Anyone going to see the Downton film?

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by Serial thread killer, Jul 14, 2018.

  1. Serial thread killer

    Serial thread killer Vice Admiral Premium Member

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    https://www.theguardian.com/film/20...-shoot-this-summer-with-series-cast-returning
    So with news that we are getting a Downton film I was just wondering will anyone be rushing off to get midnight tickets?
    Even though I watched the show I'm not too fussed about seeing the film, I think Fellowes used to rush story lines when he had 9 episodes to play with, so god help him when he's got just over an house to give anyone something to do.
    Also I can't stand lady Mary so it would be a bit hard for me to enjoy the film even if they got Jordan Peele to write the screen play.
     
  2. bigdaddy

    bigdaddy Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I always think making people pay money for a movie when the show was free for years is not the best idea. Yes I know we are on a Star trek forum but look at how bad most the movies are.

    At first I thought it was just going to be a TV movie, that makes a lot more sense to me.
     
  3. Locutus of Bored

    Locutus of Bored Yo, Dawg! I Heard You Like Avatars... In Memoriam

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    As a faithful supporter of Isis, I really hope the movie doesn't bomb, and that Downton is a hit and blows up exactly as planned on opening night in New York and Los Angeles.

    Hello, NSA.
     
  4. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    I want to see the movie. Whether I see it in the theaters or wait for On Demand will depend on the reviews, my schedule, and my budget. :)

    So I'm guessing they'll stick to the Roaring Twenties, since who the hell wants to see Lady Mary and Co. coping with the Great Depression or World War II. (And let's honest here, there's no way Maggie Smith's character would still be alive by the Blitz, not having already been an old woman when the Titanic sank in the first episode!)

    Meanwhile, people have been going to movies based on TV shows for decades now without complaints. See THE FUGITIVE, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE BRADY BUNCH, and, um, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, which has new movie coming out any day now. Ditto for THE EQUALIZER.

    Heck, I remember going to see movies based on TV shows that came out when the TV shows were still on the air: MUNSTERS GO HOME, HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS, A MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE, and the Adam West BATMAN movie. And didn't THE X-FILES pull the same stunt back in the day?
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2018
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  5. bigdaddy

    bigdaddy Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Which has nothing to do with the TV show besides the name. So really the point is mute.
     
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  6. Random_Spock

    Random_Spock Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Hoping to. Really liked the show.
     
  7. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Don't forget the theme music. And the whole "your mission, if you choose to accept it" thing.

    Granted, I don't think I've seen any of the movies since Part 3, but not because I got it for free back in the sixties. :)
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2018
  8. auntiehill

    auntiehill The Blooness Premium Member

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    I loved the show, so if the reviews are anywhere near decent, I'll definitely go see it.
     
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  9. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

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    If Maggie Smith returns, so will I. She's pretty much the only reason I kept watching the show after a few years when I realized it was a glorified soap opera.
     
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  10. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    MUTE????? :brickwall: :klingon:
     
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  11. Nyotarules

    Nyotarules Vice Admiral Moderator

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    I prefer to watch my ye olde worlde costume dramas on the TV. Love Downtown Abbey, but will wait for it to come on Netflix or Sky.
    (I might be tempted to watch Poldark on the big screen)
     
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2018
  12. Allyn Gibson

    Allyn Gibson Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Am I going to go see the Downton movie when it comes out? (Even though Lily James won't be in it.) You bet!

    Does the world really need a Downton Abbey movie? I'm far less certain of that.

    Don't get me wrong. I will love seeing the characters (and Highclere Castle) again, as well as indulge my platonic crush on Laura Carmichael. But I struggle to see what the point of it will be. Downton, at its heart, is a cheesy (and occasionally insane) soap opera. I fear the film will be an exercise in checking off boxes -- "Violet and Isabelle snark," "Robert makes a bad business decision that risks the family estate," "Mary is a total bitch," "Cora is oblivious," "Anna and Bates suffer from misfortune," "Daisy is naive about life again," "Molesley is socially maladroit," "Carson is indignant," etc. -- with only the flimsiest of plots to hold it all together and maybe a couple of big name guest stars.

    I feel like a film would need to be built around a big idea or character event -- Violet's death would work -- and then everything falls out from there.
     
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  13. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Be fair. Mary is a witty and indomitable bitch, who is not nearly as heartless as she wants people to think.

    (Yes. I'm a Mary fan.)
     
