French Revolution documentary

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

Holy hell, I have finally seen the History Channel French Rev. documentary again. The last time I saw it was the day it came out, when I hardly even knew there had been a French Revolution. I was curious to see how my perception of it had changed from then to now.

First, a note on getting it: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH. You see, the first time, using Amazon, the people randomly said that something was wrong with my mom's credit card. This was most unusual, since it seemed to work just fine for the other four or so people I had ordered things from around that time. So we scrapped that. Then, mom found an Ebay seller offering it very cheap. We went for that. Uh-oh! Turns out that was a scam. There was no DVD! Ahaha, fooled you! Mom told me that clearly God did not want me to have this DVD. Never one to listen to God, I went back to Amazon and found a different seller. Everything went through fine, except for some small delays. Finally. So, yes, in conclusion: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH.

How was it, IMO? Er...quite mediocre. But the guy playing Robespierre was cute, so no worries. A+++, would drool over again.

Okay, some more specific comments:

-Not a one mention of Camille. Not a one. If not for the Super Powers of Cute Robespierre Guy, I might well be suing for mental anguish at this very moment. Especially for those moments when I was so expecting it. ("Bastille, Bastille...THEYWILLMENTIONHIMANYMINUTEN - damnit." "Execution of the Dantonists! Surely - damnit.")

-It seems to me that they focused a little too much on what preceded the Revolution, and not...y'know, the actual events of it. I remember looking down at the clock at one point, thinking, "Woah. Almost an hour has passed and we're only just up to 1789." But then boom, boom, boom and suddenly it's 1793. Er.

-Danton, also, was woefully underepresented. Actually, pretty much everyone except Maxime, the king and queen, and (kind of) Marat were. (I don't think any members of the Committee of Public Safety except Maxime were even NAMED) This is explained a little more, in the special features, where they say they wanted to 'tell it from the perspective of Maximilien Robespierre.' But, well, that sort of makes me wonder...why didn't they just do a biography of Robespierre? I mean, I personally find his early life and politics interesting as hell, but these people apparently have no qualms with giving whole chunks of time the merest of passing nods, so it wouldn't have been an issue for them to just skip over all that and go straight to the Revolution.

-Speaking of the special feature, is it just me, or does it seem to imply that Maxime called the Estates General at one point? O.o;

-Lovely recreations.

-However, would it have killed them to shoot a few more? You can practically make a drinking game out of the amount of times we see that shot of Maxime addressing the room. And the king and queen walking down some stairs, too. I kind of wished they'd have one of them trip once, just for variety.

-They got some good speakers in, so yay.

-I would just like to comment again of the adorableness of Cute Robespierre Guy. The special feature did not focus nearly enough on him.

-The documentary, however, was rather overloaded in that respect. I've been trying to convince people for months that Maxime's role in certain things wasn't quite what it is made out to be by some people, and this is exactly what I don't need them seeing. They trumpet on so much about him here that you might well think it isn't much of a stretch to believe he controlled the temperature. :P

-In the end, though, it's a documentary for people who don't really know much about the French Revolution, and in that respect it does its job well. I remember I absolutely loved it when I first watched it, and it led to my interest in the French Revolution. I didn't begin to learn about things in detail until a few months ago, but still, I don't believe I'd have even been interested if I hadn't seen this documentary.

Final Grade: C
*Change to B+ if the only thing you know about the French Revolution is the fact that it was indeed a revolution which took place in a country called France.

EDIT: Using this wonderful site, I have come up with the following.



...XD;

Comments

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

it isn't much of a stretch to believe he controlled the temperature. :P

Ah-HA, the real reason for Thermidor--they were just sick of Maxime's paranoia and general high blood pressure making all Paris into an oven.

[kurotoshi.livejournal.com]

The video is a fun watch. Cinematicaly, it's gorgeous to watch, and the guy playing Robespierre, I declared loudly that was the guy I was going to marry :3

... I just wished I knew him name O.o;

But you're right, info wise, it's got next to nothing, but kudos for showing Marat somewhere else than in his tub! (hate the voice they gave him though XC )

[tearosefury.livejournal.com]

My professor and I took a lot of issue with that documentary. In my opinion, the worst thing about it was that it totally made it seem as though Robiespierre started, made, and ended the Revolution, like it was his special product, when in reality he was only in major power for a sliver of it and it was a huge political and social movement involving so many other major figures...anyway, that was my beef. Not that I don't love political history. The Jacobins are my favorite interest in the Revolution, but we can't give them more credit than they actually merit.

