Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #25: Dances with Wolves (1990)

Dances with Wolves is one of the more important films on my 250^th anniversary watchlist. While movies sympathetic to American Indians had been made, it had never been done on such a scale, and certainly had not drawn as much commercial and critical success. This came as a surprise because everyone thought the director and actor, Kevin Costner, was wasting his time on a guaranteed failure. He literally spent five years of his life trying to get the movie made, turning down major movie roles while he sank his own money into the project. It was seen as a vanity project doomed to fail. Instead it was a vanity project that succeeded.

The movie is said to be based on a novel by Michael Blake, but actually the novel originated as a screenplay by the same author. It was turned into a book so that Costner could have better luck attracting support for his film. That being said, there is a stark difference. The novel is set in the American Southwest with the Comanches, but it turned out they couldn’t get enough buffalo in that region to film, so the location was turned to the northern Great Plains with the Lakota Sioux. However, there’s a scene where an old Indian holds up a conquistador helmet to explain previous European incursions. This is an obvious holdover from the earlier script and novel, as 15^th-16^th Century Spaniards never clashed and likely never even met the Sioux.

Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #24: Gangs of New York (2002)

 

Gangs of New York is based on, or rather inspired by, journalist Herbert Asbury’s 1928 book of the same name. It was one of Martin Scorsese’s many long-running passion projects, and he allegedly spent over 20 years developing his ideas and then finally filming it. Scorsese was drawn to the criminal underworld of the 19^th century, a subject often ignored in favor of the Old West or the wider political movements and conflicts such as the Civil War. He saw a real conflict over the direction of the country. The director was ultimately unsatisfied with the final product, as producer Harvey Weinstein forced cuts (Scorsese is known for his looong running times). Weinstein also oversaw the addition of voiceover narration by Leonardo DiCaprio which is often unnecessary.

Still, this is probably the only major film to touch on a lot of aspects of 19^th Century urban life and was intended as a springboard for a new subgenre of crime and historical films (it was not to be). Scorsese really wanted to show the breadth of 19^th Century New York, so there are anachronisms. The movie is clearly set in 1862-1863, the Civil War being a major background event that eventually intrudes on the characters’ gang war. However, the Nativist movement was much stronger in the 1850s. While immigration was still a major social and political issue, the organized Nativists, expressed by the Native American Party, lost their steam as the sectional conflict took over. On the opposite end, Boss Tweed and his powerful and corrupt Tammany Hall Democrat machine didn’t kick into gear until after the Civil War. Here he’s a major player from the get-go, played by Jim Broadbent.

Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #23: Gettysburg (1993) part 2 of 2

 

Fremantle (James Lancaster) carries tea, because he's British, you see.

Arthur Fremantle

Before I get into a general rundown of the battle scenes and a few other points, I should provide some background on Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Fremantle (James Lancaster). A British officer, he wanted to see the American War up close, particularly from the Southern side. Believing him an official observer, the Confederates gave him access to various major generals and politicians. Amusingly, however, Fremantle was actually on a leave of absence, and this was his idea of a vacation. He had quite the trip, starting with a pursuit by a Union blockade vessel, getting a look at Texas, and viewing Bragg’s Army of Tennessee.

Then he got to personally travel with the Army of Northern Virginia to Gettysburg. After witnessing the greatest American battle, he  traveled to New York for departure, arriving just in time to witness the infamous Draft Riots. He published his experience in the book Three Months in the Southern States. In the movie Fremantle adds a little color (literally with his inaccurate red uniform) and humor while getting the Confederate characters to open up about their causes and beliefs. In a wider-scoped Gettysburg movie not based on Shaara’s novel, his scenes would definitely be considered unnecessary fluff. Now to look at the action itself.

June

I love the opening credits. Backed by Randy Edelman’s stirring, if heavily synthesized musical themes, photos emerge, first of the historical figure, then the actor in costume portraying him. On earlier rewatches this becomes a fun game of identifying which movie character belongs to each photo. W. Morgan Sheppard, who already plays Trimble, provides the opening narration over a map showing the army’s routes northward.

Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #23: Gettysburg (1993) part 1 of 2

 

This is the movie that led to my becoming a history buff, especially of the Civil War. Gettysburg was a film over a decade in the making. It’s source material was Michael Shaara’s historical novel Killer Angels, which attempted to dive into the heads of several real-life Union and Confederate figures in America’s greatest battle. Maxwell was unable to get the backing to actually make the movie because of some notable failed epic films, but finally Ted Turner, who also saw the idea of a Civil War mini-series as a passion project, finally got things going.

Gettysburg was originally made to be a mini-series for TNT, but Turner was so impressed with the final product that, with a few scenes cut, it was given a limited theatrical release first. Thanks to its four hour length, the longest for any theatrical release in American history, it didn’t make back its budget, but it got lots of praise and positive buzz. Thus it was a smash hit on TV and home video. I remember my family having the two-tape set. It’s size always impressed me and it was watched a lot in the house. After seeing a few other images in my family’s book collection and getting the BMC toy soldier set for my birthday, I one day decided to check out a couple books from the library and I turned into a Civil War nerd for the rest of my life.

