"blackadder goes forth" --brilliant anti-war "comedy" from bbc

[niyad]

for those of you who have not seen this series, I highly recommend getting it (libraries generally have it) one of the most brilliant anti-war pieces I have ever seen--lays out the stupidity and horror of war in what purports to be a comedy series. the last scene breaks your heart.

With its fourth and final chapter the chronicles of the Blackadder dynasty brought us into the twentieth century and into a much darker period of history.

It's 1917 and Blackadder is now a captain in the British Army at the Front, commanding gallant-but-dumb Lieutenant George St. Barleigh and the even dumber Private Baldrick.

Waiting in fear of the dreaded order to go 'over the top' from the patently insane General Melchett, Blackadder devises serial attempts to escape the trenches such as joining the Royal Flying Corps or becoming army entertainers, always with the offer of one of Baldrick's cunning plans.

There can barely have been a less likely setting for comedy than the trenches of the First World War.

Writers Richard Curtis and Ben Elton deserve special plaudits, then, for maintaining their hilarious standards and making this series more pointed than its predecessors; mixing the lighter jokes with a gallows humour in the face of a tragic and harrowing story.

Edmund Blackadder was now a more noble and sympathetic character than his ancestors, and his efforts to evade his inevitable fate provided not only countless laughs but also a real sense of the futility of war.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/blackaddergoesforth/

[thereismore]

1. It's a classic. Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie. Need I say more. nt

[Octafish]

2. Rowan Atkinson & Co. are geniuses.

The entire, bloody lot of them.

Baldrick, especially.

[Dennis Donovan]

3. The last episode was the best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsNRLxlBQRM

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Going up and over out of the bunker and then fading to a poppy field... makes me cry every time.

[niyad]

5. makes me cry, as well-- the first time, I kept hearing "where have all the flower gone?"

personally, I think this, and "johnny got his gun" should be required viewing for every person having to vote on going to, and funding, wars.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Never read that book but I did see

this Metallica video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8bTdBs-cw

[niyad]

8. the movie was amazing-- and the author, dalton trumbo, directed it

(you know he was blacklisted during the mccarthy witchhunts)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067277/

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. I never knew that, but somehow it doesn't surprise me. Might make

that video my new sigline in honor of our unending wars. *sigh*

[mrs premise]

7. Always loved this show

My favorite of the series was the second that took place with Queenie in Elizabethan England, but I loved them all. Nobody could deliver a stinging put down like Rowan Atkinson. I think that is why I never liked Mr. Bean, he talked so great, I did not want him to be silent. But, you are right, this was one of the most noble of the series, although it did not stop me from laughing. I remember watching it for the first time on PBS in Seattle, and I pledged so I could get the companion t-shirt, which I still have and wear often. Great show!

[niyad]

11. welcome to DU-- loved the second season--the queen was such a delightful twit.

[certainot]

10. ta for the reminder, there should be a blackadder station.

once in a while i get access to cable and there's the glass teat with a gazillion channels and not a sign of blackadder anywhere. one of the most irreverent series of all times.

is it showing anywhere in the US today?

originally it was on pbs every week where i got it, then those republicans got the funding cut. assholes.

what a tragedy....

[niyad]

12. I think you are absolutely correct!! by the way, have you seen "blackadder's christmas carol"

it was on last night, but I missed it--a parody of dickens:

Ebenezer Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson), the Victorian proprietor of a "moustache shop", is the nicest man in England.<1> He is everything that Ebenezer Scrooge was by the end of the original story; generous and kind to everybody, and sensitive to the misery of others. As a result, everybody takes advantage of his kindness, and all but Mr. Baldrick (Tony Robinson) view him as a victim, although even he is slightly more cynical than his ancestors. His business turns no profit, all his earnings going to charity and to con artists, and he lives a lonely, miserable life.

All this changes one Christmas Eve, when the Spirit of Christmas (Robbie Coltrane) makes the mistake of calling round to congratulate him for his ways. The spirit lets him see shades of the past: his ancestors Lord Blackadder and Edmund Blackadder, the butler of the Prince Regent (Hugh Laurie). Instead of being convinced that he is better than them, he grows to admire them and their wit and asks the spirit to show him what could happen if he became like them. He sees a vision of a distant future where his distant descendant Grand Admiral Blackadder is a successful, if ruthless, official of a Universe-spanning Empire about to marry the similarly ruthless and insanely ambitious Queen Asphyxia XIX. Blackadder asks the Spirit what will happen if he stays kind. As an answer, he sees an alternate vision of the same future era where his descendant is a semi-naked slave of the incompetent Admiral Baldrick.

Blackadder makes his decision, proclaiming, "Bad guys have all the fun." He wakes up a different man: bitter, vengeful, greedy for money, and insulting to everyone he meets. Although he is now more in control of his life, he misses a golden opportunity when he insults two strangers who had come to reward him for his reputed generosity. These are Queen Victoria (Miriam Margolyes) and her Prince Consort, Albert (Jim Broadbent) who were about to award him £50,000 and the title of Baron Blackadder for being the nicest man in England, they leave without doing so after being ridiculed by Blackadder. The episode ends with Blackadder looking startled when he is told the victims of his brushing-off were the royal couple.
...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackadder's_Christmas_Carol

[certainot]

13. on where? it sounds hilarious and with all the bucks laurie and atkinson

have made they ought to be able to keep something going production wise when they get bored.

i saw blackadder irregularly but i don't think i've ever seen anything so bluntly irreverent. i think i eventually saw it all but the first episodes were so weird (different) to start and then ending up jumping over the trenches. the scenes leading up to that were so hilarious and they ended there. motherfuckers doing again and again. see sexonthewrongbrain.org.

[niyad]

14. it was on bbca (bbc america)--thanks for the website--bookmarked for later

[Raster]

15. The final episode is one of those "laugh and cry" circumstances.

Powerful and moving.