I know this isn’t the most timely post or anything, but just know that it took me a full 24 hours to come to terms with just how awful the London Olympics Opening Ceremony was. It was TERRIBLE. Granted, it was never going to be like the Beijing Opening Ceremony which – can we agree on this? – set the gold standard for opening ceremonies, forever. No one expected London to live up to Beijing, and people were already making noise about opening ceremony director Danny Boyle not even wanting to compete with Beijing. But a dance tribute to the NHS? For real?
Basically, the first half of it was cringe-inducing and embarrassing. There was that cheap little fake hill, there was poor Kenneth Branagh reciting Shakespeare whilst dressed like Abraham Lincoln, there was Mr. Bean and that “bit” that went on far too long, there was the whole too-bright beds and the flying flock of Mary Poppins (“Mind the Poppins!” said Arrest Development fans) and the nightmarish “British villain pop-up” collection and that creepy giant baby. Even Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira were like, “Um… WTF?”
But it eventually got better. While the “love story” thing was dumb, I liked the tribute to British music, and I did like all of the hymns and such. Artic Monkey covering “Come Together” was a highlight. And this is what everyone was talking about – the Queen, the corgis and 007:
Queen Elizabeth’s Olympics Helicopter Jump with James Bond from MYNAME1229 on Vimeo.
Is it just me or is one of the corgis a fatty? Someone needs to put the Queen’s corgis on a diet!! Also: did it bother anyone else that James Bond didn’t bow to Her Majesty? And did it bother anyone else that the Queen looked like she really, really did not want to be there? Even her pink hair feathers looked bored. I would have loved a live feed of the Queen’s reaction shots to the worst parts of Danny Boyle’s “vision” for the Opening Ceremony. Still, he got James Bond and Liz in the same room together, so he gets some points for that.
What else did I like? Hm… David Beckham on the boat with the Olympic flame – that was nice. I liked the dude who took the flame through the tunnel with all of the construction workers who built the stadium – I thought that was a lovely moment. And that Olympic caldron is really cool – I liked it when it was a low “installation piece” thing with all of the leaves, but it looked amazing when the arms rose to form that tall caldron. Oh, and the fireworks were really well done – and you know why? There was British restraint! It wasn’t like “OMG FIREWORKS EVERYWHERE!” (which is what we do in America). I like that they saved the fireworks and really made them count. And then Paul McCartney sang “Hey Jude” and that was pretty cool. I give the whole thing two-and-a-half Flying Poppins out of five.
PS… Here’s the new teaser trailer for Skyfall, which aired shortly after the Queen and James Bond’s little thing. Because that wasn’t cross-promotional at all.
Photos courtesy of WENN, PCN.
I got to watch it live because I’m currently in Spain so I did not have to suffer a time delay with the NBC broadcast (ugh). I’m not sure they showed this on NBC but they showed it on Spanish television–the Queen looking so over it and examining her fingernails. You can easily find it on Google Images! It was hilarious!
I enjoyed the Opening Ceremonies for what they were–a lot of it I didn’t understand and the Spanish commentators were confused about Mr. Bean fake playing Chariots of Fire asking “What is he doing here?” and then attributing it to “typical British humor.”
You also forgot Voldemort was defeated by an army of Mary Poppins–that was clearly Voldemort since JK Rowling was reading a passage from Peter Pan right before he appeared!
And I honestly don’t remember a thing about Beijing’s Opening Ceremonies. It was that memorable I guess…
Yes, NBC aired it on our local (NoCal) affiliate, from 7:30 p.m. – 12 a.m. You read that correctly: they stretched the Opening Ceremony into a four-and-a-half hour long “extravaganza.” (I’d love to know how long it actually was IRL.)
And by extravaganza, I mean there were two commercials for every two-three minutes of ceremony.
I started DVR’ing it after about 30 minutes, so I can DVR through Matt & the commercials.
best opening evah !!!!!!
ATHENS ! hands down…
check it out on youtube man …
we sho’ is laughing after all the wisecracks jolly old england made when greece was gettin’ ready for the greatest olympics EVAH !
harharhardeeharhar ..
buncha’ wimps ….
the olympics ARE greece ..
eat yer hearts out , dirty yobs ….
muahahaaa
It was about 3.5 hours total. I missed the last 20 minutes because I had to leave my friend’s apartment (metro closes at 1:30 AM in Madrid) so I missed the torch lighting.
Yeah NBC easily added on an hour with their nonsense commercials. Can’t say I miss the USA’s 3 minute commercials for every 5 minutes of actual television…
I say…much ado about nothing…especially Blah Lauer
Dude! It was one o the worst olympic opening eremonies i ‘ve ever seen! WHY OH WHY USE 80’s ELEMENTS IF.THEY DIDN’T EVEN PLAY “DON’T DREAM IT’S OVER” (crowded huse)? Boyle : the Coors, Spice Girls, Kylie Minogue and Adele would had been perfect! I LOVE Mr. Bean!
Daniel Craig: hot.as.usual, what great dreams are.made of.
Well, kylie & crowded house aren’t british, for one…
I’ve missed Adele too, as I did the Spice Girls…
Adele was played during the athletes walking into the arena. Rolling in the deep. Spice girls are going to be in the closing ceremony.
Seriously, no wonder you didn’t get it if you think Crowded House, Kylie and The Corrs are British. FYI – Australian, Australian and Irish.
Crowded House are from New Zealand! Not Australia thank you very much 🙂
@Warnass – thank you for correction 🙂 at least we are agreed that they are NOT British!!
I hated the music after the 70s… no Depeche Mode, no Cure, no Duran Duran, no Erasure, no Oasis (but they used the bad blur song), no Coldplay and they had to use a rapper?
I liked the Queen as Bond Girl. I liked the fireworks and the cauldron. I even think Sir Paul’s choice of song was bad… Hey Jude? This isn’t about the children of divorce.
I’m not watching the actual Olympics. Why? I already know who won. I did enjoy Michael Phelps losing, in 2008 I had to suffer through my weirder friends thinking he is so hot. Uh NOT. At least Ryan is decent looking so my weirder friends will not be as annoying.
Crowded House = 1/3 Kiwi (Neil Finn, who wrote most of the songs) and 2/3 Australian (Paul Hester RIP, Nick Seymour) and were founded in Melbourne, Australia in the ’80s. Don’t know why NZers have such a complex about who was born where. Who gives a toss? Anyway, you can have Dave Dobbyn :-).
This show was so arrogant and stupid! They played the song “Danny Boyle”, but forgot to explai, that UK didn’t leave N.Ireland yet!! yeahhh, a great country indeed!! They supposed to have invented everything, even photography, which was invented in France! Nothing to see with beijing, they were far far away, with the old queen who seemed so bored. And, by the way, please The Corr’s are IRISH…from Dublin! We love you, american people, don’t let the brits tell you what to think!!
Perhaps the opening ceremony was never going to appeal that much to an American audience and yes following the spectacle of Beijing was always going to be a tough job but the London opening ceremony was designed to be the antithesis of Beijing. Beijing was definitely big and spectacular but ultimately was about state power over the individual. London was about the power of the volunteer from all ethnicities and creeds, of the ‘little’ people coming together to make soemthing truly wonderful. It celebrated our countryside roots, Kenneth Branagh was actually Isenbard Kingdom Brunel one of our gretaest engineers, the dance trubute to the NHS celebrated one of the main things we as a country are truly proud of: a free universal healthcare system that will treat anyone and everyone regardless of your economic background. Yes it was eccentric and bonkers and maybe not all international viewers will get it but not many countries would celebrate children’s literature, immigration with the arrival of the Windrush and its contribution to building our society, Tim Berners-Lee and free healthcare. And remember, this opening ceremony also celebrated women’s rights and gay rights (a clip of the first lesbian kiss in British TV was shown) and would have been viewed in countries where women and gay people are still overlooked.
Sorry to rant and granted we will always have different opinions on all things, but this post seemed to have completely missed the point of the ceremony. It had theatrics, narrative, humour and warmth and I loved it.
I am an American, and I loved it. I thought it captured a lot of what makes Britain British (awkward phrasing, I know). There is so much history in Britain, and the people – everyday working people – have contributed so much to the culture, it was just wonderful to see. I though Danny Boyle did an amazing job.
+1
+2
And Anon, your post made me tear up a little. Good on the Brits! It was a bit strange but I loved the message behind it all!
Dear Lady, everyday working people are not why Britain is a popular destination. The Queen herself did not like the ceremony, she looks like she ate a sour persimmon. Having been involved in the planning and execution of a similar event and many other spectaculars for the United States, I would just like to say that people go to the UK for the Royal spectaculars. The Brits should stick with what they know. They do royal spectacular better than any other country in the world. That’s what most people like and travel to the UK to see. I can forgive the Brits almost anything but that opening ceremony, I’ll be pissed for at least a month. (LOL)
@californialady1939 – There is more to Britain than the royal family and our contribution to the world is more than the royal family.
Too bad you don’t see it. Your fellow american saw it, and they appreciate that about Britain.
I loved the choirs singing the regional songs and the hymns. Brought tears to my eyes.
What LAK said.
We are not a cutesy theme park, thank you very much. Your viewing another nation in that light is rather bemusing.
You might want to Google “cultural imperialism”.
Incidentally, two of the people carrying the Olympic flag? Shami Chakribati, who heads up an organisation that campaigns for civil rights and the protection of civil liberties, and Doreen Lawrence, whose A-grade student 18 year old son was butchered by a gang of thugs from career criminal families, just because he was black. Her dignity and courage triggered a huge official inquiry into police racism and meant every national paper in the land, including the very right-wing Mail, joined forces with her.
We’re a modern country with all the normal problems and issues, and we try to resolve them. This was our Opening Ceremony and it needed to reflect our country. I think the cauldron itself rather symbolised what the whole show was about. Inclusion, unity, and strength through diversity.
What you describe is about as meaningful as making a US ceremony one focused solely on Disney.
I say, Good Show!
Lovely says this American.
The Queen and Bond was awesome.
@californialady1939 you entirely missed the point. It was about Britain and what is important to us. Why tourists come from other countries is not important at all. And the royal family are probably one of the least interesting British things to most British people and certainly nothing to celebrate.
“London was about the power of the volunteer from all ethnicities and creeds, of the ‘little’ people coming together to make soemthing truly wonderful.”
THIS. So much this.
Yep – this, I agree. As someone said, why shouldn’t we celebrate our FREE medical care? Perhaps you don’t realise what a big deal the Queen playing along with the Bond thing was – unheard of and very very entertaining. And that ‘Dude’ was SIR Steven Redgrave, winner of five gold medals in five different Olympics. Please have some respect. The lighting of the flame by the future stars was touching (showing a staggering lack of ego by our sporting greats) and the flame itself was astonishing. Yes, it had its faults (the awkward love story part WAS cheesy but well meant). But overall it was a triumph. Kaiser, you have really overstepped the mark here.
@californialady1939: Yeah, you’re right maybe Britain should just stick to Royals as a theme because that’s what we’re good at… and maybe the US should stick to hamburgers, cowboys and guns. And your beloved California (going by your name) should stick to fake boobs, botox and Arnold Schwarzenegger…
Oh no wait, it’s not so fun when people bleat on about pointless, incorrect and offensive stereotypes is it?
Yeesh!
@Anon, Mara:
“Yes, following the spectacle of Beijing was always going to be a tough job but the London opening ceremony was designed to be the antithesis of Beijing.”
Disagree about it being a tough job to one-up the Beijing opening ceremony because there’s no need to follow-up Beijing. You are however absolutely right about London designed to be the antithesis of Beijing, which was the biggest political statement made about the arrival of China as a world superpower. As it is the Olympics is always about state power politics and hyper nationalism but Beijing in particular was designed to shout out China’s economic, political and military power. Like you said, “Beijing…ultimately was about state power over the individual.”
The opening ceremony was entertaining and the Queen-Bond act was hilarious. I’ve always trusted Danny Boyle and he did a fantastic job!
I’m American, and I loved it, too. In fact, I was pissed at NBC for cutting the tribute to the victims of terrorism.
As far as I’m concerned, it outshone Beijing in any number of ways–and the British people should be nothing but proud of it.
Totally agree Anon.
Look here, Kaiser, generally I agree with 99% of what you write, but this is going to be the glaring 1%.
I thought the dance tribute to the NHS was really enjoyable and I’m not surprised a fair few people across the world are a bit baffled at that – the NHS has taken a huge beating over here the past few years, and every single one of the dancers there were either doctors, nurses and a few were actually patients.
As someone below mentioned, London had a completely different approach to the opening ceremony than Beijing – 2008 was about announcing to the world that China was here, it was rich and the world had better get used to it.
This was truly about getting everyone involved and making every ‘little’ person count.
Rant over. Gutted Phelps didn’t get gold in the 400m. And the torch lighting was one of the highlights for me ^^
Boo, did NBC seriously cut out the tribute to the 7/7 bombings? Crikey.
I was proud to be British watching that ceremony! It was a bit bonkers in places but with decent commentators explaining the various segments it was easy to follow…I wonder how many people knew that the World Wide Web was created by a british man…and the whole ‘My gift to the world’ was his intention as he never made a penny from people using it!
I loved it!
When that phrase came up ie ‘www = my gift to the world’, i thought how amazing that he never sought to profit from it. Let’s face it, who doesn’t use the WWW???
I loved so many elements but these were my favourite:
– descendants of Emily Pankhurst to match through the historical re-telling.
– tribute to WW1 dead & veterans and 7/7 dead, The Windrush, The Chelsea Pensioners.
– The various children’s authors [really how does one edit the choices down] and Villains. The Child snatcher STILL gives me nightmares and i am late 30s. Thank goodness for Mary Poppins!
– Mr Bean, the various children’s choirs singing the different Anthems.
– Becks is such a poseur, but i would have been smirking just like him given the chance.
– The Corgis.
– PC & C in hysterics over the unfortunate gentleman giving the unfortunate salute!!
– And of Course SIR Steven Redgrave…that dude running through the tunnel who has won GOLD at FIVE SEPARATE Olympics.
…..BUT i am sick to death of Paul McCartney. Surely if we must there are all manner of Vintage rockers that we have produced. He is the closing act for every single public event it seems.
Please Showaddywaddy…all is forgiven.
ps:- Did you guys see Gordon and Sarah Brown sitting in the shadows behind The Royal Family.
