Fixing Gettysburg: The Third Day
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ก.ค. 2020
- In this three-part series, I review a classic Ron Maxwell film about a little known historical event that no one talks about called the Battle of Gettysburg. I also present an abbreviated and oversimplified history of the battle, while simultaneously criticizing the movie for presenting an abbreviated and oversimplified history of the battle.
In the third episode, I discuss the fighting on July 3, 1863 - including the morning scrap on Culp's Hill, East Cavalry Field, and Pickett's Charge.
Support Atun-Shei Films on Patreon ► / atunsheifilms
Leave a Tip via Paypal ► www.paypal.me/atunsheifilms
Buy Merch ► teespring.com/stores/atun-she...
Official Website ► www.atunsheifilms.com/
~REFERENCES~
[1] Frederick Tilberg, Scott Hartwig, John Heiser: Gettysburg National Military Park Handbook (2013). Historic Map and Print Company, Page 49
[2] James Longstreet: From Manassas to Appomattox, Da Capo Edition (1992). Da Capo Press, Page 392
[3] "Haskell’s Account of the Battle of Gettysburg.” Bartleby: Great Books Online www.bartleby.com/43/3504.html
[4] "East Cavalry Battlefield - Ranger John Nicholas (2014).” GettysburgNPS • East Cavalry Battlefie...
Two videos in a Rebel uniform and only one in a Union one? Atun-Shei confirmed Lost Causer!
We finally caught him
It was you! Johnny Reb all along!
Potential History Oh he is going to get soooo canceled!
#CancelAtunSheiFilms
#EndTheFederalReserve
#SouthReallyComplex
Make another video damnit we know your not dead
Checkmate Lincolnites!
"When some pimply 17 year old from North Carolina got his guts torn out by shrapnel, and felt the world go dark as he stared at a patch of grass and shat himself, he did not hear Randy Edelman's rousing score in the background. He just. Fucking. Died." 14:20
Perhaps one of the most poignant things I've ever heard on this platform. Its been half a year since this video was released now, and it still sticks with me.
To me. That line highlights the brutal reality of the Civil War, or any war for that matter.
If I could steal a quote from Grant in the 2012 movie "Lincoln"
"You always knew what this was going to be. *Intimate and Ugly...* "
Seriously .... I've watched or listened to this video countless times now, and it still hits me
That hit me as well. Along with the photographs of dead soldiers.
100% agreed.
Hits harder when you are a fellow North Carolinian.
I used to be a neo-confederate now every time I see a Battle flag I feel like buzzlight year when he meets himself in toy story 2
"Was I really this deluded?!"-Buzzlightyear
Good on you, man!
What made you change, if I may ask?
Same here. All Highschool. Once I got into college I got out of it within a year.
@@HistoryMonarch1999 we should form a support group.
"Hi I'm rebel and I have been clean for 5 years"
@@rebelape4257 For each extra year that you are sober you get a piece of union gear until you are fully kitted out
I was a tourist marching alongside the Armistead people at the 150th. I was pretty young, and was excited along with everyone else. It was fun; I felt like I was borrowing the valor of this pivotal moment in American history, and that made me special. Once we got to somewhere around the stone wall, though, and most people had crossed over the field, I remember that a bunch of people were gathered around someone playing taps, silent. At that moment, it really clicked with me that what had happened there 150 years ago was... well, real. There was no way I could understand the magnitude of suffering of the people here and I had absolutely no right to be there and feel special. I cried my goddamn eyes out. Atun-Shei, I'm glad that we both have a memory that stuck with us from that day; thank you for sharing.
I was there too! Like you, I was pretty young and all I could think about was recreating a scene from the movie my dad played for me all the time or somehow honoring the fallen of the war.But then it hit me while climbing over the fences that someone probably died in a horrific manner where I was standing. To think about being killed by cannon fire is bone chilling by itself but hearing taps played at the small clump of trees summarized it all. I’m glad you were there too 😊 Do you remember the double rainbow across Little Round Top?
I would include a scene where a certain Capt Blackadder asks
"General Lee. This plan of yours, does it by any chance involve walking toward the enemy very very slowly?"
