The Briefing Room
General Category => Sports/Entertainment/MSM/Social Media => Topic started by: mystery-ak on July 27, 2012, 11:46:37 pm
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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4459137/THE-Queen-joins-James-Bond-for-the-most-amazing-opening-ceremony-ever.html (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4459137/THE-Queen-joins-James-Bond-for-the-most-amazing-opening-ceremony-ever.html)
Her Majesty's Secret Service: Queen's surprise star role with James Bond in most amazing opening ceremony ever
By Derek Brown
Published: 27th July 2012
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THE Queen made her surprise acting debut in front of billions tonight as she joined James Bond to launch the London Olympics with the most spectacular Games opening ever staged.
In a breathtaking ceremony masterminded by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, Daniel Craig as Secret Agent 007 was seen arriving at Buckingham Palace by black cab to meet Her Majesty.
He escorted her to a patriotically-decorated helicopter before they flew off and both appeared to parachute into the Olympic Stadium a few miles away in East London. At the exact moment the "daredevils" reached the ground, Her Majesty appeared in the stadium wearing an identical salmon-coloured dress as the parachutist, to a standing ovation.
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more at link
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Paul McCartney performs Hey Jude at the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
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American athletes enter the Olympic Stadium at the Opening Ceremony
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Comedian Rowan Atkinson makes a surprise appearance with the London Symphony Orchestra - and doesn't appear to be giving it his full attention.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9433039/London-2012-Opening-Ceremony-first-review.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9433039/London-2012-Opening-Ceremony-first-review.html)
London 2012 Opening Ceremony, first review
Danny Boyle's London 2012 opening ceremony was a triumph of punk over pomp, says Bernadette McNulty.
5 out of 5 stars
By Bernadette McNulty
9:56PM BST 27 Jul 2012
Artistically, Olympic ceremonies are strange beasts. Taking years to produce, they are performed only once, with an enormous cast of non-professionals. They are simultaneously theatrical productions – performed in the technically awkward, cavernous round of a sports stadium – and global TV spectaculars. They must invent a script that translates the abstract gobbledy gook of Olympic philosophies and the host nation’s idealised image into a largely wordless dramatic narrative using music, dance, mime and circus skills combined with an earth-shaking Bonfire night firework display and in the modern age, a megawatt flashing light show. They are creative and technical nightmares and by their very nature, utterly surreal.
Building on Leni Riefenstahl’s marching blueprint and getting souped up by the Americans in 1984 with the pizzazz of stadium rock, ceremonies have evolved a kind of universal language and aesthetic: bright, neon colours; tightly choreographed, synchronised bodies creating geometric shapes; futuristic set designs with tiered central stages; doves, flames, catsuits, pom poms and cute children. Their drama lies in their gloss and shine, their inhuman scale and shape and clean perfection, artistically transcending mundane reality.
After watching the final rehearsal on Wednesday night I can say this was certainly not a conventional show. Director Danny Boyle might have kept the flames and cute children and there were plenty of showpiece bangs but in every other respect his opening gambit ripped up the ceremonies rule book. This was about punk rather than pomp. His palette for ‘The Isles of Wonder’ wasn’t primary brights but mud hues and mattes, a Lowry-ish smudge of grass greens, dirty whites, industrial greys and even black. There were more cloth caps and bloomers than Lycra and sequins. In place of doves, there were cows and ducks. Instead of building a glittering space age set, Boyle filled the stadium with earth and bricks, conjuring strange centrepieces out of lopsided hillocks, belching chimney stacks, coal mines, hospitals and red-bricked houses.
Thematically too Boyle’s view of British history was quietly subversive, stripped of any iconic grandeur or royal pageantry. This was the story of migration and immigration, protest and rebellion. From the land to the cities, the working classes were shown literally rolling the grass away from under their feet. A carousel of Jarrow marchers, miners, pearly kings and carnival queens swirled around the arena, visually somewhere between Les Miserable and the people’s procession artist Jeremy Deller created for the Manchester International Festival in 2009.
Compared to the usually banal platitudes of global togetherness and national pride that goes on at an Olympics ceremony, this seemed breathtakingly politically charged. However, I don’t think Boyle was trying to make some agit-prop point, although there were echoes of his formative late Seventies years in the boundary pushing Joint Stock theatre company. The working class Irish Catholic boy from Bury who came of age during that punk decade, like many of his contemporaries in the Nineties Brit pop and art generation including Damien Hirst and Jarvis Cocker, has made a career out of depicting the working classes with sly humour and subversive surrealism rather than chippy anger. Boyle’s films have so often been about groups and communities of outsiders rather than individuals, whether that was Glasgow junkies, Thai beach bums or Indian slum kids.
