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#1
posted to rec.boats
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Saw the DaVinci Code...
Harry Krause wrote:
...last night and thought it a pretty good movie. The cast was strong and despite the tales to the contrary, the movie "moved along" quite well. Unlike most of the drug-car chase-rap movies these days, it does require the audience to think things through as they are played out on the screen. Agree wholeheartedly. The critics panned it, as they do with any movie that will be a blockbuster despite what they say (I was gonna use the term pontificate but in relation to this movie, best avoid religious references) I see no need to discuss the "religious overtones" of the movie. It is based on a work of fiction that incorporates some "factual" historical elements and a lot of imagination. True, but I do like to muse to myself what would happen if anyone decided to make a movie of, say, "The Satanic Verses", for example. I mean if a few cartoons can set off riots . . . There were no surprises for me in the book or movie because I read "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" back in the '80's. And a couple of books on holy grail and it's connection to the Sinclairs. (I was told as a child the holy grail was probably buried at Oak Island, Nova Scotia, not the place infered in the movie - I'm sure Don knows the legend. Either the holy grail or Capt. Kidd's treasure. Pirates - there, another boating connection.) You shouldn't take small children to see this. I saw lots of parents ignoring the warning. It isn't very long into the movie (1st self-flagellation scene) before I thought - I'll bet they're sorry now. |
#2
posted to rec.boats
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Saw the DaVinci Code...
Black Dog wrote: (I was told as a child the holy grail was probably buried at Oak Island, Nova Scotia, not the place infered in the movie - I'm sure Don knows the legend. Either the holy grail or Capt. Kidd's treasure. Pirates - there, another boating connection.) Captain Kidd's treasure was entirely accounted for before he was hanged over the Thames at Wapping. After Kidd and his crew took the single signicant prize of his *entire* piratical career, (a treasure ship belonging to the Grand Mogul of India), they put into St. Mary's, at Madagascar. Robert Collover ( often named "Culliford," old shipmate of Kidd's and a serious, successful pirate) was in port at St Mary's, and most of Kidd's crew deserted him to sign on with Collover. Kidd had alienated most of his crew by atempting to follow, stringently, his Royal Commission to apprehend pirates. Kidd's crew consisted of a group of known pirates who had signed on with the Adventure Galley during Kidd's first (an unauthorized) port of call on his commissioned cruise- New York. (This signing of a crew that consisted of pirates was one of the incident's in Kidd's career that was borrowed by Robert Louis Stevenson for the plot of "Treasure Island."). Kidd spent a few days in his cabin, fearing for his life. The crew that deserted him to Collover helped themselves to their "shares" of the treasure and a portion of Kidd's as well. Much of this treasure was eventually returned to the Crown when Collover and his crew were granted a general "amnesty" in the early 1700's. After an eventual release by Collover, Kidd sailed from St Mary's to Hispaniola, with just over a dozen loyal crew to work his ship. At Hispaniola, he got word that he had been denounced as a pirate. In fact, to assuage the Grand Mogul, the Admiralty was blaming a long string of piracies in the Red Sea on the "notorius Captain Kidd". Unlike actual pirates, they knew pretty well just where and when to expect Kidd to turn up at the end of his voyage so the capture of Kidd was virtually assured. How better to prove to the Grand Mogul that no, he really didn't need to expel the British East India Company from India because the British were serious about apprehending pirates than to place the blame for a lot of piracies on a single individual and then "capture" him. In Hispaniola, Kidd purchased the sloop "Antonio" and transferred the remainder of his treasure aboard. He stopped at Gardiner's Island on the way to report to one of his investors, the Earl of Bellomont, in Boston, and hid most of the treasure with his friend Lyon Gardiner. After his arrest in Boston, Kidd eventually revealed the location of the treasure on Gardiner's Island and Bellomont recovered it. It was inventoried for the Admiralty and the inventory appeared at his trial in London. You can still see Captain Kidd's "treasure" today, or at least its proceeds, in London. The Admiralty eventually used Kidd's treaure to purchase the sight of the Royal Naval Academy at Greenwich from the monarchy, and generations of British naval officers have been trained at a facility that was funded, initiallly, with the treasure of Captain Kidd. |
#3
posted to rec.boats
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Saw the DaVinci Code...
Black Dog wrote:
snip There were no surprises for me in the book or movie because I read "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" back in the '80's. And a couple of books on holy grail and it's connection to the Sinclairs. (I was told as a child the holy grail was probably buried at Oak Island, Nova Scotia, not the place infered in the movie - I'm sure Don knows the legend. Either the holy grail or Capt. Kidd's treasure. Pirates - there, another boating connection.) snip Over the years a number different 'treasures' were believed to be buried in the money pit on Oak Island, Mahone Bay. Captain Kid's treasure The Holy Grail Shakespeare's manuscript French treasure destined for Louisbourg, Cape Breton http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Nov.../oakisland.htm http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious...and/story.html http://members.tripod.com/~Zomb/OAKISLAN.HTM Right to this day people are still throwing money into this mystery. What's down there...sure would be nice to find out. |
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