tardis, followed immediately by pogoing punks


• TIM BERNERS-LEE!!!


• 86 year old Bond Girl picking her fingernails and looking bored during the interminable parade of athletes (although whoever decided to have Fiji come out to The BeeGees needs congratulating) and Phil falling asleep.


• Heroes


• The cauldron - what a triumph of both symbolism and engineering

Comments

[yoyoangel]

Yes. :-)

[bagfish]

I absolutely loved it too, I thought it was one of the most fantastic things I've seen in years for all the reasons you list above and many more. I was particularly taken with the industrial revolution section as it portrayed "progress" in an equivocal fashion rather than as something good in all ways. Parts of it reminded me of LOTR where Saruman transforms Isenguard from a tree filled park to a den of orcs! And also forging of the (olympic) ring.

I particularly loved the fact that the Suffragists were carrying a banner for the Kendal branch (that raised a cheer in our house!)

Nice one Danny Boyle! He celebrated the liberal traditions of Britain, the kindnesses and injustices fought against rather than the militaristic and exploitative parts of our history. And I'm glad it pissed off numerous tory MPs!

[ginasketch]

I am enjoying Aidan Burley's tears.

And yeah, I was cynical at first, but the opening ceremony was amazing.

[miss_s_b]

I like how Aidan Burley keeps making everything worse. He's clearly never heard the phrase "When in a hole, stop digging"

[miss_s_b]

Re your last paragraph: yes, that, exactly.

[davegodfrey]

It was brilliant. I wasn't entirely taken with it to start with Kenneth Branagh IS Brunel IS Prospero did seem a little daft, and the hand-jiving Victorian Industrialists were somewhat snark-worthy. And then Liz II jumped out of a helicopter, and suddenly I realised it was supposed to be like that, and everything made sense.

[miss_s_b]

It was the pig, and then the South Bank Show theme, and then the zooming up to show the eastenders title screen that made me realise it was going to be subversive and funny, but I don't think I fully gathered how much till the Queen parachuting either.

[magister]

Except Branagh's actually quoting Caliban, rather than Prospero. Not quite sure of the significance of that.

[karohemd]

I was out so could only "watch" it by reading the commentary on twitter and that was hilarious, especially Warren Ellis. I'm going to watch it on iplayer sometime, as I want to see if I can spot a friend who was one of the drummers.

[miss_s_b]

It's definitely worth watching, if only to play Spot All the Geeky References

[karohemd]

:) And the advantage of iplayer is I can skip/fast forward through the tedious bit when the athletes march in.

One thing I was wondering is what people from other parts of the world who know little about life in the UK made of it.

[ginasketch]

NBC butchered it with their commentary, apparently.

[miss_s_b]

And they cut the 7/7 & Hillborough tribute - imagine if another country had done that to a 9/11 tribute?

[missdiane]

Soooooooo pissed off about that - but you probably noticed my post. LOL

I hate when the news networks here actually play to the "stupid American" stereotype and dumb us down by not showing things like that.

[drunkwriter]

Your news networks are largely responsible for creating the "stupid American" stereotype IMO, so I wouldn't be too shocked that they're perpetuating it.

[missdiane]

I have to agree with bits of this, actually, though some US news networks try harder than others not to be so US-centric.

Hence why I get most of my news either on diverse sites on the net or from the Daily Show (which makes me wonder if they're going to point out the NBC FAIL on their next airing)

[karohemd]

*nods* I know they cut stuff (like the 7/7 tribute and complained a lot) but I was more thinking of the average person who would have no idea what's going on in certain parts. I wonder if the commentators received a script?

[ginasketch]

I doubt it when they said things like "Madagascar – for our younger viewers a country associated with a few animated movies."

[drunkwriter]

There's almost a perverse brilliance about that level of inanity.

[karohemd]

Hahaha!

[missdiane]

When you have idiots like Matt Lauer doing the commentary, I don't expect much. Though they at least had some interesting trivia tidbits for each nation that walked in (likely to get us through the monotony of it)

[missdiane]

My Mom LOVED the Rowan Atkinson part - then again, though she doesn't really know Bean or much in the way of British humor in general, she's a big appreciator of silly. She also kept going on and on about the Bond/Queenie part. It made her giddy.

Dad thought the Industrial Revolution stuff was "too dark" in the look of it. I found it easier to convince him that they were just being trendy what with their Steampunk look ;)

[miss_s_b]

Dad thought the Industrial Revolution stuff was "too dark" in the look of it. I found it easier to convince him that they were just being trendy what with their Steampunk look ;)

It was also a tribute to LotR AND a chance to giggle over Ken Brannagh's Huge Erections ;)

[oneexwidow.blogspot.com]

All of the above

plus

Emile Sandi's amazing Abide With Me

and

getting the next generatiion to light the torch.

[almostwitty]

I was one of the Industrial Revolution workers in it, you know. *chuffed* :D