You may have heard of the Amazon Prime TV show Daisy Jones And The Six, an adaptation of the book of the same name by Taylor Jenkins Reid, about the rise and fall of a fictional rock band in the 1970s.
My favourite guy, Sam Claflin, plays one of the two main roles (or the main male role) in the show, the band’s frontman, Billy Dunne.
This is him with his guitar in the series finale.
Sam is the reason I know about the existence of DJATS in the first place. I got the book on Audible before the show aired, but it’s not something I would likely pick up under normal circumstances–I’ve never been into 70s music, or 70s anything really. I confess right here and now, I only started listening to Fleetwood Mac because of DJATS. They’re that type of band whose songs you know without knowing you know them. The last bit of Chain has been used as theme for Formula 1 coverage, for example.
I became a fully-fledged Sam Claflin fan sometime during the first lockdown. (Based on the posts on my Tumblr, I’m going with May 2020.) At that time, he already had been cast as Billy Dunne, but filming had to be delayed when the pandemic hit. In the end it would be delayed for 18 months. This turned out to be an advantage–the actors had plenty of time to master their respective instruments, and their singing. (And the men could grow out their hair instead of having to rely on wigs.) The band members are :
Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin) – lead singer/songwriter, rhythm guitar
Graham Dunne (Will Harrison) – lead guitar
Eddie Roundtree (Josh Whitehouse) – bass
Karen Sirko (Suki Waterhouse) – keyboard
Warren Rojas (Sebastian Chacon) – drums
I knew this would be a big role for Sam, one of the biggest of his career, in fact. I knew he would nail it without a fault. And he did. I also discovered that he can sing, and he’s quite good at it. Sam dedicated himself to the part in full, he lost a lot of weight and learned to play guitar; he transformed into a true rockstar. As far as his fashion choices go, he wears double denim almost exclusively–and he makes it work!
Mild spoilers to follow.
Billy Dunne is a charismatic, talented frontman and songwriter, but he struggles with alcohol and drug addiction. He forms a band in his hometown of Pittsburgh with his younger brother Graham and some friends. He meets Camila Alvarez (in the book she was, I think, called Martinez and the actress who plays her is a namesake–Camila Morrone) and they fall in love. When the band leaves for LA to seek their fame and fortune, she joins them. They get married when she finds out she’s pregnant, on the eve on the band’s first tour. In the book, Camila is a waitress, in the show she is a photographer. Which, needless to say, made me happy, although I think they could have done more with it. (Also in the book, she doesn’t come with the band to LA but arrives later, but I don’t sweat that detail.)
The band, initially called The Dunne Brothers, renames themselves The Six, even though there are only five members. (They explain why. This is a change from the book–the bass player, Pete, doesn’t exist in the show and in the book they have three guitarists, in the show one of the three guitarists plays bass instead, but let’s not complicate things, I’m here to talk about Sam.) Billy’s addiction spirals out of control and this is when Camila, wanting to surprise him on tour, catches him in a… situation (Boris Johnson’s initials) with two groupies. She tells him he has until the baby is born to start behaving himself. When she gives birth to their daughter Julia, Billy, unable to face the child in the state he’s in, enters rehab. He comes out, having missed out on the first months of his daughter’s life. Now I get to what is my most favourite scene in the show. Billy is at home, now sober, but can’t seem to be able to bond with baby Julia. This is when Camila sits him down and orders him to pick up his kid.
Billy gets teary-eyed. When Camila asks him what he’s afraid of, he replies: “what if she loves me and I fuck it up”, to which Camila says: “welcome to the club.”
The emotions are strong in this scene and Sam gives it all. But I let the man speak for himself:
(Embedded from my Tumblr blog, but the source is linked.)
Anyway, Billy does pick his daughter up–and doesn’t let go of her again.
At this point, the band is sort of dead in the water, as their tour was cancelled when Billy went to rehab. The music producer Teddy Price (Tom Wright), who develops into a sort of a father figure for Billy, suggests collaboration with an up-and-coming singer Daisy Jones (Riley Keough). So they collaborate, she joins the band, they are now Daisy Jones and The Six, they record an album titled Aurora and hit it big. Here’s the thing, Daisy is also a songwriter and she and Billy work together on songs for the album. They clash more often than not, she laughs at him for writing songs about his wife (Aurora is meant for Camila), he points out that she can’t work without drugs. But they’re also drawn to each other. It’s not clear, however, whether anything took place between them or not. Not in the book.
The book is written as a series of interviews. The band abruptly broke up after playing a sold out gig in Chicago in 1979, after which they never performed again. The interviews take place in the present time, around mid 2010s. (In the audiobook, the characters are all voiced by different voice actors, making the listening experience that much better.) In the show, the last concert happens in 1977 and the interviews are set much earlier–probably because if the characters were supposed to be in their late 50s/60s, the aged up actors would look ridiculous. In the show, they are being interviewed for a TV documentary. But the interview scenes are minimal and what we see is what went on back then in the 1970s. Or at least one interpretation of it.
