Olympics Opening Ceremonies (leave the politics out)

Erebus Tunafish · Post #21 » by **Erebus Tunafish** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 12:19 pm

It was orgasmic. A tear formed in my eye when you had the school children colouring in the scroll chanting 'The land is becoming drier, the seas are rising higher, as the world becomes smaller. What world will you leave us in?'
THIS is the priceless statement.

XcalibuR · Post #22 » by **XcalibuR** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 3:31 pm

Captain_Morgan wrote:
It shows human achievements. It's simple and it was a classic. The Chinese had too many stuff going on at once. It was too extravagance. I didn't like it too much. Plus.... running on the Chinese scroll didn't really mean anything... They were just broadcasting the torch run around the world... so??

No... The whole ceremony wasn't that deep. Sure.. They were showing off Chinese inventions and history and blah blah blah... The whole ceremony was meant to impress others... You really don't have to think too deep into it...

I don't understand how shooting it with an arrow shows human achievement. The ancient Greeks had bows and arrows too, just because it happened 16 years ago doesn't mean its a classic. It was creative, surprising, but so was Li Ning's flight. Running on the scroll represents the unfolding of Chinese history and culture and displaying it to the world.

We all have our different opinions of course, I mean there are critics who didn't like the Dark Knight.

WEFFPIM · Post #23 » by **WEFFPIM** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 4:12 pm

Funny thing about the Barcelona cauldron lighting, the arrow missed. If you watch it, you can see the arrow falling behind the cauldron after it's lit.

Captain_Morgan · Post #24 » by **Captain_Morgan** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 4:21 pm

^ That's the thing. Ancient Greeks had bows and arrows. You don't need a 100 feet LED screen of modern technology or 2000 people war dance to show human achievements. It was simple and classy. It was the best.

No... It was a classic. The greatest lighting of the torch has been and will always be the Barcelona one. You can ask anyone. Four years from now, people will agree. Plus, most people are talking about the opening ceremony not the lighting of the torch. The torch part was decent but not good enough.

What about the 16 years? Are you telling me that it has to be longer than that to be a classic? Ah..... What are you talking about?

Plus, the whole ceremony was about China... What happened to the other cultures? I thought the Olympics was about the unity of the world not one single culture... The whole show was a huge ego fest.

Captain_Morgan · Post #25 » by **Captain_Morgan** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 4:28 pm

WEFFPIM wrote:Funny thing about the Barcelona cauldron lighting, the arrow missed. If you watch it, you can see the arrow falling behind the cauldron after it's lit.

Anywhere that confirms that? I have never seen any news or articles that talk about it.

Blame Rasho · Post #26 » by **Blame Rasho** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 4:38 pm

It was pretty cool... it sucked that it was on such a late reply. I would liked seeing more of the fireworks.

WEFFPIM · Post #27 » by **WEFFPIM** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 4:38 pm

Captain_Morgan wrote:
WEFFPIM wrote:Funny thing about the Barcelona cauldron lighting, the arrow missed. If you watch it, you can see the arrow falling behind the cauldron after it's lit.

Anywhere that confirms that? I have never seen any news or articles that talk about it.

http://www.sportsillustrated.co.za/stat ... hp?id=8799

And Opening Ceremonies have always been about the country their in first. In the 8 OC's I remember watching (Winter and Summer), I can't really think of one that was about world culture. Calling this one an ego trip is ignoring pretty much every other one.

WEFFPIM · Post #28 » by **WEFFPIM** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 4:47 pm

Now that I think about it, I guess the Salt Lake games had a lot of international feel to their OC, but still.

Captain_Morgan · Post #29 » by **Captain_Morgan** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 4:50 pm

Barcelona restored dignity four years later with an archer dramatically lighting the Olympic flame with a burning arrow flying through the night sky.

Billions of people around the globe gasped in admiration as the archer bravely found his target with unerring accuracy.

Or so it seemed.

In reality, he had not actually landed the arrow in the middle of the cauldron - he had fired it way outside the stadium as instructed.

Organisers dared not risk his aim failling short and landing into the grandstand and instead told him to fire it directly over the target area... some pyrotechnics-helpful camera angles would take care of the visual effect.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics2000/926190.stm

I guess you can't really call that a miss.

Calling this one an ego trip is ignoring pretty much every other one.

Maybe I was a little bit harsh but I don't remember other ceremonies had themes like "The Four Great Ancient Chinese Inventions" and stuff like that... I mean that was just absurd. Glowing about your country's ancient invention in the Olympic opening ceremony? Hm.....

marcroboy · Post #30 » by **marcroboy** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 4:56 pm

Captain_Morgan wrote:
Barcelona restored dignity four years later with an archer dramatically lighting the Olympic flame with a burning arrow flying through the night sky.