@LAK – did you know that Becks wasn’t actually driving the speedboat? A shot from the opposite side of the river to the cameras showed a guy crouched right down, hand on the wheel, actually steering. Hilarious. 😀
@Kate – there was an unfortunate split second camera angle that gave it away but even so he looked very cool 🙂
I agree with all posts in this thread!
To anyone who’s interested in reading about how everything came together, the Guardian has a piece from the guy who wrote Danny Boyle’s show.
Ditto!!! What the other Britons said!!!
I agree! I thought that the U.K. was beautifully represented. I loved the Mr. Bean bit, though I am a huge fan, so I am very acquainted with his brand of humor. I also have to give credit to the Queen, whom I thought was a great sport, and I think our poster may have missed the point. She was supposed to look dignified at the palace, in order to offset the unexpected parachute jump into the stadium. How many Royals would make their entrance by “jumping” out of a helicopter with James Bond?? My kids and I were very entertained throughout because we didn’t know what was going to happen next. (though I agree with Matt Lauer in that the giant baby was creepy.)
Not to make this into a political discussion, but don’t you think it is incredibly ironic that the London ceremony sought to celebrate the NHS as a legacy while it is getting privatized? I don’t know but I found that the greatest ironies in the ceremony. I also thought it was weird to watch dancing nurses and sick children.
The whole tribute was a historical re-telling of some of our great achievement. The NHS is the greatest achievement of the welfare state which sprang up after WW2. The GOSH is it’s star hospital. That’s what i took from that.
Unfortunately, we can’t afford the welfare state anymore, and it was never intended to exist in perpetuity. It is a shame that we never worked out how to make it free and profitable [is that possible] or found a legacy like JM Barrie who donated the proceeds from PETER PAN [all mediums] to GOSH in perpetuity and thus largely privately funded these days.
I agree! I think it’s a disgrace making the NHS out to be a wonderful institution. The government are slowly breaking it up, treating the staff terribly and patients are suffering too. I used to work for the NHS and left due to these reasons. When I first joined the NHS I was proud to work for them, by the time I left I was ashamed to work for them.
I think that was kind of Danny Boyle’s point. He’s always been an advocate of the NHS and I think the whole thing whilst also being a celebration of it’s history was designed to emphasise the point that for him and many other Britons (myself included) that, despite its inevitable faults, the fact that there is a universal free healthcare system for all is one of the greatest things about this country, and we should be proud and treasure it rather than chop it up.
I think that’s the point. The public are extremely angry about it. There’s an organisation called 38 degrees that managed to get enough money to mount a massive publicity campaign, just from ordinary people donating a few quid each via Paypal.
The NHS in my view should be free to use until abused. Anyone who doesn’t show for an appointment without cancelling it should be fined, for example. Same with people who call ambulances needlessly.
Having said that, it isn’t true that it isn’t affordable. What gets lost in all the shouting is that per capita, the state provision of healthcare in the USA costs more – and yet it doesn’t cover most people. You spend more tax dollars per man, woman and child than the UK does, yet we get universal care.
Ask Stephen Hawking or Johnny Depp what they think of NHS provision. Johnny Depp gave a million dollar thank-you card after his daughter’s care at Great Ormond Street, which was the hospital honoured on the night.
The general attitude to the NHS “reforms” can be summed up by this: http://www.mydavidcameron.com/posters/cam-nhs1
+3. Thanks for summing it up so well.
To all in this thread – thank you for your comments. Glad I was not the only one to have emjoyed it so much. Just sorry my first post on thios site had to be a bit of a rant-y one!
Also happy to try (!) explain any monets that were a bit too much of an in-joke 🙂
I loved it. It was fun, extremely beautiful, interesting and, I don’t know, it really was appealing to an European public. Pretty much everybody I know liked it a lot.
The part I thought was a bit long and less stimulating than the others was the dancing part with the two kids looking for each other (so they could make out. Eh.), but overall… amazing. The first part especially. Boyle did very well.
I always forget how different the US public is.
Wow. From what I have seen, the comments from Americans (myself included) have been overwhelmingly positive. I will admit that I didn’t understand every symbol (I.e. the baby), and I didn’t catch who Kenneth Branaugh was supposed to be. But Google is a lovely thing…mystery solved. My husband travels to London for work every month, and I have accompanied him many times. I always feel very welcome there, and eagerly look forward to returning, but comments like this remind me of the ocean that sits between us. Sad.
Shannon, I don’t understand what was so sad about my comment. I’m not saying anything bad about the US public, just pointing out that there is quite a difference between European and Us publics in what is found entertaining and what is not.
I am Italian, have traveled a lot and have always noticed differences in how a show or a book or a movie were liked in countries that were even close in space (say, Italy and France, or the Uk, or Poland or Hungary). This show was simply more geared towards a European public, which does not exclude that some of the Us public may like it. Nothing offensive there! 🙂
@RocketMerry: Fair enough. I concede that there is a difference between what many Europeans, and what many Americans, find entertaining. I misunderstood you…thank you for your explanation.
I worked in fashion, so I have traveled extensively in both Europe and Asia. Looking back on 6 hours of Kung fu movies while on a river ferry in China, and the intense passion for football in much of the world (which many Americans find baffling), I see what you mean.
Btw: I worked for both Valentino and Armani, here in NYC, so I have a special place in my heart for Italy. 🙂
No prob, have a nice evening 🙂
(BTW, cool job you have!)
Well, this member of the US audience LOVED it! I thought it was a great ceremony. Loved the visuals, the tongue-in-cheek humor, the history, everything. I don’t understand the criticism from so many!
Just lovely. I applaud your beautifully eloquent post, Anon.
Thanks Anon, for explaining the process with us, I was so disappointed I didn’t see the opening ceremonies from the beginning, caught it before the James Bond portion. I love Great Britian and her people, was just there during the Jubilee. It has so much history, I will always have a special place in my heart for GB.
Thank you so much for your post! I fell in love with London when I was there and this ceremony signified so much of what it is. If you don’t like it and didn’t really get it, fine. That doesn’t make it the worst thing ever seen. Great Britain has a rich and lengthy history, and there is more to it that the royal family.
A lot of people are also forgetting that London probably had 1/16 of the budget that China had for their opening ceremonies. I thought they did great and connected with other countries about what makes the British so delightful!
Totally agree with Anon. The opening ceremony did have its quirks (that grassy hill??) but it truly celebrated what it means to be British rather than an over-the-top spectacle.
Thanks 🙂 FYI -the grassy hill represented Glastonbury Tor i.e. where the big music festival takes place in Somerset most years (it didn’t take place this year). It was supposed to represent British pop/rock music, whilst the other side of the arena represented the classical music as played at the BBC Prom with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Anon, thanks for clearing up what the tree and hill presented. I only saw parts of the ceremony and thought the tree and hill were from Lord of the Rings, the party tree in the Shire.
“The little hill” i.e. Glastonbury tor not only represents Glastonbury festival Europe’s largest and most iconic music festival but is also steeped in ancient pagan mythology. It represents a link to Britain’s pre-Christian ancient past.
A copy of Stonehenge probably could have made the point more obviously but it would have been stereotypical and cliche because of its obviousness.
Danny Boyle tried and succeeded to avoid cliches and stereotypes for most of the evening with the unfortunate exception of Paul MacCartney closing which was just a tired embarrassment
Glanstonbury and it’s surrounding immediate counties is also location of the old Kingdom of Wessex as well as the mythical kingdom of Camelot.
Great Britain is geographically quite small, but culturally it is the motherlode that keeps on giving. The opening ceremonies were their way of saying “You’re welcome world!” Shakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, the Brontes, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Harry Potter, the Beatles, the Stones, Elton John, Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Queen, Amy Winehouse, Adele…and on …and on. I thought it was wonderful even though these spectacles rarely capture my interest. I am American and can’t help being an Anglophile at the very least for the list above. I didn’t watch Beijing, but from the clips that couldn’t be avoided, it may just as well have been computer generated.
Oh my God, I am off to do a pregnancy test, for your post made me WEEP Anon. I do not do weeping. Beautifully written. Actually, weeping. WTF.
here here!! Im an american and I thought it was spectacular! I guess im in the minority but even THAT shocks me, as I thought it was incredible! Was no one moved by that tiny waif of a boy singing thru that stadium like an angel? I thought the tribute to reading and Englands contribution to literature was very moving. JK Rowling was there for heavens sake! I for one really loved all of the industrial revolution parts of it, all of the medieval stuff before that, idk, I was tearing up when Kenneth Branagh read Shakespeare!
Im still kind of shocked that my family and I are in the minority, I thought this whipped Beijings ass, because their ceremony was kind of like 80 billion people moving as a faceless mass into different formations. This was a tribute to the humans that created history in that region. Loved it!
THIS. It was a great opening ceremony. I’m french and i loved it !
Dutch here. I had no expectations, having heard nothing about it all, and unexpectedly enjoyed it very much. It started out as ‘Lord of the Rings, the musical’ and went bonkers and it was FUN.
And I love that Danny Boyle basically gave a big, public middle finger to the right wing arseholes who want to abolish the NHS.
I agree so much! That’s why I loved the opening ceremony, it was all about how the people made the country great. The Danny Boy part, the 7/7 tribute and when the Olympic greats nominated the next generation to light the torch made me weepy. Well done Mr Boyle and all involved! But then again, any time I see Mr Bean, JK Rowling and the Queen’s corgi’s all in the same place I’m not going to be disappointed.
appreciating your critiques FAR more than the execution of the ceremony itself. i thought it was ghastly bad to watch. i wont afgue that it was conceptually good, but it was a visual & artistic fail in my book. it looked like amateur night – which made me sad cause it cost an assload of money to produce, clearly.
I totally agree with you. I’m English but have lived in the U.S. for 30 years. I think Americans just don’t “get” the fact that British humour is very often tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating and nearly always laced with a heavy dose of sarcasm. Please, Americans: don’t take us so much on face value.
This was an awesome opening ceremony – nothing straight-laced or “stiff upper lip, old chap!” about it. Way to go Danny Boyle!
I co-sign. This post completely missed the point of the entire opening ceremony. Abide With Me was moving, the rest of it was cheeky and I loved it.
I don’t usually sit through the Opening Ceremonies. I always find them cheesy. I watched this one because it was the UK and I figured I wouldn’t totally hate it. I was right, I may not have loved all of it – but I didn’t hate it.
I was also sitting there cringing thinking what we would do. Sir Paul = the UK’s living musician, even if my mom wanted Sir Elton and I wanted Bowie. I have a feeling whomever the greatest living American musician is, is someone I don’t like – Springsteen, maybe? We have a lot more gangsta rap and other crap I don’t like so really, overall, I’m sure it was better than anything we could do.
I am also American and I loved it! I enjoyed it a good bit more than Beijing, actually. As several others mentioned, the choirs made me tear up, I LOVED the James Bond part and I also really liked the tribute to the NHS. I certainly would be very proud of it too, if my country had such a thing. There were admittedly a few things I didn’t get, but your post cleared them up nicely. Thank you! 🙂
It was wonderful in it’s tribute all things quintessentially British.I am British,live in Canada and Thank God we had our CTV station,live, with commentators who understood the symbolism( and the characters and their part in British history) I was on Twitter the whole time,(recommended) and loved the jubilation from people all over the World as they recognized special moments in the broadcast!! ( incidentally I have Queen_UK and Charles_HRH ..spoofs..on Twitter and they were hilarious. One maybe needs to watch it twice to pick up on all the detail,but unlike the generic huge ‘spectacles’ of previous ceremonies it was personalized and fun!!! So homesick to see it even though I have been away 42 years!! Incidentally I believe that NBC’s coverage was dreadful,time delayed, uninformative,wrong facts and special pieces like the Tribute to the deceased and to Titanic left out…did I mention a lack of grasp as to what constitutes British Humour??? In this very generic world, we should enjoy the quirkiness and Humour!! Thanks for saying about Brunel!! Far too many references to Abraham Lincoln…why would he be there?? We have almost 2000 years of British history to draw on,don’t need to import historical figures!!! Glad to see however that people are commenting on it,It was the most watched and commented on Opening Ceremonies( due to Twitter ) so that is good for the UK!
Ontarian here, so what I saw I watched on CTV and was happy with the coverage. I’m getting the sense that NBC only supplied time-filling gum-bumping where there was supposed to be commentary.
It’s not Danny Boyle’s fault if Meredith Viera can’t grasp the not-in-any-way esotheric historical or political aspects of the show. For someone so openly contemptuous of the intellect of other humans, she could do with a bit of tumbling off of the peaks of old Mount Olympus once in a while. And when she’s descending, perhaps she can pull Lauer’s wages with her. Perhaps the image of a deflated cheque could shift his focus from his reflection for a minute–keep his mind on his business.
Kaiser, I’ve gotta ask: Why is it Danny Boyle’s job to alienate the host nation by ignoring it completely for the sake of placating Americans? Why is it so criminal that one night of introspection slipped into the airwaves? I mean, I’m sorry to say it, but this kind of ‘justify your life’ stance is pretty self-absorbed. I’m not saying you have to like it, but why does the ceremony *owe* you any more than anyone else? Isn’t that kind of against the spirit of the festivities. Everything is always about the States and not anti-American by any stretch but why does everything always have to be ‘America, America, America…and if there’s time we’ll get to our GNP’? I’ll wager that somewhere in the world, British history and it’s movements and influences et cetera a person might think those things are interesting, and how’s about a golden opportunity to address it?
Of course, with every single person in my family–immediate and extended–living within the realm of Queen Scowling Hangnail or in one of her colonies, it’s a bit funny to hear someone say, ‘Eschew your own, I’m running shit, now!’
I loved it. Much better than Beijing. Yes, Beijing was big and shiny and blah blah blah, I didn’t feel a thing when I watched it. More than once I was moved to tears or laughter during Friday’s ceremony. It was well-thought out and told a lovely story. A job well done.
+1 to Anon, I loved it, I do think the pop medley bit was a bit cringe- especially the love story element (which made no sense- she lost her phone so he calls her).
But the opening and the movement from countryside to industry was amazing. Especially the industrial introduction of the Olympic rings. It was meant to show the different ages of britian- including industrial and digital. And I agree it was all about people coming together, it was ‘for everyone’ as they said later on. And it was fun.
