The Greatest Game Ever Played – In A Really Boring Sport

For any and all golf fanatics that read my reviews, I guess this review is for you. Why do I say this? Well, if you have not noticed, in Britain there was this thing called The Open Championship where lots of highly paid men got to thwack a ball around a course while people applaud for their ability to hit a tiny ball into a hole many yards away and a Northern Irishman won. I think you may be able to tell I’m not keen on the sport, or at least the watching of the sport in lieu of actually playing it.

But golf seems to capture the imagination of some so I might as well get down to the spirit of things, reach for the TV remote and turn over from the golf to a film… about golf. Well there’s no time like the present – to the obligatory overview!

Joyeux Noël – Let Us Never Forget

As a British person, I have grown up with the tradition of Remembrance. Every year, since 1919 on the second Sunday of November, the closest Sunday to the 11th November (Armistice Day) we hold Remembrance Sunday. On this day we remember those who gave their lives in times of war. It is a very sombre occasion with two minute’s silence being held. It’s a sad and beautiful affair.

However while remembering the dead of those who fought is a practice I shall hold no quarrel with, I somehow think we forget those who did not fight. For those who came together upon Christmas time and walked across the corpse and shell littered no man’s land to shake hands, share stories and leave aside animosity to be together at a time of merriment. The occasion I am talking of, of course, is the Christmas truce of 1914, and this has been captured superbly by the French film, Joyeux Noël.

V for Vendetta – Going Out With A Bang!

‘Remember, remember, the 5th of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and plot,

I see of no reason, why the Gunpowder Treason,

Should ever be forgot.’

The Wipers Times – At The Front Line of Excellence

As a student of history, I often get a high out of historical films, but then again I can also get incredibly annoyed when people automatically assume that I’ll like any and all historical films available to me. The same with books. Just because it’s got a bit of history to it doesn’t necessarily guarantee I’ll like the damn thing. But then the TV film on BBC 2 called The Wipers Times come around and damn it for being so damn good.