fueryhk(redux) wrote:Whilst I think it is absurd for GB to be spending enormous amounts of money on hosting things like the Olympics and World Cups when education and the health service are being cut to ribbons, think Danny Boyle and his team did everybody proud last night.
That's probably my sentiment too. In fact, I think maskedman's reaction to the opening ceremony, paradoxically, means Boyle got most things just right. It was a bizarre mix of the eccentric, the kitsch, the surprisingly savvy and the grandiose. And there were certain sections- the industrial revolution section in particular- that were visually quite powerful. And there were a lot of well-intentioned if somewhat bizarre sections too- the tributes to British children's literature, the NHS and pop music of the last 40-odd years to the present day. Let's face it, I think it got the complicated relationship with its own jingoism just right. It never was going to condemn the nation, and as pomp and circumstance goes, it felt like it actually bothered to throw something of a difference out there. It was certainly far less nauseating than Sydney 2000's opening ceremony, and definitely less sinister than Beijing 2008 .