I don’t remember much of Bejing – just something about a book, and I’m not sure I watched Athens. All I know about Sydney is that Kylie was on a giant flipflop I think…
Also the rap- I think is considered Grime in the UK (or I believe Dizzee Rascal is (I’m an old fogee so not all in the loop.)which is the guy who rapped at the end of the pop part, he’s actually a local hero- a lot of the emphasis was tried to be placed on East London- both Dizee and Beckham come from there.
@Anon – I loved it too. Corgis!
Also, Paul McC – busted trying to use a backing vocal tape out of synch; then he started laughing. I found it kind of endearing even though I’m pretty bored of him these days.
And I WILL BE SKIPPING the Old Spice Slaps. This is not what I refer to as real music and only 2 of them can actually sing. I do not blame Victoria one bit for wanting it to all go away. Its just too embarrassing.
Here here. I’ m sorry but Americans lack of understanding or appreciation of anything that isn’t quintessentially or tackily American is merely reflected in these comments! The opening ceremony was an irreverent nod to everything that the UK embodies – a great show!
I loved it! Just the right amount of eccentrism and just the right amount of fun; this American enjoyed it. Rule, Britannia!
ITA loved it also !!
I really loved it too!
I liked most that the ceremony wasn’t that clean and mechanically like in Bejing – sorry, but for me perfection is not the goal – humanity is!
Glad to hear other nationalities and some Americans enjoyed it, mainly hearing about how all Americans hated it.
I loved the heart and fun of this ceremony. Also I think it depends how you saw it? NBC? their coverage sucked so I grade on a curve. I prefer the fun of this olypics to the perfection of the Chinese opening ceremony.
+1. London opening ceremony was fun, Bejing was not.
What a hot mess. The smoke stacks representing the Industrial Revolution spewing a sulfur smell was just overkill. Like it wasn’t aromatic enough in that stadium with 50,000 people who had been waiting for days for a seat.
Speaking of seats – did anybody notice the glaring number of empty seats in the stadium? The official response was that it was allocated to media sponsors who didn’t even bother to make an appearance.
Apparently the Olympic committee are ‘looking in to it’ Considering what a polava it was for people to get tickets I think it’s disgraceful that there were that many empty seats.
I read that it was the most expensive seating that was a bust. I guess some people don’t feel like paying 2000 pounds to hear Macca flub through ‘Hey Jude’.
DAnny Boyle was being overly method,but all the history books/programmes show that is what Britain looked like for the most part in the Industrial towns as farming and rural living was abandoned.
As much as i admire the Victorians for charity shaming each other into helping each other out as a virtue, i am so glad i didn’t live during those times.
Every Dickens Novel is a social re-telling of the Industrial age….
Victorian history and literature is so overwhelmingly sad in myriad aspects that it snaps into the comical, so unbelieveably dire are some of the stories. The period did make for the most heartbreaking episode of The Worst Jobs In History, I think.
I remember taking a Victorian literature seminar many moons ago and stumbling into some extracurricular reading about infant drugging in the industrial age–so depressing you (or maybe I have a sickness and it’s just me) release a disbelief guffaw. There were stories about roving bands of children robbing apothecaries in the night to fuel their addictions, and the street fights that would ensue. Kids robbing anyone blind to pay for more ‘medicine’, or incidents of children passed out in the road from downing huge amounts of the stuff in a few slugs. Mothers who worked sixteen-hour days and lived with, pretty much everyone in a hole in the side of a wall, drugging their babies with tonics with names like ‘Mother’s Helper’ and ‘Infant’s Quietness’, to ease the hunger pangs, to facilitate her own rest and to numb the emotional pain of switching out a neglected child for a sleeping one.
I remember reading about a specific tonic, one that may well have been the most popular of its day. It was called Godfrey’s Cordial and all it was was opium in treacle. If you were lucky, the apothecary or even his wife would ‘measure’ out the opium using the highly scientific method of scoop and shovel. Hopefully, the person measuring it would be literate…God help me, because I giggled at the idea when I thought ‘hey’, I’ve wasted enough years of my life in the dregs of nineteenth-century scholarship to know a few things about laudanum, consumption and syphillis, and I KNOW that opium is not water (or treacle) soluble. So wouldn’t it sink to the bottom and wouldn’t it concentrate there?
I used the old technique of getting a professor to find something out for you under the auspices of deferring to someone else’s intellect rather than bother to do it myself and BAM–that crud at the bottom knocked toddlers out for days.
Aww c’mon Kaiser, ‘the worst thing ever’ is a bit extreme.
It was not as showy and over the top as Beijing was, but the ceremony managed to convey everything about British culture.
However, I may be a bit biased because I just love Danny Boyle 😀
Yes, Kaiser, you are completely right – it was HORRENDOUS!
I don’t care what your motif is – if you need 5 pages of written notes, or all the British TV commenators to come together, to explain point by point what was what, then YOUR VISION FAILED!
The Opening Ceremony is supposed to be a celebration of the olympic spirit, of the true and honest competition, of all the disparate countries coming together to unite the world for a few weeks in a friendly matchups of physical prowess.
The ceremony is supposed to awaken that spirit in all the athletes and viewers, to make us wait with baited breath for incredible competitions, for triumphs of the human spirit, for vanquishing of dreams and hopes, for rising above the fray and attempting perfection.
It is not supposed to make us question, with every single new performer, what the hell is going on? It is not supposed to make us wish for a running ClosedCaptioning with detailed expositions/explanations of the production’s aims and designs. It is not supposed to be only understandable to the people of the host nation, leaving the rest of the world out of enjoying it for simply not being able to get it. And it is not supposed to be turned into a showcase of old, tired, overextended, former ‘TALENT’ that evokes feelings of sorrow and dismay. I mean – Paul McCartney? Really? In the ocean of horrid stupidity, his singing was the most pathetic, sad, humiliating fiasco of all. His breaking voice, his inability to stay in tune, were simply highlighting the desperation of the ceremony’s creators to hang onto and present the old days of glory as still ongoing and flourishing, when in fact these days are long gone and never coming back. And whoever came up with the ‘tribute to NHS’ – seriously, did they just come from organising May Day communism -praising productions in Moscow?
And finally – the ‘royal entrance’? Who thought that was a good idea? I’m sorry to say, there is only so much you can try and explain by/blame on the old ‘British sense of humor’. After a point it turns into a parody, and the only feeling you’re left with is disbelief at what you just saw.
The parody is only fun when it’s intentional, but in this case it was so off the mark, even the Queen was like ‘I can’t believe I got roped into this. Maybe I should have retired last year???’
BIG, BIG, BIG F A I L !!!
@polk8dot:
…or maybe Danny Boyle was guilty of giving *SOME* of the viewers too much credit… thinking they might be able to grasp what he was getting at (coughYOUcough)
Did you really need 5 pages of notes to get it?
Firstly, that’s really sad.
Secondly, Google is your friend.
Comparing the NHS to Communism? Wow. Enough said.
(agree w/ polk*dot – good lord – i couldnt even stand to watch more than 1/3 of it… i missed the queen’s bit, and it was cute, so thanks for posting it here in the story! the hospital bed thing was just insane, all around)
The British love the NHS. Opinion polls show that time and again. Cameron actually campaigned for election under the slogan: Cut the Deficit, Not the NHS, and his failure to adhere to that pledge has made a lot of people very, very angry. So what on earth is your comparison to the USSR about? Honestly, what? You might as well argue that the US Declaration of Independence is Communist, frankly. You know – all that “all men are created equal” malarkey?
Public education and public healthcare are two huge privileges shared by most of the developed world. Schools in most of Africa are fee-paying, no matter how poor you are, and so is most medical care. It actually makes me a little sick that people aren’t even aware of what a privilege it is to have access to learning and wellbeing, no matter who your parents are. Celebrating that privilege is totally appropriate and I’m glad it was done. It was also nice to pay tribute to our medical staff, who for the most part do a brilliant job. I’ve had home visits at 11 pm when really needed before. When you have a baby in this country, you get a home visit from your family doctor as soon as you get in from hospital (though you’re also entitled to two midwives and the Entonox if you want to deliver at home) and then you have a health visitor – a trained nurse, who specialises in neonates and new mother care – visit you at home regularly for several months. You also get home visits from a midwife when pregnant and for the first week after the birth. All free. I tell you, I am bloody grateful. I think that deserves to be celebrated and the people offering that care deserve to be thanked.
@Kate – Here! here! coming from someone who has enjoyed FREE knee surgery and friends who have had FREE Cancer care, Heart ops etc.
The NHS egalitarian principals make it very popular in the UK
On a practical note when your mother suddenly becomes ill with cancer you very quickly become grateful for not having to worry about insurance premiums or other money concerns
Motive…not motif….just saying!!!
Just totally OK with you. And almost everybody hated the “show”. Too british and not enough “olympics”. Too bad.
Er…it was fantastic. Maybe you didn’t get it because you are from the other side of the pond, but it was a celebration of all things British. And in London we are all feeling very proud xx
I think London should be proud, but I think that if you do a show for the world it should be done in a way that everyone watching should “get It’ or at least understand it.
but like I said below I did enjoy the show.
…But Lisa2, it was very easy to tell what all the symbolism was because it celebrated everything Britain is and what we have given to the world.
i just don’t think the world is that ignorant that they can’t recognise things that started or were gifted from Britain that are now taken for granted.
It really wasn’t that colloquial an exercise….except possibly Dizzee Rascal.
Here was one of my issues with it.
Has anyone seen LOVE? I think Danny Boyle has.
The smokestacks, check.
Kids in the beds, check.
Industrial revolution, check.
The house, check.
The music and love story, check.
WWII imagery, yep.
The commitment to the UK history was why the Beatles signed off on it and this was too much like that.
I fell asleep during LOVE too, even though it’s our company doing it. I hate Broadway song and dance shows, but thats me. I totally got the symbolism, I just didn’t enjoy much of the show. (I’m seeing Zarkana in NYC in two days and hope it is better.)
Matt and Meredith RUINED the entire thing over here as well, wish I was getting BBC feed.
Actually between you and me, i never liked the beatles, more rolling stones girl. Paul McCartney seems to be the go to guy for every public event since forever. We have so many world class pop/rock musicians/bands, if that is the only way to sign off these things. Why is it always him??? I am sick to death of him.
That was a good rant, wasn’t it? But then there are people for whom American Pie is…humor.
We liked the opening and got the points even being non-Brits.
Sorry, the comment is for number 6.
China didnt trump Australia…. that was a neat ceremony!
It was British. It was so very very British! It was like a love letter that celebrated everything about the country. And it was great how willing they were to poke fun at themselves.
You can’t compare it to Beijing, they had completely different goals.
P.S. That wasn’t Abraham Lincoln, that was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel
Well said! I think it was…a more intelligent approach to an opening ceremony. There was a real sense of fun and excitement as well as cultural richness. People looked genuinely happy to be there- which I didn’t get from Beijing. Those participants looked like their soul had been removed in an oppressive production line.
Anyway each to their own. Don’t forget out budget of £27 million was much, much less than Beijing’s too. Personally £27 million sounds wasteful in any context.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
It was a completely different style to Beijing, it’s unfair to compare the two.
I think we did ourselves proud. Seeing some of my nations greatest historic moments made me very proud.
To those less acquainted with our history parts of it may have sucked and seemed ridiculous, but there were parts that everyone could enjoy e.g. Mr Bean and Bond.
Mmm…I have to disagree, because I loved the whole opening cerimony (and I’m not British) — the dancing nurses and the kids, all the Mary Poppins, JKR reading, the huge Lord Voldemort, the love story, the music, Kenneth Branagh (although I still think they should have invited Tom Hiddleston for the part instead) and the industrial revolution performance brought tears to my eyes, the Queen, James Bond, and the fat adorable corgis! I sat through it all and loved it. 🙂
You obviously do not know your British history. This opening ceremony was Absolutely Fabulous! The start of the enclosure movement, to industrialization, to the NHS, to Mary Poppins, to the love story of non-white people was spectacular and showed the world that the Brits are actually pretty advanced when it comes to human rights. Had you half a brain that wasn’t corrupted by ‘merican standards of normalcy, then you would have noticed all of these incredibly telling stories for what they really were: British history from the bottom up.
Um, I do a nd I have lived there and hubby has worked there for many years and the ceremony bored me to tears.
It’s not supposed to be just for the British, it is supposed to inspire the WORLD and get you hyped for the athletic competition. This did not do that for me. It’s supposed to glorify sports, not just insider humor you have to be a citizen to understand. Everyone understood the majesty of Bejiing.
Do love the fireworks though. You do it fantastic there, even NY eve ws fabulous on the Thames this year!
I miss England, but don’t envy riding the tube or buses right now, must be hell.
LAK, is it bad? Love seeing the parks green as we seem to live there every winter:(
@OriginalTiffany – traffic is a nightmare. As you know i live quite centrally, they’ve added an ‘olympic lane’ in either direction to the roads ie for Olympic cars and buses only meaning all vehicles, including bicycles, can only drive down one tiny lane. And some roads are blocked off which means more people are forced on to the tube and buses.
And for once, the weather is amazing. temperatures are blazing, little of the threatened rain.
i really feel like Victor Meldrew right now about the whole thing.
I saw those lanes. My daughter and I are so happy we are not living there right now, as we lived in the midst and I would be insane on the tube, can imagine the crush.
I remember LA as a kid. Traffic was terrible all over Socal because everything was so spread out, plus Dodger games.
Weather looks gorgeous. Yay after the non summer you guys have had. My friend bar tends there and is so crazy busy right now…
Thanks for not jumping down my throat for my ceremony review. Obviously nothing against the UK, I love it there. Did I mention the pretty fireworks? 😉
I loved the cauldron too.
Hon, whether you like it or not is upto you. No thought policing here.
I will however jump down your throught if you don’t know who Steve Redgrave is!!!!
I loved the historical and social context of it, but as you know, that’s always my passion. i get carried away because i assume everyone else should know these things too. Forgetting that they too have their own passions that would only elicit an eye roll from me
ps:- i am alittle upset that Michael Phelps isn’t winning anything 🙁
Of course my dear, starting with his gold at…LA in 84!
Fantastic rower.
I’m an Olympic addict, I watch all of it that I can. Swimming on now with men’s basketball. Congrats to the Dutch girl who won the road race in the rain today.
