Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Fridaddy on February 27, 2003, 09:52:49 PM
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I know its not WW2, but it got two thumbs up in my book.
Any comments?
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Too talky, battles too clean, too long, sugarcoats/sidesteps issues of slavery - but otherwise ok. I liked gettysburg better.
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Simply far too much to cover in the amount of time. Those not dedicated to the study of Civil War history (like my wife and son that pushed for us to go) get "lost" easily and bored soon after. I pretty much knew this would happen as the topic is just too deep for a "short" ;) movie. Should have gone the "miniseries" route.
I found the book very enjoyable, however. I find it amazing that the son can match the style of the father so well.
I have all three books, bought them when the each first came out. I don't reread stuff very often, but I'm saving this trilogy for after retirement when I'm at a nice cabin on a good fishing lake with beer. Then I'm going to reread it all again in the evenings.
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Funny thing is I'm interested in the civil war and I still couldnt get over the slow talky parts of the movie - this really got to me in all of Mira Sorvino's scenes.
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The first book is slow and laggy in parts too. There's lots to cover and lots of "background" to explain.
The first book is in no way the equal of the "pageturner" quality of the other two, but IMO it's a necessary part of the trilogy. The detail on the what will be the leadership of the coming war is interesting and important.
That's pretty much why I knew my wife and son wouldn't like it. I would've been happy to rent it later.
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I was pretty much fine with the setups and the historic backround, just is some parts were incredibly irritating and talky. I actually look forward to a supposed 6 hour DVD cut, at least there I'll be able to skip much of the needless watermelon chat.
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Oh man Grunherz, you would have enjoyed the reenactment of the Champion Hill battle in Edwards, Mississippi 1982. It rained the entire weekend, we drilled in a thunderstorm with lighting popping all about...doing wheel turns over uneven terrain full of ant beds. The commander was on a horse with sword held high. If we'd been struck by lighting, it would have hit 130 men. There were two lines of 130 men each.
The battle ensued, with me next to a Napolean cannon (twelve pounder). This was very loud going off. There was a master switchboard that detonated the cannon hits, using black powder charges in the ground where the cannon balls would hit. There were 4 Confederate cannons and 10 Union cannons.
The battle was so realistic, I decided to become a spectator from a nearby hillside, so I could see the action, which was like a smoke filled basin with intermediary dispersals of smoke revealing entire combat companies of Confederates and Yankees. These were brief views and only lasted about a second or two.
There was a Discovery Channel crew there to record the event.
It was raining the entire time...three days, and the Mississippi National Guard was called in to help people get out of camp. The red clay roads were so muddy, only a Deuce-and-Half could get us out.
One thing I learned from that experience was how to keep a fire going using a fire pit. Our camp sustained a fire in pouring rain for three days...the only one to keep a fire going. People were coming over to borrow burning logs to restart their fires. We dug a three foot deep fire pit with a draining trench soon as we got there, and filled that sucker up with logs. We dug draining trenches around the tent to drain away rain water. We had the driest camp in the place, all things considered.:D
Les
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"I have all three books"
You may be interested to know that there is now a fourth book called "Gone For Soldiers" with many of the same characters (Lee, Jackson, Winfield Scott) set in the Mexican American war.
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GRUNHERZ: ...sidesteps issues of slavery - but otherwise ok
The creator tried for historical accuracy. Since it was not determined untill 1960s that the war was about slavery, it is excusable for the personages protrayed in the movie to not know about it.
miko
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Miko, that's a different thread.
It's about pootered out, but I'm sure you could revive it.
;)
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Sure Miko... bring it on!
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Why is it a different thread, Toad - I directly addressed the point GRUNHERZ brought based on historical evidence I have.
Lee was offered the command of the Union forces and apparently had no problem with it untill his state - Virginia - also secceded, so it was not about slavery for him but about defending his state.
Neither Lincoln not even Joshua Chamberlain started the war as an anti-slavery enterprise, just look at their letters.
The poor irish fighting for the South were not slave owners and the irish drafted into the north army just off the ships did not arrive to US to fight slavery either.
miko
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Grun & Mark AT...... Confederates :D (http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=80090)
Might as well continue that one as sidetrack this discussion of the movie. That's all.
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Oh...
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Originally posted by Fridaddy
Any comments?
IT'S FOUR FLIPPING HOURS LONG!! :eek:
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Originally posted by crowMAW
IT'S FOUR FLIPPING HOURS LONG!! :eek:
And a intermission, I havent seen a intermission in YEARS!
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Gettysburg had an intermission :)
Nim
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The History Channel aired a show about the New York City draft riots that took place during the battle of Gettysburg. Quite of few blacks were murdered because the rioters felt they were the blame for the war. The movie, Gangs of New York was loosely based on it.
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Originally posted by Gyro/T69
The History Channel aired a show about the New York City draft riots that took place during the battle of Gettysburg. Quite of few blacks were murdered because the rioters felt they were the blame for the war. The movie, Gangs of New York was loosely based on it.
There was an interesting line in Gettysburg where Tom Berenger's character (Longstreet) says that they should have first freed the slaves, then fought the civil war. I've always wondered whether that was a factual comment from Longstreet.
Tronsky
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^^^^^^
I'd have to dig out my Shelby Foot books. Don't remember that quote being in his work. Not a major Civil War nut. BUt, had they did as the comment suggests, the North may well had to concede the war.
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I was just thinking the same thing Gyro
Here's an interesting article on Black Confederates:
Black Confederates in the Civil War (http://www.users.qwest.net/~cvbba/Black-Rebels.htm)
Les