Unfortunately, here’s where the show’s writers screwed up big time: they decided to focus solely on the Billy and Daisy relationship, at the expense of everything else going on in the story. To make matters worse, instead of keeping it entirely platonic, they had them kiss twice or three times, I don’t remember exactly, I purged it from my memory. Whether they aimed to appease the Billy/Daisy shippers (who are of the insane, rabid kind), or they’re Billy/Daisy shippers themselves, or hate Camila, or don’t know how to handle her (she is a very strong character, make no mistake), or whether they’re idiots, I can’t tell. Worse, all the official channels are promoting this relationship. I understand they’ve got a product to sell, Amazon will make money from selling the music and the merch, not just from the streams. But I do wonder why they’re so carefree about elevating what is essentially infidelity.
So, if you couldn’t tell, I’m not a fan of the Daisy/Billy ship and the writers’ obsession with it has soured my viewing experience. In times the show descended into ridiculous, soap opera style melodrama and cringey lines. It was like a fist bursting out of the TV screen with Daisy and Billy have INSANE connection written on its knuckles, hitting you in the face. Forget the shipping wars–this type of in your face stuff just cheapens the story. The actors deserve better than that.
Billy and Camila discussing having more children
But let’s get back to my guy, because that’s what I’m here for. Sam’s acting was flawless, which is no surprise, because it always is, but this role demanded more than any of his previous roles did. In the last episode, especially. The finale was nail biting, even if you had read the book. It was a well done episode, they showed us the last concert in Chicago, with flashbacks to what was happening earlier, events that led to the band’s inevitable breakup. I actually panicked two days before the finale upon seeing a particular picture on Instagram (which I was afraid might mean the show would split Billy and Camila up) so I looked up a spoiler-filled review from a critic to reassure myself that it would still end the way it should end. And I was still stressed. Even my cat was stressed. Pepper, who’s normally very chilled at night (I watched the episodes as soon as they dropped at midnight, they released them in chunks of two and three), kept running around like crazy, getting under my feet and on my nerves. And she wasn’t even watching it.
At the end of the book, there is an amazing scene between Camila and Daisy (note that the two women never fight for Billy, they have a lot of respect for each other) in the hotel after the Chicago gig. The show did it differently. They opted for tension more than anything, but the good thing is that we got the best out of Sam. Anger, despair, love, hate, jealousy, grief, the whole spectrum of emotions. And he still gives the rockstar act on the stage. Instead of the Camila and Daisy scene, we got a scene of Billy and Camila on the hotel balcony, discussing their marriage. I’m willing to sacrifice the Camila and Daisy scene in the book for the Camila and Billy scene on the show. As they talk, little Julia, having woken up from her sleep, comes out on the balcony, and they instantly switch to being parents. It was so heart-warming, and Sam and Camila (the actress) gave it all.
It’s disappointing, not to mention frustrating, after having waited so long to see one’s favourite actor in a career-defining role, only to be let down by bad writing and bad fanservice. But I have decided to make the best of it. I’ll extract Sam and all the things I liked about it and (try to) forget the bad. If anything, DJATS the show can be used as an example how not to do things.
The Music
The music is another gift. The show hired a team of songwriters for this, led by Blake Mills. The album Aurora actually exists, and not only that–there are songs by The Dunne Brothers, songs by The Six, solo Daisy Jones songs and even a track from another fictional band, The Winters, who were the keyboardist Karen’s previous band. There’s even a song written by Daisy, stolen by a guy she was dating at the time and released by him as his own. Last but not least, Simone Jackson (played by Nabiyah Be), an aspiring disco diva and a close friend of Daisy, also sings.
Official discography playlist on Spotify:
Is There More To Life Than Billy Dunne?
Well, yes, obviously, but this post is about Sam. I like many of the other characters. Camila, of course, then Karen, whose story matters to me the most (but that’s another topic that I might blog about in the future). Billy’s younger brother Graham is an absolute sweetheart and Warren the drummer, unbothered by all the drama going in the band, just want to live his best life and sign women’s tits.
I loved Teddy, he was a true rock for Billy, Daisy and Simone. Simone’s storyline was the best change from the books. In the show, she is a lesbian and has romance with Bernie (Ayesha Harris), who is a DJ. It’s technically a spoiler, but it’s important to note that this is a black gay couple that gets a happy ending. I liked Rod Reyes (Timothy Olyphant), the band’s tour manager.
I would say I feel mostly no particular way about Eddie, but he provided a good conflict. And, honestly, I don’t care for the titular Daisy much. I like messy women in fiction, but not her.
Riley Keough is the granddaughter of Elvis Presley, the king of rock’n’roll himself. This is where I get bitchy. And you know what, I think she was the weakest link for me, both in acting and singing. Contrast the nepo baby with Sam Claflin, a most ordinary boy from Norwich. This is where I end being bitchy.
Let me end with my personal favourite song of DJATS, The River, here on YouTube.
Note: A post titled A Work Of Art was originally published on Some Photoblog in June 2021.I have come to a decision to delete and republish it with some changes to the text and expanded title (the pictures remain the same as in the original post). I explain why below.
This painting hangs in Manchester Art Gallery (quite high up, hence the awkward angle).
It’s Hylas and the Nymphs by John William Waterhouse. Waterhouse was an English painter of the Pre-Raphaelite movement and Hylas and the Nymphs is one of his best known works.
