The experience I had with going to a liberal arts college is echoed by many of the people I know who attended them: some of the best classes you take are the ones outside your major. With that I absolutely agree. Beer in Society, for example. Brewing beer while learning about the impact it had on human civilization, enabling it essentially, while studying the history of alcohol in the U.S. and how it is even now an important part of our social ecosystem was incredible and had nothing what-so-ever to do directly with computer science.
Introduction to Film was another incredible class, the type of class I would urge anyone to take. How many classes are their where you learn to enjoy and appreciate the work of others? All sorts of things were taught in the class, from technical terms and camera techniques to how a director is only responsible for one part of the movie and how so much of it rides upon the editors who cut the movie from the epic amounts of film down to the tightly controlled sequence that people pay to see.
What might have been missing, however, was that just as an editor can butcher or enrich a film, so to can the director and actors butcher the story. This what allegedly happened to Nottingham which is now showing as Gladinhood… Robinator… Robin Hood! That’s it! Here is an excellent break down of what allegedly happened to the screen play and a plea to change to the system, its a decent bit of reading but I found it very interesting:
Robbing from the poor (writer)
How I got there was fairly intersting, but safe to say I followed the link from this not-so-flattering review (not for the easily offended, although I found it amusing and it is a much quicker read than the previous link):
Robin Hood: Anatomy of a Cluster****
In the end the movie will be added to my Netflix queue, which means that it will be on its way in to my house about ten years or so, or perhaps never. My definitive Robin Hood experience will always be the Kevin Costner version, which I watched many a time when I was about ten years old. Don’t try to change my mind – or I’ll cut your heart out with a spoon! 🙂
–Nat
