Keep Your Opinions to Yourself

I had hopes for Elizabeth but I don’t think I could’ve been any more disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I think that beginning was very powerful and set the tone for the rest of the movie and I don’t think production could’ve done a better job picking music that made every scene feel complete but I was still disappointed.

The purpose of the movie was to depict Queen Elizabeth’s journey from being a shy, soft-spoken queen to a more powerful queen. You can see her maturity as you see the difference in how she addresses her people and how she addresses the military. She went from not being able to get the point across clearly to being able to be confident and believe in what she’s saying. The only think I could focus on was how quick Sir Williams was to tell her that she needed to find a man. Queen Elizabeth had bigger and better things to worry about and he Sir Williams had the audacity to throw in finding a man on top of that saying that “she is only a woman.” I have never rolled my eyes so hard. She is a strong, independent women who don’t need no man. *inserts crown emoji* 

Seriously, what’s up with that? I get the whole find love and be happy sappy shit but a woman can only run a country if a man is by her side? Complete bullshit, count me out. I didn’t even want to watch the rest of the movie because I was so angry. Sir Williams can go fall into the gates of hell. I, personally, think that Queen Elizabeth did an exceptional job especially when we’re so used to seeing rulers taking advantage of their power. Kudos to her for not being a distorted ruler. Maybe I would be more thrilled about the movie if Sir Williams would have kept his unwanted/unneeded suggestions to himself but I was not a fan of this movie.

Snitches Die in Ditches

Have you ever had that friend that dared you to do something bad and you kind of hesitated? You quickly went back and forth between “yeah, I’m gonna do it,” and “my mom would probably ground me for this!” You finally decide and just go for it and do it. You’re real hype about it and then you get caught . . . and your friend snitches on (as if he/she wasn’t the one to freaking dare you in the first place). That right there, that’s just down right dirty. I mean, how could you just throw someone under the bus like that?! You couldn’t just let me have my moment, you just HAD to snitch, huh?

           Sound like someone familiar? *cough cough* Marcus Brutus! Ding ding ding, we have a winner! His people complained about Caesar not listening to them and being a tyrant so he thought the way to handle this was by killing Caesar. I don’t know about you guys but whenever I have a problem with someone my first thought isn’t to kill them. I’ll be honest, I’ve probably thought about hitting someone in my head a couple more times than normal but hey, I still didn’t think about killing them. Why was that Brutus’ first option?! Has he never had a problem with someone? I’m sure he fought over something with somebody before, right? I just need answers.

            He thought he was doing Rome a favor but he was very bold to put Caesar’s death back on the people so quickly. Oh, the audacity! Take some personal responsibility Brutus, sheesh. I just think that if he came up with the “solution” and carried out the plan, he should take the blame when questions are raised. That just seemed like the logical thing to do but instead, to my disappointment, he decided to be weak and take the cop-out way. That’s what we do when we’re younger, not when we are adults, ya know? Get it together Brutus, get a freaking grip and grow up. I guess I can't be too disappointed that Brutus is a little 5-year-old snitch again because we already knew the story/story-line but sheesh, Shakespeare, I had high hopes, man, high hopes. Well, snitches die in ditches, well, maybe Brutus didn't die in a ditch but ya know, karma.

Caesar the Merciful

I have to admit, while reading Plutarch’s take on Caesar’s life, the beginning was absolutely boring. I think I’ve read about more interesting things in a National Geographic magazine. Yikes! I kept reading though because, ya know, Dr. MB told us to.

For the past couple of classes, we’ve talked about what we can take from media and in the midst of reading, I came to realize that I love how Plutarch painted Caesar’s image. He presented Caesar as both an honorable man and a great leader although some would paint him as arrogant. I thought his response to be captured was very fitting of his character. He told his pirate captures that he was worth far more than a ransom and if that isn’t bravery, tell me what is. I know that if I was captured by pirates, I wouldn’t be telling them my worth because I feel like I wouldn’t even get out a full sentence without a sword through my neck. Although the pirates caught my attention for a little bit, I am not a huge fan of them.

My favorite part of reading about Caesar’s love life. I absolutely LIVE for these stories because I just want to grab a bowl of popcorn and see what goes down! Some label Caesar as an arrogant man but when he finds out that his brother and his wife had an affair, the only words I could stumble across were compassionate and merciful. I could only imagine his face at first would look a little like this: 

 

DIVORCE HER! DIVORCE HER! Thank God he did. I thought I was going to read about how he was going to see revenge and order her head on a silver platter but instead, he showed mercy towards his ex-wife and his brother. “Why?!,” is all I could think. They both betrayed him and he remained an honorable man and remained the bigger person and didn’t ruin them. Think about what usually happens to a convicted cheater . . . nothing good, right? He saved their asses and for the life of me, I can’t figure out what compartment of his heart he dug this kindness from because most people would jump at the opportunity to ruin the cheater’s lives.

I think Goldworthy’s portrayal of Caesar and the Caesar that we meet in Plutarch could be great friends. Yes, I know it is one person (haha) but what I mean is that if Goldworthy’s Caesar and Plutarch’s Caesar were made into little cartoon characters, it’d be like meeting your twin after not knowing them for some years. What's up, twin! 

Although I wanted some juicy divorce stories, I am also happy that Caesar remained the honorable man he was and didn’t stoop to his ex-wife’s and his brother’s level. Kudos to him.