The Gallery’s label:
(Look, I don’t know. Maybe the nymphs were just like: dude, you’re trespassing. It doesn’t have to be that deep. Waterhouse can hardly be blamed for some femme fatale shit, when it’s a story from the Greek mythology. Also, I like Pre-Raphaelites. I like nice things. I’m a visual person.)
The image below is a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth film in the series, released in 2011, directed by Rob Marshall:
image credit: IMDb
Okay, so you have to squint a bit. But you can see it.
The two stunningly beautiful people are Philip and Syrena, played by Sam Claflin and Astrid Berges-Frisbey. Syrena is a mermaid, not a nymph (and there are no water lilies, obviously), but she does look like something Waterhouse would have painted. He seemed to have had a thing for women of mythology and legends, and bodies of water. (Waterhouse, get it?) Philip is no Argonaut, he’s a missionary, which is why he wears that cross, but he was on a ship. Which is, I suppose, a logical occurrence in a movie centred on pirates. On Stranger Tides is probably the weakest in the series, but it’s still worth watching for these two, if nothing else. Their romance would surely inspire artists and poets alike. There was something so pure about it, stupid as the word is. I love Philip and Syrena, they own my heart.
*spoilers* Interestingly, much like Hylas, Philip was never seen again either. His fate is a bit ambiguous, as he’s injured, likely quite critically, and the above scene is the moment just before he and Syrena kiss and she pulls him into the water. It was established earlier in the movie that a mermaid’s kiss can heal, and she does tell him: “I can save you, just ask,” though he doesn’t ask, he says he wants only forgiveness, as he blames himself for her capture. She kisses him anyway (get in there, girl!), and the last we see of them is when they float underwater. But I’m positive Philip didn’t die, the reason why neither him nor Syrena appear again is that The Powers That Be decided not to use them any more. *end spoilers*
So, now for the controversial part. My original June 2021 post was a silly entry about how film snobs need to get over themselves and step on a Lego, because the similarity between the Philip and Syrena scene and the Waterhouse painting proved that Pirates of the Caribbean films were a work of art. Not that I no longer believe this to be true (because the similarity cannot be denied), but it is a frivolous matter compared to… well, everything surrounding the lead actor of the franchise.
However, I maintain that the Pirates movies don’t necessarily have to revolve around the character of Jack Sparrow because they still have a lot going for them that is not Jack Sparrow. (In fact I think the later instalments should have reduced his role). Adventure, humour, horror, romance, and a lot of swashbuckling action. There are plenty of other great characters; the first trilogy truly belongs to Will and Elizabeth. I mean, it’s Elizabeth who becomes the Pirate King. Not Jack. There’s Tia Dalma and Davy Jones. Weatherby Swann (Elizabeth’s father), James Norrington, even Cutler Beckett. And the films always nail their romances. Will and Elizabeth, Philip and Syrena, and Henry and Carina in the fifth film. And I think Geoffrey Rush’s performance as Hector Barbossa is just as iconic as Johnny Depp’s Jack. The scene in The Curse of the Black Pearl “you’d better start believing in ghost stories, you’re in one” where he’s revealed to be a skeleton in the moonlight, is so bone chilling and so, well, iconic! I also love Elizabeth and Will’s wedding in the third film, At World’s End. On a ship, in the middle of a battle, Elizabeth shouts to Barbossa: “Barbossa, marry us!” To which he responds: “I’m a little bit busy at the moment!” But he nevertheless marries them, while all three of them are fighting their enemy.
Plus Ragetti and Pintel are a hilarious duo.
All that and the theme tune (composed by Hans Zimmer, no less) is the best.
In conclusion, Pirates of the Caribbean films are a lot of fun. But if you feel you can’t watch them any more, that’s okay too. And if you’ve never liked them anyway, then it doesn’t matter.
I’ve written (to date) my longest post on Some Photoblog about him and IRL I can talk about him for so long, that if I should ever get kidnapped, I’d make the kidnappers release me because they’d be sick to their teeth of listening to me rambling about him.
Somehow I’ve felt for a while that one day I’d get to meet him at some convention. And I did. The convention was Dream It Fest convention in London. (Which I’m sorry to say had absolutely atrociously awful organisation, honestly shocking, considering the actors present, among whom were Emilia Clarke, Ben Barnes and some others from the series Shadow and Bone, the Heartstopper cast, Simone Ashley and Natalia Tena.) My VIP ticket for Sam included a photoshoot, an autograph, and a front seat at Sam’s panel.
(Hiding the half of the photograph where I appear (you can see my fingers on Sam’s arm) under Sam’s autograph, as I am not someone who looks good on pictures. There is a reason I don’t show my face on my profile pics–and my body ain’t that much better. At least my siblings persuaded me not to cut myself out of the photo. You can see just how freaking beautiful he looks there, so with me next to him–naaah.)
I was, as could be expected, star struck as fuck, but I managed to keep it together. The photoshoot was actually my best experience, despite my hatred of being photographed, and not something I would ever care about, had it not meant meeting Sam. He was so nice, and we even started a conversation until the member of the staff had to remind us that we were there to have a picture taken. During the autograph session, however, I said nothing, apart from “I’m pretty sure you know how to spell Linda” (a staff member gave me a post-it note, on which she wrote my name, so that he’d know who to dedicate the autograph to). Got kinda tongue-tied.
