Bob and I have started watching Reilly, Ace of Spies via Netflix. It's based on a turn-of-the-century master spy, Sidney Reilly, who was the real life model for Ian Fleming's fictional James Bond. I suspect everyone I know has already seen this 1983 British mini-series, but somehow I missed it.
We're on the second episode which takes place at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. I learned about that war in Mrs. Prentiss's high school history class, but I'd forgotten all about it. In fact, all I remembered was its name so it was fun to look up the details. Turns out it was about coal and lumber resources, among other things. The Western powers were up to skulduggery as they plotted to get hold of these precious natural resources. The Brits armed, aided and abetted Japan -- and "trained" the Japanese navy -- so that they could get their hands on the filthy lucre, besides ousting Russia from Manchuria.
The first episode was about British vs. Russian interests in Persia. The oil, don't you know.
Anyhow, we're really enjoying the series. In a previous post, I complained about how the BBC's latest thing is to shoot the foreground of the scene out-of-focus. I was amused to see that in 1983 they went more for back lighting. Example: Reilly stands in an open doorway with the sunlight whiting him out around the edges. This happened several times with several characters. But it was relaxing to watch a program where they hadn't yet got into the frenetic quick-cutting of today. I'm convinced that's just a way to distract us from weak scripts. This show is nicely paced with a strong storyline. What a refreshing change.
PS: It's Spring so I changed the look of the blog. I figured it was time to lighten up.
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