dear willie, happy valentine's day! signed, your lovergirls, the superbe, renown, temeraire, et al

[quigonejinn]

Yes, this LJ could basically be called, "WM BUSH IS TEH KEWLIEZIST."



- The opening stuff of Bush is characterization: can't get interior dialogue in the movie, so get characterization by footage. They move the introduction of Bush back -- first shot isn't of Horatio standing on deck -- instead, stuff of Bush in the boat, going out to the ship. Everything in order, the crew working quietly and steadily, Bush not saying a word and alone.

Notice, too, how they lay the groundwork for him being obervant -- he's looking everywhere, and nt in a kind of crazy, thrashing about OMFG! AH'M GOING TO SEA! kinda way, but steadily, neatly. He looks in one direction for a while, studies and figures out what he needs to know about that direction, then moves to looking in another direction.

I love the emotional moment, though, of the Renown appearing out from behind another ship. It's one of the few scenes shot near Bush eye-level and from the POV that he'd get, so I can only assume that the little rush where we get to see the ship that he'll be working on is supposed to be the rush that he gets, too, with the wee little swell of the music. Awww. <3 Lookit him checking out his new girl, and how he only has eyes for her now that they're drawing up close. <3 It's the best kind of arranged marriage. <3

- Presence of caution: clearly, this dude know his way up an entry-port, but he's still going up with two hands, still looks at the rope in front of his hand. Takes a good look down to make sure he doesn't stumble over the side. Oh, Bushling.

- Who does Bush lift his hat to? Just a ritual for officer first time he comes aboard ship? Answered!

- Big difference: Hornblower has his back turned to Bush, so shot of Bush, studying Hornblower for a second before saying, "Morning." Paul McGann's voice. *_* *_* *_*

- So far, nothing all that remarkable -- a bit more of cautious, ship-loving Bush than we get in the original intro, and we get a stronger sense of his reserve since we only see hte outside, but it's pretty much by-the-books. Nothing to be seriously interesting yet.

- Where it gets interesting: No tackle in the books, and Bush is much frostier in the beginning in the movie than in the book. Partially, maybe tackle -- he's put effort into a dignified arrival, dammit -- and this is highly irregular, but there is that little twitch of a smile (OMG) when he's laid out on deck.

- Note: he takes Hornblower's hand before he reaches for his hat. Desn't put any weight onto it, just presses it there, then leans back with his hand to get his hat and get the business of standing up started -- we don't actually see Bush putting weight on Hornblower's hand. That shot, it's all about the greeting and the contact of horny hands on beautiful fingers.

Hi, Flying Colors Bush. ^_^

- Hornblower wants to help dust him off. Bush won't let him. That hand fending him off. "Nothing damaged but my priiiiide." That little geture says volumes about this Bush -- the Bush and Hornblwoer in this start off much more distant with each other, something that isn't much helped by Bush doing his little suckup bit, and Horry looking a step or two short of murderous.

- By the way. I'm going to take those dusty smudges that we suddenly see appear on Bush' shoulder as he comes through the entry port to them having to shoot the tackling scene multiple times, as I don't think they're there in the bit where Bush is going out in the boat, and I can't imagine that Bush would let himself meet his new ship that way. Look how much time the script directs him to spend brushing himelf off. Whenever he has a chance, it' with the dusting off and the <3 <3 <3.

- But the thing, really: Hornblower baaaaaaaawling out Hobbs, partially becaues of the irresponsibility of Hobbs, and then! Then! Best part of all! Bush being like. "Well, maybe if they were better supervised." T__________________T The fact that he waits so long to make a comment makes it seem like he's saying that in response to Hornblower's handling of the accident, and not the fact that the accident happens itself.

This really, really, really wouldn't be the case with book!Bush, who "feels like everybody is better" after a good verbal thrashing and has no objection to Hornblower yelling at totally innocent people on pretexts. And I know that in the books, yes, he thinks that Hornblower is a firebrand in that initial scene, but there isn't particular opprobrium attached to it -- it's just like, "Ah, I'll be working with a total hottie guy with a temper!" The wariness only comes when he sees how Hornblower is playacting.

- And then the (mild, really, when you consider how honestly excited most people would be to work with Sawyer) sucking up. The bit TOTALLY different from the way that Bush gets introduced in the books -- Sawyer semi-chewing Bush out, Bush very consciously not saying as much as he wants to, the stuff about being brought up in a hard school. And of course, Hornblower's total >:/ to the sucking up when he's actually kind of trying to help Bush in the book.

And of course, the little conflict with Kennedy, who so isn't jealuz of Hornblower speaking to other men. The HH/WB porn is pretty much gone -- no companionable twinkling/soul-deep staring into each other' eye, no companionable little chat, no bit where Hornblower helps Bush/gives Bush a bit of a wise-up about the ship, etc.

In summary: movie Bush is much less likeable off the bat than book Bush. He's a good bit more distant, more formal. Substantively, they're still the same person in a way that the Hornblowers aren't -- movie!Hornblower is NOT book!Hornblower -- but there're a major difference between the Bush that we see at the start of LtH and the one we see in Mutiny. Our immediate impressions of bookBush are that he's obervant, tough, and practical; our immediate impressions of movieBush are that he's observant, careful of his dignity, and since we're coming into this in the mindset of HH and AK, something of a suckup.