That’s about all I wanted to share today. I’m not going to talk about how I had to take a coach to London and thus had a five-and-a-half-hour journey each way, because I couldn’t trust the trains (they’re on strike a lot, and even with the queen’s death and crowds flooding to London, I still couldn’t rely on them not to cancel services), I’m not going to talk about how that one night at a hotel cost me more than the VIP ticket for Sam Claflin at Dream It Fest, I’m not going to talk about how I was a pure ball of nerves over the whole trip, and that even now, full twenty four hours after my return from London, my stomach is still so tight I eat to only sustain myself.
Today I’m doing something a little bit different from my usual forte, because today, my dear friends, I dedicate a post of my blog to the beautiful and talented British actor Sam Claflin.
Sam is probably best known for playing Finnick in The Hunger Games movies, but other than that, he mostly flies under the radar. Which results in people who take a deeper dive into his filmography emerging with: “OMG, WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS GUY??? He has the range!”
I’ve been racking my brains for months, but I cannot for the life of me remember how I first got to know him. It was definitely a case of knowing the name before seeing any of his movies, most likely in connection with The Hunger Games sequels. I remember Catching Fire being on TV once, but not deeming it essential, I didn’t bother watching it, though I vaguely recall just having it on as a background. I think it was the Snow White and the Huntsman movie I saw him in first, and I went to see My Cousin Rachel in the cinemas when it was out. And although I appreciated his outing on Peaky Blinders, it wasn’t until summer last year that I finally discovered all of his talents.
And I’ve come to the conclusion that IMDb ratings don’t mean shit.
So, onto the actual post. I tried to avoid as many spoilers as possible. Although… spoiler for everything, his characters have a habit of not being alive at the end, but I maintain that even if you’re aware of this fact, the films are still worth watching, end of spoiler for everything.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), Mockingjay Part 1 (2014) and Part 2 (2015), directed by Francis Lawrence
I’ll start with the most obvious one. Catching Fire is the second instalment in The Hunger Games series, the movies adapted from books by Suzanne Collins. Sam plays Finnick Odair, victor of 64th Games from District 4 and a tribute in the Quarter Quell, alongside the main heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence). No other actor could have done a better job portraying Finnick. He captured his arrogance, but also his vulnerability, brilliantly. Finnick appears to be a playboy at the beginning, your typical boyband member/underwear model type (and he’s blond and has an American accent!), until we learn what he had to go through after his victory in the Games, and how deep his love for Annie is.
I have a very difficult and very complicated relationship with The Hunger Games. I found the last book, Mockingjay, especially painful, and the ending made me want to throw my Kindle against the wall, so you understand why I didn’t bother with the movies. Then I got into Sam, and the movies happened to be available on Amazon Prime at the time, so I decided to give Catching Fire a go. Luckily my conflicted feelings have nothing to do with Finnick, who is, together with Johanna Mason, my favourite character. Aside from the fact where he, you know, dies. With that at least I’m not on my own–Finnick is a popular character and majority of the fandom is unhappy about his death. They should have made a change from the books and have him survive, the movies would then have something going for them. When it comes to that, they should have changed a lot about Mockingjay, and dividing a book where you expect revolution to happen, but get “Peeta-Peeta-Peeta waah-waah-waah” instead, is not the best of ideas. I never watched the second Mockingjay and only fast-forwarded through the first one for the Finnick scenes. It’s surprising how little he’s in it. He has two conversations with Katniss, and towards the end he’s recording the video where he talks about his experiences post-victory, but even here the camera keeps switching to Katniss’s dumb, open-mouthed face.
Catching Fire has 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the highest of all THG films, and it’s also the one with most Sam Claflin. NOT a coincidence! The soundtrack is also sick and happens to feature my favourite band, Imagine Dragons. (Spotify link here.)
Their Finest (2016), directed by Lone Scherfig
Now onto some quality! A drama with some comedy and romance mixed in, Their Finest takes place during WW2. The main character is a young screenwriter, played by Gemma Arterton, who joins the production crew of a propaganda movie for the Ministry of Information–yes, this is a movie about a movie! Sam is Tom Buckley, a fellow screenwriter, who hires her to write “slop”, as he calls it, meaning “girl talk”. The film they’re working on is about Dunkirk evacuation (of course it is…).
The cast is phenomenal; there’s Bill Nighy, Richard E Grant, Rachael Stirling, as well as Paul Ritter and the great Helen McCrory, both of whom have sadly passed away this April.
Their Finest is hilarious at times, but poignant too. Buckley has a bit of an ego on him, but he’s likeable. He and Catrin (Gemma’s character) banter a lot, but you can see they begin to truly care about each other. They have great chemistry.
how cute is he in glasses?
Why do you think that people like films? It’s because stories are structured; have a shape, a purpose, a meaning; and when things gone bad they’re still a part of a plan; there’s a point to them. Unlike life.
Buckley, Their Finest
Churchill is only name-dropped once.
More importantly, we have a lesbian character (the one played by Rachael Stirling), who is alive at the end.
This is also rated 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s the second time Sam has worked with Lone Scherfig.
