Movie time: "Sherlock Holmes" and the bridge scene, stuff explained

Put this in the category of tooting my own horn.

Have you seen “Sherlock Holmes?” I almost avoided it, thanks to the Miami Herald review by Rene Rodriguez (“over-plotted,” “murky,” “elephant-footed”) but a few days ago I went and, man, glad I did. Glad the Imax “Avatar” was sold out third time I’ve tried to see it the second time, and so I had a nice dose of one of my favorite themes; i.e. that the United States is corrupt and ripe for a takeover by evil Lord Blackwood.

I’m trying here not to give away a lot about the movie, unlike the Wikipedia entry -- it gives all ALL away. In fact, corruption in the United States is only a tiny amount of the motivation behind the plot line. But, like hearing the villain in “Avatar” utter “shock and awe” as a battle cry, I can be touched politically by today’s movies.

The real reason for opening this can of non-political worms was to provide the readers with a little background on one of the fight scenes in “Sherlock Holmes.” Not giving away too much, I hope, to say it takes place on Tower Bridge when it’s under construction. Leaving the theater, I thought, I know some stuff about Tower Bridge, and so at home I’ve dug into the morgue from my years as a reporter working in London and here’s the Denver Post’s clip of a light feature I did on Tower Bridge in 1986.

Note: Click on the image for a readable enlargement.

Beyond that, you can get a live webcam view of the bridge at its own website, and at Twitter you can see when it opens and closes to let the occasional vessel pass. Seems to take about 10 minutes, so it’s sort of like living here on the beach and dealing with drawbridges.

Cheers! See you at the movies!