General Lee played by Stephen Fry would be glorious
@@IvyLeather13 "There is no time for that! Baaa!"
"I have a Cunning plaan!"
Longstreet is definitely Blackadder.
General Lee's adjutant, a Captain Pierre Gustave Toutant Darling, replies, "How could you know that, Blackadder? That's top secret information!"
Ugh....As a Brit, the portrayal of Colonel Fremantle makes me wince. He was an unofficial observer in civilian clothes, not a military attaché in uniform. Worse than that, he's given this weird naiveté about him that just doesn't fit. Fremantle was a professional soldier who had either served in the Crimea or at least knew many men who had, but instead he's just made out to be this clueless fop. The whole scene with Armistead before the charge could've been saved if Fremantle instead nodded, listened patiently, and then said his goodbyes before leaving with a depressed look on his face. He knows the mathematics of the situation - he knows he's just shaken hands with a dead man. It would have given that scene so much more gravity and plausibility.
It wasn't even historically accurate. Fremantle spent the morning scoping out Gettysburg town itself, started moseying back to Longstreet's position when he heard the cannons start up, and by the time he reached Longstreet, expressing his enthusiasm for witnessing the charge, Longstreet told him it had already taken place, and had failed. In the film, Fremantle was portrayed as being with Armistead (when he wasn't). His role at that point was solely to give Richard Jordan (Armistead) someone to speechify at.
Fremantle's memoir is really worth reading.
@@nusbacher - I've read it and you're correct!
The key thing that Atun-shei says in the video does it further the plot? No it doesn't. I saw this movie when I was young and I remember this scene being very jarring to see.
@@MrIanMason Same. It's just so stereotyped and amateurish.
After much consideration, I have decided to burn my magical moving talking picture of William Tecumseh Sherman. One time I looked into the mirror and said: "heritage not hate" three times at midnight, and Sherman escaped from the picture and burned my entire town down.
To be fair, you kinda had that one coming. You don't antagonize Sherman and not get a little scorched.
@Live Life "Don't taunt the Sherman." "Do you mean the man, or the tank?" "Yes."
I mean, GOOD.
That is the minimum proper response to that statement, after all.
Hahaha
Speaking of, you heard of the Crocodile flamethrower variant of the M4 Sherman tank?
I heard of a myth where during trials, it would start itself up at night and automatically drive out of Aberdeen Proving Grounds towards Atlanta and Savannah by itself with somehow a full tank of flamethrower fuel.
Nah man. It's not corny. You had a legitimate emotional reaction to a very intense experience and honestly that's incredible. Be proud. Not everyone has the balls to talk about stuff like this online. Mad respect for understanding the emotional intensity of it all.
Cameraman: *Has any technical question*
Maxwell: THERE IS NO TIME FOR THAT!
THERE IS NO TIME!
Heck, that whole "I'm glad you are here" story hit me in a way I was not expecting. Whether that reenactor meant it as in "I'm glad there are so many people like you and me who care for this history" or "I'm glad this was not the real battle and you are able to stand here alive", its really touching that in a place that once bore witness to Americans slaughtering each other, the simple fact that Americans can stand on the same ground, shake hands, and then all go back home really hits hard.
Ughhh right in the feels 😭😭😭
Yup. Outside of the Witchfinder Generals cameo, that was a great anecdote and the one thing that will stick with me from this video. And I'm not an American! So, well done.
Like all great art, its up to interpretation.
Look up on you tube the movies of the Gettysburg reunions of 1913 and later with actual Union and Confederate veterans shaking hands across the stone wall. If that doesn't move you, you have no soul. And look at the old men and try to visualize them as young men in blue and gray. I can identify with them because this year and next is the 50th anniversary of when I was a combat infantryman in Viet Nam.
@@georgem7965 my many-great uncle was photographed with the survivors of his regiment during one of those meetings. Corporal John Bates, 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry. He wasn't present at Gettysburg, as he was fighting in the Western theater of the war. The Gettysburg reunions eventually became a place for veterans of all the war to meet, although those who had fought the battle always had pride of place.
