What is it like to live in a country that was bad?

[Count Zero]

And I got offended on your behalf by the depiction of the British in The Patriot...


ETA:

Are you talking to me, JB2005? If so...

Where the hell were you guys in 1939?

Uh, trying to conquer Europe?

In 1914?

On the other side...

When Russia was threatening the Indian Subcontinent in the Crimean War?

Not a country, yet, and mostly busy with the Danish.

When Napoleon was slowly absorbing Europe?

Some of us with Napoleon, some of us against him. (You can't lose that way, can you? Uhm...)

When the Argentinians were invading the Falkland Islands?

Well, us getting involved in military conflicts after WWII? Not a good idea in the early 80s.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ ya, it never got quite as bad as Colonel Jason Isaacs, did it?

 

[Count Zero]

Yeah, that was pretty bad, and what's more, the other British officials were depicted as rather campy guys in wigs.

 

[JB2005]

And I got offended on your behalf by the depiction of the British in The Patriot...


ETA:

Are you talking to me, JB2005? If so...

Where the hell were you guys in 1939?

Uh, trying to conquer Europe?

In 1914?

On the other side...



Not a country, yet, and mostly busy with the Danish.

When Napoleon was slowly absorbing Europe?

Some of us with Napoleon, some of us against him. (You can't lose that way, can you? Uhm...)

When the Argentinians were invading the Falkland Islands?

Well, us getting involved in military conflicts after WWII? Not a good idea in the early 80s.

Sorry that was directed at kevin1gamer

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Yeah, that was pretty bad, and what's more, the other British officials were depicted as rather campy guys in wigs.

And the American loyalists (what few there were) were all pricks, like Adam Baldwin's character.

 

[Mark de Vries]

Hasn't every country been bad at some point in its history? For a given value of 'bad' of course.

By the way, how simple and boring would history be if it was as black and white as that... "Those are the good guys, those are the bad guys. Good guys win, yay! The End."

 

[Count Zero]

I wouldn't mond there always being good guys and those good guys winning, but you're right, Mark, that usually it doesn't work that way. It's lots of shades of grey rather than black and white.

 

[captcalhoun]

you watch yer mouth! you started a war over flowers!

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I think he's referring to the fact that the British (or more precisely, the English) are often depicted as the villains in US movies and that villains often speak with a distinct British accent.

Be that as it may, I object to our being described as evil...

Where the hell were you guys in 1939? In 1914?

A bit late but the US did tip the balance significantly in WW1 and Britain would have been stuffed without US aid between 39 and 41. Anyway, coming in late helped to strengthen US geopolitical ambitions and to weaken its economic adversaries and their trading dominance over their empires.

When Russia was threatening the Indian Subcontinent in the Crimean War?

Wasn't Russia threatening the Ottoman Empire? Anyway, Britain and France seemed to manage Ok in that one. Britain was the dominant world power in any case, and would have told the US to mind its own business.

When Napoleon was slowly absorbing Europe?

Didn't President John Adams (the first one) almost end up with the US at war with the French at that time (1798-1800)? In those days, the French were notionally the good guys for helping out in the War of Independence that nearly bankrupted them, and hastened their own revolution. The US refused to pay their debts to France after the fall of the French monarchy, which is a tad ironic.

When the Argentinians were invading the Falkland Islands?

The US gave Britain a _lot_ of intelligence about the Argentinians -- isn't that why Caspar Weinberger received an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1988?

Or would you like me to bring up the fact that you were supporting Colonial France in Indo-China...supporting the corrupt regime of the south vietnamese because of a fear of communism?

Britain isn't a saint, but America isn't in any position to criticise.

In the end, who's good and who's bad is all down to who writes the historical record.

 

[SiorX]

Being the baddies would be a step up for us in fucking Hollywood films.

 

[Miss Chicken]

As a British man I can honestly say that we are represented by the entertainment industry probably better than we deserve on balance. Sure there are loads of films about British wankers, but only Brits ever watch them.

I am sure that Australians would be happy to watch movies about British wankers. Name a couple of such movies and I will tell you if I had seen them.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

By the way, how simple and boring would history be if it was as black and white as that... "Those are the good guys, those are the bad guys. Good guys win, yay! The End."

Boring? Probably. But I'd gladly take that risk.

I do have a very black & white world view. Perhaps excessively so. But it's what I believe.

 

[Shaytan]

Hasn't every country been bad at some point in its history?

I can only confirm that.

I do have a very black & white world view. Perhaps excessively so. But it's what I believe.

My own history tells me that's a very wrong belief.

 

[T'Girl]

None of us are responsible for the actions of our ancesters, my own cultures deeds in central and south america was far less than sterling.

George Carlin: "... and what did the Germans do that as so bad? They wanted to rule the world. And so Winston Churchill stood up before Parliament and said, "Rule the world? That's our bloody job!"

 

[Mark de Vries]

I do have a very black & white world view. Perhaps excessively so. But it's what I believe.

I wasn't specifically referring to your worldview, but I'm going to reply to it anyway .

Personally, I find the nuances and the details very interesting. To take a given 'bad country' and discover what the people actually did or did not do, and what they were like. It often leads to a different opinion than I had before.

Sure, the Nazis were bad, no doubt about that. But then you have Oscar Schindler, member of the Nazi party, who did good all the same. Just an example.

 

[selina]

I get the feeling that contemporary movies do not divide nations as strictly in “good guys” or “bad guys” as the old movies used to do that – unless the movie involves an Arabic country . The “bad guys” are a mirror for the events that concern a society at that moment. So naturally, there is a change, depending on the time the movie was made. Therefore, I’m used to the fact that there are many movies in which Germans end up as the bad guys and it doesn’t bother me much. That is just the way it is. However, I believe that today they focus more on being authentic in movies, which is a good thing because stereotypes are being avoided.

What I am having trouble with is when I’m treated “funny” because of my German nationality. For instance, I lived in Scotland for about 11 months after graduating from school and worked there in a school for children with special needs. I loved it, by the way. One evening I was going to the movies with another German co-worker and we were taking the bus. We were having a conversation in German and two teenagers, who were sitting behind us, shouted: “Uh, Germans!” when they heard us. Then they got up and chose to sit as far away from us as possible. Now, I understand that people are still bitter because of WWII (and probably even WW I, too) and they have every right to be. But I was born after the war and so were those teenagers. So sometimes, I find it hard that people, even young people, judge me for the things my grandparents did (and even they haven’t done it voluntarily). I guess what Count Zero posted is true: You really have to have a thick skin.

 

[RoJoHen]

You gits rebelled removing a perfectly good colony from our empire because you didn't like our tea taxes. And you call us evil?

Maybe you should have had better tea.

 

[RJDiogenes]

If there's a better reason for a Revolution than a tax on Tea, I don't know what it is.

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm just sayin, if the tea was better, maybe we wouldn't have minded* being taxed for it.


*I think the past-tense of "minded" should be "mound." Who's with me?

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I am glad I live in America where we are never presented as the bad guys in anything.

Now I am off to see this new movie called Avatar. I haven't heard too much about it, anybody know what it's about?