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Subject: Another new Blackbeard Author: Susan [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 23:15:17 06/04/06 Sun Well, for those of us who found the 1952 version of "Blackbeard the Pirate" just a little too faithful to history ;-), the second TV movie this year about the infamous pirate is set to premiere on Saturday, June 17, at 8 p.m. on the Hallmark Channel in the U.S. This one stars Scottish actor Angus Macfayden (or "Macfadyen," depending on which website you look at!) in the title role and also features Stacey Keach, Richard Chamberlain, and Rachel Ward. According to the Hallmark Channel website, Blackbeard was "the most fearsome and notorious seafarer of them all. He killed for the reputation, and his reputation has become legend." (Meanwhile, the historical record shows Blackbeard avoided killing prisoners whenever possible, and the only time he ever engaged in battle was when he was tracked down and killed by the Navy.) The movie also has Lt. Maynard roving the seas in search of pirates (in real life he was sent on a mission specifically to catch Blackbeard, which he did in short order). And to top it all off, Blackbeard's mission in this version is to find Captain Kidd's treasure on the "ghostly Vulture Island"!!! (Anybody who's done their homework on Captain Kidd knows that his supposed hoards of treasure were quickly confiscated by the government--if there was any left uncovered, some simple arithmetic proves it didn't amount to very much.) So this looks to be yet another kiddie cartoon version of the Blackbeard story, leaving the recent National Geographic verion to stand as the most accurate to date. It may at least be interesting to see another approach to the title role. I'm not familiar with his work at all, but Macfadyen seems to have played some pretty challenging roles, including Robert the Bruce in "Braveheart," Orson Welles in "The Cradle Will Rock," and Bob's pal Richard Burton in "Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story." (Has he been typecast into playing only historical figures?? ;-)) Even so, it's hard to even imagine anyone coming close to Robert Newton's charismatic portrayal! Here's a fansite about him: <a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://www.geocities.com/tanjavasi13/Start.htm">http://www.geocities.com/tanjavasi13/Start.htm</a> And for more details on the show ... <a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/us_framework.jsp?BODY=program.jsp&CONTENT=DAM_FAM_5346404">http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/us_framework.jsp?BODY=program.jsp&CONTENT=DAM_FAM_5346404</a> [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

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[> Subject: Re: Another new Blackbeard Author: Trisha [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 23:34:55 06/13/06 Tue Hi Susan! You beat me to the news, haha. When I saw the ad on the Hallmark Channel the other day, I thought I needed to get on the chatboard and post it. Since my Internet service has been on the meltdown, I wasn't able to get on here to do so. Thanks for the "heads up" and additional info. I will be away this weekend, but I've got the TiVo ready to go! Thanks again! :-) Your friend, Trisha [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Arr! Whale's bile, that's what this be! Author: Susan [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 22:02:47 06/17/06 Sat OMG, I just started watching this new Hallmark movie (15 minutes in), and I've already lost count of the *glaring* historical inaccuracies (beyond the aforementioned ones gleaned just from the website blurb)! I'm sorry to be such a stickler, but I'm exasperated and just have to vent ... - Before the movie even starts, they display a map of Great Britain on which Cornwall has been boldly labelled "Wales"! (Meanwhile, Cardiff is still up north of the Severn.) BTW, why even bother to show the map, since the whole Blackbeard story took place in the Western Hemisphere? It's not he even got sent back to England for trial. - Crew members are shown comfortably swabbing the deck with long-handled mops instead of crouching down on their knees with "holy stones"? - The French colors flown by Blackbeard's first prize are the modern flag adopted *after* the French Revolution of 1789! (Blackbeard died in 1718.) - Blackbeard's ship meanwhile flies the jolly roger of "Calico Jack" Rackham, who sailed several years later with Anne Bonny and Mary Read. (Blackbeard's real jolly roger is well documented and was even used in the recent National Geographic movie.) - Forget the long-standing debate about whether Blackbeard came from Bristol or Jamaica--he was clearly a Scot, according to Hallmark! (Or perhaps they're mixing him up with Captain Kidd?) - Captain Benjamin Hornigold and Blackbeard argue aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge about whether to take a French slave ship, then Blackbeard tortures the defeated Hornigold? In reality, Hornigold (sailing in the Ranger) was Blackbeard's mentor and put him in charge of one of his sloops. When they captured that French slaver, Hornigold and Blackbeard split the spoils and parted amicably, with Blackbeard taking the prize and renaming *that* ship the Queen Anne's Revenge. - Hornigold went to "pay his respects" to Captain Kidd's wife after Kidd was captured for piracy?! Puh-lease! Kidd's mission was to hunt down pirates in the Indian Ocean and modern historians maintain he wasn't a pirate himself but a scapegoat; it's highly unlikely he'd have known Hornigold. (Kidd's primary nemesis was the Cornish pirate Robert Culliford.) Besides which, his well-to-do widow Sarah was busy fighting to keep possession of her New York property while mourning the death of her beloved husband. In 1703, two years after his death, she married a New Jersey merchant, making it hard to believe she would hand over a document (if she'd had one) telling the location of her late husband's treasure (if it had actually still been there) to a pirate! - John Gardiner--marooned by Kidd???? The island was already owned by Gardiner before he allowed