According to family history, the man was a fresh-off-the-boat Irish immigrant into Philadelphia, settled in the Mid-state. Official records pick him up volunteering with the regiment in 1861. He walked and rode almost the length of the East Coast. He covered the Union retreat at Chicamauga, fought against 3:1 odds at Griswoldville, rode with Sherman to accept the surrender of Gen. Johnston, and then he came all the way home to the town where my family still lives today, settled down, had some kids, and lived to be an old man having his photo taken at Gettysburg.
Am I the only one who laughed out loud when he referred to Custer as "this asshole."?
No
As an avid viewer of the channel, and someone who knows the history - as soon as he mentioned East Cavalry Field I was like, "here we go..."
Yea Custer was an asshole but his charge was badass.
Hell I laughed!
My three things I most love about this movie.
1. General Lee giving General Stuart a good Bollocking.
2. EVERYTHING to do with Chamberlain.
3. The see-saw of General Picket from, "That's the Style, That's The STYLE!" to "General Lee... I have no division."
Can we just step aside and talk about how cool the effect of having the video narrated from inside an old time photograph? Like really creative effect right there that really puts the shine on the polish of this video.
the VFX are really good.
Was it just me, or did the photograph gain more color as he described his experience with the 150th anniversary?
I could have sworn his eyes were following me.
Yeah this is so cool.
@@cfsherrill wasn't my easiest fap
Last time I was this early Pickett still had a division.
That TH-camr had my division slaughtered
A perfect retort, I shall use it whenever I can, and in as many situations as I can, for my friends are not history buffs and their confused countenances shall ever be a thing of joy.
General Turner
I have no movie.
I have no division!😢😭
But he has no division!
NO Busters scene has to stay because I’m the union soldier filling my canteen closest to the camera as it floats past my head.
Awesome! Were you a re-enactor they had work as an extra?
No you’re not.
When you were describing your own feelings during your Gettysburg re-enactment, I was reminded of an experience I had that really drove home the horrors of war. I used to work for a museum in Maryland and I was sent off to be trained as a black powder safety officer. We had a couple of groups of guys. Some of us were trained to inspect Revolutionary war stuff and others were trained to inspect Civil War equipment. Anyways, the highlight of the entire program was our final day where we did our written and practical exams and we got to fire artillery. Firing cannons is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a reenactor because 1) The amount of powder in there is enough to kill you. 2) The cannon recoils when it's fired, so you need to make sure you're positioned correctly so you're not crushed. 3) And most importantly, you have to be doubly sure that there are no embers in that barrel, because if it goes off while you're setting the charge, at best, both of your arms are broken in several places and you're missing fingers.
We fired a 6 pound field gun. The Civil war guys were firing a 12 pounder. We repeated the firing procedure so everyone got to do each job. By the end of it, I was shaking. It was a dangerous, stressful job and we were firing blanks while not under any kind of fire. I couldn't imagine how dangerous it would be to be in a line of artillery trying to fire as fast as we could. If I was back in the olden days, I don't think I could handle the artillery. I couldn't imagine being under fire by hundreds of shells.
I may have seen you at the 150th, but I purposefully didn't choose Armistead's brigade because it looked so crowded and I guess I felt too cool for school and therefore didn't want to go with the mainstream haha.
It was truly moving, crossing that field, knowing that while it was a beautiful walk thru that lovely part of Pennsylvania for us , 150 years earlier it was the worst place to be on earth. Realizing how open we were really brought the charge into perspective. My mom sat along the union line and it was an equally moving experience for her.
Also, I got a tick in the long grass, so I reckon I have lived the horrors of battle
That tick coulda killed ya...
@@hubertblastinoff9001 I mean my mom was yelling bloody murder when she too found a tick on herself haha
You gave your blood to the fields of Getysburg.
I went to Gettysburg once and found a tick in bed. Never screamed so loud.
You guys scream when you get bitten by ticks?
Golly, what size are your American ticks??!?
