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jay-863
Reviews
The Great British Bake Off (2010)
Poorly run
First, I will disclose that I don't like reality shows because most of them are competitions and unrealistically scripted and edited in an attempt to create drama and suspense. Therefore I do not watch those.
At the other end of the spectrum is something like Antiques Roadshow, which is a reality show, but interesting and NOT a competition.
The Great British Baking Show is somewhere in between. It's a competition show, but is low-key and most of that is because the bakers are (for the most part) not pompous egomaniacs and are often kind and helpful to each other. Kudos to them.
The producers, though, still seem to feel the need to create "drama" prior to announcing a winner. Thumbs down on that.
As for the two hosts, they both leave something to be desired.
While Paul Hollywood sometimes offers a helpful note to one of the contestants, he's a bit of a glass-half-empty guy. He's probably not someone I'd have over for dinner, because I'd feel he was silently judging every aspect of every dish served and finding fault with everything.
As for Mary Berry, she's gentler in her criticisms, but she has one very annoying habit. When the bakers are given a task, such as "here's some ingredients, bake some cookies" with no additional directions or indication of what is going to be judged, how are the bakers supposed to meet the hosts' unspoken expectations?
As just one example, using cookies as the example, Mary found it necessary to criticize a baker's product because it did not have the "crispness" and "snap" she was expecting. But how were any of the bakers to know that was one of the criteria on which they'd be judged when that criterion was not mentioned at the start? Cookies come in all shapes and sizes, colors, flavors, soft, crisp, rock-hard and dense or light and pillow soft. Without a guide for what is being judged, how can anyone expect to please a judge?
Finally, sometimes bakers use ingredients for which the hosts don't have a personal taste. Does that mean that the product should be downgraded? If the same product was served to two other people, the results could be entirely different.
There also seems to be a bias against American-sourced ingredients or dishes with an American, rather than British, bent to them. Why should that matter? Each host should judge each product solely on its own merits and not against what the hosts themselves grew up with or would personally prefer.
Here's my challenge to Paul and Mary: Come to my house. I'll give you a range of ingredients and a vague idea of what I'd like you to do and then you go ahead and bake something (with limited time of course) and I'll be the judge of what you make. If I don't like the crumb of your cake or the particular spice you put into a product, I guess I'll have to give you a poor rating and say you did a bad job, because that's apparently how your show works.
The stars of the show are the bakers. The hosts could simply go away and the show would be better for it.
Flight of the Doves (1971)
Comparing movie to the original book
I had the original book when I was a child and read it many times. In my head I had concrete images of the characters and places that the story described. A few years back I discovered that a movie had been made from the book, but had never been able to find a copy to buy or view. Then the other day it dawned on me to check You-Tube and I found it instantly. I was so excited to watch it!
However, as many movie made from books can be, this one was somewhat of a letdown. Many of the interesting characters and scenes from the book are totally missing from the film and other things have been added that were never in the book.
For instance, in the book, there is a character who is the "children's uncle from America". The character is a small one and mostly in the background of the plot and only for a short while. He does meet up with the children near the end of the story, but only briefly and then is gone again. In the movie, this character is blown out of all proportion into a villainous psychopath and whole new plot lines are created to give the character lots of screen time. The only reason I can figure that this was done is because the character was played by Ron Moody, a well-known actor, and they needed to make the part bigger for someone of that stature. Having read the book and knowing the original story, the revision of the story to make this happen really took away from the original. I left thinking, "If they hadn't wasted time on this storyline, they could have focused on the adventures that actually took place in the book.
There was also a scene that was reminiscent of keystone cops racing in and out of a series of doors in a wall. I think it was supposed to be humorous but, since it did not fit into or advance the story at all, it seemed very out of place.
Also, the book had the character of Michael, the policeman who was "on vacation", portrayed as a caring "overseer", often in the background, watching the children as they made their way on their journey and making sure they were OK, but being careful not to "help" them. Michael was a major character in the book. He was also kind to the children, as were some other characters, such as Nickser (who was called Mickser in the movie). The movie version of Nickser was just another person determined to turn the children in to the authorities. In the movie, the Michael character was "just a policeman" and was just as bent on capturing the children as anyone else. The movie contained almost no characters that were kind to the children (the rabbi, being an exception, though again the entire synagogue and parade scenes made no sense and were not from the book, either).
Several scenes from the movie were very good at capturing an almost exact replication of the book, such as when Finn and Derval blended into the family with all the children so they could get free transportation and again at the end when the children arrived at their grandmother's house. Actually, the scene of the grandmother's house from higher up on the hill (when the kids first see it) is just as I pictured it when reading the book.
I began wondering about who from today's actors could be cast in the various roles if a remake were made. In thinking about that, I didn't take the actor's country of origin into account (as good actors can do an accent if they work at it), but rather who I saw fitting the physical and personality descriptions of the characters as they were given in the book. I didn't come up with suggestions for all of them, but here are a few:
Finn: (Couldn't come up with anyone for this)
Derval: The Fanning sisters came to mind, but they are both too old now.
Uncle Toby: Mark Addy
Granny O'Flaherty: I think Fionnula Flanagan would be perfect.
Judge: Michael Caine
Nickser: Colm Meaney
Powder: Stephen Rea
Michael: Paddy Considine, James Nesbitt, David Tennant, George Clooney
Of course, if they did remake the movie, I would want it to follow the book and not some made-up plot lines to cater to a particular actor.
Someone asked about the time-frame in which this story is supposed to be set. The movie makes it appear to be 1960's (though filmed in 1971). The book gave no date indication. It was generic enough that you could imagine it happening in various times. I personally had it set (in my mind) in the 1940's or 1950's. Because there is little indication of technological devices (the book does mention a boat and Nicker's van), and much travel seemed to be on foot or pack animal, it is easy to imagine it happening in various time periods. I think this gives it an insulating effect, making it "timeless" in a sense.
It was fun to finally see the movie - it was just different than the book with which I was familiar.