The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: PegLeg45 on May 21, 2011, 04:48:44 PM
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Anyone planning on watching this History Channel special about Gettysburg on Memorial Day?
http://www.history.com/shows/gettysburg/episodes
http://www.history.com/photos/civil-war-gettysburg
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Yes
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I'll probably be riding my ATV.
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I just got back from a 4 day Gettysburg tour. I have been there several times but we had relatives from out of town that wanted to go. It is an hour and a half drive from my house. We stayed at a motel that has attached, Lee's temp headquarters on Cashtown Road. It was a great trip. I heartily recommend it. I will watch the new Gettysburg film. The last one the history channel did left a lot to be desired. I was not impressed at all.
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This is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I will probably watch it. But why do the History and Military channels flog the same horse over and over? How many documentaries on Gettysburg do we need? What about Shiloh, The Wilderness, Petersburg etc.? It would be something different. Granted they weren't as strategically important, but it would be new information to a whole lot of viewers. Its kind of like why is it all WWII all the time? How about the Napoleanic Wars, or our small wars in the Americas? Maybe a bit on the Bitish conquest of India....etc. I like the effort they put in and it beats American Idol, but it would be nice to have some more adanced topics on channels whose viewership is made up of history geeks.
FQ13
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As far as TV and Movies are concerned the only military action between Gettysburg and WWI was "55 Days at Peking".
"The Wind and the Lion" is based on the incident with Razkuli in Morrocco at the turn of the century, but they get large parts of it wrong.
I'm with FQ on this, ever seen a movie about the Spanish/American war ? If you go by TV the only fighting in Southern Africa was Rourkes Drift ( Zulu Dawn ) and some Germans during WWI (Shout at the Devil ) The 2 Boer Wars might as well never have happened, Same with the British experiences in India and Afghanistan. As far as I know the only movie about Americans fighting any where between WWI and WWII is "The Sand Pebbles".
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Hi;
Tom, the only other "movie" made about the time frame between the Civil War and WW1 was made by ( I believe ) TBS. It was about the Rough Riders, Tom Berringer played Teddy Roosevelt and had a lot of other quality stars. It was not made by any of the major film studios. Today with the atmosphere in Hollywood - it would be hard to make a war film unless you are Eastwood or Spielberg. There is just no interest in/from Hollywood.
If you go to Dale Dye's web site he is working on a Korean War and Vietnam War movie/film made for HBO I believe just like Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
Some of the extras that worked on Ted Turners "Gettysburg" told us when they came back to work was that they Booed Hanoi Jane who was/is married to Ted Turner when she visited the set.
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I forgot about that "Rough Rider" movie, from what I heard it was pretty good.
Also, the ones Dale Dye is involved with about Korea, and Vietnam, are, I believe, with Spielberg and Tom Hanks, turning, "Band of Brothers"/ Pacific into a series. A "Major Motion Picture" that tells of each of America's major wars.
I hope when they get done with those (There are still participants alive to interview) they go back and do WWI and our earlier wars.
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In a "six degrees of Tom Berringer" drift, he was in another pretty good flick about the Mexican American War. It was about a little known piece of American history (unless you're into Irish music) about the San Patricio Battalion. This was a group of Irish soldiers that defected to the Mexican side due to anti-Catholic and ethnic bias. Not a great career move as most of them were KIA or hanged when they were captured. Still, a neat bit of history and a pretty good flick. It was called "One Man's Hero.Here is a pretty damn good tune about it. Worth a listen, though the you tube video is pretty anti-US. My advice, ignore the commentary and listen. Its one of several Irish songs about the thing.
FQ13
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Another mid-war (WWI and WWII) is In Pursuit of Honor, which starts out with MacArthur's attack on the veteran's village in DC in the 30's as the WWI vets protested for promised bonuses. A very little told story there. It then morphs into a horse chase as Don Johnson and a handful of other soldiers banished to a remote cavalry outpost take a band of Army horses to the Canadian border to save them from a wholesale slaughter as the Army mechanized. Interesting tale, good start, and lots of very true and accurate horse handling stuff - for those who care about such things like old ranchers! ;D
But Tom's point is well taken - we need more D I V E R S I T Y in the offerings from the History Channel. Maybe less Pawn Stars/Swamp People/Brad Meltzer?
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MacArthur gave the order, The commander who actually lead the assault on "Hooverville" (the Bonus Marcher's shanty town on the Mall ) was George Patton.
The "San Patricio's" were hung because they deserted TO THE ENEMY, those who were spared, (a few very young men ) were pretty much marked men the rest of their lives. In those days while the Army may have flogged , hung, and shot deserters the civilian world didn't much care, it did not have the stigma attached to it now. Troops were mostly Volunteers and it was seen a "unvolunteering". The San Patricio's however went beyond the pale by actually serving the enemy, and from all accounts serving them well.
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Another mid-war (WWI and WWII) is In Pursuit of Honor, which starts out with MacArthur's attack on the veteran's village in DC in the 30's as the WWI vets protested for promised bonuses. A very little told story there. It then morphs into a horse chase as Don Johnson and a handful of other soldiers banished to a remote cavalry outpost take a band of Army horses to the Canadian border to save them from a wholesale slaughter as the Army mechanized. Interesting tale, good start, and lots of very true and accurate horse handling stuff - for those who care about such things like old ranchers! ;D
But Tom's point is well taken - we need more D I V E R S I T Y in the offerings from the History Channel. Maybe less Pawn Stars/Swamp People/Brad Meltzer?
Yes indeed, a very good movie....IMHO.