The perfect TH-camr doesn't exis--
yep. perfect amount of profanity.
@@bobfrapples1208 Come again?
@@sheevinit1490 It was a joke. I think it's awesome how he throws in a little curse word now and then. I almost wish I could watch some Gettysburg park guides throw in a little of that.
But you are right, he is awesome.
Edp is better
@@nassa8334 I lost brain cells learn who he was
I think have an idea for balancing the need for re-enacters and for trained extras in these large setpiece battle scenes: have the reenacters as company officers, shouting and ordering the extras to redress the line and to stay in formation.
You can get the terrified faces of rank and file and utilize the expertise of the reenacters in directing the action itself.
See if you can get some Drill Sergeants, Training Instructors, and Drill Instructors in there, too. Give everyone a list of period-appropriate expletives they can use.
Yes! Or mix them in the ranks and have them learn from each other!
I was going to say too that you can add reenactors in the background for the sense of scale but when it comes to extras the camera focuses on, they should have hired young actors like Andy said
That's actually a brilliant idea. Have them as supervisors for the extras
I’ve done a lot of extra work and this is brilliant
When Andrew was talking about his experience at Gettysburg during the 150th anniversary and the feeling he got it, I know what he means. I’m an Aussie and a few years back I was lucky enough to go to Turkey and visit the battlefields of Gallipoli, which to Australians is like Gettysburg in terms of importance to our country and I was overcome with the same emotions looking at those steep rocky hills and rabbit warrens of trenches. I got to see Lone Pine and The Nek where 100 years ago my great uncle participated in one of those pointless suicidal charges towards well entrenched Ottoman Turks that mowed down a generation of Aussie boys while defending their homeland.
My dream vacation is to go to Gallipoli and the Somme where my great grandfather fought. He came back despising the English for ordering all his mates to their deaths in stupid charges
It took me until now to realize that these videos were released on the dates of the battle.
*facepalm*
I had to read it here :-(
Yes! .... And Tomorrow Vicksburg Falls!
@@jamesalexander5623
*Battle Hymn of the Republic intensifies*
I hope so. I want to hear his sped up voice say "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea."
You were the one who pointed this out to all of us.
Last time I was Jubal Early, Pickett's Charge was a good idea.
You win the entire Civil War, Sir! 😂
tsk- ahh like that story off this general who after Lee surrenderd in April 1865 att appommottax hopped on his steed and rode down too mexico some-where's in his Full Confederate 5 star uniform . it has too be the best ''Sulk'' story ever concerning putting all your time// money/ energy/ life/ gutts//other intoo four/ 4 years 24/7 intense actions and failing absolutlly from all the effort . Delt even the senoritas in mexico could shock him out off His intense sadnes and bitterness at loseing.
"When the nerd memes hit you just right. Mmmmm..."
I have a question for you if you were general early would you have considered attacking culps hill in the evening of the first day of the battle of Gettysburg
@@chasemurraychristopherdola7108 That gent- ''Colonel Walton off C.S.A. sounds like he shold have been the Field marshall off the Confederacy. ahh can not remember his first name butt he was crafty with the artillry and use too funnel yanks in too take out as may as possible@@ ''Blast them all too hell with as little as hell, with C.S.A. troops and total-war hardware.''
I remember a story from one of the union canon batteries. They loaded with double canister and had the rebels at point blank range by the bloody angle. They fired. When the smoke cleared all they saw was quivering body parts.
What artillery does to men is 1000% disgusting. These point blank canister shots must've been pure hell to receive, and jarring to deliver as well.
@@jonathanallard2128 I feel it would be worse to deliver it, since if you were on the receiving end you wouldn't even know it. Just a flash and you would be gone. I pity the poor sods who had to go along with a cart and pick up all the remains for burial though.
@@davidbuckley2435 Pure hell...
Thing is you don't always just die. Very often you'll "just" get maimed. It's even scarier than death.
@@jonathanallard2128yea, many times people will survive or at least not die instantly to trauma that you would assume would be instantly fatal. Life is pretty tough
@@colatf2 Exactly. Being outright killed in war can be a blessing next to some wounds.
