Netflix's Cleopatra: why we shouldn't re-imagine the past

As a historical researcher, this kind of thing brings out my homicidal tendencies. :exploding_head: This is one reason why I prefer to watch foreign media, anything not from Holywood. There is so much high-quality cinema produced outside of the USA. You just have to get used to sub-titles. But I now even use sub-titles in English language films because you can catch dialogue that is hard to understand without it.

And,

And,

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Writers have been re-imagining the past since Homer set sail for Troy.

Obviously, some re-imaginings are more successful than others, thatā€™s all.

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Thereā€™s a tiny difference between fiction and documentary.

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I think Netflix wouldnā€™t have received as much criticism if it hadnā€™t presented his work as a documentary. There is a difference between a work of fiction presented as such and a work of fiction that seeks to appear real. Netflix would have received the same criticism if it had released a documentary about flat Earth, Holocaust denial or denial that dinosaurs existedā€¦

I am very critical of political postmodernism and one of my motivations when writing my novels is to criticize it. I would also like to parody it, but my literary genre (fantasy) is not suitable for it. In fact, there are already readers who are offended if a fantastic world does not meet gender and diversity quotas and does not present 40 types of psycho-sexual trauma in adolescentsā€¦ Anywayā€¦ Iā€™m 30 years old and Iā€™m already ā€œoldā€.

Regards.

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Netflixā€™s own site describes it as a ā€œdocudrama.ā€

I would call it ā€œdocufakeā€ :crazy_face:

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Remember Shark Week, on the discovery channel ?
They did way worse. Presented the thing as a trustable documentary, 100% facts, when it was actually mostly fiction.
People only woke up when they did the story on the Megalodon.

Or that guy, way back, had this African wild life tv show where heā€™d constantly find animals trapped in holes and other rather ā€œuncomfortableā€ predicaments (and that he heroically saved time and time again), when he was actually the one who dug the hole to begin with, and threw them in.

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Itā€™s still listed under ā€œDocumentariesā€, despite this obvious damage control attempt.

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It is supposed to be a documentary portraying history. Not someoneā€™s imaginary concoction. That is the problem.

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Well, that doesnā€™t save their a$$ because docudramas still have to adhere to facts.

Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events.[1] It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and ā€œa fact-based representation of real eventā€

Maybe that is why 70K people gave it 1 star out of 10 at IMDb.

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In the US, you can publish whatever nonsense you like, and call it whatever you like. If you defame a living person, they can sue you, and the audience can vote with their feet, but ā€œhave toā€ is pretty much a non-existent concept.

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Then they mislabeled it because:

A docudrama, in which historical fidelity is the keynote, is generally distinguished from a film merely ā€œbased on true eventsā€, a term which implies a greater degree of dramatic license, and from the concepts of historical drama, a broader category which may also incorporate entirely fictionalized events intermixed with factual ones, and historical fiction, stories generally featuring fictional characters and plots taking place in historical settings or against the backdrop of historical events.

And they deserve the backlash they are getting. I wonder what happens to directors of such monstrosities?

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Since weā€™re talking about current-year Hollywood, Iā€™d expect nothing less than bigger projects in the future.

Is that what will happen with the advertising director who did the Bud-lite commercials? :innocent:

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Imagine losing your company billions of dollars and as a consequence being ā€œon leaveā€. Thatā€™s your answer. Some people just defy gravity, they always fall upwards.

The sky is (not) the limit.
May they float away happily ever after.
Dodge the ISS, never to be seen or heard of again.

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Can you imagine what it is like for a 70 something ? ā€¦ the internet is helping to bring changes to the world at electron speed, but there are gaps being filled with untruths and misinformation ā€¦

And then there is Almost Intelligence which is about to start a new revolution of thought, and so much else ā€¦ hang onto your hats, weā€™re in for a wild ride!

The only constants appear to be power, money and sex, and perhaps religion for those not engulfed in the first three ā€¦

scrive
:slightly_smiling_face:

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The Roman Catholic Church: ā€œWellā€¦ā€

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Ah yes ā€¦ thereā€™s that ā€¦ I guess that demonstrates the difference between those that have one or more of the first three, and the faithful ā€¦

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