But this ceremony was also about Boyle the award-winning, popular filmmaker and it was steeped in his signature moves: break-neck speed montages, widescreen angles, fast zooms. More than anything it was a love letter to British film, TV and music, from Mary Poppins to Harry Potter, Lionel Bart to Soul 2 Soul. With his musical partners Underworld it paid homage to some of the greatest British hits of the last fifty years spliced together with the anarchic energy of the rave culture Boyle was the first director to really understand. The whole audience on Wednesday was singing along and this was easily the best section for me that really brought the whole show to life, and made me proud of modern Britain.
I’m not sure it all worked. Without pushing those traditional ceremonial buttons so cravenly Boyle traded the visceral punch of a Lady Gaga-style arena show for a more opaque experience. Kenneth Brannagh is a fine actor but lacks the feral magnetism of Mark Rylance and overall, without powerful lead characters, the show periodically lost focus combined sometimes with an almost baffling level of visual detail. The pacing veered towards either too slow or too fast – I wanted to listen to so many of those great songs for longer – and I have no idea what the rest of the world will make of shire horses or men in top hats and tails gathered around a tree spouting Shakespeare. Maybe they will think it is the strangest episode of Downton Abbey they have ever seen.
Nonetheless, this opening ceremony was original, cool, intense and utterly compelling. More importantly underneath the old punk snarl, Boyle is a generous director unafraid of sentimentality or unabashed joy, and he filled this ceremony with heart and soul. You could see it reflected in the passion of all those thousands of volunteers dancing and drumming. Rather than turning them into anonymous cogs in a ceremonial wheel he gave them characters or fantastic choreography and in doing so made them all into star performers. It was the hardest directorial job in the world but Boyle did us all proud.
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Two critiques so far....Why can't NBC show this live instead of a 3.5 hour tape delay.....and why is everything announced if French first then English......grrrrrr
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The skit of the Queen and James Bond was priceless....I enjoyed that along with the Queens corgies..lol
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LMAO..they are doing a tribute to their NHS....National Health Service...they love it soooo :silly:
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I tuned it out after the whole tribute to British-Obamacare.
The whole intro has been lame IMO.
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The skit of the Queen and James Bond was priceless....I enjoyed that along with the Queens corgies..lol
That WAS great!
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The Queen and Bond thing was funny, although I've never liked Daniel Craig as Bond. (Sean Connery FTW!)
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LMAO..they are doing a tribute to their NHS....National Health Service...they love it soooo :silly:
Yes. The Tories are not particularly happy about it either, apparently. I was trying to watch it earlier on CTV (as I mentioned) and this is where I had to turn it off.
However, a rather right-leaning former classmate of mine has perhaps the most amusing comment.
"The revolutionary war suspiciously appears to be absent from the history of Great Britain."
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"The revolutionary war suspiciously appears to be absent from the history of Great Britain."
They've pretty much blocked out the memory that "rather nasty rebellion."
Anyway, channeled surfed back by, and could not believe how utterly retarded this is? Are they trying to outdo the Chicoms or something because if that is the case, this is an epic fail.
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NBC seems to be running Obama commercials a lot.
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Watching it off and on here and so far I give it a C-....... one of the best ever was the LA Summer Olympics IMHO
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The cameramen really love to keep the camera on the hotties. 88devil
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The cameramen really love to keep the camera on the hotties. 88devil
Yeah I noticed that too....will the USA ever enter...... whistle
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US should be up next.
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I love the Olympic Theme by John Williams.
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The Turkish flag bearer was a hottie.
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Get the camera off the freaking Wookie.
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I can't take any more. We had to turn the TV off.
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I couldn't believe that Costas admitted that Romney saved the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City when they showed Mitt and his wife.
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I can't take any more. We had to turn the TV off.
They are up to Gambia -- so far I have caught bits and pieces as I switched back and forth with BOR on Fox...
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Okay the USA outfits are hideous with those FRENCH beret's.......
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Well, no matter where the games are held when they light the flame, it really is an emotional moment.
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Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/28/james-bond-the-queen-paul-mccartney-mr-bean-rock-olympics-opening-ceremonies/#ixzz21tQd3HIc
James Bond, the Queen, Paul McCartney, Mr. Bean rock Olympics opening ceremonies
Published: 12:43 AM 07/28/2012
LONDON (AP) — Shaken and stirred.
James Bond and the queen teamed to give London a wild Olympic opening like no other.
And creative genius Danny Boyle turned Olympic Stadium into a jukebox, cranking up world-beating rock from the Beatles, the Stones and The Who to send the planet a message: Britain, loud and royal proud, is ready to roll.
Now over to you, athletes. It was a brilliant introduction to kick off a 17-day festival of sports.