Journey’s End (2018), directed by Saul Dibb
While Their Finest is set during WW2, Journey’s End is set during WW1. This one is an actual war movie, adapted from the play by RC Sherriff, yet it’s not your typical war movie. Because in this one, it doesn’t matter whether they’re allies or Germans–it’s all about the life in the trenches, and the effects of it on the soldiers. Don’t expect much military action.
Sam plays Captain Stanhope, who leads the company of soldiers when it’s their turn to spend six days at the dugout near St Quentin in northern France. They expect a big German offensive is coming, they just don’t know when, so nobody has any idea which men will be in the trenches at the time they attack. (History note: it’s the Operation Michael on 21 March 1918). A young, naïve, still idealistic officer Jimmy Raleigh (the young talent Asa Butterfield) requests to join Stanhope’s company, as he knows him from back home; they used to play rugby together and his older sister Margaret is engaged to Stanhope. As the General’s nephew, he gets his wish, but he’s not prepared for how much the war has changed Stanhope.
This is truly an outstanding performance by Sam. Mentally shot to pieces and almost an alcoholic, Stanhope is not exactly thrilled to come face to face with an old friend in this state. Especially as the said friend would doubtless report everything to Margaret. When Raleigh arrives, his reaction is a literal “Shit!”
My favourite scene is Lieutenant Osborne (Paul Bettany), tucking Stanhope into bed. Osborne acts like a father-figure to the men, they call him Uncle. Here’s a collage of my screenshots of that scene–it’s very dark, which is the general feel of the movie:
The only thing missing is a bedtime story. As a matter of fact, Osborne was reading Alice in Wonderland in the opening scene, shame they didn’t add that!
It’s a really moving film that hits right in the feels. Rotten Tomatoes rates it at 91%.
There are no women in this movie, apart from Margaret reading a letter from her brother at the very end, though she has no lines. In this case it really doesn’t matter. Stanhope carried her photograph on him at all times, and didn’t want her to know what’s become of him.
My Cousin Rachel (2017), directed by Roger Michell
The best Daphne du Maurier adaptation in recent years.
Like I said at the beginning of this post, I saw this on the big screen when it was released, because I like the book. (It was out around the same time as Wonder Woman, which everyone was hyping about, but I went to watch My Cousin Rachel instead. My most favourite book of all time, Rebecca, is, of course, by the same author.) The titular Rachel is played by Rachel Weisz, with Sam in the role of the narrator Philip Ashley. He actually has a double role here, he also plays Ambrose, though that’s only for a couple of scenes at the beginning without any lines. Iain Glen is Nick Kendall, Philip’s godfather and legal guardian, and Holliday Grainger is his daughter and Philip’s childhood friend Louise. Everyone is good in this and everything is good in this. Roger Michell knows his stuff.
In one interview, Sam correctly referred to My Cousin Rachel as gothic thriller, and gothic thriller it is. (Same as Rebecca. NOT a romance.) If you’ve read the book you know that Philip swears revenge on Rachel, whom he blames for the death of Ambrose, his closest person, only to fall head over heels in love with her when he meets her. It’s a very ambiguous story, and we’re not given any answers at the end. The film sticks pretty close to the book, any changes are minimal. There’s only one major difference and that’s at the end, with an added epilogue, which does not really contradict anything from the book. Sam did a great job with Philip, who starts out as completely clueless about women, almost loses his mind, and ends it in some dark places. His misogyny is only a result of his upbringing by Ambrose, a woman hater that wouldn’t even allow female dogs in his house. It’s really Rachel Weisz that steals the show, as she’s supposed to. Daphne du Maurier was a master with her intriguing female characters whose names start with R!
Rachel Weisz, Sam Claflin, bluebells. This is the perfect picture. Everyone else go home.
Above screenshots are an example of a change from the book–in the book it was primroses, not bluebells.
Rotten Tomatoes rates My Cousin Rachel at 76%. Compare it to 2020 version of Rebecca on Netflix, which completely missed the point of the story, but got a bigger hype, so more people know about it.
The Nightingale (2018), directed by Jennifer Kent
All the trigger warnings apply–this is not a joke!
The Nightingale is set in 1825 in Tasmania. This is the story of Clare, a young Irish convict (Aisling Franciosi), who pursues British officer Hawkins (Sam) through the wilderness, to avenge her family. This is Sam as a villain, and truly a despicable one he is. He likes having the power over those below him. And that’s precisely it, it’s by playing a villain that actors showcase their true talent. Anyone can play a love interest in a romcom, but not anyone can sell a villain. Sam does.
Bad Sam!
Heads-up, this movie is really violent. Multiple rapes and a murder of a baby happen. You can guess why Clare is on her quest for revenge. She recruits a native tracker Billy, played by Baykali Ganambarr, to help her get Hawkins. Clare, although a survivor of terrible violence, is not exactly without prejudices, she calls Billy “boy”. As the movie progresses, she starts to look at him as a human being. We see more examples of trauma caused by colonialism too. A hard to watch film, but important.
You might know Aisling Franciosi from her total of five minutes on Game of Thrones as Lyanna Stark. Personally I care nothing for Lyanna (Team Elia Martell). It’s not relevant to anything in this post, I’m just saying. Anyway, The Nightingale was an opportunity to flex her acting skills, and flex them she did, and she deserves all the praise for it. So does Baykali.