ETA: FUCKING LIVEJOURNAL. STOP FUCKING WITH THE STYLESHEETS AND SHOW MY LJ PROPERLY.

Comments

Re: OMG it's another diatribe *tells self to STFU*

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

From LtH, right before we get back to England again and that black frosty day made better by bumping bits with your former 5th lieutenant:

That was something [Bush] had never experienced; in his earliest youth he had entered the navy as a midshipman —- the peacetime navy which he could hardly remember -- and during the nine years of the war he had only known two short intervals of leave.

I'm such a moron for not noticing this before. *FACEPALMS*

And yes, there's a definite whiff of the Enlightenment around Hornblower with his love of mathematics and rationality and tendency to value institutions insofar as they're useful to him/humanity. He also has that Enlightenment urge to conquer the world by knoweldge -- like, that thing where he likes prepping for the geographic area that he's going to be in?

He's also got that crazy Romantic love of the sea and freedom, though ahaha. :D I know there's a book where he totally talks smack about Byron.

Re: OMG it's another diatribe *tells self to STFU*

[black-hound.livejournal.com]

Which of course throws my master's mate theory out the window because of the word 'mishipman' XD, although I still can't make all this math add up without it. Which should surprise NO ONE.

England at war in the 2nd half of the 18th century:
1756-63
1775-83
1792-1815 (with that little blurb of Amiens in the middle)

Bush gets his commission as Lt. in 1796. So he had to enter the navy, according to the passage, somewhere between 1783 and 1792.

*counts on fingers and toes*

The ever popular FC, of course

[black-hound.livejournal.com]

Finally, with some assistance because I have smoked too much HH crack, I have the passage with reference to Bush's age.

End of ch. 17 in FC (the source of all that is right and good):

Hornblower remembered the prediction that the war would end in 1814 -- promotion would be slower in peace time. And Bush was ten years older than he, and only just beginning the climb.

Re: The ever popular FC, of course

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

Fuck! CSF sucks so hardcore that it's not even funny -- I mean. *counts on fingers*

I know I've done this calculation before, but in Lt, which happens in '00, Bush has been in for ten years. So he came in as a middie in '90, and gets his commission after the minimum six years. That makes sense.

However, if we take the ten year difference, that means Bush was twenty-four when he entered the Navy, which makes no goddamn sense. Particularly -- though I guess this is seriously nitpicky -- if we take it that he got his commission while he was on the Superb becaue the third Superb was wrecked in 1783 and the fourth didn't launch until 1798.

Randomly. Bush dies in 1814, right? Ten years older than Hornblower at that point, which means that he died at the age of FORTY-EIGHT. How many forty-eight year olds in the year 1814, iron constitutions or not, who have lived their entire adult lives on ships with shit nutrition and minimal health care and now have peg fucking legs have the vitality to lead a night-time raid on an enemy magazine?

Re: The ever popular FC, of course

[black-hound.livejournal.com]

I love that sort of nitpicky myself, because ya know, the Superb didn't exist when he was sailing on her in the Mediterranean. *G* And that's sorta weird that CSF would screw that up what with all the effort he put into the Temeraire and her tentacles reaching through the books.

And Bush going into the Navy at 24 as a midshipman? *shakes head in denial* That doesn't qualify as 'in his earliest youth'. And in LtH CSF tries to realign his age more closely with HH, so even if you clip off say, 8 years, and have him being born in 1774, that still made him 16 when he entered as a midshipman, which isn't 'earliest youth' either.

And some of this I just have to chalk up to suspension of disbelief because the chances of a peg legged captain in command of a 74 in wartime is not the most historically viable scenario. *g*

Re: The ever popular FC, of course

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

the chances of a peg legged captain in command of a 74 in wartime is not the most historically viable scenario. *g*

HEY! HEY! ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE THROUGH LOVE. OR SOMETHING.

But yeah. You're right. I don't think that there's any way that we can square the ten year age difference with the stuff we get in LtH, and the Superb doesn't work -- even if we take the ten year difference, that would mean that at the very latest, even with a geography change, Bush was a lieutenant against rules at 17. *____*

For my personal CSF love, I think I'm going to pretend that he picked the Superb despite the chronology problem because he wanted to tell us a little story about Bush through the ships he served on sans-Hornblower. I mean, you can read it as kind of an underhanded, symbolic way of telling us that Bush is a hell of a guy independent of Hornblower -- Hornblower is so hard on Bush, and yet the names of the ships that Bush served on independent of Hornblower mean "excellence," "rash bravery" where the rash bravery leads to famous, brilliant feats, and "unparalleled, incomparable, or unrivalled."

Man. I wonder what prize ship Bush had command of at Trafalgar. *________*

Re: The ever popular FC, of course

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

And you know. If you want to take the listing of Bush's ships as being intentionally not-accurate, the fact that Bush couldn't possibly have gotten his commission on the Superb might be a hint to take a closer look at his other HH-independent ships.