MovieChat Forums > Timeline (2003) Discussion > Could you ever live in another era in hi...

Could you ever live in another era in history??


Ok, I've not seen this movie for probably several months, but I do own it and like it a lot. I do know that there is one character who worked for that place who had the time machine, who decided to stay in whatever year they were in. Plus that one other character who met that woman and decided to stay also. I don't know about you, but I could never do that. I would not mind going back in time, but I'd want to come back to my time.

Anyone else agree??

reply

I think a lot of people romanticize some previous era and think they would like to go back and live at that time. But I would give 10 to 1 odds they would change want to return to their own time PDQ.

reply

That's because people today could NEVER survive back then. Can you imagine some person who's lived in the pampered society that we live in and then go back to the 14th century. No wonder Marek died only 27 yrs after he got there, he didn't stand a freakin chance.

He had a heart that couldve held the empire of the world & he had to content himself with a cellar

reply

He had a heart that couldve held the empire of the world & he had to content himself with a cellar

What a beautiful but sad phrase. Thank you, onesexyveggie. 



You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

reply

I think I would want to try the Americas, long before the murderous Christians came here and slaughtered 85% of the inhabitants, mostly in the name of god.

I might try it for a while, but I would want to come back to my time. Maybe.

I spend my money on dope, sex and cheap thrills.
The rest of it, I waste.

reply

Just keep in mind that the natives were also slaughtering each other in the names of their own gods. Slaughtering the weak seems to be the thing to do back then.

reply

Just keep in mind that the natives were also slaughtering each other in the names of their own gods.

And they almost certainly would have slaughtered a stranger in their lands, who clearly didn't belong there, and didn't know their customs or their language.

Sorry to say, doobienick, you might not have survived long enough to even have the choice of returning.


You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

reply

Well I would agree that most people wouldn't be able to live in a different era. But if you read the book you will know that Marek belonged in that time period. The book says even in his childhood he was always fascinated by that time period and he basically was an expert. He could speak the languages/dialects, knew the customs, and basically was someone that was born in the wrong period. I've known people like this..that should have lived in another period.

As for the comment about the murderous Christians, you may want to look at your history because there were also murderous Native Americans. Oh...and while you look at history, you may find murderous Muslims! And you may also learn the Africans enslaved each other LONG before the white people came along...and it was Africans who sold other Africans to the Dutch!

reply

He could speak the languages/dialects, knew the customs...

This is a very problematic aspect of the whole concept.

Nobody knows what any of these languages -- actually, pretty much any language on the planet from even just 200 years ago -- really sounded like. (The only movie I've ever seen that recognised this problem and addressed it in the plot was "Stargate"). So his pronunciation is going to be very sketchy, at absolute best.

In addition, typically there's an enormous difference between the structure and vocabulary of the literary version of a language, such as Marek would have studied from preserved court documents (maybe) and writings and notations by monks (more probably), and the language as it was spoken day-to-day. (You can see this happening even today if you compare, say, the tone of published newspaper reports with the manner of speaking of the average person who uses that same language; if you went on the street and spoke like a newspaper report, then most people would not only think you were a bit weird, and clearly a stranger, but also have genuine trouble understanding you.)

Last thing: very rarely are the customs and behaviour of older cultures documented, at least to sufficient degree that an academic could learn how to pass for a person of that culture, regardless of how much they feel they should have been born in that time. With rare exceptions, such as the early Roman and Greek historian/philosophers, most people throughout history who have written cultural observation have tended to write about the atypical rather than the general practices of that culture -- probably on the assumption that the typical was already familiar to most people. Very few of them have taken the "time-capsule" approach that would have been necessary for Marek to become in any way fluent in their behaviours.

Most time-travel movies seem to just sidestep these questions, which is why we get our entire past history on every point of the planet apparently populated by people who all spoke modern American English.


You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

reply

He would have gotten the hang of it eventually.

Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance, five-hour phone conversation?

reply

I think you overestimate the differences between people from now and people from this time. They were different, but come on it was only 600 years ago. I have trouble understanding the books from that time, but I still can understand the rough meaning without a translation.

However, back to the OP question, I sure would never have agreed to stay in a time where there was the black death.

reply

I think you overestimate the differences between people from now and people from this time. They were different, but come on it was only 600 years ago. I have trouble understanding the books from that time, but I still can understand the rough meaning without a translation.

Language changes very quickly. Take the US as an example. In just 200 years, there are several different dialects across the country which developed very quickly. Ever notice that no one in the US talks like the British? And...that people in Georgia don't talk like people from New York? ...Or Boston....or Texas?

Just read a newspaper from the 1800s and see how different the speech was. Even things like "can't" were "cannot". Many of the things we say today are quite recent. It takes one generation to change.

Now stretch that out over 600 years and you would barely be able to understand what people are saying. It's not a Brit accent like in the movie, that's for sure.