[jesta-ariadne.livejournal.com]

I think... it was pretty good for non-historians/fangirls... And it was shiny! ... And Robespierre was pretty and had nice eyes. However ! XD

Not a one mention of Camille. Not a one. If not for the Super Powers of Cute Robespierre Guy, I might well be suing for mental anguish at this very moment. Especially for those moments when I was so expecting it. ("Bastille, Bastille...THEYWILLMENTIONHIMANYMINUTEN - damnit." "Execution of the Dantonists! Surely - damnit.")
...That was EXACTLY me. I nearly died of hyperventilation or something both those times. Errrr, is it really bad that that's the first complaint that comes to mind for me?? It's like the awful thing I do of always searching for his name in the index of a French Rev book as a sort of quality test ^^;;

It also amused me that the single mention of Saint-Just was "...at least we did that"

Aaand... while it was ... nicer, I suppose, to Robespierre than I expected, it definitely kind of oversimplified hugely to the point of ... yeah, like you said, weather-controlling Jacobins are right around the corner. Mm.

By the way, the website (http://www.historychannel.com/frenchrevolution/) is pretty hilarious. In a sort of cringe-worthy way... And the trailer. It's all "THE REVOLUTION WILL BE .... TELEVISED." and "LOADING THE REVOLUTION" and a very jolly American announcer listing "Marie Antoinette.... Robespi-erre... and King Louis the Sixteenth" (yes, in that rather strange order) like filmstars :) And there's a game! Which is like hangman, only, obviously, with, y'know, guillotines. And another one called "Cake Revolt" .... ("See how far you can hit the cake!" I kid you not. It's brilliant.)

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Aside from cute Maxime, I would concur that it was a terrible documentary for anyone knowing even the tiniest bit of (accurate) information on the Revolution.

I didn't see where it might have implied that Maxime called the Estates General though. O.o Very odd.

The most annoying thing about it is the History Channel can spend ten hours describing an minor event (and doing a very thorough job) when it comes to American history.
...The emphasis really bugs me. A lot. *fumes*

And with documentaries like this, it really is no wonder people think Maxime was a dictator; I mean, the only people mentioned on the same level with him are Capet and Antoinette.

*sighs* The world is definitely in need of a decent documentary on the Revolution.

[ink-in-a-teacup.livejournal.com]

Snuck in here through a link in D-M's post. Don't mind me, I'm generally harmless... :3

Not a one mention of Camille.
That was quite annoying. Even if they didn't mention him along with Danton, he should've at least been spoken of during the storming of the Bastille.
Saint-Just actually did get a mention, briefly. Towards the end right before Robespierre is guillotined, Saint-Just was quoted as saying "At least we did that." (referring to a painting of the Rights of Man)

Robespierre on the other hand, was too mentioned for a general documentary. Not that I had a problem watching him. Didn't bother me a bit. That wig needed a bit of touching up though... o.0

Overall not a great documentary, but the visuals were at least pleasing. *smile*

[tearosefury.livejournal.com]

Man, I keep laughing everytime I read this "weather controlling Jacobins" joke. Hehehe too funny. Seriously. Weather controlling Jacobins hard core.

And speaking of our poor, neglected Camille, did anyone else think that Camille was totally adorable in Danton?, the movie I mean? The guy who played him was just so cute; and at the end, when they are getting ready to go to the guillotine, he looked so terribly scared and unhappy about being about to die! *lol* it broke my heart. I was a Camille fan forever after that. I guess that's a silly reason to start liking a historical figure (ie, because an actor portrayed him in an endearing way) but hey, whatcha gunna do :).

[rhenia-ra.livejournal.com]

HA! Funny you should mention rewatching this, because I also did so about a week ago and was equally, "Gah, why did I love this so much when I first saw it?" The reason I actually decided to rewatch my DVD was because I had been watching The Revolution (About the American Rev., because it was THE only revolution in history, obviously >_>), and whenever they spoke about France's part in said revolution, they would cut to the same shots of Versailles they used in The French Revolution documentary. This, coupled with my reviewing of the DVD, led me to the conclusion that the History Channel is 2 parts Lazy, 3 parts Bias, and 1 part addicting as hell, despite it all.

At least Robespierre was adorable? I think my friends watching it with me were on the verge of murder- when I wasn't outraged about what they left out, I was drooling over him XD;

[citoyenne.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AB8OhiDnpA

Is this the one you're talking about? It does contain a gorgeous Robespierre, Marat's dreadful voice and no Desmoulins at all, so I think I'm watching the right one.