Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

"It builds character" has been used by the conservative old-guard to apologize for everything from work houses for the poor to pedophiliac altar boy duty. You know what builds character? The gladiator ring. >> ^RedSky:

I mean more the sense of character it develops, ie resolving conflict, standing your own ground, working in teams, basically the kind of attitude that allows you to survive in a dog eat dog world. You could say that being home schooled still allows you to socialise and develop these same skills, but compared to the kids who spend 6 and a half hours, 5 days a week doing it at the least, they'll still be at a disadvantage.>> ^dag:
If my job entailed sitting in a room with 35 other 41 year olds, while being lectured by someone much older- for most of the day, I would probably slit my wrists. I don't see how the artificial, forced school environment prepares people for anything but a life a drudgery.
>> ^RedSky:
But isn't that a better reflection of general working life and outside-school society in general? Unless you are able to get a job where you are wholly or mostly self-sufficient, you'll have to face this reality eventually.

Heya, Lucky! Kudos for the upvote! Er, I actually don't know the Diddy quote! I was thinking of Maximus from the movie Gladiator [link] for the "are you not entertained?" yell.

In reply to this comment by lucky760:
Comment upvote for your P. Diddy quote. Teehee.

From where do you know that quote?

In reply to this comment by Kevlar:
The best part to me is this: Who is he exhorting with his display after the initial stop? Who does he want to cheer?

"YOU THERE! THE BLUE SEAT TWO ROWS IN! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? ARE? YOU? NOT? ENTERTAINED?"

You had me at Jesus Lizard... I would've gone with 'Gladiator' myself. Nicely done regardless.

Things i noticed:

- Isn't it a bit sexist of her to assume that the robots in transformers weren't their equivalent of female?
- Ditto District 9, though we couldn't pronounce their names nor tell if they were conversing.
- I thought there was a bit in watchmen where older/younger silk spectre spoke about something other than a man - at least for a bit.
- The bourne supremacy has 2 named women talking to each other about old assassination missions and capturing a rogue assassin. As does the third one because it follows directly on from the second. Does this qualify as 'talking about a man'? If so, that is a very arbitrary line to be drawn.
- Isn't wall-e about robots?
- Austin Powers are films lampooning the objectifying of women/the wallflower stereotype.
- The wedding singer has the two named sisters talking about the degree of tongue acceptable at weddings. Again, i say that if you can bend the rules to say that is technically 'talking about a man', then you could equally bend them another way in this and other examples.
- ^ Such as X-men where there are many group conversations involving named women. I'm not an expert on those films so i can't say for sure if there's a clear conversation between 2 named women, but group convo's with multiple named women there are.
- Interview with a vampire has a conversation between the child vampire (who is of course a woman trapped in a child's body, this is a big point in the film) and the woman selected to be bitten to be her mother, both are named.

If you make a film based anywhere in history past 50-60 years ago, you're going to hit the culture factor. You can't just manufacture women into places where they wouldn't have been in a time where women were not considered equal. You may as well complain about racism in a film taking place when black people were used in slavery.
- Shawshank
- Pirates
- Gladiator

There are films with a very powerful and strong female protagonist battling against the odds and coming out on top. Some of these films don't even pass the test - how can this be when it's basically saying "Women can be better/stronger than men?"
- GI Jane (vs. GI Joe) - fights against all the odds and eventually shows people how wrong they were.
- Fifth element - she saves him, he saves her, she saves the planet?
- Alien 3
- Tomb Raider
- Arguably 'Wanted'

^ It almost feels like she's mocking her own theory/criticism by naming these films. "Hey look everyone, even films with a super-strong female character kicking everyone's ass and showing how women aren't wallflowers........................is perpetuating the stereotype that women are submissive wallflowers!"

It's almost like naming examples of where the theory fails to be true. Which ...renders the theory useless?

I do think there's a point to be made, but i don't think it's as bad as they want to believe it is, and i certainly don't think that this is demonstrated by the films listed. Show films like pulp fiction, se7en, etc. even fight club. Those convince me. The others make me think "I don't think these people will be happy until we make 2 versions of every film with the sexes mirror'd."

If they can't value the fifth element, alien and tomb raider as films that fight against a stereotype, when exactly are they going to be happy?