Rotten Tomatoes rating is 86%.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), directed by Rob Marshall
I love Pirates of the Caribbean films, they’ve got it all: adventure, action, humour, horror, romance–and good romance at that. Sam appears in the fourth instalment of the franchise, his first big movie (prior to that he starred in TV mini series only). He plays Philip Swift, a missionary captured by Blackbeard (Ian McShane). The first time we see him, he’s tied to a mast of Blackbeard’s ship. As mutiny breaks out, Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and another pirate go to untie him, and Salaman, the other pirate, tells him he’s either with them or against them, upon which Philip responds: “I’m not with you, neither am I against you.”
Salaman to Jack: Can he do that?
Jack Sparrow: He’s religious, I believe it’s required.
Sam’s first scene in his first major movie was with the legendary Jack Sparrow–not a bad start to a film career for a boy from Norwich!
The pirates are on a quest for the Fountain of Youth, which guarantees the drinker eternal youth. But they also need a mermaid’s tear, so they go on a hunt for a mermaid. Mermaids in this universe are malevolent creatures (or it depends how you look at it, if they lure men to their deaths, I say good for them), but nevertheless they manage to capture one, with the help of Philip. He regrets this almost immediately and spends the rest of the movie protecting her, and names her Syrena. She’s played by Astrid Berges-Frisbey.
I’ve never been one for any characters of religion, but between Philip Swift and the Hot Priest from Fleabag, I might just change my mind. Philip is a modest man of God, who believes everyone’s soul can be saved. The way he protects Syrena gives me all the feels. She falls for him too.
This is Sam’s cutest love story.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this one is irrelevant. What do they know?
Okay, well, for consistency, it’s 33%. Out of all the POTC movies, it can be objectively said On Stranger Tides is the weakest, but Philip and Syrena’s storyline is the best thing about it. And there’s always fun in swashbuckling action. A great debut for Sam.
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), directed by Rupert Sanders
A dark retelling of the classic tale of Snow White. You know the story, the evil queen, here named Ravenna (Charlize Theron), wants Snow White (Kristen Stewart) dead and orders the huntsman Eric (Chris Hemsworth) to bring her back Snow White’s heart as a proof. The huntsman saves her instead and, with the help of the seven dwarves, they set off to take Ravenna down. Sam plays William, a childhood friend of Snow White and a duke’s son. For years he believed Snow White was dead, but when he hears she’s still alive, he rides off to save her without a moment of hesitation. He joins the bad guys, pretending to be one of them. And he’s very skilful with a bow and an arrow.
The film is okay, a bit uneven, and it’s not clear who is actually supposed to be Snow White’s love interest, Eric or William. I ship Snow White with William, of course, and we know from the sequel, The Huntsman: Winter’s War that they got together. A son of a duke is a better choice for a queen than a huntsman, in any case.
But they don’t fight for her, the two men actually become friends.
wet hair and still looks good
The dwarves are also funny. And the movie is nice to look at. Every time I see it’s on TV, I always leave it on. I like it.
People like to give Kristen Stewart shit, but I don’t.
49% from Rotten Tomatoes.
As for the sequel, The Huntsman: Winter’s War, Sam is only there for one single scene, where he talks to Eric. There’s not much to say about that one.
Sam has worked with both Hemsworth brothers–Liam plays Gale in THG.
Shailene Woodley plays Tami Oldham (now Tami Oldham Ashcraft), a sailor who spent 41 days adrift in the Pacific. Sam is Richard Sharp, her fiancé. Tami arrives to Tahiti as part of her travels, where she meets Richard, a sailing enthusiast and they fall in love. They sail off on Richard’s friends’ boat on a voyage to San Diego, but get caught in hurricane Raymond. Tami finds herself alone, in the middle of the ocean, without a working navigation system.
Tami and Richard’s romance is so… wholesome. During their voyage, he proposes to her and she accepts; it’s a really cute, heart-warming scene. Spoiler, but not really as it’s a real story, Richard Sharp was unfortunately swept overboard and never found. Tami, though, still sails to this day.
A moving, inspiring film.
Rotten Tomatoes rating is 69%.
Enola Holmes (2020), directed by Harry Bradbeer
Oh dear. This one gave me such a hard time, it took me all of six months to figure out how to deal with its very existence.
Look at the picture below. The man on the right is Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes. Who is the man on the left?
“What are we doing in this movie, Sam?”
I’m going to assume, if you haven’t seen Enola Holmes, that your answer was Watson. He looks like Watson, and he should have been Watson. But no, he’s Mycroft. (Who’s supposed to be seven years older than Sherlock. Sam is three years younger than Henry.) Please be aware that this is NOT a canon Mycroft, as we know him from Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. He has nothing in common with the real Mycroft, apart from his job at the government. His deduction skills, which are superior to Sherlock’s, have been completely erased. This Mycroft is a one-dimensional, conservative cartoon villain, complete with a cartoon villain moustache. This change was needed for the sake of an original character, a teenage sister of the Holmeses, the titular Enola. She’s smarter than her brothers, because the narrative wants to her to be so. This butchered version of Mycroft was necessary to provide conflict for the original teenage heroine.
This film is the reason I dedicated a paragraph to Mycroft in my Sherlock Holmes post. It was important to me to put the truth out there. (ETA: 04/06/2022: The post was deleted but I have republished it here.)