They do love their bikes in the Netherlands!
@OTiff, ITA. It just went on and on and on… I don’t mind some tribute to British history, but it IS supposed to be a global event. Loved the Parade of Nations, torchlighting, cauldron, fireworks, and LOVED the Bond/Queen bit (well done, Your Majesty!). Also loved Sir Paul’s performance.
The rest was OK, but waaaaaay too long. I was kind of meh about it. NBC’s coverage sucked too.
Also, I’m Jewish, and though I understand why the IOC didn’t want to overshadow things with a moment of silence for the Munich Olympic massacre victims during the ceremony, it is the 40th anniversary of it, and since those athletes were murdered in front of the whole world, it would have been nice to acknowledge the anniversary of it the same way. Mind you, the fact that the IOC Prez has a French-sounding name didn’t help – ALOT of people have been reading anti-Semitism into it (though I just call it business as usual, seen it before, I’m just saying that a lot of my friends who are Jewish are particularly worked up about me; me, not as much) – especially when I read reports about how he treated the two widows he spoke to.
And I’ll end my little rant on this note – does anyone else think the Team USA uniforms made them look like flight attendants? I was kind of embarrassed.
@originaltiffany – i was out watching the road race. Sometimes….it is better to watch these things on the TV. they went past us so fast.LOL
I am an Olympic addict too. I love it when Britain wins stuff, but i also love a good competition and good competitors so can switch allegiance just like that!!
I used to play Hockey, quite competitively so that’s a soft spot for me and i have tickets for those events.
There are big screens in Hyde Park, so weather permitting, i will go down there to watch as many competitions as i can fit in. Good thing it’s within walking distance of home.
@TOTiff —
Thanks for saying everything I felt so eloquently.
For the record, I’m a devout Anglophile and I found it far too British for the rest of the world.
And I thought the Queen looked ill — did anyone else? She normally has a cute smirk on her face. I didn’t see a glimpse of it.
@OTiff:
Sure it’s a global event, but the country hosting the event need not/will not have a global theme except for celebrating the spirit of the sporting event – all nations coming together for athletic competition. It’s pointless to compare it to Beijing and its grandeur should not be understood as representing the global. If anything it wasn’t. It was all about China’s arrival on the world stage. So it was as Chinese as this was British. You are comparing the “aesthetics” of these two events and in that sense Beijing will always be spectacular. As for everyone understanding the majesty of Beijing, well, wasn’t it the intention? That was the objective/goal and so the event followed up on it – to tell the world China is a global superpower. Maybe in the next century, when China will be at a different stage as a nation and society, it’ll celebrate its culture/history in a more detailed manner. For Britain, it was important to lift the national spirit at a time of economic fragility and therefore celebrating all things British. Nationalism will ALWAYS be at play as a central theme irrespective of the country hosting the event. For China it was economic boom, for Britain it is about living in a troubled economy. So the goal will always be national and global simultaneously, with the former taking precedence over the latter. The Olympics is a political event for the nations and it’ll always be so.
Personally I think the opening/closing ceremonies are a HUGE waste of money.
I’m getting a little tired of the American bashing. Just because someone who happens to be American doesn’t like something it doesn’t warrant the usual ripping on the person for being ‘dumbed down, ‘merican standards, ignorant’ – it means the person in their opinion didn’t enjoy it.
They lost me with old timey guys in top hats hand-jiving but I watched the whole dang thing.
I don’t see any american bashing.
As a Brit I really enjoyed it, initially. I loved Boyle depicitng our Industrial history but I do also understand that if you were an international viewer without even a cursory knowledge of British history it would have probably made no sense. The NHS thing was ok not mid blowing though but I really wasn’t keen on the journey through our musical history segment, for me that was very tedious.
I thought The Queen’s part was fantastic, I actually thought that she looked like she really enjoyed it. She would have had a lot of say in it so I very much doubt she would have gone ahead with it if she wasn’t interested. McCartney was the lowest point of the whole ceremony IMO. He wasn’t hitting the notes at all and his face kind of looked like it was melting!. Seeing Sir Steve Redgrave (he’s won 5 Gold medals in 5 consecutive Olympics) was a highlight, and of course anything that shows Becks is a win in my eyes!
Overall I thought it was good- not fantastic but definitely not sucky
Steve Redgrave coming in to the stadium greeted by the workers was fantastic! Definitely one of the highlights of the ceremony.
I adore Sir Steve Redgrave. It was kind of obvious that he would be somewhere around the last leg of the torch if not the actual cauldron lighter.
+1 I liked the musical history segment too. But I did not like the ‘Hey jude’ part. Looked like Mccartney forgot the lyrics !!! But got to agree, many of my Asian friends did not like it. They felt the Beijing ceremony was better.
Thank you for the video with Daniel Craig and the Queen. Gave me the opportunity to see it. 😀
I don’t really care about the Olympics or about any opening or closing ceremonies, it’s a waste of money. But I’d rather have the less posh opening in London then the more extravagant one in Peking at least the British didn’t mess with rain clouds.
I was a bit shocked when I saw the expression of the Queen during her speech. To me her expression is very grim and serious. Could Prince Philips stay in hospital be the reason for this?
I also thought that the Bond/Queen segment was brilliant. I replayed it again and again and laughed each time. I wasn’t able to watch the ceremony, so all I saw were the clips. I didn’t get the hospital sequence at all. Were it not for the industrial revolution in England, my ancestors would not have come to America to show the American’s how to do it, so I have no problem with English ways. I just don’t get some of the local British customs – like saying “come through” when American’s say “come in” when people are entering a room. Love England – visited there years ago and have very fond memories. I adore the queen. Long may she live!
I thought it was fantastic.
I thought it was a lot of fun! I’ve always been a fan of British humour though. The Queen parachutting to the James Bond theme is +10000 points at least.
I’m sorry but I refuse to give too much love to the ceremony in Bejing (which honestly I don’t even remember that well, but I know it was impressive). There is too much going on behind the scenes in that country that we are supposed to just forget about and smile. I’ll take the actual volunteers thanks.
THIS. I said above I didn’t remember much about the Beijing Ceremonies, which is true. But I DO remember there was a controversy surrounding part of the ceremonies in which this cute little Chinese girl sang a song.
Well it turns out the girl didn’t sing it. She lip synched and mimed it as another young girl sang it. However, they didn’t have the other girl on stage because she was deemed “not cute enough.”
In case you forgot about it: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26153578/ns/beijing_olympics-beijing_olympics_news/t/young-olympics-singing-star-didnt-really-sing/
I remember the Beijing opening ceremony. I think it was the tackiest thing I’ve ever seen. The power of show-off…
This, thank you.
Aesthetically, I liked Beijing’s ceremony. But the London one made me tear up. Danny Boyle gave center stage to the people that other countries push to the back and try to make them invisible and pretend they don’t exist. Beijing is ashamed for a little girl’s supposed lack of cuteness, while London celebrates every child. How can one not be touched by the anthem sang by the choir of DEAF children? Or our pride in the NHS, our nurses and our doctors (yes, a lot of the dancers were actual doctors and nurses). Also, to the people who didn’t get the GOSH and Peter Pan link, look it up. We celebrate our children’s authors who not only wrote the stories we grew up with, but left a huge legacy that has affected, improved a saved the lives of many children in need and suffering in sickness. I don’t care how tacky it was, for me the major WIN was the celebration of these things and making the invisible people visible.
I know that it’s lame, but that singing girl switch-up still bugs me.
Such a great point…great astronomically
expensive show of might, hiding the very restrictive,bullying underbelly of the country! All smoke and mirrors!! Give me Danny Boyle’s eccentric but joyous celebration of the ordinary person in the street..how wonderful to showcase the workers,the volunteers, the deaf choir and all that has put the great in Britain!!! It was marvelous!
I did not watch the opening ceremony but everytime I hear how awful it is or some bizarre detail I assume it’s just exaggeration…
And then I see images of a giant baby and a man dressed as Abe Lincoln…wow.
On a more positive note I absolutely loved the Queen’s reaction. People all over the world have been going nuts for the Olympics for months and she’s just like “Ahuh…yes…is it over yet? No. Ah well, what’s under my nail? Hmm” God bless her. Total old lady ‘I don’t really care’ prerogative.
Abe Lincoln was actually Isambard Kingdom Brunel, one of the key players in the industrial revolution.
There were lots of cultural references, but as a Brit I loved the ceremony.
Thank you, going on the picture alone I was totally thrown off but that makes more sense.
Some parts of it weren’t explained very well in the ceremony.
A couple of times I sat there thinking “huh?”
I loved it! Though it needed more Sherlock 🙂
Yeah it was weird but it was very British, I found it amusing, heartfelt and beautiful.
I am American and I loved it! Loved Mr Bean too. It had humor and history and great music. I may not have understood all the parts because I’m not from the UK but I certainly appreciated the effort. Only two things I didn’t care for: Bond not bowing to the Queen (I come from a US military family and we’re all about protocol) and that NBC cut out the tribute to the victims of the 7/7 bombing in favor of an interview of Michael Phelps. I would have liked to see the tribute; not everything needs to be so centered on America that we can’t mourn people from other countries who die in senseless acts of violence. Also I felt it was like taking ten minutes out of the middle of a movie and being told,” Oh you didn’t want to see that part anyway.” Boos to NBC!
Q: did they show you the remembrance minute silence and poppy tribute to WW1 dead and veterans??
I ask because reading various american boards, it seems it was too British to translate some parts or some parts were left out, maybe?
I watched it the next day on our cable TV Olympic channel, and they included the whole ceremony, including the poppy and tribute to fallen soldiers (which I found incredibly moving, even as an American). From what I hear, NBC did a terrible job and I am glad I waited to see it elsewhere.
They did show the WWI tribute thankfully. Another note: Sir Paul getting all choked up when he started singing was just a great “human moment” I thought.
Too long, like all this kind of show, but very British.
So a little boring but nice too.
Worst thing ever – other than the five minutes with Rowan Atkinson, which were awesome – Kenneth Branaugh reciting the Tempest in a top hat was too much. And the whole James Bond thing was wrong on so many levels. So many.
It’s too bad they were not able to devote a moment to remember the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed during the 1972 Summer Games in Munich.
I agree 10000000%. But I believe the IOC is to blame for that, not the people in charge of the show.
“Rogge has repeatedly rebuffed calls to hold a moment of silence during Friday’s opening ceremony of the London Games. He said Saturday the opening was not the appropriate place to remember the Israeli team members killed by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Munich Olympics”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2018750623_apolyroggemunichmassacre.html
+1
Just posted about this above as well, but it’s worth saying again, it doesn’t help that Rogge was a complete pr!ck to the two Munich widows he met with about this issue.
I agree that comparing London to Beijing is apples to oranges. Beijing was more of a spectacular, London was more of a historical, storytelling tribute to England. Kudos to them for not being afraid to be different, but still represent themselves in a very British fashion. LOVED it!
The only person missing was Sophie Rose. She should jump with Queen and Daniel Craig.
That dude in the tunnel? He’s 5 times gold Olympic medal winner, Sir Steve Redgrave! Show some respect!
My thoughts exactly! And in 5 consecutive games at that!!
I’m 60/40 to be honest. I loved so much it and other parts made me sleepy. I loved Mr.Bean. my mom called me and was all there is that guy I like and it made me laugh. I guess I’m in the minority because the part with Daniel and the Queen was too cheesy for me. I didn’t find it that funny. I didn’t like the love story.. will admit I drifted off to sleep but I dvr it so watched it later. But it was a good show overall, and I appreciated it, but I don’t think it would as interesting to children. It felt very adult. the Beijing Ceremony was very child friendly to me. Kids loved the visuals.
I like most had to watch the NBC coverage and Matt completely spoiled the whole lighting of the touch with his voice over. Talking about how the touch was so low and that it would have to do some serious rising…then of course it did.. just took the MOMENT away for the viewer. I could have slapped his face. That was one of my favorite parts of the ceremony. The lighting. And how it looked like this huge flower. so moving. Beijing was nice because of the guy running on the side of the stadium, but the actual lighting was not as good as this one. so BRAVO.
But congrats to the British people for doing a great show. and I have to say how is sucked that NBC cut the tribute for victims of the 7/7 bombing. That was very badly done.
I though it was very creative and I appreciated they not just going with the usual twirly dancers and such.
It really could of have used editing and shortening. The US coverage On NBC was execrable, not to mention pretty condescending. Can this be the end of Matt Lauer please?
Sadly, no. I believe NBC has US Olympic broadcast rights forever.
One of the reasons I didn’t watch the ceremonies. First time that’s happened since the 1980 boycott.
Oh my gosh, i know!!! I’m Canadian and I’m used to good old Brian Williams of the CBC doing the Olympic broadcasts.
This was my first Olypmics in the states and Matt Lauer spoke over the whole show…. :S
p.s. i loved the opening ceremony, the Queen was great 🙂
Bleh. I hope you can watch it with different commentary online. I say ‘hope’ because these official channel sights are about as useful as a sack of a–holes at any given moment.
I don’t have my own TV, so I just go to my sister’s place to watch big events like this. For the Vancouver games, there was the odd thing that I wanted to see but you had to get registered to stream off of those sites. Didn’t work. It was like getting Hulu-ed in my own dang country.
I thought it was an excellent ceremony, i loved the progression through history and the humour woven through the spectacle.
I was in Shanghai for the beijing ceremony and barely remember it…
And as an Australian, clearly the Sydney Olympics were best 😀
Thats because it was. Goosebump good.
See the first part for me was interesting visually and historically. I thought the transition to the industrial revolution was cool and loved the smoke stack, although I feel for those there sulfur gross. But the last half was crazy and disconnected, it seemed like so much time was spent on the first half that the second was thrown together. There was so much going on it was difficult to see everything at once. I thought the comedic bits were cute, the villain from literature was odd and the big baby?!?!?
Kaiser I surprised you said nothing of katie’s cutaway of looking beyond tense. Also Meredith and Matt were beyond annoying and sounded completely ignorant. But the cauldron was the awesome!
The villan was the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
The giant baby was in tribute to Great Ormond Street Hospital, the most famous childrens hospital in the UK.
