About the docudrama Cleopatra

ILLYRIAN

ILLYRIAN

Druish Pervonian Wizard
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Reports are the show has been slammed by critics, what are your views?

I think it should be dumped in a hole in the ground plus shame the directors, producers, scriptwriters and the casting agents. My choice.
 
I haven’t seen it yet. Was going to maybe do a fun watch this weekend… but I have a DIY disaster I’m trying to correct 😳
 
Based on what I've seen, I think it's managed to unite the internet in hatred even more than Velma, which is saying something

I don't have Netflix, so I couldn't watch it even if I wanted to, but I really don't want to, so that's fine 😛
 
I think people trying to rewrite history just because they can. Shame on them.
 
But usually they not so blanton about it . I mean we all seen movies that were based on true events but had a lot of fiction in it . But in this case they went really far & are surprised people are calling them on it. It like a comic book saying that Superman grew up in Russa .
 
I think its a sign of the times that we live in. A documentary that is about how some people 'feel' about a historical figure.

Queen Cleopatra was one of those women who was described many times by her contemporaries and had sculptures and pictures depicting her (again, of the period) and that's thrown out because some random American says 'I don't care what they tell us, she black.'

It's not just Egyptian queens of Greek lineage either; there are scholars who now feel that Queen Elizabeth I was trans or non-binary because of a famous speech she gave where she indicted that she had 'the heart of a King'. Poetic oratory? Nope, she has to be taken literally and was clearly outing herself as trans over 500 years ago.

Of course there has been historical re-writing before, but this feels like a whole other level; just projecting back current and ephemeral wants and desires onto what is established historical reality.
 
They saying that but if you do the same thing they get mad over it . As the saying goes . Thery want their cake & to eat it as well.
 
thetopher said:
Queen Cleopatra was one of those women who was described many times by her contemporaries and had sculptures and pictures depicting her (again, of the period) and that's thrown out because some random American says 'I don't care what they tell us, she black.'
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Yeah, but no indication as to her skin tone. The fact that we do not know who her mother, or grandparents were, and the fact that the Ptolemies, when not sleeping with their own family, often took (sub-saharan) Egyptian concubines, it creates a plausible explanation why some could think she would be darker skinned. The fact of the matter is that no one knows her skin color, and to claim they do, one way or the other, is simply erroneous.

There is a lot of evidence to support a theory she could be darker skinned. There is a lot of evidence to support she would be more olive-skinned. No one knows conclusively though; least of all someone's grandmother who knows 'just cuz'

But you know, whatever, I'm still pissed that THIS is what forced the Gal Godot Cleopatra movie to shut down.
 
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thetopher
thetopher
Not really about skin colour, its about politics and identity; was Cleopatra 'Capital B' Black.
Skanky Vamp said:
The fact of the matter is that no one knows her skin color, and to claim they do, one way or the other, is simply erroneous.
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It's not about skin colour, its about ethnicity. There's a world of difference between West African and Egyptian ethnicity. Whatever Cleo's was it was miles away from African-American.

Skanky Vamp said:
The fact of the matter is that no one knows her skin color, and to claim they do, one way or the other, is simply erroneous.
Click to expand...

There are descriptions of Queen Cleopatra by a couple of Roman scholars, they do not mention that she is dark-skinned. And they would've almost certainly remarked on it.

And quite frankly I don't trust any of the so-called scholars or researchers put forward by the documentary. They even claim that even if she was ethnically Black then Cleopatra was 'culturally Black' because she was a woman and therefore oppressed like the aforementioned race. 'Oppressed Queen' is a new one on me.

It's, in a word, moronic, and deserves all the scorn and ridicule heaped upon it. To be honest the race thing is scratching the surface of the problems with the doc.
 
Skanky Vamp
Skanky Vamp
It's about skin color to a lot of people. On both sides arguing what color she was.
I think that just because they want her to be Black she has to be. And everyone else is wrong .
 
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