Okay. Listen. What they did to Sam’s look here was criminal. From the above image you can’t see it, it’s the pic I took of my TV screen, and I wouldn’t post it here if you could see it, and I’m not posting any screenshots. Look it up. I remember seeing a tweet that went along the lines of: “did they have to press Sam’s hair like that? and did he have to have such a moustache?” Sure, you can dismiss the tweeter as being shallow, but they had a point. Because you cannot make a genuinely handsome guy ugly. (Unless you’re, like, using prosthetics to turn him into an alien or a supernatural monster or something of that kind.) You can let him grow any horrible moustache, style any idiot haircuts you can think of. That perfect bone structure is still there. The dimples are still there. Also, he has beautiful lips. What it results in, is that it makes him just look ridiculous.
Sam has a moustache in two of his best movies, Journey’s End and Their Finest. That is fine. In The Nightingale, where he plays a horrible person, he has sideburns. He didn’t need any villain moustache for that, his evilness was clear from his actions. It’s not the fact that he has a moustache in Enola that I object to. It’s the cartoonish-ness of it.
Henry Cavill fans got the better of it–his Sherlock serves as pure eye candy. He doesn’t do much Sherlocking, he’s there to look pretty with his wild curls. A look that Benedict Cumberbatch mastered ten years before. That’s not a slight against Henry, btw. I liked him in The Witcher. It’s the writing.
This film didn’t need to be part of Sherlock universe at all, anyway. It should have been a story of a young girl’s adventure, hampered by a strict uncle–Mycroft character behaved more like an uncle, these guys don’t even have a sibling dynamic. (Trust me. I have siblings.) I wouldn’t have anything against that. But that would not have generated as much attention as Sherlock pastiche, eh?
Enola Holmes has a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That kid has some strong connections.
A note on that social issues raised in this film: look, I get it. But it’s not that hard to insert some wokery into your fiction. I’ve done it myself. And I’m here for the feminist retelling of literally anything. God is a woman. I’m the biggest supporter of the madwoman in the attic. But Sherlock-verse doesn’t need to be a place for this, because Sherlock Holmes is not a misogynist. It’s the adaptations that give this misconception. Remember that Irene Adler outsmarted him!
The Riot Club (2014), directed by Lone Scherfig
This one made me feel unsettled.
Adapted from the play Posh by Laura Wade, it’s the story of two freshmen at Oxford University, who join this infamous club. An all-male elite dining club, members must be from private schools and rich. It’s based on real life Bullingdon Club, past members of which include former Prime Minister David Cameron, former Chancellor George Osborne and our current Prime Minister Boris Johnson (sigh). The way the club operates is: they book a table at a restaurant, trash the place, and then give a cheque to the owner to cover the damages.
No wonder we’re in such mess.
Sam and Max Irons play the new members. Sam’s character is called Alistair Ryle, and he’s a spoiled brat who hates poor people. Max’s character Miles is down to earth, and ends up disgusted with the practices of the club. He comes out of it much better.
at least the actors are better looking than the members of the real Bullingdon Club
I like a good villain, but not this type. It’s Draco Malfoy of the first five Harry Potter books, more or less. (I started liking Draco in the sixth book, after he used the body-freezing spell on Harry on the Hogwarts Express, and covered him with the invisibility cloak. I thought, yeah, finally you’re actually doing something, instead of running to hide under your parents’ skirts, and informing on your schoolmates to Dolores Umbridge. You get what I mean.) The reason the movie left me unsettled is because it can’t decide what it is. At the beginning, it seems like a comedy–we see how the club was established in the 18th century and a lord catching his wife getting jiggy with another man. Then we’re in the present, and the feel is like a contemporary drama. Alistair initially starts out as a sympathetic character, he even gets robbed while getting money out of a cash machine. (Also, I think he may have been autistic.) But then we find out he’s very much not. But, as ever, great acting from Sam.
I will say something in favour of the movie, though. Despite it focusing on an all male club, there are female characters, and they’re quite well developed, considering the limited time they get on screen. There’s Max’s girlfriend Lauren (Holliday Grainger), who takes no shit from him, or any of the posh boys. There’s the daughter of the pub landlord, in whose establishment the second half of the movie takes place. Even Natalie Dormer in a cameo as a sex worker. She flatly refuses their demands of being done by all of them under the table, and leaves. The director is a woman.
Lone Scherfig also directed the above mentioned Their Finest. She’s Danish, in case you wanted to know.
It’s got 67% on Rotten Tomatoes.
United (2011), directed by James Strong
I thought I’d give this one a quick mention.
In February 1958, on its third attempt at take-off, British European Airways Flight 609 crashed in Munich. It was carrying the Manchester United football team. Eight players lost their lives. The film is about this sad event, and how the team overcame the tragedy. Sam has the role of Duncan Edwards, one of the footballers who died (typical). He didn’t die at the place of the crash, but later in the hospital.
So, obviously, this is of interest mostly to football fans, but there wasn’t much of the sport itself. We do get to see Sam kicking the ball a bit. Sam likes football in real life, he did Soccer Aid in 2019.
in the present, the shirts are covered with logos of the sponsors
After one victorious game, the teams goes to a bar to celebrate, and Duncan advises newly signed Bobby Charlton (Jack O’Connell) to tell girls that he’s a plumber or an electrician, instead of a footballer. Because they only earn £15/week and their career is over by 30. How times have changed!