Queen Elizabeth II, playing along with movie magic from director Boyle, provided the highlight of the Oscar-winner’s high-adrenaline show. With film trickery, Boyle made it seem as if Britain’s beloved 86-year-old monarch and its most famous spy parachuted into the stadium together.
Daniel Craig as 007, the queen, playing herself, and her royal corgis starred in a short movie filmed in Buckingham Palace.
“Good evening, Mr. Bond,” she said before they were shown flying by helicopter over London landmarks and then leaping – she in a salmon-colored dress, Bond dashing as ever in a black tuxedo – into the inky night over Olympic Park.
At the same moment, real skydivers appeared as the stadium throbbed to the James Bond theme. And moments after that, the monarch appeared in person, accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip.
Organizers said it was thought to be the first time she has acted on film.
“The queen made herself more accessible than ever before,” Boyle said.
Boyle sprang another giant surprise in giving seven teenage athletes the supreme honor of igniting the Olympic flame. Together, they touched torches to trumpetlike tubes that spread into a ring of fire and then rose elegantly to jointly form the cauldron – which organizers said would be moved Sunday night to one end of the stadium.
It was the end of the journey for the flame. Some 8,000 torchbearers, mostly unheralded Britons, had carried it on a 70-day, 8,000-mile journey from toe to tip of the British Isles, whipping up enthusiasm for a $14 billion Olympics taking place during a severe recession. The final torchbearers were kept a closely guarded secret – remarkable given the scrutiny on these, the first Summer Games of the Twitter era.
The evening started with fighter jets streaming red, white and blue smoke and roaring over the stadium, packed with a buzzing crowd of 60,000 people, at 8:12 p.m. – or 20:12 in the 24-hour time observed by Britons.
The show never caught its breath with a nonstop rock-and-pop homage to cool Britannia. The soundtrack veered from classical to irreverent. Boyle daringly included the Sex Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant” and a snippet of its version of “God Save the Queen” – an anti-establishment punk anthem once banned by the BBC. With a singalong of “Hey Jude,” Beatle Paul McCartney closed the spectacle that ran 45 minutes beyond its scheduled three hours.
The encyclopedic review of modern British music included a 1918 Broadway standard adopted by the West Ham football team, the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” by still another Queen, and other tracks too numerous to mention, but not to dance to.
Boyle, who directed “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Trainspotting” while developing into one of Britain’s most successful filmmakers, had a ball with his favored medium, mixing filmed passages with live action to hypnotic effect, with 15,000 volunteers taking part in the show.
Actor Rowan Atkinson as “Mr. Bean” provided laughs, shown dreaming that he was appearing in “Chariots of Fire,” the inspiring story of a Scotsman and an Englishman at the 1924 Paris Games.
Headlong rushes of movie images took spectators on wondrous, heart-racing voyages through everything British: a cricket match, the London Tube, the roaring, abundant seas that buffet and protect this island nation, and along the Thames, the river that winds like a vein through London and was the gateway for the city’s rise over the centuries as a great global hub of trade and industry.
Wearing his yellow winner’s jersey, newly crowned Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins rang a 23-ton Olympic Bell from the same London foundry that made Big Ben and Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell. Its thunderous chime was a nod to the British tradition of pealing bells to celebrate the end of war and the crowning of kings and queens.
Former world heavyweight champion and 1960 Rome Olympic gold medalist Muhammad Ali also was cheered when he appeared briefly with his wife, Lonnie, before the Olympic flag was unfurled.
The show portrayed idyllic rural Britain – a place of meadows, farms, sport on village greens and picnics – that then gave way to the industrial transformation that revolutionized the nation in the 18th and 19th centuries, the foundation for an empire that reshaped world history. Belching chimneys rose where only moments earlier live sheep had trod.
The Industrial Revolution also produced terrifying weapons, and Boyle built in a moment of hush to honor those killed in war.
“This is not specific to a country. This is across all countries, and the fallen from all countries are celebrated and remembered,” he explained to reporters ahead of the ceremony.
“Because, obviously, one of the penalties of this incredible force of change that happened in a hundred years was the industrialization of war, and the fallen,” he said. “You know, millions fell.”
Olympic organizers separately rejected calls for a moment of silence for 11 Israeli athletes and coaches slain by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
The parade of nations featured most of the roughly 10,500 athletes – some planned to stay away to save their strength for competition – marching behind the flags of the 204 nations taking part.
Greece led, as the spiritual home of the games, and Team Great Britain was last, as host. Prince William and his wife, Kate, joined in thunderous applause that greeted the British team, which marched to the David Bowie track “Heroes.” A helicopter showered the athletes and stadium with 7 billion tiny pieces of paper – one for each person on Earth.
