Same here. I picked up a copy a year or two (? don't really remember) at WM when it was ~$15 and it's just been sitting there awaiting my attention ever since!

I can't watch my copy of The Pacific till I finish BoB.

BoB? And what is this Pacific you guys keep bringing up?

BoB = Band of Brothers

The Pacific is the HBO mini-series "companion piece" to Band of Brothers from the same creators. It tells the intertwined stories of three Marines during America's battle with the Japanese in the Pacific during World War II.

Here's the DVDTalk.com DVD review, and the BR review.

Just realized I left "Wild Cards" as part of the Zeitgeist category. I meant to remove that. I'm glad to hear that y'all dig the idea, though! We've still got a couple of weeks, so if anyone can think of an example of zeitgeist captured in a movie they'd rather see on the list, lob it at me.

Looks like a good show. I've seen an ep or two of Band of Brothers before and enjoyed the show.

I'm definitely in, although have zero idea what I will focus on. I did buy a season or 2 of Little House last year for this challenge, then didn't touch them, so maybe work on those.

I watched both Band of Brothers and The Pacific a few years ago for this challenge, and I usually have 0 interest in that sort of thing and was a bit obsessive with watching both of them (and probably against most people I actually liked The Pacific better).

I think zeitgeist should just be allowed to die. It seems to me that almost anything that doesn't fit the historical categories could arguably be justified as zeitgeist except sci-fi, and sci-fi might be more appropriate for this challenge than some of what will wind up being included (the TV series Max Headroom began with "20 Minutes into the Future" and that's true of most of the best sci-fi).

Like any other challenge currently included on DVDTalk, I have more than enough to watch to fill up the entire month, and I would guess that I'm not alone on that for this challenge. We all know that a lot of us try to stretch the rules so that everything we watch during a challenge counts.

Ask yourself if including Easy Rider and Where the Boys Are as 1960s zeitgeist enriches the challenge experience. I know that you can find any number of critics who will make the argument for Easy Rider, but I think the rather bland moralizing of Where the Boys Are probably is more true to the spirit of the early 1960s than slightly more disguised moralizing (in a different direction) of Easy Rider, but I'd argue that Night of the Living Dead better captures the 1960s spirit than either of these other movies.

I just got Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a 1994-1998 (?) CCTV series with 84 episodes, and am trying to figure out if I'm brave enough to try to tackle it next month. I am currently doing Cops, Detectives, Criminals and Crime on TV as my first May Make-Your-Own Challenge, and I was planning on continuing with any series that would qualify as historical, which would currently include Sherlock Holmes (1968 BBC) (if I don't watch the last episode this month), Murdoch Mysteries, and Cadfael. I'm considering adding The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Ripper Street, Boardwalk Empire, and Maigret to that mix.

Of course there are so many other non-TV and/or non-crime options available.

Too many choices.

Addressing this concern is actually the point of creating a formal Zeitgeist sub-category. It specifies what kind of content qualifies and should alleviate a lot of the previously existing ambiguity while still allowing participants who refer to the checklist for guidance to explore more than the War & Western core that begat the challenge. My hope is that it helps close the loophole. That's my intention, at least.

Is that the version that everyone raves about? Someone recommended a version of that to me from the last 20 years and I can't remember whether it was Mainland China or Hong Kong that produced the desired version. If Mainland, then it's the one you got. If so, I want to order that series myself. Where did you get it from?

Thanks.

It's China, not Hong Kong. Ordered from a Korean seller on ebay ( fortunevirus -and it was ridiculously cheap). I believe that I checked that it was legitimately released in Korea, but when you are dealing with Korean DVDs, it's hard to tell if even legitimate DVDs are really "legitimate". That's part of the reason that I want to watch it right away. The other reason is that I've been picking up TV series for years, but like to focus, not just watch an episode here and there. I've been trying to work some TV in since last year's Comedy Challenge, particularly series that work across multiple challenges.

I'm pretty sure that I'll start into it within the few days of the Historical Challenge, so I'll be giving my thoughts on it. I don't think that I'll manage the whole thing in a month, so I'll be looking for a good place to break off (and continue during another challenge). I do want to fit some other things into the Historical Challenge.

If you don't count them on your list, and note them as uncounted content, is it ok to list DVD and Blu Ray bonus features? I'm interested in watching some behind the scenes documentaries on my movies and think they would be in the spirit of the challenge, but plan to note them as uncounted content, as by the letter of the rule, I don't think they'd count.

Yeah, you're always allowed to personalize your list however you want. If that includes noting bonus content, knock yourself out. The only rules are that you can't count them toward your official watch total and you can't use them for the checklist (except when the checklist item is specifically for a bonus feature, like watching X number of trailers, etc.).

Been away from here for a while, but I'm looking forward to this challenge. Thanks for hosting again, Travis.

I found a way I can work kaiju into this challenge as well . I ordered a documentary from Amazon called, Godzilla and Other Movie Monsters.

I picked up a copy of The Bridge on the Rive Kwai today and am excited to watch it for the challenge. I may use it as my kickoff film.

I've been dying to put on a couple of historical things, but i'm stopping myself for the challenge. It's tough to deny myself right now. Especially with Memorial Day upon me. I may make an exception for the new History Channel show debuting tomorrow though. But I can't help that one. Gotta see that tomorrow.

I say go for it. Strike while the iron is hot! Whatever you choose to watch now might come up in the discussion thread during the challenge so even though you can't count it as watched content, it could still connect with the challenge.

Yes, ok, thanks for the push. A couple of nights ago I almost put on Little Big Man but stopped myself. Going to definitely watch the history channel special tomorrow night. As for anything else tomorrow have to wait and see.

Best Buy is having a $4.99 blu-ray war/western movie sale, I think for Father's Day, with tons of fodder for the historical appreciation challenge including: Grapes of Wrath, The Great Escape, Battle for Britain, Von Ryan's Express, Viva Zapata, Big Country, Tora Tora Tora, Patton, etc etc...

This was the very first challenge I took part in last year. This year the World Cup is going on during June so I'm not sure how much other TV viewing I'll be doing but I'll definitely be doing some.

well now it's a guessing game which DC area Best Buy will actually have any of these titles in stock.

picked up 'Stalag 17' for 10 bucks from Best Buy - can't wait to watch that!

STALAG 17 has commentary by two of the actors and one of the co-writers. Unfortunately, there's no moderator to guide the discussion and ask them questions.

what exactly does that mean - dead air? rag tag totally random comments?