Kidd to hide his treasure there! And it was located off the coast of Long Island--so why does the movie make it look like a tropical rain forest? - Maynard has a love affair with a governor's daughter and goes undercover as one of Teach's crew???? (Hmm, where have we heard that one before? Well, at least he doesn't accidentally call himself "Edward" in the opening narration.) Ugh! Two more hours of this? No way, I can't watch any more. It's making "Blackbeard the Pirate" look like a masterpiece! Why does nobody bother to do research for these things? None of this information is the least bit obscure, especially with the explosion of pirate literature published in the last ten years or so? (BTW, I saw a brand-new book about Blackbeard by Angus Konstam at the book store last night. He's written several other authoritative books on pirates, and this one looks pretty good--but, alas, out of my budget at the moment.) Anyway, I don't know who Hallmark's intended audience for this is (though the ending of the King Tut movie that was on right before seemed even worse; now I realize why I never watch this channel), but it sure isn't for serious pirate fans. Is this the kind of assembly-line drivel we can expect to continue now that pirate movies are suddenly hot again? If it is, I think (or at least hope) it'll be a short-lived revival. (At least with Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney has the creativity to invent *fictional* pirates, making the historical errors a lot easier to ignore.) I will say Macfadyen gives his Blackbeard more personality than James Purefoy but has nothing in the charm department; he's wily, but he's a despicable creep. Robert Newton could easily mop the deck with both of them. So was anybody else as, er, disappointed as I was in this movie, or am I being too critical again? [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Another new Blackbeard Author: Trisha [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 23:34:47 06/20/06 Tue Hi Susan, Hubby and I just finished watching this film. Boy, I was so disappointed with this one! Minutes into the film, I was ready to leave the room, but I watched the movie in its entirety. The historical inaccuracies were plentiful, and I did not like how Blackbeard was portrayed by Macfadyen. The Blackbeard in this version appeared more like a bumbling idiot instead of commanding seaman who was greatly feared by many. I could go on, but I would be on here all night. Susan, you summed it up best when you stated, "Robert Newton could easily mop the deck with both of them." I couldn't agree with you more. ;-) Well, at least I should be able to see a decent swashbuckler when PotC is released next month! Thanks for your review, I should've heeded it and watched a RN film instead. Your friend, Trisha :-) [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Another new Blackbeard Author: Susan [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:11:57 06/22/06 Thu OK, I confess, I did break down and give it another chance at 11 p.m., using all my mental powers to try and suspend my disbelief. But I still had a hard time, and I could spend well over three hours just listing all the inaccuracies (not to mention the internal flaws) that filled every scene, but I managed to resist. Also, I much prefer the charmingly charismatic Blackbeard of Robert Newton and of recorded history to the surly bully Hallmark portrays him as (although, admittedly, they are following in the footsteps of Captain Johnson). And BTW, National Geographic is the only one who got his imposing height right--didn't this guy look downright short and dumpy compared to all the actors around him? (Robert Newton, on the other hand, could easily have been made to look the right height if they hadn't cast an obviously taller actor as the romantic lead.) I wonder if Macfadyen gained weight for the role to make himself look bigger--according to that fansite, he spends most of his time working out at the gym and kickboxing! It didn't look like it here. And did you notice the red ribbons in his beard at one point--borrowed directly from "Blackbeard the Pirate" since I don't think that's mentioned anywhere either in history or in the Captain Johnson account? They finally did raise the appropriate jolly roger during the final battle 15 minutes from the end--as if somebody on the crew finally did some research at the last minute--but then Blackbeard's response sounds totally anachronistic: "Oh, you're raising the new jolly roger, Captain." Blackbeard: "You're damn straight I am." Ugh! What happened to infamous lines from recorded history like the following, which Blackbeard shouted back when Maynard hailed him: "Damnation seize my soul if I give you quarters, or take any from you." Maynard's own account adds that he called his crew "cowardly puppies." (To refer to anyone as any kind of dog was serious fightin' words in those days!) OK, granted, nobody these days would probably understand the original line, but they could have come up with something close! On a more positive note (I know it doesn't seem like it, I really did try hard to keep an open mind!), notwithstanding the script and other aspects of the production, I thought the *acting* was pretty good in this one (much better than the NG version), although Richard Chamberlain was a too over the top for me. I especially liked Nigel Terry (who you don't see in the movies much) as the fictional "Calico" Billy, and the guy who played Israel Hands was pretty good too. (But what happened to the famous scene where Blackbeard lames him and he leaves the crew? Did I miss that?) Even the guy who played Maynard was pretty good, in spite of the silly fictional storyline. And I revelled in all the footage aboard the ships (although, again, I could complain that they showed the Queen Anne's Revenge as a brigantine, while in reality Blackbeard is only recorded as having sailed in a three-masted ship or a single-masted sloop, *sigh*). And at least the ending was *somewhat* reminiscent of the true story, in terms of the confrontation between Blackbeard and Maynard (like the part where Maynard's crew hid below deck to