Billions of people around the globe gasped in admiration as the archer bravely found his target with unerring accuracy.

Or so it seemed.

In reality, he had not actually landed the arrow in the middle of the cauldron - he had fired it way outside the stadium as instructed.

Organisers dared not risk his aim failling short and landing into the grandstand and instead told him to fire it directly over the target area... some pyrotechnics-helpful camera angles would take care of the visual effect.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics2000/926190.stm

I guess you can't really call that a miss.

.

Yea but it does completely dismisses your point about the "human achievement".....

WEFFPIM · Post #31 » by **WEFFPIM** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 5:00 pm

Well, he missed perfectly. I love that it went hurtling into a parking lot, though.

Captain_Morgan · Post #32 » by **Captain_Morgan** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 5:04 pm

It's all symbolism anyway.

Fairview4Life · Post #33 » by **Fairview4Life** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 5:04 pm

...didn't they shoot the arrow through a bunch of flammable gas to light the torch? I thought they weren't trying to land it in the bowl but shoot it over it so the gas lit.

canoner · Post #34 » by **canoner** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 10:17 pm

The ceremony is simply AWESOME! This is the come out party of Chinese to celebrate what they have achieved in 5000 year long history and in the past few decades. You have to know that for 90% of the time since Jesus, China was THE most prosperous country in the world. This party was a bold statement to the whole world: China is back and Chinese are ready to take the lead again.

London will not be able to match this, because Brits simply do not have that same kind of pride and confidence as what the Chinese expressed yesterday. It takes much more than modern technology. Even in that department the Beijing opening ceremony has outdone anything in the history by a huge margin.

A truly great show!

Post #35 » by **The Duke** » Sat Aug 9, 2008 11:20 pm

Barcelona was my favorite lighting.... always the most symbolic part of the openings.

Everyone should realize that Caldran was ready to explode weather or not he was on target...

GQStylin · Post #36 » by **GQStylin** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:13 am

It looked to me like the arrow hit the cauldron and then bounced off it and fell down. When you watch closely when the arrow is obscured by the cauldron, it appears to be falling straight down rather than flying past and behind the cauldron. Well that's how it looked to me anyways.

Point forward · Post #37 » by **Point forward** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 1:18 am

I found the procedure very very impressive. There is sth about people in large numbers following a single beat. I found the OC also quite technocratic. Also, it began with ancient stuff, flash forward to the present, and nothing (Mao?) in between? :shrug:

canoner · Post #38 » by **canoner** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 2:49 am

Point forward wrote:I found the procedure very very impressive. There is sth about people in large numbers following a single beat. I found the OC also quite technocratic. Also, it began with ancient stuff, flash forward to the present, and nothing (Mao?) in between? :shrug:

and nothing about being looted by imperial powers in the 19th century either. Come on, what is your point? I am sure if we have an opening ceremony in NYC, it wouldn't involve anything of rounding up African slaves or shooting redskins.

XcalibuR · Post #39 » by **XcalibuR** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 2:53 am

^ That's the thing. Ancient Greeks had bows and arrows. You don't need a 100 feet LED screen of modern technology or 2000 people war dance to show human achievements. It was simple and classy. It was the best.

Ya in your opinion. Again, like I said, everyone's opinion is different. I liked the Barcelona torch lighting too, but this one tops it IMO.

No... It was a classic. The greatest lighting of the torch has been and will always be the Barcelona one. You can ask anyone. Four years from now, people will agree. Plus, most people are talking about the opening ceremony not the lighting of the torch. The torch part was decent but not good enough.

What about the 16 years? Are you telling me that it has to be longer than that to be a classic? Ah..... What are you talking about?

If it was the first and the traditional torch lighting then its a classic. If it was something that all torch lightings are based on then its a classic. IMO the Barcelona lighting wasn't the definitive lighting in history, it was one of the good ones, one that stands out, but its not a classic IMO.

Plus, the whole ceremony was about China... What happened to the other cultures? I thought the Olympics was about the unity of the world not one single culture... The whole show was a huge ego fest.

The entire globe act and the duet with Sarah Brightman was about human unity. The entire east meets west part with the Chinese ships meeting Western ships is about human unity. The calligraphy part showed the chinese word 和, which shows human togetherness and unity. The umbrella part with the faces of children from all over the globe, what does that show?

canoner · Post #40 » by **canoner** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 3:11 am

Captain_Morgan wrote:Plus, the whole ceremony was about China... What happened to the other cultures? I thought the Olympics was about the unity of the world not one single culture... The whole show was a huge ego fest.

There was definitely an overweight on China, not a surprise. Some themes are about global issues, such as environment and the happiness of children. Ego? maybe, or you can call it pride. Maybe it is the swagger that a strong nation must have?