Every once in a while, the wife comes up with a good idea about a TV show to watch. I usually pick what we watch as she doesn't understand the remote control and I am more in tune with our entertainment choices. However last year she suggested we start watching the bosom heaving romance "Outlander" and she was right. Now her sister is obsessed with the show to the point that her husband gets pissed off. I took the recommendation with a grain of salt. We binged watched it and you know what it wasn't so bad. So much so that I got one of the novels that it was based on and read it on my kindle.
Currently they are up to the American Revolution. I was excited as it is so seldom that you get a good movie or TV show about the Revolution. It is so bad that most people think the Alexander Hamilton and the founding family were moolies because they saw that abortion "Hamilton." Nobody wants to watch a movie about what actually happened, It's a sin and a shame.
Normally I would list the top ten movies but there actually aren't ten good movies about the Revolution.
Number Five: The Patriot.
A half ass rendering of the life of Francis Marion the Swamp Fox it is limited by political correctness by Mel Gibson of all fucking people. Still and all the uniforms and the attitudes were spot on and you get a basic understanding of what it was like as far as the atrocities of the British against the Americans. Many of which were never reported. What people forget is that much like the Civil War it was brother against brother with the loyalist and the patriots being savage in their behavior. Gibson loads the dice but why not. The Brits suck. We need to be reminded of that more often.
Number Four: Johnny Tremain
A Disney movie when Disney was about family entertainment and not helping groomers molest young children, this movie covers some of the basics like the Boston Tea Party and the battles at Lexington and Concord. A typical product of the fifties it is good entertainment suitable for the whole family. We have lost so much in the evolution of entertainment when Mickey Mouse has to be transgender and the rides at Disneyland went from it's a Small World to it's a Wet Ass Pussy. Still enjoy it as the cultural artifact of what America used to be.
Number Three: The Crossing
A stirring retelling of Washington crossing the Delaware it is a shame that they had to use the source material of that commie fuckwad Howard Fast. Still he wrote about American History and this is a pretty straightforward telling of what happened. Done before political correctness as Alexander Hamilton is still white and Washington is still a hero. Enjoyable on its own terms and the history is spot on.
Number Two: Benedict Arnold A Question of Honor
A TV movie that actually shows how Benedict Arnold was in fact America's best general until he turned traitor. The whole episode with Peggy Shippen and Major Andre and Arnold is laid out perfectly and it is very well done. It almost had a fatal flaw as they cast Frazier as George Washington but I guess they did that for financing so I am willing to overlook it. I bet you have never heard of it ed so you should check it out.
Number One: Drums Across the Mohawk
One of John Ford's best starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert. It is not strictly about the Revolution but it does portray the war in upstate New York and the rag tag nature of the battle against the Brits. A well done and historically accurate portrayal it is a classic and I highly recommend it.
Outlander is covering the years leading up to the Revolution with the bonus of portraying the importance of the American Indians in the war on the frontier as the Rebels and the Loyalist vie for the support of the Cherokee. The second episode was pretty well done if you can get over the soap opera elements. The amusing thing is that it is a time travel show but the time travelers didn't know enough about the era to make good choices. That's true about most of our people who are almost totally ignorant of history. Check it out. I think you might like it.
2 comments:
A few things about The Patriot.
first, it's essentially a remake of the old Jimmy Stewart Civil War pic, Shenandoah, right down to the number of kids and how many of the sons buy the farm (figuratively).
Second, there were rules in them thar days and British officers stood by them. Most of the atrocities were between the Continentals and the Tories*. The first civil war, if you will. It's why many Loyalists left the country after Yorktown, although a good many did return.
The movie is marred by Mel Gibson's blood fetish, second only to Stephen Spielberg's.
Finally, Banastre Tarleton (or Tavington in the flick) was off by himself. Makes Benedict Arnold and Robert Rogers look like saints.
*If you know of a pattern by the Limeys, I am willing to be corrected.
G.B. Shaw's The Devil's Disciple (1959) is also about the Revolutionary war.
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