Maybe that’s the trouble Canada has with being so geographically huge. Someone must’ve thought, ‘oh, dang’ in feeling like there was a missed opportunity to celebrate Sick Kids Hospital–the biggest in the world. You can’t really go five paces in Toronto without a teenager with a clipboard cornering you for money, but that’s a different story.
Of course, a flight from Toronto to Vancouver is five hours long and the relationship between the two cities is…spicy.
I regularly come to this site to catch up on what has been happening…agreeing silently to what most people say, with some lol moments. But today Im a bit shocked at your headline, so I thought its probably about time I say something, or start saying something .
First I’d like to say well done to Danny Boyle. Secondly @ Kaiser, I forgive your narrow view of this Olympic ceremony. To be honest with you I really wasn’t looking forward to the whole Olympic thing, though I work in London. In fact I was more concerned about getting home on time than wondering what the Olympic ooh-ahh is all about. However I felt the ceremony was fantastic, when I accidentally stumble on the channel showing the ceremony I was glued – until the countries Olympians started coming out, then they lost me, I fell asleep.:-)
Yes Beijing was spectacular and grandeurs… BUT the UK opening was creative, wacky, in a British way, engaging and memorable. Ok, some of the humours were probably too British but you cant help but wonder… if history is taught like this in schools, we’ll all be scoring ‘A’s. I think this opening will be talked about for a long time… especially James Bond meeting the Queen… I think that was cool.
Completely agree with you. I only saw some of the ceremony ( I live in Canada and was at work) but I thought it was a wonderful tribute to Britain. Probably helped that I’m Irish and got the humour, but the Canadians I spoke to all thought it was well done and impressive.
i liked the way that danny boyle did not shy away from being political. granted that you have to understand a lot about british culture to get it all but it is about educating people.
the ceremony embraced some fine achievements for the country; great music, fantastic litterature, invention, great minds, good attitudes, compassion and care. it achieved in celebrating theses things and educating others of them. whereas in my opinion the beijing olympics acheived in showing “look how militant our country can be!”
Part of me wonders if the tribute was a kind of backdoor acknowledgement of the murdered in Munich from 40 years ago. Every time someone brings up the incident to the IOC, they bleat some crap about how they don’t want to get political. Right, because there’s NOTHING political about the Olympics. People don’t defect, they don’t decline to enter, Hitler surely never showed up, human rights abuses is a buzz phrase cooked up in the meth lab of the brains of the touched, and that black power salute certainly didn’t make things any harder for the saluters or for the Australian fellow who knew that they would be saluting and supported them in the action at that moment and beyond. Judges favouring certain nations over others in their rankings? Come on with that, what politics?
To me, the refusal to say anything says way more than a moment of silence ever could. And if they want to get picky, why can’t they remember that wasn’t politicians who were murdered, it was Olympians who were murdered and it’s so dishonourable to see lip-biting hold greater power than showing a little dignity to those individuals who so sadly had their lives taken while devoting their lives to serving that organisation. Just do the right thing, IOC.
The best opening ceremony was the greek one. It was really interesting to see the olympics returning to their homeland. As far as the british opening ceremony is concerned, i got bored so many times. It was like they were trying to combine everything they re proud of in their culture and show it to the rest of the world. Well, come on, did they have to show Voldemort and Cruella de ville and on top of that Mary Poppins? As Kaiser pinpointed, it was terrible!
Me too, my favorite is the Athens 2004 summer Olympic Games.
“It was like they were trying to combine everything they re proud of in their culture and show it to the rest of the world.”
Um…isn’t that the point?
No it s not when it doesn t come across. They tried to combine uncombined elements like the british health system which was irrelevant with the whole thing. To them it might seem important and worth showing,but to the rest of the world it is boring and rather incoherent.
As a British history geek and Anglophile, I loved it. The only thing missing was Smiths/Morrissey music. The best British band of the 80s and you ignore them for Pet Shop Boys and Frankie Goes To Hollywood? REALLY???
As for the Queen, I’ve read that she looks especially stern when she’s trying not to laugh, so maybe that’s what was up with her.
Guess they can’t include everyone, though some Smiths and The Cure would have been cool. I think Frankie goes to Hollywood was included for those ubiquitous “relax” t-shirts that were everywhere in the 80’s. And for that matter, where was Wham??
U2 are Irish, Ireland is not part of the UK!!!!!!!! Most Irish people would be insulted if you were to say they were part of the UK
@id: oh my, you’re right! No offense intended. I wasn’t thinking…still sipping my first coffee here. Very silly mistake.
no worries, im irish so might be a bit sensitive 😉
@ld: thanks!!! My husband is Irish descent (2nd gen american) so he gave me a bit of a forehead tap for that comment too! Very silly mistake…I know better.
I am just such a huge U2 fan that perhaps I think they should be included in everything. 🙂
They actually did play U2. It was when the athletes were coming out, but I can’t remember which country it was. I do remember thinking it was odd because they’d been playing English bands and then suddenly U2 came on. Unless they were playing international bands that whole time and I never noticed.
I do feel sorry for some of the (Great Britain) athletes who were refrained from joining in the athletes’ parade because they were required to train. 🙁 Such party poopers, but hey, if they win a medal then I guess it’s all for the best right?
Like a lot a people here, I think the Beijing opening ceremony was very beautiful, and very soulless. It also felt like everybody involved in it was so tense. I didn’t get the same vibe with the one in London. A little British-centric though.
Huh? This opening ceremony was one of the best I’ve seen in my lifetime. Certainly far better than Beijing, thats for sure! Much, MUCH better.
I wanted to watch the opening ceremony, but the commentary made me change the channel so many times that I gave up.
The so-called sly asides came across as disrespectful and most of it came from a place of ignorance or rather an annoyance at being ignorant. Lauer and Vieira had more access at getting educated about the British culture and yet, they opted to fall back on the ‘too cool for school’ attitude that was out of order. They were guests, therefore they should swallow the sarcasm and worse yet, they were also representatives of America, meaning, again, putting your best foot forward and finding out.
But isn’t t that what Matt Lauer is all about??? If you read the other comments on sites about the Today Show,he is an arrogant twit..maybe the ratings crash will wise him up,but he IS a disrespectful person and broadcasts are all about him!! Sorry that the American audience was subjected to him and kudos to those who managed to draw their own conclusions despite his and Meridith’s sloppy commentary.
I get that it was a celebration of Britain and all things British, but it still felt incredibly random and never really took on a flow for me. I guess my big question here is, what is the opening ceremony supposed to be? Is it supposed to be a celebration of the host country’s history/cultural artifacts/contributions to the world? In that case, I can appreciate the industrial revolution and the NHS tribute, but James Bond?
There was definitely a juxtaposition of high brow and low brow (I guess anything seems low brow when the queen is present), but that didn’t quite work for me. In a ceremony where ‘Britain’ was supposed to be on display, I would have appreciated less pop culture references and something a little more substantive. (Maybe I’m being snobby?) I’m not sure Boyle made a lasting impression about what British identity is in the 21st century. Which is why, to me, the ceremony felt overly gimmicky and nonsensical, and I don’t think we can account for this by calling it pomo.
Hmm, I hope I made sense.
Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books, was British.
I was hoping for a nod to Sherlock and Dr Who but BBC wouldn’t let them *sigh*
And of course James Bond is the Ultimate British Spy, on Her Majesty’s service 🙂
There was a small nod to Doctor Who, somewhere in the digital age section you could just about hear the drone of the TARDIS ^^
I heard the TARDIS and got all pumped for a Dr Who appearance but it didn’t happen.
Matt Smith was in the Mr Bean skit, but I was still disappointed.
Agreed – 100%.
What i liked: Queen & Bond, Mr Bean, Beckham, Olympic rings pyrotechnics, Lighting of cauldron.
Least liked: the Digital age gave me a headache, the creepy baby at NHS scene.
Tidbit: Each petal which formed the flame, was carried by the girl representing the country in the parade of nations. 204 petals for the 204 participating countries.
Seriously??!! It was fantastic! The show was great, the music was great as well as the lights, how can you be so blase?
Maybe it was a little over the top, a little long and ridiculous at times, but what drove my husband and I crazy was that Americans were forced to watch it on NBC and we had to listen to Bob Costas and his interpretation and comments of the whole thing. I love the parade of nations and the different outfits. There were a lot of great hats.
The show was terrible. It was wrong from start to finish. The Brits are known for their Royal spectaculars. That’s the reason people visit. As a former member of Walt Disney Entertainment and having been involved with Super Bowl halftimes and the 1984 Olympics I have one saying that might help. “It’s not how long you make it, it’s how you make it long.”
Yeah the last half time show with an old lady grinding her crotch and MIA giving the finger was amazing – I really wish that the opening ceremony was like that….
I think you’re missing the point California( sorry I can’t read the rest of your name). The ceremony wasn’t about being spectacular, it was about showcasing the host nation of the Olympics.
Funny, because I asked higher up if you’d be happy if all the US were expected to show at an Opening ceremony was Disney. Perhaps yes, then.
I liked it, and it made me once again realize how influential and powerful Britain has been in history. The Queen was funny….I don’t think she ever smiles.
I felt the exact opposite, in that the focus of the ceremony was not how influential Britain has been in (world) history but rather a summary of the ‘greatest hits’ of British culture (and some history) in the modern era, certainly post-industrial revolution. I thought the narrative was too ‘internally’ focused and somewhat self-indulgent. But to each his own.
It really wasn’t internally focused, every thing that was shown has benefited the world.
From the Industrial revolution to the invention of the WWW.
I would walk you through how everything shown did just that but i am sure google is faster and more detailed than this board needs.
The love story for me was completely unnecessary. Other parts were ok.. It got boring @ some points. Mr Bean was the highlight for me..
The opening ceremony was fresh and fun. Mostly i loved that it highlighted multiculturalism and the National Health Service. Cameron and the right-wingers actually paid for this lefty propaganda, haha. Danny Boyle is the best lol.
The Queen ‘jumping’ out of a helicopter with Bond – how many other heads of state would agree to that? Beijing’s opening ceremony was beautifully-showy, sure. London’s narrative celebrated the icons – fictional and real – and historical moments that make the UK unique, while poking fun at itself (Mr. Bean & Chariots of Fire, etc.,). Big, bold, but with lots of warmth. As host country it’s their opportunity to show the world what they’re all about and this Canadian loved it.
As someone who watched the Canadian broadcast I have to say the highlight was Lisa LaFlamme commenting that she was loving the bed number. To which her co-host responded by launching into a discussion of the weather. Really sold how engrossed they were by the spectacle of it all. From a nation so critical of the Vancouver games I really expected more from their opening ceremony. I am truly disappointed it come off as hokey and disjointed, which is probably why I fast forwarded through most of it. Bless my dvr.
I loved the Vancouver show
Me too. Adored the Vancouver show. It has to be my favorite of the winter olympics.
I thought the ceremony was amazing, living in London and watching it in a bar packed with people will be a memory I’ll keep for ages. It was funny, touching and scary at times (I will be having nightmares about the child catcher!)
The day after I spoke to my 7 year old brother and 72 year old Nan and both of them were going crazy about it, so to me it did what it was supposed to do.
Except for the first 10/15 minutes and Macca’s wailing at the end, I loved it. I thought it was fresh and fun. That dude running through the tunnel was Sir Steve Redgrave, multiple olympic gold medal winner and health campaigner. I also really like the fact that the lighting of the torch went to unknown up and coming young competitors. As for the Queen, James Bond, fat corgis moment, it was fantastic.
I liked The James Bond bit and The Mr.Bean bit…otherwise….meh.
The baby is the logo of the GOSH which is one of the star hospitals of the NHS and was featured in the ceremony.
I liked that they used the occasion to say something.
I like the message that they were trying to convey.
Unfortunately, the way they conveyed the message missed the mark for the first 2 hours. :/
Exactly! I can appreciate the message that the ceremony tried to convey, I just think it failed.
I’m British, but I agree.
I loved the cauldron. Think that summed up the symbolism of the message and also, you know – worked.
I also think it worked when we poked fun at ourselves. Bond and Bean were fine. But the start just looked like the set for the Teletubbies.
Again, I’m really proud of the message and people sneering at that galls me. But I don’t think it worked well in execution, personally.
While many parts of it were spectacular, I think they tried to cover way too much, it was just endless
I thought it was great. It was very theatrical, again something the British ought to be proud of. The turning of the landscape from the countryside to the city examines the Industrial Revolution in a very critical way, which is something worth praising. It wasn’t about glorifying the nation, but looking at the history that has created it.
The Bond part was amusing, and I find it rather lovely of the Queen to participate in this great event. I can’t really believe you’re having a go at the dogs, since they were really cute. I don’t see why Bond not bowing to the queen should upset anyone since the Bond of the current running series is supposed to be obnoxious.
Why shouldn’t they celebrate the NHS? It’s a thing worth being proud of. Many lives have benefited from it greatly and to combine it with the children literature act was lovely.
I don’t see why people keep saying it was bad. It was a great night and carried out brilliantly.
As an American, some of the symbolism was lost on me I admit. I did love Mr. Bean, the ever gorgeous David Beckham on the speed boat, and the torch lighting was beautiful. As for The Queen, not so much. Sorry, but since the death of Diana and the coldness that was initially displayed by HRH, I’m no fan of hers. I would rather have seen something with Wills, Kate & Harry.
Not that it matters much, but the Queen is ‘Her Majesty’, not HRH.
Well obviously it matters enough for you to write out a whole comment on it?
The Queen is a miserable old lady, and I have no respect or interest in her. And I live in London, this is something I have to deal with often.
Don’t lecture people on what the proper terms are when referring to this vile women. I personally will never engage in such petty, pointless diatribes. You, my friend, are wasting your life caring about someone who does not care about you or anyone else.
I missed the beginning and only got to see the athletes. I thought that was the best part. It was so great to their smiles and enthusiasm! I also thought ‘I can totally see how the Olympic Village is a giant party, and I totally want to go to there’
I did think that some parts of what I saw seemed really rushed and like it was thrown together last minute.
After the Glastonbury Tor sequence, I was waiting for the miniature Stonehenge and the dancing dwarves — a little injection of Spinal Tap would have been fun!
I thought that, too. Tee-hee-hee!
I loved it. I really disliked the opening ceremony of 2008. To me that represented the stifling conformancy of living under a dictatorship. I loved the quirkiness, warmth and humanity of this ceremony. I teared up a few times during it all. Loved the lighting of the flames that then formed one united flame.