Getting half a limb shot off and then having to go through the hellish, dirty hospital, wait for hours to get amputated cold and then get it infected and die from gangrene?
Get my lower jaw taken away by shrapnel and live for a week in agony before dying of starvation?
Get my dick n balls/asshole taken off by shot?
Get eviscerated by shrapnel and agonize for hours while screaming for my mother as the acids of my stomach, the piss from my bladder and shit from my colon spill in my abdominal cavity?
Yeah no thanks I'll pass. I'd welcome a 12 lbs cannonball straight to the face/heart any day of the week before that 3rd circle of hell type of horror.
Those happened to dozens of people if not hundreds throughout history. Poor guys...
So the Witchfinder General was still alive when the civil war broke out? Sounds like he has signed the black book!
The Witchfinder General has been the real witch all along....well played.
Claw Hammer was crazy
"Man too angry to die" comes to mind.
Would love to hear your take on Ken Burns’ The Civil War, which triggered a massive interest in the Civil War in the early 1990s, paving the way for movies like Gettysburg.
Good but Shelby Foote damages it a lot.
Shelby Foote has more talking time than the narrator so he can tell cute anecdotes about how Forrest's granddaughter hated Lincoln
I'd like to see this as well.
all if the interviews are nothung but anecdotes Foote just had more experience researching and writing about the ear than the others.
I watched that entire series a million times as a kid . Yeah Foote is lost cause adjacent but some of the anicdotes are good. And he has a soothing voice
I spent a lot of time "reenacting " and while I wouldn't exchange those experiences for anything, trying to portray combat lost it's appeal really fast. Spending a miserable night sleeping in the rain a and then participating in a march along actual routes or doing a battlefield walk were always more educational for me. I in my easy life simply can't know what it was like, but waking up tired and hungry on a field and then contemplating the absolute barbarism and insanity of what happened on those fields was absolutely a learning experience.
The movie should have been done as a multi part mini series, with each episode devoted to different aspects of the battle.
That would have given the time needed to truly tell the stories of each part, and phase of the battle.
And keeping it historically accurate to known documented facts, would have been a major improvement.
A four-five part series would be good enough
1. Campaign
2. Day 1
3. Day 2
4. Day 3
5(Optional): After
This was just a great series...makes me look not just at Civil War films, but all films based on historical events in a more critical light. Thanks for this edutainment...looking forward to others!
Waterloo was made with help from the red army there's just a level of quality thet could not be matched in the battlescenes
You gotta give the communists this, they sure are game to acting in formation and in large numbers.
Soviet Army: Here have division go make movie
Yes! But i dont think they had all the SPCA guidelines we have....it seemd to me like some horses may have been harmed
@@kneelingcatholic Somehow I don't imagine the Russians following safety standards... no idea why...
@@kneelingcatholic the stunt falls were done by circus performers
I know what you mean about the soundtrack, I feel like the Battle of Fort Wagner in Glory is a great example of effective lack of music. The whole advance towards the fort is nothing but the sounds of battle, men screaming, bugles calling and absolutely fucking relentless cannon and musket fire. It's not until Col. Shaw is killed and his men go into a complete rage that the score kicks in, and it's not glorious, it's dramatic, it's intense, and the sounds of battle don't let up for a second.
I think that's the best-scored scene I've ever watched in a movie. I was luckily able to see it in theaters for the 30th anniversary release and it was even better in the theater
That is my favorite along with the charge of the imperial guard in Waterloo. Cause the music is actually the drums and fifers of the units, and the dissonance of the jolly and vivid music while the man are covered in dirt, blood and gunpowder soot while being bombarded with cannon-fire makes it even more terrifying
There's also the detail that the triumphant music only plays as they are starting to break into the fort, and then it cuts out right as the Confederate defenders fire cannons at point-blank range into the storming troops.
I feel like something like that could have worked with Gettysburg if the music had started off triumphant, slowing becoming more dissonant as more and more men are mowed down, until finally cutting out to leave just the sound of cannons, muskets and screams.
