Saturday 8 April 2017

Admiral and the New Historical Epics

I recently enjoyed watching the Dutch movie Admiral on Netflix. In its home country, it was originally titled Michiel de Ruyter, a name likely unknown outside of the Netherlands and military history circles. Given my interest in the subject, I had some familiarity with de Ruyter's story, so I was excited that a dramatization was so readily accessible to me. Being able to watch it was the result of an intersection between two technologically driven trends.


The first trend is the existence of Netflix itself. I'm now able to casually browse for foreign language movies. Without relying on buzz or searching for specific titles, I can now simply stumble across movies that don't have that artsy cachet that used to be necessary for foreign films to get noticed.

The second trend is the increasing affordability of CGI effects. The effects in Admiral were passable, not spectacular, but in seeing them, I was reminded of my anticipation for the movie Gladiator. (I'm not talking about that Super Bowl trailer, which is sadly no longer available online, the one comparing gladiatorial combat to NFL football while blaring out Kid Rock's "Bawitdaba." I remember thinking, "I have no idea what that movie is about, but I'm going to see it.) I was also excited about the revival of old time sword and sandal spectacles with CGI technology. Historical inaccuracies aside, my hopes were rewarded with stunning (at the time) establishing shots of ancient Rome.

With technological advances, now these capabilities have spread to mid-budget productions from outside of Hollywood. This means historical stories from outside the English-speaking world can get the cinematic treatment. In the same way that e-books give readers access to books that might not normally ship to their countries, the combination of cheaper effects and Netflix give historical enthusiasts like me access to movies about personages we might only previously know from specialized books.

Despite my enthusiasm, I have to say that the results are uneven. These new epics can be too stuck on details and play like BBC docudramas (though I'm a big fan of those), a recitation of events in chronological order. Then on the other hand, I think there's a tendency for many of these movies to play like hagiographies, giving the same sort of treatments to their subjects that we used to see during Hollywood's Golden Age. It's like the rest of the world is catching up. They are playing cheerleader, trying to please the masses.

Admiral veers into the latter category. It's a by-the-book depiction of a Reluctant Hero, full of dramatic flourishes and musical cues that feel overblown at times. Then there's the curious casting of Charles Dance (far older than Charles II would have been at the time). Perhaps this was an effort to make the English the villains of the piece, with a touch of Tywin Lannister ("A Stuart Always Pays His Debts?")

These flaws aside, Admiral at least seemed to pass the smell test of accuracy for this casual observer. What's more, I got to see a time and place in history rarely depicted in English-speaking pop culture. I certainly enjoyed seeing an important figure like Michiel de Ruyter gain exposure to modern audiences. I look forward to more relatively obscure historical figures being given the same treatment and showing up in my Netflix suggestions.

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