I was unimpressed. Took me forever to realize that was Sir Kenneth Branaugh running around with the cigar. Stopped watching after Bond/Queen jump. Twitter kept me informed of the rest of the show. Was it the worst ever? Nah, but it certainly didn’t keep my attention after the Queen’s arrival.
I did love the lighting of cauldron and the rings formation. Very inventive.
For a funny take on the Opening Ceremonies, read Michael K’s Saturday Open Post. 😀
For the Opening Ceremony, I haven’t seen the whole thing yet (thank you, NBC, for turning it into a four-and-a-half hour viewing event) but I loved the choirs and the hymns. Beautiful! And made me teary.
It was about 2hrs long excluding the athletes marching into the stadium.
I love the athletes marching into the stadium. I feel like my world geography knowledge is increased every four years. Although i wish thet had a little side screen to show where in the world some of these countries are especially when they have spilt or turned into new countries.
BUT biggest laugh in the park where i was watching it….The DEMOCRACTIC republic of Korea which is ….’drumroll!…NORTH KOREA!!!!
Ah, yes, the good old “Democratic Republic of Korea” – talk about taking liberty with the truth!
The first part was slow and just cheesy. I love Mr. Bean but really? A fart joke at the end of the Cheriots of Fire scene? And why the videos…cut always to per-recorded scenes gave it a feeling of being unorganized. I was disappointed.
It was BAD. I haven’t spoken to anyone — neighbours, co-workers, friends and family — who liked it. Several people fell asleep watching it. Others turned it off.
Sorry UK. It was cringe-inducing.
I agree. It was terrible. The ones saying otherwise has no taste or got an agenda of some kind. Really? A giant baby? I would have nightmares for months! Even the Queen hates it. Thanks Britain!
The giant Baby is the logo of the Great Ormond Street HOspital. One of the best and free Children’s hospitals in the world.
Google is your friend.
Oh and did anyone else get the wry joke about the NHS?? Mike Oldfield playing the theme tune to ‘The Exorcist’ during it? LAUGHED my head off. A little nod to what the government is doing to it I think! And the NHS should be celebrated – do we pay for GP visits? Nope. Do we pay for emergency operations? Nope. Think of those poor people from Denver, landed, through no fault of their own with massive medical bills because of the P.O.S. Here, it’s not something they would have to worry about/consider. Yes, I am proud of the NHS (and YES, I too have worked for them – no job is perfect and certainly the red tape is ridiculously out of control).
I could not disagree more — I think it was one of the BEST Olympic ceremonies – classy, beautiful, full of historical references… All Britons, and Londoners in particular, should be very proud of it – NICE!
Beijing was about propaganda, London was all fun so you can’t compare. But, yes, the Queen could have used a smile.
the Queen´s faux ´skydive´was cool & kicked arse. 😉
i was shocked that the British National Anthem reminded me of ´God Bless America´.
like, wtf? 😯
You know it’s the same tune right? We Americans just tweaked for our country. Just another thing we poached from the mother country.
It’s not the same tune as God Bless America, it’s the same tune as My Country Tis Of Thee. We poached the tune from the Brits.
I am enough of Anglophile-plus Bob Costas’s subtle as a brick commentary-that I got it. (Note pat on back).
My thought-other than forging the one ring (cool) and the smokestacks-most of the action was small scale. Probably much better on TV.
I didn’t see it. But hymns? Shut up. Really.
Not Hymns dear. National anthems for Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England.
Seriously does no one know anything about Britain????!!!!
@LAK – LOL! The unitary-state system of the UK can be confusing to understand sometimes because most people hear of the names the UK, Britain or Great Britain, which in itself consists of four countries – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland 🙂
No; unfortunately British history isn’t taught to Americans. You have to be an avid history buff to appreciate it, which I am, but most are not. 🙁
Hearing Jerusalem as a national anthem always makes tears roll down my cheeks.
QEII has always snipped, “I am not a Hollywood actress.” I loved the Bond thing and to me it looked like Liz was trying to suppress a shit-eating grin while walking down the hall with Bond in tow.
The Beijing ceremony was an extravaganza that no other country will be able to emulate. But who would want to? It was the product of thousands of faceless workers. The London opening was personal; it celebrated the heart and soul of the British Isles. I thought the music was incredible, the queen and Bond hilarious, and the children’s choirs and Mr. Bean endearing. The cauldron was a work of art. However, I wish that Sir Paul would quit with the solos…painful.
I missed it but I didn’t expect it to be anything worth watching after Beijing. No country is ever going to be able to top that.
Actually, the worst thing about the Olympics so far is NBC’s coverage, which has been godawful.
James Bond bows to no one. 🙂
I’m an American and I loved every minute of the opening ceremony. It was quintessentially British, and the stagecraft was amazing. My least favorite part was Mr. Bean but some loved it, so something for everyone.
Whoever said the Chinese ceremony was a tribute to the power of the state over the individual, and this one was about the triumph of the individual and the lifting up of humanity was bang on (as our friends across the pond say.)
As an American with English heritage, I felt so proud to see Great Britain represented in such a wonderful way, that celebrated the quirkiness of our individuality and the power of the human spirit to conquer all.
Loved it, love the Brits and wish I were there in London! It’s going to be a great Olympics.
Clearly you missed the point of the entire ceremony if you thought Kenneth Branagh was dressed as Abraham Lincoln. Er…Brunel? Heard of him? This pretty ridiculous error renders all of your other criticisms moot. You just didn’t get it. It was a ceremony that celebrated British culture and how far the country has come since we last hosted the Games in 1948 (the year we established the NHS in what was essentially a war-ravaged country… hence the NHS tribute…) The 40ft Voldemort and Mary Poppins was a celebration of LITERACY. Of course it didn’t match the visual spectacle of Beijing, what could? However it was original, witty and totally British. I loved it.
Maybe you guys should stick to articles about Miley Cyrus’ new diet or Kate Middleton’s sausage curls…?
YES ^^^
I thought it was bizarre and disjointed. I did however enjoy the queen’s grand entrance,Mr. Bean,the parade of athletes and of course the fireworks. I think Britain has the world’s best fireworks displays.
i am English and ashamed that are Olympic ceremony was that bad. i could have done a better show it was outdated ridiculous and boring. another reason why we shouldn’t have had the Olympics just let it be in Greece, only politicians want to host it.
It was the most boring opening ceremony I have seen so far. In 2016 Brazil better bring it, because Beijing set the golden standard. jeez.
It was a bit of a snooze. I understood Boyle’s attempt to highlight British culture, but why those particular things. Also, the close ups and cut away were ridiculous.
Frankly, not a good opening ceremony. Also, speaking of Beijing, I remember a lot of things from that ceremony. Don’t hate on China because they put on a very fantastic opening ceremoney. They had the brilliant and artistic Zhang Yimou to direct. Britian had the “quirky and eccentric” Danny Boyle, so they got what they paid for.
Also….I betcha Rio puts an spectacle. Then we’ll be comparing Rio to China and no one will be talking abou this ceremony…except to say it was not very good.
Loved it to bits. Was easy to understand almost all references. And if not, easy to guess. They even managed to sneak the sound of Tardis landing right after Queen song. My daughter who is the fan of Doctor Who was very happy:-)
I am Russian, by the way. Talked to my friends, they loved it. Everybody agrees that it celebrated nation, people and their achievements, it was very British and that’s why it was so special and so full of unforgettable flavours.
I hope we will be able to pull something good in Sochi 2014 that will be equally interesting and moving and will be able to show the Russian side of the story.
I thought the music was great, especially the Anglo hymns. And when the kids sang “God Save the Queen,” you could tell the Queen was really moved by them. As for all the other complaints, the UK did a show that was representative of their country and culture… isn’t that what the host country is supposed to do? I love America, but dang, some of us seem to be a little obtuse when it comes to understanding other countries choices.
Who cares if someonw was moved?
You can tell one is British if he cares if some specific person is moved by something or not (and you call her the “Queen”).
That was supposed to be a global event, but if this was supposed to introduce us to something British, then, you guys should back off with all the themes from Hollywood films and Broadway shows which were not even executed properly.
Perhaps some countries should focus on their strength, like their music and not try to pretend they are American and produce a lame and odd Broadway show.
Wow, must be difficult for some people to watch something not-American once every four years.
It’s not like Americans don’t care about how this or that athlete/politician/celebrity is moved by something. Most British people have not known another monarch as they were alive, so of course they care about the Queen one way or the other.
Theater was not exactly invented in America and most certainly not on Broadway (hint: it was a few thousand years before the USA existed). Putting on a show is hardly pretending to be American.
Dig a little deeper in other cultures and you’ll find we all borrow and learn from each other.
Not everything good is from where you are from.
@RMac- point of correction…..’Anglo Hymns!!!! Those were not hymns. They are the National Anthems of Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England, the countries that make up the United Kingdom AKA Great Britain.
ps:- Anglo only refers to England.
Oh! Forgot to mention I also used the term “hymns” because they’re all in the Episcopal hymn book as well as the COE one. So to the people who have sung those songs in church many times, they’re hymns to us Anglicans… but again, semantics!
(guess the celebitchy gods ate my first comment… just as well. No need to put this Anglican in her place, but I’m sure you felt better for it, so more power to you.)
I enjoyed the hell out of it. But disjointed at points, but good fun, and I LOVE that Boyle raised a big, public middle finger at the right-wing arseholes trying to dismantle the NHS.
Oh REALLY ?
To me, this was part of the problem. There is a time and place for left- wingers to ram their politics down the throats of the public – and the olympics run on taxpayer’s money should NOT have been the avenue! This was meant to be about entertainment, and it sorely failed. I might add that the current government is largely conservative, and voters are at least 50% conservative in the U.K, so regardless of whether the inappropriate, WTF NHS moment was introduced into it or not, the whole thing smacked or unimaginative, left-wing propaganda, which made all the centre, centre-right and right folks watching this feel deeply uncomfortable knowing their taxes were being spent on propoganda.
OMG I thought it was horrible. Esp Matt Lauer’s inane comments about the various political conflicts of each country during the parade of athletes. Total disgrace.
As for the actual ceremony, I’m reluctant to say it was “too” British. I’d rather say it was simply too “populist” British, i.e., Boyle’s way of saying “oh, this is how we can reach the masses.” The Olympics are THE quintessential global event on this planet, bringing together all different cultures in a beautiful way. This ceremony was just a collection of mediocre British media sensations – not even representative of what is amazing about the UK – just what is recognizable from the past five years or so. And a slightly botoxed Paul McCartney who is clearly passed his prime (the song was butchered) certainly was not worthy of closing the ceremony. Anyway, the queen’s expression says it all, that is – the face she made after her cliche entrance.
I’m not a total cynic so I will say that the torch lighting and fireworks were amazing.
So I wasn’t the only one who had a WTF? moment during the parade! I nearly spit out my drink when Lauer got to Uganda. He mentions that Churchill once referred to Uganda as the pearl of Africa, and then adds that Churchill never met Idi Amin! I literally face-palmed. He didn’t start yammering about Hitler when the Germans came out or Stalin when the Russians came out. What the Hell possessed him to bring up something so negative in relation to Uganda? It smacks of arrogance and insensitivity.
So just maybe what made the ceremony so awful for you Americans was the “arrogance and insensitivity” of the american commentators… interesting.
I think there is much truth in what you say! We have the luck to have a very wise and seasoned commentator on CTV in Canada, who researches well and has done the Olympics for more years than I like to remember..he was totally at ease and gave us all the salient facts as it all proceeded without in any way making it all about him!! We totally understood what was happening,who was who ( even at times,this Brit needed some explanation) and what the symbolism meant !
It was a hot mess. It was like having an acid flashback.
A corny, mortifying twee Britannia acid flashback.
Danny Boyle?! He must be going senile to produce this tripe. The meadow looked like The Shire… or a giant green dropping.
Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller made glorious fun of this kind of British idealizing glorification of the past in the early 1960s, here re: World War II, “The Aftermyth of War”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZaBbH4bCjY
Hobbiton-by-Hallucinogen, as one person on my Facebook put it. Another just said, “hey look, it’s the Teletubby house…”
It was about an hour too long. The fireworks were spectacular, the torch lighting was beautiful, the forged Olympic ring effect was very nice and Mr. bean is always entertaining.
The rest of it, especially the girl with the cellphone bit could have done without. I understood the presentation celebrating British history but it was too long. Now if the focus was on the British athletes more instead of small mentions then I would understand.
I like James Bond but it felt like promotion for the movie coming out in November, especially since the Queen Mother was a stunt double in the presentation. It played like something you would see at the MTV movie awards instead of the Olympics.
If you thought that was The Queen Mother then no wonder you didn’t get it.
The Queen Mother’s been dead ten years, so if they’d involved her in a parachute jump skit, it might have been in poor taste.
Though definitely memorable.
Okay so I put “mother” in the title. My mistake. It was still very movie promotion instead of Olympics.
Long time reader, first time commenter.
Usually you are spot on with your posts but this one was crazy. I’m American but British through my marriage, and this ceremony was so perfect. I’ve never been so proud to be an honorary Brit; I was crying by 2 minutes in. The Beijing opening ceremony was only meant to intimidate, this one was meant to celebrate and was sooooo much more enjoyable on every level. I watched it live on the BBC and the rerun on NBC and will admit that if you ONLY saw the NBC version (with its terrible commentary and editing and ad breaks) you wouldn’t think it was a good as it was.
I was worried before it started but everyone involved blew me away. Absolutely brilliant.
The British ceremony was bizarre, but it wasn’t forgettable. I don’t remember the Aussie, the Greek and the Beijing one. Oh yeah, I remember the Beijing one, there was the cute kid lipsynching controversy, yeah, that’s about it.
Anything is better than Matt Lauer & Meredith Viera going on and on…But I did actually like it. Not great but I liked it. The literature references were cool for me. Book Nerd. I would have liked more actually. Seriously lost my s**t when JKR came on. Mr. Bean was ok and yes long. Dancing kids were *sleeping baby sized eye roll* Music was awesome. I was dancing. I admit it. But then I couldn’t tell what decade it was supposed to be. Which is really my biggest critique, it didn’t have a thru line. It was pretty random.
I LOVE the cauldron! I LOVE that it on the floor of the arena! I want one in my house! Soon as I move into one.
