Augustus

Wait, what?

"I have been awake since before the breaking of the first silence. In that time, I've had many names." Just perfectly done, as a reveal.

Well I finished the rewatch and as is often the case, liked it more the second time through. Annatar means Lord of Gifts, right? I heard/read that somewhere recently. So, when Celebrimbor thanked him for suggesting they use an alloy to amplify the mithril's power, Halbrand said, "Call it....a gift." I wonder how many other little references I missed not being fully read-in on all the history/lore.

I can't remember who it was, but when Wescott Eberts went nuts on twitter about "Texas Aggies" there were tons of pics posted from UT media guides, game programs and even your school yearbook that called us Texas Aggies. Like I said, it's only recent generations that have gotten insecure about that and fussing about it all over social media. And I can understand that to an extent, they're young and don't know the history of land grant schools and the [fill in the state] Aggies that evolved in normal discourse to identify which state's Aggies you were talking about. I just love that it bothers you.

Yeah, we've been wearing them for over 100 years. Only recently (relatively speaking) has anybody gotten interested in that, for some reason.

Whats up, guys. Y'all doing anything this evening?

Another thought: Someone upthread referred to the HRT sniper, and him getting photographed before the rubble, etc. I have mixed thoughts about that dude. But ultimately, I think he's the kind of guy who's built to be an absolute American hero as a US Marine, or a Seal team member, Army Ranger, etc. I don't think domestic law enforcement is a good role for him. And I didn't like how disingenuous he was when talking about how, if he'd taken the shot and killed Koresh, he'd have spent "the rest of his life in prison." Don't give me that bullshit. He was an HRT sniper so he damn sure knew who Lon Horiuchi is, which means he knew damned well that Horiuchi put a round through Vicki Weaver's brain when she was just standing on a porch holding a child, and there was never a chance he was going to prison. All this dude had to say was "Koresh was pointing a weapon at me" or "he made a sudden move" and that's that. Not that I'm arguing he should've done that. I don't thinking going back to the Hoover/Purvis days of the FBI showing up and just turning the bad guys into swiss cheese is a solution.

Watched this last night. Not sure why anyone would think they were trying to be "sympathetic" to the Davidians. They gave all the parties equal time. The ATF, HRT, the Davidians and the press. It's been so long and I've seen both documentaries and dramatic portrayals of what happened, so I expected not to be angry, but that wound up being a mistaken assumption. Plenty of people on both sides had a hand in this nightmare, but whoever it was who authorized the decision to deploy tear gas against 20+ children, I'd like to get my hands around that dude's neck.

Final thought on Cleopatra: RIchard Burton described Elizabeth Taylor's breasts as "apocalyptic" and said they could "topple empires." Just wanted to confirm they're fucking glorious.

So, I saw that Cleopatra was on HBOMax and I've always enjoyed it, so I'm enjoying it once again, when something grabs my attention that, for reasons I don't know, I never paid attention to before. During the Battle of Actium, Cleopatra's ship has a map table set up so that she can see how the battle's unfolding as they move the pieces around. Given that it's a naval battle, the table is the sea and instead of tokens depicting legions, it's covered with little toy ships. They made the decision, obviously for cinematic effect, to have the ships launching incendiary ballistae at each other, resulting in a ton of ships going up in flames. Apparently, whoever was in charge of the map table for Cleopatra was so incredibly devoted to detail, that they set the little toy ships on fire. I've seen this movie numerous times since I was elementary school aged in the 1970's. No idea why this ever grabbed my attention before, but this time it caused one of those laughing fits that just get worse the more you try to stop laughing. Of all the silly shit they did in these old, epic films, for me this positively takes the cake.

That, and the fact that LA is a shithole.

Okay, just now had the opportunity to watch episode 3. So the Gallardo boys rented a gun from the "dealer" in Hooverville, and therefore they actually shot Brooks? But Perry's measuring tape research convinced him they didn't. Somehow. But that would explain the younger one's fingerprint on the car, and their possession of the wallet. So what, then? Perry will lose the case but expose a bigger scandal? My gut's telling me that, somehow, the Gallardo boys are innocent, so the frame up of them was more than just one of opportunity, but deliberately orchestrated. We'll see how wrong I am. Who put the phone number to the mental hospital in Brooks' wallet and why? Obviously someone who wants to bring down the McCutcheons, so that leaves us with the swimming pool oil chick? What was the point of showing us that Detective Holcomb has a family? Or was the point just to show us that he has a fat wad of cash, and that he wants to get his family out of LA? Perry needs to warn his son that at some point a few years from now, his mom's gonna try to bang him.

