Filmography and musings on time travel
I watched a film called Timeline last night, which James had kindly recorded for me. Has anyone seen or even heard of it?
It seems quite British, since it stars (among others) Billy Connelly, David Thewlis and Gerard Butler - but there was also an American element to it. So I'm not sure whether it's a Britflick or not. But anyway, the premise is that some scientists have used Black Hole theory (a little of the beginning was missing, so I didn't get all the science, I'm afraid!) to create a link between the modern day and Some Year of the Hundred Years War - and then they used the information they had from this to help some archaeologists working on a site in France that was destroyed in that year. Then they lose some archaeology professor guy (Connelly) in 14th C France, and decide to send his students through to rescue him (because they know about all the social stuff!).
Well, it was very enjoyable hokum anyway. I kept feeling as though Gerard Butler is the sort of person I should be attracted to, but I wasn't. Anna Friel was amusing with an often-slipping French accent. The way the students very quickly accepted that they needed to kill people to stay alive in the 14th C was nicely done. Indeed, the period detail wasn't bad at all - actually, I have a feeling it was all a leftover from Kingdom of Heaven, because not only David Thewlis but also Matron Csokas (whom some of us will always think of as Borias!) was in it (and the trebuchets looked the same, etc.). The love story wasn't very convincing, but that's a minor complaint.
From a time travel point of view, it was nice to see some particular details: they had to get the French to win the battle so that they didn't change history (though they thought nothing of killing people for whom they didn't know one way or the other whether they would have survived the battle or not, and it was fine for one or more of them to stay behind); the things they did in the past left marks that they realised they had already excavated; etc.
I won't give proper spoilers, but this is well worth a watch. You'll be surprised by what happens with Marton Csokas' character, and I bet you'd enjoy it for the fantasy drama too.
It seems quite British, since it stars (among others) Billy Connelly, David Thewlis and Gerard Butler - but there was also an American element to it. So I'm not sure whether it's a Britflick or not. But anyway, the premise is that some scientists have used Black Hole theory (a little of the beginning was missing, so I didn't get all the science, I'm afraid!) to create a link between the modern day and Some Year of the Hundred Years War - and then they used the information they had from this to help some archaeologists working on a site in France that was destroyed in that year. Then they lose some archaeology professor guy (Connelly) in 14th C France, and decide to send his students through to rescue him (because they know about all the social stuff!).
Well, it was very enjoyable hokum anyway. I kept feeling as though Gerard Butler is the sort of person I should be attracted to, but I wasn't. Anna Friel was amusing with an often-slipping French accent. The way the students very quickly accepted that they needed to kill people to stay alive in the 14th C was nicely done. Indeed, the period detail wasn't bad at all - actually, I have a feeling it was all a leftover from Kingdom of Heaven, because not only David Thewlis but also Matron Csokas (whom some of us will always think of as Borias!) was in it (and the trebuchets looked the same, etc.). The love story wasn't very convincing, but that's a minor complaint.
From a time travel point of view, it was nice to see some particular details: they had to get the French to win the battle so that they didn't change history (though they thought nothing of killing people for whom they didn't know one way or the other whether they would have survived the battle or not, and it was fine for one or more of them to stay behind); the things they did in the past left marks that they realised they had already excavated; etc.
I won't give proper spoilers, but this is well worth a watch. You'll be surprised by what happens with Marton Csokas' character, and I bet you'd enjoy it for the fantasy drama too.