As for the Queen I read that she’s not supposed to show preference to any particular nation even Britain. So what else is she supposed to do but sit and pick at her nails? Plus I’m sure it was past here bedtime. She’s 86.
I still don’t get what Ryan Seacrest is doing there. I know what they said but I still don’t get why…??? He reported on what Joe____________Jonas tweeted about the Olympics!! I wanted to pull an Elvis on my tv!
Also I did The Queen and Bond. It was funny and cute.
If you were a history nerd, you would see the time frame clearly as each event unfolded.
The music montage was the most telling history timeline wise because certain bands/music are/is incredibly specific to it’s decade. eg Sex Pistols and punks = 70s, Frankie goes to Hollywood/Annie Lennox = 80s, Dizzee Rascal = 00s etc
See I had to google Dizzee Rascal. He was the guy actually there performing….yeah? I had no idea who he was. I guess he’s one of the elements that didn’t translate. Maybe it was me. After the 80’s I got lost. I do remember Muse playing but I couldn’t figure out how they got there.:)
What I meant was the show as a whole was random. Each section did have a thru line but just as a whole…
Something I don’t think I said before either is that was the fastest Parade of Nations I can remember. For that alone London gets a standing O!
I’m American, I found it terribly boring. I’m happy that most Brits here seemed to have liked it, but Boyle was speaking to a global audience. If it doesn’t resonate outside of the host country, then I say fail. I have to say, the biggest disappointment to me was the position of the flame. I understand he wants it to be like a flame in a temple, but thousands of visitors to London have no shot of ever seeing it! The flame is a huge part of the Olympic experience and Boyle failed big time by hiding it.
“Beijing Opening Ceremony which – can we agree on this? – set the gold standard for opening ceremonies, forever.”
Read this article from fellow Chinese:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/28/olympic-opening-ceremony-ai-weiwei-review
Awesome link! Thanks for that.
I love Wesley’s (Michael Sheen’s) line on 30 Rock:
“I don’t want to go back to England. I can’t suffer through the London Olympics. We’re not prepared, Liz. Did you see the Beijing opening ceremonies? We don’t have control over our people like that.”
It was most horrible opening ceremony ever, with best Olympic Flame lightening ever seen on Olympic opening – Santa
“This flag dips to no earthly king.”
– Ralph Rose
USA Olympic Team
1908 London Summer Games
Awful is a really nice word to describe how horrible it was.
That was so lame to try to imitate the Hollywood and American show-biz that it was painfully embarrassing.
I’m not even sure why would anyone think that an odd and boring “love story” (???) centered around a house and people jumping in a disorderly fashion on some odd “things” is somehow “an opening ceremony”.
Then, instead of using british rock legend to the max (if there’s any real British cultural asset to the world), they give figures like David Bowie a 10 seconds of “something” and then 2 minutes of a rapper, as in- the most American type of music you can find.
So many things were either silly in the worng way or odd (dressing children in pajamas and having a terrible, outdated and sexist theme of “nannies”/ nurses (all female, mind you), scolding children to go to bed and they call this a “dance”.
WTF?
That was so horrendous, I’m not even going into the “dancing” and how they failed to know you don’t place a tall dancer before shorter one in so many occasions.
The rest of that was so “try hard” to do something American, I just felt for the British who do not know how to do show biz right.
Just sad.
I can’t actually believe that somebody wrote this comment.
Were we watching the same thing? I don’t think it could have been any LESS American. That’s probably why so many, but obviously not all, Americans (I’m thinking you and whoever wrote this article) didn’t understand it.
Still shaking my head at this comment, seriously.
Apparently ‘ Dizzie Rascal’ is a huge success story..a boy from the East End of London…I at first wondered if he was a lone American but was set right by my English nephew…..so..totally up to date music,capping what was to me a showcase of how British music has been dominant through the last 50 years..
Only sour note.The ubiquitous .Paul MaCartny…Go away! We have many,many more talented singers and composers..showcase them! Maybe at the Closing Ceremonies?? Fingers crossed!
Yes, there are many extraordinarily talented singers and composers in the U.K. But isn’t it fair to say that a good majority of them were influenced by the Beatles (as was much of western music)? They heralded an entirely new era of music. Even the Arctic Monkeys didn’t change a note of “Come Together”. Can’t mess with perfection.
Sir Paul is a living legend, and if he wants to croak the phone book, that would be just fine with me. If Elvis Presley was still alive, I’m sure my country would be doing the same. 🙂
Mimi you are so completely wrong. It was about our history through to the modern day in Britain. It had absolutely nothing to do with America. The nurses were representing the NHS after WW2 when all the nurses were female. Mary Poppins is female.
Also, showing mixed race and gay couples – yeah I’m sure that would be done in an American equivalent.
This.
Mimi, your comment was even more ignorant than the last one.
One of the things that was celebrated was the great contribution women have always made to Britain. Did you see the female farmers, factory workers, the Suffragettes? And yes, post-war nurses are a part of that too.
I loved how inclusive it was of all people, even ones that get excluded and shunned so often.
Luckily, as I can tell by the rest of the comments here, many Americans are far more respectful and open-minded than you. They don’t believe everything foreigners do is copying America and enjoy a portrayal of a different culture.
Rap is American, Abe Lincoln and a reference to the house that “takes off” in a storm?
Wizard of Oz is one of the most legendary AMERICAN movies.
The lame “love story” and dancing was absolutely American show biz done and executed poorly.
I’m sure that is very representative of British history of trying to get on with American show biz.
I found it sad you guys think David Beckham is some sort of a super star that anybody cares about, just because he lives in America.
Showing 2 black people in a love story was done in AMERICA way before that was “shown” on the screen in England.
As for the odd excuse of showing women only “caring” for children and calling that odd hot mess a dance and a “tribute”, not to mention the huge baby or whatever that was supposed to be. I thought that was more about someone perhaps smoking something and thinking he can do a broadway show and then moving on to so many random and either boring or poorly executed “themes”.
Just out of curiousity, what were the jumping in any lack of order on “things” was supposed to symbolize?
Even Mary Poppins was actually a Disney (Hollywood) film, based on a book written by an Australian.
You really should value your real assets – legends like David Bowie rather than the spice girls, and come to terms with the sad truth that not every country was meant to do show biz well.
A tribute to women as scolding and annoying nannies/ nurses and caring for little children? How refreshing and “modern”.
Sending the message that women should be taking care of children and could be annoying doing that- really feminist.
Excusing something which is random, executed poorly and has odd or silly themes (and not in a good way) as a “cultural” thing we should accept- well all I can say is that there are indeed magnificant things in England, that most noticeable is music, and other cultural contributions such as debate in universities, good looking men and some literature pieces.
I am sure there are many many more, but breaking hierarchies, feminism and acting against racism are not some of the strongest qualities of England.
Sorry to be the one breaking these news.
mimi, girl, you need to read up on British history. Once you get into it, it’s absolutely fascinating. Also, America was based on Britain. Our ideal cottage in the woods learned in fairytales? British; see: Cotswolds. Kings and Queens – look no further. WWII Britain saw lots of action and heartbreak; many people living remember well the Blitz. Dickens is classic. I could go on and on but you get the gist.
If you know nothing about Britain, you have a lot to learn, hon. It’s also a very beautiful country.
Abe Lincoln, Wizard of Oz. Rap? Trying to be American.
You really do have some learning to do!
I loved it.
I did miss Monty Python, Dickens, the Restoration, Charles II and the Great Fire of London, Christopher Wren, and where were the 500,000 pipers piping by candlelight with dancers?
I loved the giant map and the Queen’s acting. Loved the corgis.
Normally I agree with most of the observations on Celebitchy but you seemed to have completely missed the point.
What other opening ceremony would include comedy or celebrate activism and protests with the inclusion of the Suffragettes, Jarrow marchers, UK TV’s first lesbian kiss and well known activists carrying the Olympic flag
+1! YES to all of that. Boyle’s not afraid to get a bit controversial and it showed in some of his directorial choices for this ceremony. I can’t wait to see what he gives for the closing ceremony!
I loved it!I have never been to England and it brought tears to my eyes. Such a beautiful and rich history! Dont think most people would need 5 pages of explanations to understand it, it only requires an open mind to others people culture and history. I wonder how much bashing the opening ceremony of 2016 in Brasil is going to get, since they wont understand a second of it. Maybe they should stick to dance samba for 4 hours…
I guess for me it was overdone….too gaudy and way too long. I would have loved something much shorter. I thought it should show more about all countries participating in the Olympics and LESS show about England itself. England is great, but the English thing was way overdone.
Many people have said something to this effect in the comments above. I have to disagree and here is why: the opening ceremonies are not supposed to represent the world. They are supposed to welcome the world to their country, and give the host country a chance to put their best foot forward. Show off what makes them great and instill national pride. And hopefully make us all excited to be there…even if we are watching on TV or Internet and are just there virtually. I have already admitted that parts went over my head, but google cleared that up nicely and I learned something new.
I think they did a great job of saying “welcome to our house”. 🙂
What???? Quite thunderstruck at this comment!! Was Beiijing not completely Chinese..and militant and robotic to boot! Was Greece not completely about the country who invented the Olympics,,Greece…and on and on!!!
IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT THE HOST COUNTRY,that’s the point!!! And as it was,it was so much more…. It was about history,community, volunteers,activists and athletes..hence the wonderful hand- off of Olympic Glory by the 7 super Olympians to the new up-coming talent! It was a tour-de-force in a joyful,comedic,historic way!!
I thought it was brilliant and I thought the highlight of the event was the Queen! I love that she was in on the joke and was having fun, most likely because William and Harry convinced her to do it. I loved it!!
I would like to point that I agree wholeheartedly with Anon’s comment all the way up there, I felt it was an incredible showing of all the things we here in the UK have given the world and would like to tell the world.
Secondly, for those complaining about the dancing and all that, the whole ceremony involved something like 7000 VOLUNTEERS, some dancers yes, but also many members of things like the NHS itself. Working to a tight budget compared to China’s and under the shadow of a possible second dip into recession the enthusiasm of all the people involved was tremendous and definitely showed the British ‘Bulldog spirit’ as it is so named.
I don’t feel that you really knew enough about the ceremony to critique it as badly as you did, Danny Boyle showed off the best that the UK has to offer (I’ll admit that I am tired of seeing Paul McCartney rolled out for too many public events, anticlimx music-wise) and invited the rest of the world in to join in our celebrating of just how culturally-rich our nation is. Perhaps not everybody got every bit, it was pretty up-tempo for the most part, but I’m sure the majority watching will come away with at least one new fact about the UK, which is in itself something to celebrate.
The best bit for me? Definitely the huge showing of multi-culturalism and superb inclusion throughout the whole ceremony, we’re not going to ignore the people and personality of Britain to put on a spectacular show that’s perfect and robotic down to the last step.
the begging part was amazing but the rest of the ceremony was more like a closing ceremony.
The beginning was amazing, but the rest fitted better for a closing ceremony
OMG! Everyone I talked to seemed to really like the Opening Ceremonies. As usual, you are my alter ego and had the same reactions I did. Here’s more: Harry Potter rocks, but really? Where were the characters from Lord of the Rings? Where were Merlin and Arthur? For that matter, is Paul McCartney the quintessence of British music? He’s awesome, but … really? I was underwhelmed. (I’m an American in Southern California.)
The Beatles have quite a following amongst the 50+ crowd in some non-western countries (Jude if a favorite, because big parts of it are easy to sing). I’m sure people went nuts when they saw him in faraway living rooms.
Kaiser, you only praised Becks and Daniel Craig parts. You’re just sore the ceremony didn’t feature CB’s hot guy friday figures – Hiddleston, Cumberbatch, MacAvoy, Idris Alba, Fassdong and that Wham, Steps and One Direction’s music were not represented.
Canadian here — I absolutely loved it. It was such an interesting interpretation of the cultural zeitgeist that is Britain. It was rich with so many references to British history and culture, and anything I didn’t “get,” a little google-fu solved in seconds. I found the whole thing riveting, and for the first time in my life, I was actually struck with pride that some of my ancestors are British.
Abraham Lincoln? Seriously? Why the hell would Kenneth Branagh be dressed as Lincoln? Aside from having nothing to do with the Industrial Revolution, do you think he was the only man in history with a beard to have worn a top hat?
It is a blinkered mentality that is not aware of anything or event outside it’s own milieu or experience…. Hence the mistaken identifications and lack of understanding in what was being presented!!!
Liza Jane, now come on…be fair. When I first saw Kenneth Branaugh, I could not place who he was. I knew he obviously wasn’t Abe Lincoln, but honestly, to Americans, he sure looked like him at first glance. Abe Lincoln is one of our most revered historical figures…his face is on the penny. We see him in some form every day. That thought is not so far out of left field. But most of us immediately realized that google was our friend if we wanted to know who was being portrayed. And I am confident that this was not just an American mistake…I would guess that many people around the world were stumped. That isn’t intended to diminish Brunel’s contributions to the industrial revolution. Just means that we hadn’t consulted our British History books before the ceremonies. Now if King Henry VIII came strolling out, we would know who he was. 😉
Btw: Brunel’s middle name is Isengard?? Ooh, i just made the connection to the name of Sauruman’s tower in The Lord of the Rings. Cool!
Brunel’s first name is Isambard. His middle name is “Kingdom”.
I agree it was embarassing and overdone. I regret having watched it.
Awful ceremony! The stadium was not full despite the media changing camera angles to convince people that the stadium was full. Too much music – it resembled some poor put together music festival! Trite claptrap! This wasn’t a pop concert for crissakes, but a global sporting event! Two thumbs down Danny Boyle! WTF does showcasing the WWW and the NHS has to do with the Olympics? Yes I’m British and I hated it! Cringeworthy snoozefest! The only impressive parts were the raising of the rings at the start and the lighting of the cauldron at the end!
I completely agree with Kaiser and Mika. The ceremony was overburdened with too much of everything squeezed into the first hour of it – the retelling of British history while trying to be cool (the drums, the break dancing industrialists, the suffering masses etc). It was cringe-worthy. It got better with the olympic rings, but the NHS and the “love story” among pop music.. awful!!!!!!!! They could have presented the awesome British music so much better! I liked the part with the Queen and Bond, Mr. Bean (it was cute even though I’m not a fan), the olympic torch (spectacular moment) and the fireworks. Overall though it seemed like a drunk dream of a kid with ADD. I loved the moment when the British athletes entered the arena and the camara captured the Queen examining her nails.. she looked bored out of her mind ;).