Bahrain and Brunei featured female flagbearers in what has been called the Olympics’ Year of the Woman. For the first time at the games, each national delegation includes women, and a record 45 percent of the athletes are women. Three Saudi women marching behind the men in their delegation flashed victory signs with their fingers.
“This is a major boost for gender equality,” said International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, overseeing his last games as head of the IOC before he steps down in 2013.
Rogge honored the “great, sports-loving country” of Britain as “the birthplace of modern sport,” and he appealed to the thousands of athletes assembled before him for fair play.
“Character counts far more than medals. Reject doping. Respect your opponents. Remember that you are all role models. If you do that, you will inspire a generation,” Rogge said.
The queen then said: “I declare open the games of London, celebrating the 30th Olympiad of the modern era.”
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Well, that is an amazing firework display!
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one last note -- Mohamad Ali just looked very frail and not even really aware of what he was doing... very sad.
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When they said the London Symphony Orchestra was now going to play Chariots of Fire, I said, good time for a snack-break. Until the camera showed Rowan Atkinson. At that moment I was glued to my chair and yelling for my son (a Bean fan) to come running.
The National Health Service tribute was a bit creepy. Reminded me of the way they sold FDR’s National Recovery Administration (NRA) and New Deal socialist policies to the public.
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I can't take any more. We had to turn the TV off.
We went out shopping for golf equipment and then dined out, so when we finally got home and turned on the TV, we tuned to another channel for the local news. After that, though, we did catch the last few minutes of this extravaganza and I thought it was all just too silly. The Who? Paul McCartney singing "Hey Jude"? What the heck does that have to do with an international sporting event? I'm confused. It cost $42 million - where are the complaints about how that could have fed poor people?
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Traditionally, once the athletes have marched in and gathered together, the ceremony becomes one big celebration party. I fell asleep before the USA even marched in, hard as I tried to stay awake for them.
Who ended up lighting the Olympic torch?
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Traditionally, once the athletes have marched in and gathered together, the ceremony becomes one big celebration party. I fell asleep before the USA even marched in, hard as I tried to stay awake for them.
Who ended up lighting the Olympic torch?
Beckham brought it in my boat (BTW he was not really driving the boat they had someone kneeling down driving it) and handed it off to someone who handed it off to 7 people who lit these copper petals which then rose skyward and formed the flame -- that part was actually pretty awesome.
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I managed to stay awake long enough to see Beckham "driving" the boat--great looking boat!
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I managed to stay awake long enough to see Beckham "driving" the boat--great looking boat!
Yes it was and it looked amazing coming down the Thames.
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Yeah it did, that is for sure. Beckham didn't look too bad, either. :beer:
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Yeah it did, that is for sure. Beckham didn't look too bad, either. :beer:
Nope... he is very good looking -- too bad he has all those tattoos, though.
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We went out shopping for golf equipment and then dined out, so when we finally got home and turned on the TV, we tuned to another channel for the local news. After that, though, we did catch the last few minutes of this extravaganza and I thought it was all just too silly. The Who? Paul McCartney singing "Hey Jude"? What the heck does that have to do with an international sporting event? I'm confused. It cost $42 million - where are the complaints about how that could have fed poor people?
Our ancestors across the pond, alas, have gotten too continental, I believe. They as a society and a country have become spendthrift, even worse than we are.
For one, we have something they lack: a spirit of independence and liberty. They, having been accustomed to several centuries of monarchy, are much quieter and more orderly when it comes to government spending and intrusion. So the idea of a big government doesn't disturb them as much. The European ideal of a welfare-state society fits right in over there. Government cares for them, protects them, even entertains them, and it doesn't matter how much it costs as long as it's for the betterment of society as a whole. Here in America, government represents us instead. (Or, at least, it's supposed to.) As much as I've spoken positively of the crown over there (and I believe if King George III had been more like the current Elizabeth II, we wouldn't have left the Crown), I still prefer the American ideal better.
Perhaps that is why the US and the UK have seen their special relationship strained in recent decades.
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Nope... he is very good looking -- too bad he has all those tattoos, though.
I'm noticing more tats this Olympics than ever. But speaking of good looking, how about that swimmer Ryan Lochte and his all-American looks?? He's quite a good swimmer and shellacked Phelps today. He seems like a nice kid, and hard-working too.
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Tats are just :3: IMHO.
I always hate seeing a beautiful woman and then noticing her tattoos, especially the tramp stamps.
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I'm noticing more tats this Olympics than ever. But speaking of good looking, how about that swimmer Ryan Lochte and his all-American looks?? He's quite a good swimmer and shellacked Phelps today. He seems like a nice kid, and hard-working too.
Yep.. if I was a young girl I could see me hanging Lochte's poster in my room.