Alex's Historical Fiction

Broke the back

Sometimes I get very annoyed with myself. I tend to avoid writing reports and articles till the last moment. It drives me nuts, but I keep doing it. Yesterday, I cried off again, deciding instead that I really needed to watch Scott of the Antarctic. Oh honestly! It's amazing how I find things I absolutely have to do before writing reports. But I only watched it because today I was going to write the blasted article no matter what. And thank goodness, today I knuckled down. The back of it is broken. I have nearly 2500 words, and I had to write between 1500-2500. So tomorrow I'm safe to have an thorough edit and check I've put in the stuff that I should have. Deadline is 5th February, and I had hoped I would do it long before that.

Scott of the Antarctic was an interesting film. It came it at 145 minutes, so had to be short and straight to the point, which it was. Of course, I know a lot about the undercurrents going on, but it was a relief just to have the bare storyline. John Mills was fine as Scott. Harold Warrender was good as Wilson, and certainly physically looked a little like him. Bowers wasn't 'beaky' or ginger enough, but Reginald Beckwith was suitably 'keen as mustard'. When the film was made in 1948 a lot of people involved in the expedition (including wives) were still alive, so I think that made the film suitably respectful. I liked the way that some of the shots (in the hut and of the ice) matched so closely with some of the photos taken on the Terra Nova expedition.

As for Vaughan-Williams music to the film ... After so recently listening to a bit of Holst, I thought some of VW's music veered naughtily close to parts of the The Planet suite. However, as I said, they were composers of their time, and they are likely to sound at least a little related.

posted by Alex Bordessa @ Thursday, February 01, 2007