A "rough understanding" is one thing....but fitting in without being noticed? That's something else entirely.

reply

Nobody knows what any of these languages -- actually, pretty much any language on the planet from even just 200 years ago -- really sounded like. (The only movie I've ever seen that recognised this problem and addressed it in the plot was "Stargate"). So his pronunciation is going to be very sketchy, at absolute best.

Agreed. And that's not even getting into the fact that a person from our time would probably die quickly from taking a drink of water.

reply

Squids, way to go, defending the murderous Christians by pointing your finger at others. All you religious a$$holes have murdered in the name of your gods.

I spend my money on dope, sex and cheap thrills.
The rest of it, I waste.

reply

I think I would want to try the Americas, long before the murderous Christians came here and slaughtered 85% of the inhabitants, mostly in the name of god.

That would be very instructive for you. You would learn a very valuable lesson but would probably not survive.

For one thing, it was a primitive time and you would be ill equipped to survive. For another thing, the fantasy in your head of a peaceful race of people who would never hurt a flea would meet up with reality as you quickly found out there were different territorial tribes for a reason. They fought a lot of wars and killed each other long before any white people showed up. Your modern age idealized vision of the past would die first.

reply

No way. I'd love to witness pivotal battles and speeches but I could never live anywhere else but the present.

Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance, five-hour phone conversation?

reply

I wouldn't mind entering the world sometime in the future, maybe 500-1000 years from now because I'd like to see where technology is at. But no way in hell would I wanna live in the past, those in the industrial world have it WAAAAY better nowadays.

reply

Im a black man so pretty much any time travel that involves going further back than 1970 is a very bad idea for me.

reply

Everytime I watch a movie set before the 1900s I realize that everyone involved must smell awful from poor hygeine and practices of the period. Bathing a few times a week, crapping into a chamberpot and dumping it outside, that all just sounds horrible.

reply

I could live in the 1980s and 1990s (well I lived through them but could go back).

Now....I know this is biased.....but if I HAD to choose a historical period to live in and be anyone, I would be a white male in 1950s America or a white male in the antebellum South.

reply

Ancient Rome at the height of its power, if you were rich that is, would have been quite a nice life I think. To be rich there you would need gold primarily or gems or whatever, so if time travel were possible and I went there I would bring a lot of gold.

You're a troll.

reply

Ancient Rome at the height of its power, if you were rich that is, would have been quite a nice life I think. To be rich there you would need gold primarily or gems or whatever, so if time travel were possible and I went there I would bring a lot of gold.

The interesting thing about that would be how fast you would find out all modern people are rich compared to our richest ancestors.

No amount of gold could buy you the simplest things we take for granted today. Like your cell phone, satellite TV, automobile, indoor plumbing, toothbrush, deodorant, modern clothing, air conditioning, movies, music.....and eating a wide variety of different foods?

Say good bye to all that in the past. Your gold would buy you very little.

reply

I'd go back to ancient Rome and become the new (old?) Vince McMahon.

Instead of having the Gladiators killing each other and getting killed by lions I'd make new (old?) versions of Stone Cold and The Rock. The whole roster.

Even the Emperor would be in the audience yelling, "CAN YOU SMMEEEEELLL... WHAT THE ROCK IS COOKIN?!"




____________________________
Kerbal Space Program:
Failure is not an option. It's a requirement!

reply

Well, I grew up in the 1980s - it was great... and I survived :-D

reply

[deleted]

[deleted]

I like to imagine if it was possible, when I got older, I'd time travel back to the 50's or the 80's, and just live out my life there until I died.



"Thanks, guys." "So long, partner."

- Toy Story 3 (9/10)

reply

I love how even the simplest question gets turned into a political discussion on here. Someone turns it into an anti-Christian rant and then doesn't like when people disagree with him, when he was the one who turned it political. Every religion and every race has events in their past of an atrocity they have committed. Christians have plenty of them. But so do just about every religion. And perspective depends on your point of view. The Spanish, for all their atrocities, did an incredible thing by wiping out a society in a small amount of time with limited resources at the time and limited troops. You could make a movie about it and it could be about how a relative few men battled and conquered a kingdom on their home turf and outnumbered hundreds to one, and how they were able to do it. It could be an epic tale of Spanish heroism. But if the movie was from the Aztec side, it would be about how a militarist group of radical Christians destroyed a society, and be pro Aztec. Or it could be a neutral movie and you would draw your conclusion and someone else could draw theirs. And btw, the Spanish had about 2000 men versus an army of around 300,000. They won in part due to tens of thousands of native tribes joining them. So it wasn't just the Spanish and Christians doing the killing. The native tribes who joined them were tired of the acts of the Aztecs and saw a way of gaining power. So neither side was exactly innocent. It just depends on your perspective, and usually people look at the facts so that they fit into what their agenda is.
As far as the question was asked, I agree with many saying it would be good to visit but not something I could do for a longer period of time, no matter what the time period was. Unless my life was so miserable here in current times, I could not stay In the past. I would go back to major battles to watch them or head to certain points where there have been historical mysteries, like the lost colony on Roanoak island I believe it is. Or Roswell in 47 or watch the Kennedy assassination to see who did it. Things like that.

reply