One of the most important lessons a director can learn after the importance of how good music compliments a scene, is how the absence of any music can sometimes be the best option.
I was in Kempers brigade back in 2013! So cool too see someone like you expressing the same emotions I felt that day.
As he talks about the Picket's Charge walk/re-enactment and you can feel that emotion - all I could imagine was the ghosts of the men who died there solemnly walking alongside their descendants and embracing quietly with the ghosts of the very men who killed them at the stone wall which broke the Confederacy.
Confession time. Ron Maxwell is my cousin. My father's mother is directly related because they are both from the same town in New Jersey. No I haven't him recently. Neither will I, I'd probably cause an incident arguing about Gods and Generals. Is this movie great? No, the director of Parent Trap 2 is a talentless hack who apparently doesn't know how to tell his editor to do his job right.
Seriously I liked Picketts Charge as a kid but it has aged like molasses on a hot July day. The editing is terrible, the same shot of Confederates getting hit with cannon fire is repeated three times, with a later shot at the fence repeating twice. There's a rallying shot of Union soldiers with that bombastic music playing repeatedly twice, only a minute after each other. The only objectively good part is when Ted Turner gets shot and falls over. Even that can be nitpicked, Waller Patton was 28, Ted was 55 at the time, he didn't even die from his wounds until July 21th.
Here is a perfect summary of Gettysburgs issues and priorities. The film gets a background detail of a Union artillery officer saying give them double canister shot before later being shot in the head, soon after another soldier keeps firing the cannon. This is First Lieutenant Alonzo Cushings, who continued to fight even after being wounded three times. A shell fragment hit his shoulder, one in the stomach and groain, and one which tore open and exposed his intestines. He kept fighting until he was shot in the head. Cushings was only 22. He was given the Medal of Honor in 2014. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonzo_Cushing
The other man is Fredrick Füger, a German born sergeant who served under Cushings. After his commander was killed, he continued to operate, load and fire a cannon on his own as Armisteads men attacked. Füger also got the Medal of Honor although this was right after the battle. He served in 63 unique battles of the war and lived until 1913 at the age of 77. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_F%C3%BCger
This is great history but the lack of violence undermines it a bit. There is another moment that is damaged by the lack of brutality. The moment at 10:02 shows a company of Confederates being hit by a cannon at point blank range also really happened. The lone survivor was captured moments after the shot. But well... they weren't violently pushed back to the ground, those soldiers were vaporized by canister shot and its impossible to ignore how the violence undercuts the moment.
But the film was made by family of mine and got me into the Civil War. I dare say I wouldn't know near as much about the war or have a history interest if it wasn't for this film and even shitty shitty Gods and Generals to an extent.
This movie inspired me to look up my own family history. The sharpshooter ancestor I mentioned yesterday came from a family of loyalists who fled America in the 1780s after the American Revolution. In the 1850s they illegally crossed into the Minnesota territory and started again, and in 1861 that ancestor answered the call of duty for a nation he wasn't even legally a member of. At 16 he joined and fought with the Second US Sharpshooters from battle to battle until being wounded at Cold Harbor. He survived the war and went on to build the transcontinental railroad, found a Minnesota town, and lived until the 1920s. There were five other ancestors I have who fought in the war. From a Jayhawker/Redleg in Missouri who kept his revolver with him at all times for fear of pro Confederate Bushwackers attacking him, to a man who died of disease at Chattanooga in 1863. The sharpshooter even had a brother in the Cavalry who later befriended local native tribes. I never would have known this without this movie getting me interested in the era.
Oh goddamn you Gettysburg. I love you and hate you in equal measure for so many reasons, historically, technically, personally, what a wonderful mess you are. I'm glad you exist despite it all.
@Ανελεύθερος Μοναρχικός A true contradiction if there ever was one.
BEAUTIFUL...✌🤓
🥺 Alonzo, jesus that boy took so much lead.
@@grayhatjen5924 Its amazing how much damage a man can take and still press on. Poor kid was vomiting from the pain but refused to run.
is maxwell family of Ghislaine , whos been arrested a day ago?