"They signed up to use their weapons"

Possibly nsfw

Nvm I found it

Iirc there were no repercussions either Are there ever?

There's a dozen different ways they could have not fucked this whole thing sideways.

Man, I wish. Would love a glance at the pink nipples on those bongos.

What Waco doc are y'all talking about?

And of course, if Buster was the one they had hope for the future, regarding joining the family firm, carrying on that tradition, etc, the idiot gets himself kicked out of law school at SCar for plagiarism. I've no idea who or what he plagiarized, nor what kind of assignment it was, but what a dumbass way to torpedo your law school education and potentially your career. I suppose it's possible he really didn't want that life for himself so he unconsciously undermined it himself, but it's probably more likely that he's just a lazy, entitled shit who figured he could cheat his way through life.

That's fascinating that you posted a video about that specific scene. I don't know how many times I've seen The Godfather (gotta be at least 20 over the decades), but every time I've watched it I'm always struck by how subtle, but how incredibly important, those few seconds are, as Michael's attention is drawn to the fact that Enzo is shaking like a leaf, but his own hands are very still and composed. I don't know if I agree completely with what this guy is inferring from the scene, but that's not important. What's important is the recognition that the shot is itself hugely important to the plot and the film's theme. For me, it seems more of a discovery for Michael than symbolizing just the decision he's made to join the family business. He's becoming aware that he's cool as a cucumber under highly stressful and frightening circumstances, which reinforces the confidence he'll need later on to assume total leadership of the family. There's an interesting thing that happens in the novel, that wasn't included in the film, that relates to this. I'll spoiler tag in case anyone hasn't read the novel but wants to at some point:

I believe Stephen's car was out of gas where it was discovered, was it not? However, the first thing that went through my mind when you suggested that Alex "pulled him over" was that Stephen's wallet was sitting on the car seat, wasn't it? Certainly makes sense he would've pulled out his wallet in preparation for showing his license if he got pulled over. And it certainly does not make sense that he would've left his wallet behind if he walked off to buy a container of gasoline somewhere. I doubt we'll ever have any idea what happened to Stephen, which is a tragedy. Poor kid. Found lying in the middle of a farm road where it's patently obvious that he was not struck by a vehicle in that spot, which means somebody moved his body, which means murder, or at the very least conspiracy after the fact. The fact being that his skull managed to get crushed in. Wouldn't surprise me if "they" siphoned the gas out of his car after the murder to make it appear as if he'd run out.

He was definitely convinced he killed Sauron. And when Sauron asked him, "Do you remember me?" it was obvious through not only that interaction but also a later one when Adar asked him, "Who are you?" that he didn't recognize Sauron in his current form. But it doesn't matter. You can't just "kill" Sauron like you would kill a mortal.

Fantastic idea for a thread. Nice job. I've mentioned this on one of The Godfather threads, but I'll discuss it again here for those who might not have seen that one. I love it when the camera work itself is used to emphasize, or in this case foreshadow the film's theme--which in the case of the Godfather is the fall from grace of Michael Corleone and how that corrupts his soul, and most importantly, what it eventually costs him. Prior to this scene it's been made clear to us that Michael did not want to be part of the family business, and explained to Kay that their criminal life and the violence associated with it was repellant to him. "That's my family, Kay. It's not me." All of that changes in this scene. As he explains in Godfather III, "I had a whole different destiny planned out. But my father was in danger, what could I do?" In this scene, as Michael explains that they can't wait to take action because regardless of what Sollozzo says, killing Vito is necessary for his business to move forward, Michael outlines his plan to murder Sollozzo and McCluskey--an act that will forever alter his future and make him an integral part of the Corleone family business. As Michael begins his explanation, we've got a pretty wide angle view of Vito's office. We can see Tom Hagen still in the picture, and Sonny has just exited to the right. Clemenza and Tessio are in the room as well. The camera begins to slowly zoom in on Michael as he outline the plan. And by the moment he says, "I'll kill 'em both," Michael is all alone in the shot, beautifully foreshadowing that his decision will eventually cost him everything he loves, and leave him isolated and alone in the world. We get a similar shot of him sitting alone at the end of II, and at the end of III, when he dies. If I did it right, the video should begin as he starts his proposal.

I was going to ask if a documentary film crew--and interviewer and cameraman--show up at an unsuspecting lady's home, followed by some stilted acting and a jazz sountrack.