{"id":31164,"date":"2021-02-05T15:31:01","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T20:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=31164"},"modified":"2021-02-24T13:15:10","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T18:15:10","slug":"treasure-and-discovery-the-dig-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2021\/02\/05\/treasure-and-discovery-the-dig-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Treasure and Discovery: &#8220;The Dig&#8221; Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Netflix\u2019s newest drama, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81167887?source=35\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81167887?source=35\">The Dig<\/a>\u201d, premiered on Jan. 29.&nbsp; A true ensemble piece, it offers character-driven drama with few surprises.&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/movies\/2021\/01\/29\/ralph-fiennes-buried-alive-for-netflix-the-dig\/4289222001\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/movies\/2021\/01\/29\/ralph-fiennes-buried-alive-for-netflix-the-dig\/4289222001\/\">Ralph Fiennes<\/a> does a superb job as John Brown, a working-class archaeologist who makes his living in a traditionally upper-class field. He\u2019s hired by Mrs. Pretty, played by Carey Mulligan, to excavate the burial mounds on her property because she \u201chas a feeling about them.\u201d&nbsp; Her feeling turns out to be right and Brown and his team uncover the richest Anglo-Saxon treasure ever discovered in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like the book it\u2019s based on, the film\u2019s slow pace may sometimes fail to hold the audience\u2019s interest, but the fully formed characters based on real people involved with the discovery may draw them back in.&nbsp; There\u2019s Robert Pretty, Mrs. Pretty\u2019s inquisitive 9-year-old son, John\u2019s long-suffering wife, May Brown, and a team of archaeologists who converge to work on the site before everyone is conscripted to help in the war effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JZQz0rkNajo?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What \u201cThe Dig\u201d lacks in pacing, it makes up for expertly in character development.&nbsp; We care deeply about Mr. Brown, Mrs. Pretty, Mr. Lomax, and Mrs. Piggott, although Mr. Piggott isn\u2019t given much to do on screen.&nbsp; Robert Pretty\u2019s energy is contagious as he alternately imagines himself as a Viking captain and a space invader.&nbsp; Lily James gives a convincing performance as the neglected Mrs. Piggott, who proves herself a competent archaeologist despite only being invited to participate because of her small size.&nbsp; One of the film\u2019s few humorous moments is when another archaeologist says to her, \u201cThank God Piggott didn\u2019t marry a piglet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/01\/28\/movies\/the-dig-review.html\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/01\/28\/movies\/the-dig-review.html\">The film\u2019s straightforward storytelling<\/a> doesn\u2019t so much offer new information about the well-known archaeological find as it deepens the understanding of what we already know.&nbsp; Mrs. Pretty\u2019s determination to stand up for Mr. Brown\u2019s professional integrity makes her a likable character and illuminates the fight for recognition that women and professionals of modest means faced in the early days of archaeology.&nbsp; The Sutton Hoo treasure has been displayed at the British Museum since the end of World War II, but Brown\u2019s role in the discovery has only recently been uncovered and credited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is it worth watching? That depends on what you\u2019re looking for.&nbsp; If you want to spend a couple of hours deeply invested in the lives of English archaeologists right before World War II, then yes.&nbsp; If you\u2019re looking for drama or romance that ramps up quickly, then not so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MacKenzie Tasten <\/strong><br>Reporter<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Netflix\u2019s newest drama, \u201cThe Dig\u201d, premiered on Jan. 29.&nbsp; A true ensemble piece, it offers character-driven drama with few surprises.&nbsp; Ralph Fiennes does a superb job as John Brown, a working-class archaeologist who makes his living in a traditionally upper-class field. He\u2019s hired by Mrs. Pretty, played by Carey Mulligan, to excavate the burial mounds [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":31166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[4769,4842,108,2524,1769,4768,4766],"class_list":["post-31164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-archaeology","tag-mackenzie-tastan","tag-movie","tag-movie-review","tag-netflix","tag-ralph-fiennes","tag-the-dig"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/pexels-johnmark-smith-2726370-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-86E","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31164"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31183,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31164\/revisions\/31183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}