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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think the Opening Ceremony was truely appalling and here's why

500 replies

kate2mum · 28/07/2012 09:49

Danny Boyle - a cool dad in jeans who thinks of the world through the prism of music of his youth. He sees everything through music.
Had Viv Westwood been in charge, for example, the history of the UK would have been seen through fashion.
But, no, a billion people have to listen to the personal playlist of a Nick Hornbyish (oh, they are friends!) music trainspotter.

Shame if you don't see the world through that sort of music - but I guess you had to be there, and DBoyle probably was.

Tribute to NHS!!! Sorry, but I didn't know everyone who works for the NHS were all angels and volunteered for free instead of working for one of the biggest employers in the country. And just remembered this event is about SPORT and the way it can transform, so why oh why demonstrate 100's of "sick" children - to demonstrate how "caring" the NHS is.

Then children's literature done by the man who bought us Trainspotting - initially I thought the scene was still about the NHS turning into a nightmare, but NO, the best way to illustrate childrens' literature is to show how truely scary it is! Yes, reading can be terrifying and books are a fearful place. Not a place of safety, or unlifting, not inspiring, not poetic, just a nightmare (where were all the positive characters???).

Only people Danny Boyle's age would thing Mary Poppins was appropriate..

My children fell asleep; they could have cut most of it, had David Beckham ride in on a motorbike, light the flame, and then have some fireworks.

Lighting designer was good though.

OP posts:
ThePigOnTheWall · 28/07/2012 12:06

Bye Brian - you can have a Torch instead

TheCrackFox · 28/07/2012 12:08

Actually I thought there was quite a lot for feminists to cheer at with the opening ceremony:

  1. The suffragettes were featured near the start of the ceremony. ( nice touch Clare Balding mentioning we got equal voting rights in 1928)
  1. The nurses, I thought were supposed to be from when the Mary Poppins film was set and it was, then, an exclusively female profession.
  1. This was the first Olympics, ever, where every single country has fielded a female competitor.
LRDtheFeministDragon · 28/07/2012 12:08

Bye Brian. Torch Smile

I have just thought - my LOTR is hazy, but surely if we forged the rings in the industrial fires, we are in effect Sauron and Britain is in fact Mordor?

Was that the message we really wanted?

Shakey1500metresloser · 28/07/2012 12:11

Forgot to mention the cauldron, bloody brilliant. I want one for the garden.

Oh, and the Queen was such a sport (see what I did there?) in her palace scene :)

LRDtheFeministDragon · 28/07/2012 12:12

crack - yes, there were good(ish) things. And bless the olympics president for saying that in his speech. It was lovely to see the woman from Saudi Arabia marching, too.

Mr Bean - Jo Brand?

Music predominantly by men.

In a roll-call of writers we had so few women, and JK Rowling was reading someone else's stuff (what about Jane Austen or the Bronte's - are they not English enough?). Enid Blyton?

The history was pretty male-centric - ooh, let's celebrate the time when we shoved children up chimneys and women died younger than at any time for about 500 years previously, great stuff! Especially loved the fact the suffragettes voiceover was partly visualized with gyrating male industrialists.

I could go on, I just won't because I am taking nit-picking to ridiculous levels now.

SkinnyVanillaLatte · 28/07/2012 12:13

Shakey I'm getting the first bid in on it when it comes up on e-bay Wink

Great for a summer bbq.

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 28/07/2012 12:14

Agree that there were some good feminist points to be proud of, and the general inclusiveness.

I don't see the NHS thing as a two fingers to the Tories at all, just a celebration of the fact that we have it.

ByTheSea · 28/07/2012 12:14

I loved it. I thought he did a brilliant job providing a very entertaining look at Britain. Even DH - cynical, die-hard, lefty republican - loved it. Both DDs and DH were sceptical about the whole Olympics thing and are now converted.

AlpinePony · 28/07/2012 12:14

I really wanted to like it, in fact I wanted to love it. I wanted to stick two fingers up at the world through what would be achieved with a more restrained budget than Beijing.

But I couldn't like it, I started cringing in uncomfortable disbelief at the metaphor displayed with the uprooted tree... The Welsh schoolchildren singing green and glorious England and I went to bed halfway through the political point-scoring of the NHS.

I wanted sport to be honoured, it just left me feeling embarrassed.