lure Blackbeard aboard, and Blackbeard continued to fight even though severely wounded, then was beheaded), but I could still list a bevy of mistakes there too. But it's best I don't say anymore about it, huh? I'm just continuing to annoy the people who somehow think it's only a movie! ;-) (I'm sorry for wanting to see the exciting *true* story brought to life by an actor who's up to the task! I'll be waiting for the remake of the NG version with a director who doesn't apparently specialize in documentaries.) [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Something nice to say Author: Susan [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 18:57:52 06/24/06 Sat Flipping through channels in the middle of the night last night, I just happened to catch Angus Macfadyen in another movie on the History Channel: Spartacus. He played Marcus Crassus, and I was impressed by the complexity he conveyed. His character is the main villain, with charismatic leadership skills and a nasty temper, yet he also shows an almost sympathetic, somewhat tragic human side, which is what was missing from his Blackbeard. So this lack this is obviously the fault of the filmmakers, not the actor since Macfadyen clearly has the talent to play a much better Blackbeard than he did. I could also easily imagine him playing Richard Burton in that other movie! (He was a little bit chunky in Spartacus too, but at least he wasn't showing off a huge beer belly like in Blackbeard!) [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Another new Blackbeard Author: Steve Bingen [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 02:15:04 06/29/06 Thu Well, about the new Blackbeard(s) I read the postings here and thought everyone was, well a little bit harsh. I’m a sucker for anything with a pirate clopping about. So I watched the film, both of them and, ah, you actually went sort of easy on both of them, Susan and Trisha. All the earlier project had going for it was great costumes. I’d like to say that the whole physical look of the film was good, but the camerawork was so generally inept that I’ll hold off on that compliment. I mean, was this "film" supposed to look like a documentary or a feature? The thing was like some peg-legged hybrid of both. But, I did like how they costumed the actor playing Blackbeard. I also liked his physical look. The beard, the hook nose, the glint in his eyes. Physically, he was scurvier and scarier than even RN in the part. But, yup, his performance was really inert wasn’t it? The Hallmark film felt like a real movie anyway, with real actors in it. Although Rachel Ward had nothing to do but bare her back, well that’s OK. (Sidenote, her husband Bryan Brown, of “Cocktail,” and “The Thorn Birds” might have made a lively Blackbeard, you think?) And the lead at least looked like he was half-way awake. But, shesh, the guy was balding and potbellied and his beard was so stringy that they should have called him bleakbeard or blotchbeard or something…And did anyone else snicker at that outfit he was wearing? The pumped-out vest that looked like a jumper for a rambunctious toddler? Man, if real pirates wore getups like that I don’t think they scared anyone, except maybe expectant mothers, All of this just makes me think about how rare a creature RN really was. He had the look, the charisma, the talent, and the sparkle in the eye. And he worked at a time when Hollywood really knew how to make movies about pirates who if not exactly real, achieved conviction on their own terms and by force of personality. Pirates of the Caribbean 2” anyone? [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Another new Blackbeard Author: Susan [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 02:56:28 06/29/06 Thu Whew, glad to hear I went too *easy* on something for a change! I could have been a bit harsher on the NG Blackbeard, but it was so boring I barely remember it, in spite of the great sets and costumes, and they even seemed to have gotten his look right, judging from all the illustrations we have. Still, it seemed to me like the actors were all on quaaludes or something; I think it actually put me to sleep a few times; I found it real hard to pay attention to! But it least it was only two hours. It did strike me as a feature-length version of one of those "dramatizations" or re-enactments they always include in modern documentaries. The persistent narration just added to the feeling. ("Inert." That's a perfect description.) And, yeah, again, I was trying to be nice (oh no, now you got me started!), but I agree with you about the Macfadyen portrayal. (As I mentioned above, I really don't think it was the actor's fault, judging by what I saw him do in Spartacus; he really could have given his Blackbeard a fearsome presence along with some sympathetic traits.) Physique-wise he definitely seemed miscast, although there are certainly things they could have done about that! For example, in terms of costuming, the breastplate he wore in Spartacus was more slimming and made him look commanding. Also, not casting a 6'2" romantic lead to play opposite the 5'10" star (he actually looked shorter than that, but that's what his IMDb profile says) would have helped a bit too. (Or, if not, they could have used the Monty Python's "Scott of the Antarctic" technique of having the other actors stand on a box while he acts in a trench ... oops, I mean ...) Alas, the script and directing seem to have restricted him to playing a two-dimensional hooligan, so Bryan Brown might not have been able to rise very far above the material either. Though he would be a good choice to play a pirate in a better production! (I haven't seen him in a movie in a long time, but I remember he was great in FX.) And yeah, what was with that "muscle shirt" thing he was wearing? Although I was grateful at that point that he'd at least covered up that giant beer gut he was inexplicably parading around! (That's what made me wonder if he'd gained weight just for the role.) Arr, POTC 2 ho! (I'm going to miss Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa though. He was awrrsome in the first movie!) [ Post a Reply to This Message ]