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  14. Allyn Gibson

    Allyn Gibson Vice Admiral Admiral

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    That's fair. Beneath her cold exterior is a rather sentimental person. For example, her relationships with Carson and Anna. I was only trying to caricaturize how the characters might be distilled down for a film. Ten hours per year, and Fellowes could bring in more nuance. 100 minutes, and there's far less room for that. But Mary is Fellowes' favorite character, so it's unlikely that he'd write her as the "total bitch" caricature. :)

    I do like Mary, but at heart I'm #TeamEdith, though, I admit, I truly did not like Edith in the first season.
     
  15. Nyotarules

    Nyotarules Vice Admiral Moderator

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    Downtown Abbey was already filmed it was called Gosford Park

    "The TV series Downton Abbey – written and created by Fellowes – was originally planned as a spin-off of Gosford Park, but instead was developed as a stand-alone property inspired by the film, set decades earlier"
     
  16. Nyotarules

    Nyotarules Vice Admiral Moderator

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    I never understood why Mary disliked Edith so much. It is not as if Edith was the 'pretty one.'
     
  17. Allyn Gibson

    Allyn Gibson Vice Admiral Admiral

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    That's just how it goes in families. There doesn't have to be a reason. It's just something baked in as children and then reinforced by actions and behaviors over the years.

    The impression I got from the series over the years is that Edith was resentful of Mary because she was the oldest one and one of the two that Robert and Cora lavished their attention on. (The other, of course, being Sybil.) She was the neglected and attention-starved middle child, she was in sort of an "emotional cold war" with Mary prior to the Titanic's sinking, and after the death of Patrick (whom Mary was engaged to but who Edith was infatuated with) it all sort of broke out into the open. And for Mary, enduring this allowed her to develop into an easy dislike of Edith, who had probably never been anything but resentful toward her -- at least until the point where the Mary-Edith tension becomes one-sided because Edith simply stops caring about being a snot to Mary. I put that around the end of World War I and Edith's jilted wedding to Anthony Strallan. At that point, Edith seems to realize that a life in the country, competing with Mary, simply isn't in the cards for her, so she stops trying and decides to do something else and find her own direction.

    I also feel that Edith's growing detachment from Downton as she develops a life separate from the family (her relationship with Michael Gregson, her ownership of the magazine) was a problem for Mary, though for reasons she wouldn't be able to articulate. If asked about these things, Mary would say, "Good for Edith," in her arch way, masking some very real insecurities on her part. Mary was basically raised to marry the Crawley heir and inherit the estate; the idea of a life outside of Yorkshire was alien to her. Edith, as the middle child of a landed family, didn't have the same expectations, so she was better positioned for a cosmopolitan lifestyle. Mary, for all of her interest in modernizing the estate, couldn't let the estate and its past go, while Edith could and did. In later seasons, Mary is sometimes sarcastic about Edith's life and career in London, which I see as a manifestation of Mary's issues with Edith moving on from the estate. I also think that's why Mary doesn't understand why Edith shows up at her wedding; for Mary, Downton is everything and she sees Edith as having turned her back on Downton, without understanding that, for Edith, having a life outside of Downton doesn't mean that Downton and family are unimportant. The irony of the finale is that Edith marries into a life like the one Mary always dreamed of, and doing what's required of that life may make leading the life Edith had difficult.
     
  18. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

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    And Gosford Park is infinitely better than Downton Abbey.
     
  19. J.T.B.

    J.T.B. Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I didn't know a movie was in the works. I don't know how the TV show ended up because I stopped watching it when it became ridiculous.

    Great point. I might watch a movie if, say, the estate became unaffordable and had to be sold, and their lordships and ladyships were knocked down a few pegs, and the staff stalwarts went on to success in other fields. Otherwise, nah.

    Oh hell yeah.
     
  20. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    It's too bad they couldn't just find one of Isis' secret great-great-grandpuppies that nobody knew about because of soapish reasons... :p

    You mean you didn't know that from the get-go?

    Sadly, I have to agree that Violet's death would have to be one of the major plot points.

    However, the article did say the movie is supposed to take up where the series left off, in 1926. So Violet doesn't need to die.

    Of course if Maggie Smith refuses to participate, they'll pretty much have to kill her off.

    Been there, done that. That's how Upstairs, Downstairs ended, with the crash of 1929 and the Bellamy family became broke after James lost all his money and then killed himself.

    There are other reasons. I think Mary disliked Edith because A. Edith didn't really know how to play the "society game" the way Mary did, and B. Edith had intellectual interests and "book smarts" that Mary didn't have, was jealous of Edith because of that, and so she ramped up her petty, nasty digs at Edith in an effort to prove her own "superiority."
     
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