It also didn't really click (to my shame!) Until I saw the fireworks relayed this morning, what an enormous kick in the stones it is for the seriously impoverished of east London. :(

Oh well, it's done now, let's get on with the good stuff.

Danny boyle is a cunt.

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 28/07/2012 12:15

LRD - you are. Does it not make life a bit joyless to be constantly dissecting everything?

AtLeastThatsWhatYouSaid · 28/07/2012 12:15

OP your being a Dick!

It was great!

emmieging · 28/07/2012 12:15

Loving the fact that a few people are still whinging that it was 4 hours of their life wasted Grin

It wasn't compulsory viewing yknow! You didn't need to keep waiting to see if you liked it! You didn't even have to start watching!

I'm beginning to think the only think Danny Boyle missed out was the good old British tendency to choose to do something and then moan like hell.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 28/07/2012 12:17

ali - oh, no, I am enjoying myself thoroughly! Smile

Some of us enjoy having a good post-mortem. It's all part of life's rich tapestry.

Brandnewbrighttomorrow · 28/07/2012 12:18

I loved it, especially the arctic monkeys and dizzee rascal. I thought the representation of britain's history was fantastic, transforming the green and pleasant land into satanic mills, when the olympic rings rose up i thought it was just breathtaking. Ya boo sucks to you naysayers.

jamdonut · 28/07/2012 12:18

Ah well,you can't please everyone.

I loved it,even though the athletes entering was soooo long.

My biggest disappointment was that Macca ended the evening (sorry, but he was dreadful]...was so hoping it would be Muse singing Survival Sad.However, was cheered that they played Muse's 'Map of the Problematique' near the beginnig of the ceremony and 'Uprising' during the music/texting segment Grin

I just have to hope they will be in the ending ceremony now!!

LRDtheFeministDragon · 28/07/2012 12:18

'I'm beginning to think the only think Danny Boyle missed out was the good old British tendency to choose to do something and then moan like hell.'

Give the man some credit - I think that bit he managed perfectly, as we are demonstrating.

SkinnyVanillaLatte · 28/07/2012 12:18

Abide with me was beautiful.

CrunchyFrog · 28/07/2012 12:20

I am completely unpatriotic, and also a cynical sneerer usually.

I fucking LOVED it.

Major oversight not having the Tenth Doctor light the flame though. I fear for the space/time continuum.

KatieisScarlettinSpandex · 28/07/2012 12:20

Come to think of it, that was probably the point of Macca.

Clever.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 28/07/2012 12:21

Abide with me was beautiful, true.

TheCrackFox · 28/07/2012 12:21

I have a history degree and pretty much all history is male centric. The industrial revoution was pretty shit for everyone involved apart from the lucky few that got rich.

Mary Poppins was written by a woman.

You are being nit picky TBH.

BigBoobiedBertha · 28/07/2012 12:21

"OK then OP, how would YOU fill 3.5 hours of TV. What would be in your version of the opening ceremony?"

That's the point the OP was making though. Why spent 3.5 hours of TV on this stuff? 30 minutes would have sufficed. The Olympics is about sport not some gigantic variety show. Have a bit of a ceremony with the lighting of the flame and a brief speech or two and get on with the games.

Bet they didn't have all this shinnigins in ancient Greece. Smile

LRDtheFeministDragon · 28/07/2012 12:24

And I'm doing a medieval PhD, and pretty much all history is not male centric, it's just taught that way by lazy people.

(I am being nit-picky. I know. But there is far more history including women than what they showed, and I did think the industrial revolution was a bloody peculiar thing to pick on, since Blake is making the same point as Tolkein, that 'dark satanic mills' are not, in fact, a delightful British institution.)

NotLikeThatYouWont · 28/07/2012 12:24

"He should have included moaning"

No, no, no - you've missed the really clever bit of DB's design!

DB knew that some elements of the population would be doing the moaning part, so he didn't need to include it last night. The opening ceremony is still going on this morning! Grin

dranksinatra · 28/07/2012 12:24

Not my personal cuppa tea,But as I've never been to a theatre production, thats a given, but it was very impressive.
Hate to break it to people, but the Daniel Craig bit was green screened.
The Op is a hater, dictionary definition.
Please storyboard YOUR idea for an opening ceremony here...or be quiet.