I was introduced to racism by,ironically, minorities. For about a month or two I didn't understand that the term "white boy" was an insult to my creed. At first, I thought I was just abnormally white, in actuality though I am pretty dark as far as white people go (or was before I discovered computers). Over time I finally figured out that it wasn't my color that they were making fun of, but my ethnicity, which up until that point in my life I had never contemplated before. I had never identified myself as a white person. My only understanding of color was that some people were more tan than others.

In all these race arguments I feel like I am at a loss. It would seem that for most my formative years I lived the MLK dream of being color blind. This makes it really hard for me to understand racism; both at the source and at the recite. As such, I have a deep guttural reaction to both racism of hate and racism of reciprocity (affirmative action). For me, the goal is to be color blind, not color sensitive. As such, anything that makes more than a superficial distinction on color...no matter how noble in appearance it only works against that goal. Perhaps I am naive, but the trollish observations of "race-baiting and victimology" do have some significance. Racism still happens, and when it does it needs to be righted, but this constant heehawing about supposed acts of racism seems to just prolong the healing. Like that line in fight club, "it is like that sore on the top of your mouth that would heal if only you would stop tonguing it." Not to say that we should turn a blind eye to racism when it rears its ugly head, but for some, racism is a means to a life style. People like Al Sharpton contrasted against MLK highlight this difference in mind set. MLK was victim to all the out right ugliness of racism. But what you hear from him is nothing but the utmost strength and self determination. He was never a victim, he was always the triumphant gladiator ready to take on the next hurdle and take all the dignity owed him. He was a brave, courteous hero whom is worthy of emulation by our current generation.

go back to bed america.your government is in control.here..watch this..shut up.here is american gladiators.here is 56 channels of it.watch these pictuary retards bash their fucking skulls while you..live the american dream.go back to bed america.your government is control.you are free..to do as we tell you.---bill hicks

Watch The Riff Track!

Anyway, god bless it was so bad. Imagine the world we might be living in if BE was the movie of the decade and Gladiator was a stinking pile of garbage.

Thank you so much for the *quality!

In reply to this comment by Fusionaut:
I sailed along the whole island once after visiting it in 2005. It was truly incredible. Remember when Maximus and all of the other gladiators get out of the cart in Gladiator and see the coliseum? It was like that.

*Quality

I sailed along the whole island once after visiting it in 2005. It was truly incredible. Remember when Maximus and all of the other gladiators get out of the cart in Gladiator and see the coliseum? It was like that.

*Quality

Why can't we get this kinda of game on fear factor or American gladiator....minus the dudes....

It's a real shame, oliver was a fucking genius at his art. He made a huge fool of himself so many times, but i'll miss him on screen.

Anyone like me who missed most of his career should check out some of his acclaimed films. Genius. Take gladiator for a kick off.

Didn't X-Men already use this Plot?
Mojo, "a slaver who rules the Mojoverse, a dimension where all beings are addicted to his gladiator-like television programs."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojo_(comics)

Put him on American Gladiators.

Woulld be funnier with 'The March of the Gladiators' playing.

ahhh here we go! for best results play both at the same time!

>> ^Sarzy:
He raises a few valid points, but really, all I could think about while I was watching this was Louis CK's wise words.
I mean really, we're living in a time when we can watch any movie we want in pristine quality whenever we feel like it -- so what if you have to sit through a few ads, or deal with a fiddly menu. I know most of us are too young to remember, but there was a time where if you missed a movie on the big screen, that was it. You could never watch it again. You just had to hope it eventually got reissued back to theatres. Imagine not having the luxury of being able to watch your favourite film whenever you feel like it, or at all, for that matter. Yeah.


I can understand that sentiment, but the same point can be made about just about anything at any time. Boy shouldn't the Romans have been happy they didn't have to live in caves and walk around in awe of the fact that they had entertaining gladiator games to watch.

Fact remains, we have technology that can work better, why shouldn't it? After all this is about corporate interests deliberately holding back the functionality of a service you have PAID for either because of their interest in further profits outside of what you have already given them (commercials) or just stupidity (absolutely horribly retarded menus and boxes), which probably angers me the most because there's really no reason what so ever for it.

So yeah, of course we've made progress from what once was, I would be more worried if we didn't. But that's no reason to stop demanding more progress still, we wouldn't want to stagnate after all.

Btw: despite the quote that rant wasn't aimed specifically at Sarzy, but rather at the whole mentality that such comments and Louis CK's bit seem to come from. I can appreciate the comedy of it, but I see no actual basis for it.