For those who don’t know, Gettysburg is considered the greatest battle of the Civil War. It didn’t have the most men involved (that honor goes to the Battle of Fredericksburg), but it saw the heaviest casualties in killed and wounded. General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, wanted to take the war north and score a decisive victory that would end the war in his favor. Nearly by accident, the Confederate and Union Armies collided at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. After three days of fighting, Lee’s army suffered its first massive defeat. Along with the loss of the last strongholds on the Mississippi River and the major Tennessee railroad junction of Chattanooga, this battle was a major turning point and is argued to have signaled the eventual defeat of the Confederacy.

Ted Turner (left) cameos as  Colonel Waller T. Patton, World War II general George Patton's great-uncle. Ron Maxwell stands to the right. (https://davethecaveman.blogspot.com/2018/11/my-favorite-films-gettysburg-1993.html)

By the way, if you’re wondering why the movie didn’t retain the title Killer Angels, marketing warned that people would think of biker gangs instead of the Civil War. Now into the movie’s content and historicity. I also already did a list of some historical inaccuracies, a few which I’ll touch on in this review, but others I won’t, so check it out.

Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #22: Glory (1989)

Glory tells the story of the 54^th Massachusetts, one of the first black Civil War regiments. One of the conditions of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was that, starting January 1, 1863, African-Americans could officially join the Union Army, though many were already giving a big hand with logistical support, thus freeing up more white troops to get to the front lines. The 54^th Massachusetts in particular received much attention because it had the full support of Massachusetts Governor John Andrew and saw action fairly quickly in the southeast around Charleston. Also, as an early black regiment, it got to have the states distinction in its name while other units were listed as USCT (United States Colored Troops). Already made known in art and general histories, the regiment is certainly well known now because of its 1989 film adaptation.

The movie was the brainchild of New York cultural figure Lincoln Kirstein and screenwriter Kevin Jarre (adopted son of none other than Maurice Jarre, composer of Lawrence of Arabia). Bother were inspired by the regiment’s monument in Boston (featured in the end credits), several books (including one by Kirstein himself), and Colonel Robert Gould Shaw’s letters. Shaw (Matthew Broderick) provides narration via his letters, but the quotes are a mix of real ones and fake ones to accommodate the changes made for the story.

Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #21: Gods and Generals (2003) part 2 of 2

 

Here is the second part of my Gods and Generals review, going through the film to look at the battles as well as a few other points I wanted to discuss.

First Bull Run

The movie begins with Lee meeting Francis Preston Blair, a major political figure at the time, to discuss an offer to command the Union Army. Lee refuses, citing that his primary loyalty is to Virginia and the if it secedes he will join it. It’s funny how all these Civil War films and shows always have Lee starting the war with his gray hair and beard. Actually, he had dark hair and just a mustache, and was even considered handsome for a man in his fifties. The stress of the war is what changed his look into the one familiar to us today.

Most of the first act focuses on Jackson, and outside of the Lee and Booth scenes this could have been the first part of a Jackson biopic. Now, I hadn’t seen Gods and Generals in ten years, so I was hit with a few fresh observations, and one is that there is actual no explanation for what exactly is going on militarily. Jackson’s brigade does a little training and then marches off for a battle. We don’t get any exposition about why the armies are clashing at Manassas Junction because everyone is too busy delivering speeches. They just go to a battle and start fighting.

Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #21: Gods and Generals (2003) part 1 of 2

General Intro

I’m finally into the Civil War proper, my favorite era of history. Because of my enthusiasm for the subject, a couple review are going to be long. That’s why the first movie for the war, Gods and Generals, is going to get a multi-part review.

Before the movie Gods and Generals was the prequel to Gettysburg, the novel it was based was written as a prequel to Gettysburg’s source Killer Angels. The author Jeff Shaara, was following the success of his father’s historical novel in that he takes a few important officers on each side of a conflict and then tries to get into their minds. Unlike Killer Angels, which focuses only on a few days in 1863, Gods and Generals covers entire Civil War up to the death of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in May 1863. Naturally, one may imagine a screen adaptation would take the form of a mini-series (Jeff Shaara has said this), but Ron Maxwell, who had a bit hit with Gettysburg, seemed to think it would be fine as an actual theatrical release.

Between the large scope of history the film covers and some poor filmmaking choices, Gods and Generals was such an uneven slog that it became a big flop. Critical events and important figures have to be cut to make room, but at the same time Maxwell spends an inordinate amount of time on fluff, unnecessary side characters, and long speeches that worked in the more condensed timeline of Gettysburg, but kill the pacing here.