*I proceed to tour my apartment, carefully checking photos for any movement in the picture* "This is getting out of hand..."
You see an old black and white photograph, one you don't recognize. It's an old photo, of a man in Civil War Uniform, though you can't tell which side. Perhaps it was an ancestor of yours. You put it down, and go off to do something else. You then hear something else behind you. Turning, you see the photo has moved just a bit to the left, and turned slightly; the man is now wearing a cleary different uniform, in distinctly different pose, now holding a Bowie knife in one hand, and revolver in the other. You turn to check your window, then back to the photograph, now pointing the gun at you...
@Matthew Taylor NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As a re-enactor who was an extra a few times, mostly in documentaries with acted scenes in them, I have to agree with your pint about using real actors. But I think it depends on the situation a lot. I was a child (my parents were re-enactmentors, so I was born into it) and sometimes my whole job was to stand at corner talking to a friend. This is perfectly doable and especially civilian clothing doesn’t get enough love in a lot of movies, so using reenactors for the crowd was a good idea. But portraying a regiment, basically sacrificed by its commander? I don’t think any re-reactor could’ve done this, so you really shouldn’t use them. Real actors are much better. Just for context: I am not American, nor portraying the civil war period, so things could be different in the context you talked about; I just wanted to make the point that sometimes it can make sense.
The circumstances do matter. For Gettysburg, there reenactors were cheap. They came with their own gear and didn't get paid.
Film school students, while much better actors in general, tend to make bad soldiers. Looking at Lord of the Rings or Saving Private Ryan (or a thousand other war movies), you find professionals or semiprofessionals making up the bulk of extras. They are all too old but they usually know the gear and weapons better. LotR only used young extras for the squad of elves at Helm's Deep because they aren't trained. They were wrangled to do a small set if things and the professionals did everything else.
What are the requirements to be a reenactor like age and that stuff
@@nassa8334 It really depends on your situation. My father was a reenactor in his youth, so my family was already active when I was born and I was taken to events before I was half a year old. This is perfectly doable, but children usually need to be watched and a parent should be around wich makes it difficult to join in a very young age all on your own. Most groups will probably let you join around the age of 16. Your best chance is to reach out to local groups during events and just ask them and that's probably the best advice anyone can give you. They're always happy to recruit new members.
As I said, I'm not American and I'm not reenacting the civil war, so I'm not using fire arms in any capacity. I was given a sword when I was an adult, but firearms are regulated a lot more usually. So it could be that either the law, or your group won't allow you to carry firearms until you're old enough. For some periods this can be a thing to consider.
Besides age, there's only one thing I would say you should think about and that is money. Like most hobbies it will cost you money at some point. People are willing to help you out and you'll get a lot of stuff to borrow, but some things have to be purchased by yourself. Your expenses really depend on yourself; you can get rid of an incredible amount of money this way if you want; but you'll end up spending something. I personally invested about a few hundred Euros by now wich isn't a lot, but its still something you should be aware of.
I hope I could answer your question.
@@ianbelanger7459 But, and this was the point made, you get the actors for the critical moments. Long sweeping shot showing a mass of men advancing where you don't really get to see their faces? Reenactors without a problem. Closeup of nervous men standing in formation, or reacting to the chaos around them? Use actors. Really, it's no different than a larger-scale version of using stunt professionals to play most of the mooks in a mass brawl scene while the ones who have to actually act are either actor/stunt performers, or actors who've trained enough to pull it off well enough for a brief scene.
When you talked about your reenactment of Gettysburg, i almost cried, that was very emotional even for a non-american like me
The credits had me dying
I was in 8th grade in Brunswick, Maine (yep, Chamberlain land) when this film came out, right around the same time as Ken Burns' Civil War. Our history class attended an advance screening of the film at our local cinema. It impacted us profoundly. Still brings tears to my eyes to think about the suffering that was experienced. I was a history and theater double major in college (in Vermont), and appreciate your analysis, opinion, and interpretation of this film and the historical events and people it portrays, and your other offerings. All the best.
