Kind of a Review—Death on the Nile

I don't know if I can recommend Death on the Nile. It's a sumptuous movie with beautiful people wearing beautiful clothing in beautiful locations. They were able to film at the location portrayed on the cover of the book by Agatha Christie, Abu Simbel. (But when they show the characters walking between the sculptures or climbing behind them, it may be clever digital compositing.)

 

Gal Gadot looks fantastic in any movie she's in, and there is a standout scene of her as Linnet Doyle walking much of the length of the Karnak, obviously recorded by a drone just outside the ship and keeping pace with her. (The director, Kenneth Branagh, definitely knows how to play around with drones.) There is a similar scene with Branagh as Poirot pacing around on the deck towards the end of the movie, probably also done with a drone. And there are unusual closeups of the pyramids, also probably by drone. 

 

Having said all that, the movie is strikingly different from the book. (I haven't read the book, but I saw the 2004 version with David Suchet, which is supposed to be very accurate.) This new version made significant changes to the plot and the characters, even changing one of the murder victims! 

 

If you really love the book or the 2004 version, you may be puzzled or even disappointed. If you do not care about that, you might enjoy it. However, you will have to click below for my note of caution.

 

Worldcon—Supreme Court, Capitol, and Washington Monument

As I mentioned before, my itinerary for Washington, D.C. was a little different. One of the top two sites I wanted to visit was the Library of Congress. But the top site I wanted to visit was the Supreme Court of the United States!

If you don’t know why this third branch of government has been so important in the past few years, and what is going to happen in the next few months, maybe you should watch some news.

To get some perspective on how large the statues up front are, notice the black railing in back of one. It is waist height. That’s right, they are much bigger than life size.

Here is the statue on the right, looking at the court.

I know there is a lot of symbolism here, but I don’t know how to interpret it.

The one on the left also has a mini-statue.

I wasn’t there at a time when I could get in, but a friend who does tours says the inner chamber looks like a church, complete with wooden pews.

Here are the bronze doors at the front of the Supreme Court.

I was surprised the Supreme Court was across the street from the Capitol, where Congress meets. The back of it faces the Supreme Court.

As usual, I’m not satisfied with the typical tourist shot. Here is a forced perspective view of it.

Trying to get a nice angle, I ended up walking around the whole building. It is gigantic, and I tired myself from the huge walk. I told this to Cass Morris during the Kaffeeklatsch at Worldcon, and she said that on some occasion she decided to just walk up to the Capitol from some other site. She misjudged the distance because she didn’t know how large it was, and ended up doing quite a hike!

                                                          

Now here’s the Washington Monument, across the Tidal Bay on a sunny day.

I visited it on a less sunny day. You know by now I like unusual perspectives. Here it is when I stood three feet away from the base.