I watched all four hours of the opening ceremony without commercials via proxied-in BBC iplayer!
I loved it! It was quirky, earthy, and all-inclusive, a real sense of group effort top to bottom, bottom to top. Loved it!
And yeah, that was quite something they got the Queen to participate! Here’s to a country that has an EPIC sense of humor (humour!)
Another moment I loved were the lit up winged cyclists while Arctic Monkeys played Come Together. Beautiful!
I’m an American who has also lived in England, so maybe I could ‘get it’ more since I lived over there.
Never saw the Bejing ceremony, must go back and check it out online somewhere, but each one is so different, I don’t see how or why we should compare? Every country has such a different culture, it’s like apples and oranges. An aside: another opening ceremony that I loved was Vancouver a few years ago. That was a beautiful ceremony and I loved how they included their indigenous people. Good on them! You never saw USA doing that for their own indigenous people..
Beijin will not be topped for a long while.
I find the opening ceremonies too self-congratulatory and irrelevant to the actual Olympics, but that’s certainly not limited to England alone.
Of course this will not top Beijing. I doubt it was even in Boyle’s mind to try and imitate, let alone beat, the Beijing Opening Ceremony.
As one commentator on BBC1 said, “This is not Beijing. This is London.”
Beijing was about the show of China’s power, their economic superiority, and their money. And they succeeded in doing so. Everything was on point, so disciplined, so organized, that it was almost too good to be true. It was a great Ceremony, but it also felt cold and stiff.
London, while not as technical as Beijing, had a lot of heart. I was so happy to see the Suffragettes in there, the Children’s Hospital, as well as the NHS. These things are only a few of the things that the British hold dear and are very proud of…
Most of the participants were also volunteers who gave their time and energy into making this happen. It was not perfect, but it was very beautiful IMO.
The only boring part was the digital age. I didn’t care for it at all.
The passing of the torch from the former Olympic champions to the younger athletes, the future generation, was very touching. It really was all about “inspiring a generation”.
And that cauldron. Come on. Spectacular. The idea of every petal for every country really felt like each country was hoisting their own torch and the whole world was lighting the cauldron together to begin the Olympics.
AGREED. Beijing’s ceremony was all flash. The UK openig ceremony chose substance and heart. Beijing ceremony showed how the Chinese state (and maybe some of it’s people) are about appearances and everything perfect. Beijings was great and all, but like someone said super technical and stiff and humorless. Plus they had a far larger budget and human labour laws so lax they were practically starving people.
It was a fantastic opening ceremony. Wish NBC hadn’t cut the tribute/memorial part though.
The lighting of the cauldron was wonderful.
Beijing was too perfect too me. The thing with using one girl’s singing voice and then having a “cuter” girl lip sync to it in Beijing was cruel. And given that most of the venues in Beijing are now gathering dust, London was much better.
I’m a Canadian-American and I enjoyed it. There were some WTF moments, but they were mainly amusing and hilarious and very memorable, so I think it was good. To be honest, I can’t even remember the Beijing Olympics. I know it was super amazing and whatnot, but I am just drawing a blank. There isn’t a part that stuck in my mind. This one I’ll remember Voldemort, all the Mary Poppins, and the freaky baby. The baby was the only real moment that was kind of a miss – I’ll remember it, but not in a good way. I even liked the little love story a bit.
I think my favourite moment of the night was the independent Olympians – they were great. Their enthusiasm of just being able to be there was so lovely.
Like all ceremonies it is supposed to reflect the host country’s history and it’s people. If the show makes the uneducated learn more about their country then I think job well done! Although the constant trying to outdo the previous opening ceremony is getting a bit tired as it should be about the athletes. I did like the humour of Mr Bean and the surprise of the Queen being a Bond Girl and the lighting of the cauldron. I heard somewhere that was designed in Australia? Anyway the Olympics is a time when all countries regardless of race, religion or current conflicts can be together as one world and to me that is a good thing.
I’m Asian and I have to say, I loved the London Olympics Opening ceremony. There’s James Bond, The Queen,the spectacular fireworks and hey, Mr Bean….and the dry humor and wit of the British people, and most important of them all, Prince Harry!!! (ok, just some random sighting of him after the ceremony).
… and corgis! I adore them.
Where was Monty Python when we needed them the most?
i didn’t see it. Was it better than the halftime entertainment at the last Superbowl?
The patriotic part of me loved the references to the Industrial Revolution, our agricultural heritage, our quirky humour (the Queen/Bean parts were brilliant).. but the rest was all a bit left wing and embarrasing.
Of course I’m proud of our NHS (actually, I think it’s a mess; overfunded and abused by many lazy and unsackable employees, but I like the principle)but did it really deserve the longest segement of an Olympic opening ceremony? No.
I also think we have contributed massively to literature, but why single out Mary Poppins? What about Chaucer, Austin, Shelley, Shakespeare (that little Tempest bit didn’t count)?
And don’t get me started on the abomination that was the musical decades, and the bloody awful and out-of-tune McCartney. What dirge.
So, altogether? 10/10 for the first hour, then 0.5/10 for the rest.
I’m with you on all this.
I loved it! Utterly bonkers, brilliant, crazy & inspiring and celebrated the best of Britain. I get that the rest of the world may not have ‘got’ some of it – but I thought it was AMAZING. Right up until they wheeled McCartney out for the cringey sing-a-long, that bit was pony. I though the Queen was amazing, we had Branagh, Bean, Beckham, Bond, JK Rowling, Dizzee Rascal – local boy done good and all the rest. BTW that ‘dude’ that brought the torch into the stadium in Sir Steve Redgrave, one of our finest Olympians who won gold medals at FIVE consecutive Olympics from 1984-2000. 🙂
Also, the fact that Danny Boyle is responsible for the first Lesbian kiss to have been shown on Saudi Arabian TV is reason enough to LOVE IT!!
I’m from the UK and i loved every minute of it apart from the embarrassing Hey Jude bit.
I especially liked Pink Floyd’s Shine on you Crazy Diamond playing as the lamp was lit. Somehow it was like giving Syd Barrett the Olympics on a plate.
I should mention I’m not a sports fan so enjoyed the lack of sporting references.
I really loved the way he re-imagined the torch and thought it was pretty magical. Kenneth Branagh made me cringe a bit but I liked the history bit for the most part, although its scale made it slow and clunky. The low point for me was the stupid modern romance/music bit, it didn’t feel particularly relevant. The singing kids in their jammies were cute and I got a bit teary at the signing choir. LOVED the Queen. I think they didn’t have him bow because the whole thing was kept in character and maybe people who know her don’t have to bow? I thought it was cute, fat corgies esp. I loved that it didn’t kowtow and stayed very British, the Mr.Bean bit went on too long though and the music could have been much better, would much have preferred more bands, the bands he did use weren’t appropriate for the occasion imo. It was way past McCartney (and everyone’s!) bedtime over here by the time they trotted him out.
I agree Kaiser. It was DIRE. I live in the U.K and I’m not ashamed to say it was cringeworthy, amaeteur and boring. People were almost afraid to criticise it because they were afraid of hurting sensitive British pride, but you know what – it stunk. That’s the problem with the English – they don’t compete, they think that half-hearted is good enough. The opening bit, the bit you would assume is meant to grab people’s attention from the get-go was so dull it was like watching the highschool play that your mother forced you to go to for the sake of your little brother’s performance in it. The only bit I enjoyed was Beckham on the speedboat, Mr.Bean and the music that was on when the cyclists came out like butterflies all in blue. Not surprisingly, in typical U.K style, the whole thing was ‘Politically Correct’ and devoid of any controversy which might have sparkened things up a bit. The commentators were as boring as watching paint dry too. No personality. It was like watching a dull, ameateur historical drama for the most part. Yup 2.5 out of 5 seems a fair scored.
My wife and I totally agree — what a total mess! And what’s with old Sir Paul? Lennon’s “Imagine” would have fit in much better considering the Olympics are a world event.
Londoner here… and I think the opening ceremony was FANTASTIC. At the pub in our neck of the woods, everyone was cheering, singing along and some were even moved to tears. I will agree that the baby was creepy, but the rest was just superb. Made me proud.
Does anyone have a link to another broadcast? This was the first I heard that NBC cut out the tribute to victims of terrorism, and I think that’s disrespectful. Imagine if the games were here and the BBC did that… you’d never heard the end of it. I’d like to see this segment.
I completely disagree. I think it was beautiful and inventive
Yes, the British did a wonderful job of making a WHOLE MOCKEREY of the Olympic games. Its spirit and ideals; the whole message of the games never came across.
The best opening & closing ceremonies and games took place in GREECE. The homeland of the Olympics! I know because I was there in Athens and EVERYTHING was PERFECT. And MILLIONS of people around the world know that it was perfect too. The Brits tried to ridicule Greece before the games in Athens. They are so ridiculously envious of the Greeks because Britains history is INCOMPARABLE to GREECES’ LONG AND GLORIOUS HISTORY!
The ancient Greeks never ‘divided and conquered’
innocent people. That is a fact.
The ancient Greeks respected other cultures. They spread their knowledge not their weapons. The Greeks never slaughtered the natives of any foreign land in order to colonize it like the Brits did in North America and Australia.
The opening ceremony was SO BAD that it made ‘their’ Queen depressed!!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/the-queens-16-most-excited-faces-of-the-openi
Watch how the real Olympic ceremonies are supposed to be like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoJKHmkb0g4
If this did not give you chills then you are heartless like the Northern Euros…
It is a delight to read the commentaries and to try to understand the levels of lecture of the show. In fact, you can see the show just as a show, with high and weak entertaining sequences during the evening, but you can also see the wonderful and incredibly powerful critic of ultra capitalism and ultra liberalism Danny Boyle has put into ! It was such a monstruous and very witty and so funny big slap in the face of whom still want to make the world going only under an economical purpose ! Waouh ! That’s why, I think, most of you, american citizens have got that strange kind of feeling that the show was akward and selfish, just because the deep meaning of it, in my opinion, was a big social and political critic of the big financial powers and bankers wanting to continue to govern the whole world and espacially Europe with economic and money. Europe is bored of it, bored of whom trying desperatly to look now for another war, to reduce its monstuous debt and to make money and to steal oil…. There are hope and other ways to live and build the world. Can you understand ? That’s why the show was about numerous and poor slave people working like beast, underpaid… just for the glory of games ? was about sick children, nightmares, and hospitals abandoned more and more by politics who are only servants of one system, give the public service to private firms, … was about the only progress we can talk about in our modern world : cell phones ? and a few pop songs, and family tv shows.. that’s all we are able to give to our wonderful youth through the world… ?
Well done Danny Boyle, you’re a great artist !
And my admiration to the volunteers who gave their time and work.
To all you Pseudo-intellectuals commenting here-especially the pro-British ones. What does all that have to do with the Olympics?? It’s about sports. Brotherhood. Peace. These are the ideals of the Olympic games. Capitalism. liberalism, communism, etc. etc. have no place here.
Glad you are delighted frances.
Glaringly idiotic posts like this one are really making me lose patience with this site.
Have to say I disagree. I thought that is was very entertaining and typically British in its eccentricity.
And can we please stop trying to prove it was a bad ceremony by including pictures of a ‘bored’ Queen Elizabeth? Bitch is over 80 and this ceremony went on for 3.5 hours, of course she’d had enough after that horrific boat ride a few weeks back. 3.5 hours of worrying about Prince Phillip’s urinary tract would make me miserable too.
I’m European. I like the UK. British history and literature are fascinating. I find British humour adorable. Rowan Atkinson is a fantastic entertainer, Craig, Becks and Branagh are HOT, and I like Danny Boyle’s movies.
However, this opening ceremony was one of the most incoherent, tedious shows I’ve ever seen. The concept, the ideas were good but I found the realization underwhelming. (But I have to give them that the Bond and Bean segments were hilarious.)
I wasn’t fond of the Chinese one, either. Zhang Yimou is a great director and the show was definitely spectacular, but I found that robotic and boring, too.
2004, Athens. In my opinion that was the most wonderful opening ceremony ever. In retrospective I see that it lacked the humour of London and the majesty of Beijing, but it was so creative, artistic, elegant and soulful… Okay, now I’m rushing back to youtube to rewatch it.
I loved it but then I’m British. It’s like one bloke on twitter said- ‘1 billion people watched the opening ceremony and 990 million were confused and bored’
It was great! Danny Boyle did a fabulous job!
I thought it was one of the most hilarious things on tv ever! It was like watching a train wreck! had to turn it off because i started to get embarrassed for all involved…..
the funniest thing was when the coal stacks came up! i was like really? are we celebrating the beginning of heavy pollution???
TRAIN WRECK!
I’m british (welsh) and I thought it was awful! I could have done a better job. Obviously danny boyle should stick to movies. It was really disjointed and it took longer to remove the first set than it was actually there for! Bond and Rowan Atkinson was very funny but they really layered the cheese on!
I did cringe through it especially with all that texting crap!
We should celebrate the things we have achieved as a nation and incorporate it.
I think they gave him too much license to be “artistic” that you couldn’t follow what they were trying to convey without notes!
Awful! and what is worse, empty seats and I couldn’t even get a flamin ticket!
Gutted and peeved with the whole thing, I can get a ticket but only ones over £100. My taxes paid for this crap and I can’t even afford to go and see any real sport.
Rant over!
Every nation’s Opening Ceremonies is a hit-and-miss affair. There’s just so much to be done (representing country’s history, bowing to the IOC and Olympic history, etc.) My hometown of Atlanta had some very elegant and artistic sections of its opening ceremony.
… and then it had rednecks in pickup trucks.
/nobody’s perfect
I’m sorry but the ceremony was a mess. Take a look back at China’s opening ceremony in 2008…now that is something for future host countries to aspire to.
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Eek. This comments section was an egotastic disaster. Loved every second.
What?! I thought the opening ceremony was fantastic. Right down to the details. Definitely one of the best I’ve ever seen. I don’t know what show you were watching, but I can only assume that there is some bias at play here. It was an entertaining spectacle with lots of buzzworthy moments.