There is no rating on Rotten Tomatoes for this film. Probably because it’s not very well known.
I live in Manchester, but I have no interest in football. Still, it was a nice movie.
Every Breath You Take (2021), directed by Vaughn Stein
The latest of Sam’s movies, as of June 2021. You can tell from the title that it’s a psychological thriller. It’s not really much, very predictable, not helped by the fact that the trailer gave most of it away. I also easily guessed the final twist.
In the main role is Casey Affleck as a psychiatrist, whose client commits suicide. James, the brother of the dead girl, played by Sam, befriends his family–and thus trouble starts. He seduces the psychiatrist’s daughter, and also sleeps with his wife. James is the type of baddie I like seeing Sam play. He’s also the one who does most of the acting in this movie. Casey Affleck looks bored throughout, and the wife, Michelle Monaghan, is not given enough to do. As a psycho thriller, it’s very unoriginal, in parts even nonsensical in this age of internet and Google. Yet, for Sam’s sake, it’s worth seeing.
I made a better film out of it in my head–and that was before I even watched it!
The Rotten Tomatoes rating keeps changing still, but it’s around 20%.
What a missed opportunity.
Love Wedding Repeat (2020), directed by Dean Craig
One romcom, for the sake of variety. Could have been better if it lost the male anatomy jokes.
Seriously, it’s 2021, can we be done with the dirty jokes now, please?
Love Wedding Repeat takes place at a wedding. But it isn’t until halfway through that we find out there are multiple versions of the day. Don’t get fooled, though, it’s no Groundhog Day. Eleanor Tomlinson plays the bride, Sam is her brother. Aside from making sure the wedding goes smoothly, he also has to deal with an ex-girlfriend, who is one of the guests, the bride’s former boyfriend, who is not over her, and a misplaced sedative, while also trying to get the girl. He gets a lot to do, and what I liked was how he tried to be helpful to everyone. That doesn’t leave him much time for his own love life, which results in his love interest, played by Olivia Munn, sort of just standing around. She could have had an interesting story of her own, she’s a high flying journalist. At least she gets to wear a pretty dress.
Eh, whatever. There’s worse romcoms.
35% from Rotten Tomatoes.
The Corrupted (2019), directed by Ron Scalpello
Two Claflins for the price of one!
Sam’s younger brother Joe Claflin is an actor too; he appeared on Game of Thrones, the Watchers on the Wall episode (S4 E9). Here he plays Sean, brother of Sam’s character Liam. Brothers play brothers in this crime thriller.
Claflin Clan?
Liam is released from prison, determined to get his life back on track, and to reunite with his girlfriend and son. He gets tangled up in conspiracy and corruption. The caption at the beginning says “based on true events”. It’s to do with London’s Olympics bid, but I’m not sure what’s going on. The film has a decent idea, but the execution is a bit… unimpressive. I liked Sam’s character–showing his range again–and I liked the relationship with his girlfriend (Naomi Ackie). Although at first she is cautious–understandably so, as he’s just out of jail–they do reunite, and live as a family at the end. (Spoiler, but who cares.) Plus, we get Sam in a boxing ring!
Naomi Ackie appeared on Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker as Jannah. When I was watching TROS, it occurred to me that she could be a lost sister of Finn, John Boyega’s character. It seems this theory is shared by some of the fans. I’m not invested in the Star Wars fandom enough to check all the details are correct, so as far as I go, that is my headcanon.
Rotten Tomatoes gives it 30%.
Peaky Blinders (2013-), created by Steven Knight
Oh yes!
Sam does more films than TV, but he did appear on one of the most popular and critically acclaimed shows of the last decade, Peaky Blinders. He stars in Season 5 as a villain, and a juicy one–Oswald Mosley, a real life politician and member of Parliament, who became the leader of British fascists. Nasty stuff.
they showed him entering Tommy’s office in slow motion
Mosley butts heads with Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy), who was elected MP at the end of Season 4.
This is another fantastic performance by Sam, one of his best. Mosley rhetoric was abhorrent, but it was appealing to some sections of the population. We see this happening in our times too. We do indeed.
Manchester is one of the filming locations for Peaky Blinders, I posted pictures of the sets I went to see in February.
Sam will be back as Mosley in Season 6, which will be the last of the series. They’ve now wrapped up the filming and it should be on next year. I sure am looking forward!
Barbour winter photoshoot, from GQ magazine issue November 2020, UK edition
Of course, this is not the complete Sam Claflin’s filmography. These are just the films I thought were worth talking about.
So, what to conclude then, other than that I look forward to see Sam in his future projects. The next one is Daisy Jones & The Six, an adaptation of the book of the same name by Taylor Jenkins Reid, about the rise and fall of a band. Hopefully they should soon start filming, the pandemic has delayed it twice already.
Well, I hope those of you who have lasted till the end enjoyed this post and I hope you give some of Sam’s movies a watch.
And best of luck to Sam Claflin!
About the photos in this post: the captions should be self-explanatory. Screenshots are from trailers on YouTube. Journey’s End screeenshots are from my Amazon account.
Some Photoblog 