Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 76342" data-attributes="member: 23">Last night I watched Sergeant on a whim. It&#039;s been a number of years since I&#039;ve watched any of the series, though in that time I&#039;ve watched a number of the second-tier Carry Ons from the same team. In fact I watched Nurse On Wheels just last weekend.It&#039;s so good to approach this series from a place of relative neutrality. I dare say I could still recite the dialogue of most in the series verbatim, and I regularly listen to Gavin Sutherland&#039;s delightful recreation of music from the series, but the Donald McGill cartoony antics of the latter films are far from fresh in my mind at this point.Despite being four years earlier than Nurse On Wheels, Sergeant seems less dated in many ways. The National Service premise dates it, of course. But aesthetically it&#039;s almost timeless. The barrack setting and every character being in uniform for practically the entire film mean there&#039;s no specifically late-Fifties wardrobe. The men&#039;s haircuts are all short back and sides. And the only vehicles seen in the entire film are a classic (even then) sports roadster and some generic looking army trucks. Jack may have been the first deliberately period piece but in its own way, Sergeant, too, is very much removed from mainstream 1959 society and placed in a timeless little world somewhere.Still, it&#039;s hard to be objective about the characters inhabiting this world. Last night I was trying to decide which actors would have grabbed my attention most had I been stepping into this world for the first time and it&#039;s nigh on impossible. There are so many contrasting styles, quirks and eccentricities going on one would think they would clash and the film fail but there&#039;s a subtle hand here that brings them all together for quieter moments and convinces me they&#039;re a team.The editing is interesting. It&#039;s all very no-frills and economical. Exposition scenes in particular dissolve away very quickly once we&#039;ve had the necessary information. It feels as though longer scenes have been cut short, mid dialogue. But it also feels that not a minute is wasted. Then, when there are prolonged scenes with no dialogue - such as seeing the group marching to the Carry On Theme - they hold the attention because one feels they are there for a reason. Which they are, of course.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 76342, member: 23"] Last night I watched [I]Sergeant[/I] on a whim. It's been a number of years since I've watched any of the series, though in that time I've watched a number of the second-tier Carry Ons from the same team. In fact I watched [I]Nurse On Wheels [/I]just last weekend. It's so good to approach this series from a place of relative neutrality. I dare say I could still recite the dialogue of most in the series verbatim, and I regularly listen to Gavin Sutherland's delightful recreation of music from the series, but the Donald McGill cartoony antics of the latter films are far from fresh in my mind at this point. Despite being four years earlier than[I] Nurse On Wheels[/I], [I]Sergeant[/I] seems less dated in many ways. The National Service premise dates it, of course. But aesthetically it's almost timeless. The barrack setting and every character being in uniform for practically the entire film mean there's no specifically late-Fifties wardrobe. The men's haircuts are all short back and sides. And the only vehicles seen in the entire film are a classic (even then) sports roadster and some generic looking army trucks. [I]Jack[/I] may have been the first deliberately period piece but in its own way, [I]Sergeant[/I], too, is very much removed from mainstream 1959 society and placed in a timeless little world somewhere. Still, it's hard to be objective about the characters inhabiting this world. Last night I was trying to decide which actors would have grabbed my attention most had I been stepping into this world for the first time and it's nigh on impossible. There are so many contrasting styles, quirks and eccentricities going on one would think they would clash and the film fail but there's a subtle hand here that brings them all together for quieter moments and convinces me they're a team. The editing is interesting. It's all very no-frills and economical. Exposition scenes in particular dissolve away very quickly once we've had the necessary information. It feels as though longer scenes have been cut short, mid dialogue. But it also feels that not a minute is wasted. Then, when there are prolonged scenes with no dialogue - such as seeing the group marching to the Carry On Theme - they hold the attention because one feels they are there for a reason. Which they are, of course. [/QUOTE]

Verification

6 + 4 =