@10:00 on Pickett's Charge. I can definitely understand harshly judging the cinematic quality of the battle scene as a battle scene, but in terms of dramatic punch, the whole sequence from Armistead shouting "who will come with me!" up to his being shot, is one of the finest pieces of military drama on screen in my opinion. Certainly not THE finest, but it's up there.
A friend of mine was an extra in this movie. As a reenactor, he ended up putting on uniforms of both armies for various scenes..he was 50 years old at the time and he said it was exhausting..he has passed on, but it was so much fun listening to him talk about the various movies he worked.
Even more well done, especially speaking of death in war. You seem to be able to transport yourself as if you had been in battle, any battle; and, sadly I know exactly how simple, brutal, and accurate those short sentences were. You made a 40 something GWOT vet a little misty eyed today, thank you.
Gwot?
@@patwiggins6969
Global War on Terror.
Or, as I call them, the Reflective Belt Wars.
@@eldorados_lost_searcher Hey now, there was no war. It was a overseas contingency operation. I'm sure there is some type of difference, but when I asked I was told to shut up.
I think the East Cavalry Field fight would be literally impossible to do. There are VERY strict laws about what can and cannot be done with horses in film, so that kind of vicious battle between two cavalry units is more or less legally impossible
Battle of the Bastards on GoT did a great job subtly using CGI to fake-kill horses. Braveheart used animatronic horses on dollies during the Stirling [Bridge] battle that look pretty seamless too.
@@AtunSheiFilms I think you're on point re: CGI. Seems like it would be pretty much a necessity even to get the viscera right.
Imagine the fucking PEACH FIELD if someone could do it correctly.
Vomiting in our popcorn, indeed.
Also, East Cavalry field seriously needs some love. Remember when they wanted to build a casino there? Should have been around the time you lived there, maybe slightly before.
Lastly, YOU should direct something and I don't say that shit lightly. Like ever. To anyone. And I hereby on this day the 3rd of July 2020 do volunteer my dramaturgy skills and dialect coach abilities to should you ever film something. Hell, I'd volunteer to help write the dialogue. You're that fucking good, my dude.
Also, you PWN because you understand what a treasure "Ravenous" is.
(I'm serious as a MFing earthquake coupled with a volcanic eruption. I volunteer to help yo brilliant ass.)
Okay, I'm done now.
@@grayhatjen5924 Wheatfield would be horrible. The diaries of survivors mention hand to hand combat involving bayonets, swords, rocks and even bare hands. The famous portrait of the Wheatfield shows a man with his head cut off. Probably not an exaggeration.
My guess is that there was a budget issue, because horses are much more expensive than re-enactors who were willing to do this for nearly nothing. If we did a count of every horse seen on camera, I suspect we'd get no more than 25 or so, most of them at the very beginning with Buford's troops. For example, there aren't even horses anywhere near the artillery for moving guns and shells around, even though that would have been standard practice for the time.
Nothing about taping a bunch of cats together though
So your descriptor of the Charge reminded me of when I was at Pearl Harbor.
I stood on Ford Island between the Hangers of the Pacific Aviation Museum staring at the mountains where the Japanese planes flew over.
I was overwhelmed by the sensation, having read in detail of the battle. I just stood there and let that day overtake me in ways I cannot describe.
I saw the smoke and felt the chaos.
Thanks for the great three part video. And thanks for inspiring me to be a better historian.
Our Boy Scout troop did Pickett's charge it made me cry like you. Then I joined the real military and saw the real thing and cried harder remembering how naïve I was at the age of 16 to have walked into the real thing. I remember the smell of the my later life experience. Just think what the smell was like on the third day I can't imagine. Thanks for your commentary.
I really like that 30% artistic, 70% technical bit, and that line about the science to his art.
I'm fascinated by film-making, and I think the overlap, interplay of, and tension between the art & the science is what's so fascinating.
Great line.
Love your stuff. Growing up in England I never learned much of the American Civil War. It's nice to learn about it from a guy with passion for the subject.
Everyone taking about the talking photos (which were amazing) but I also loved the credits talking about how the characters ended up, was a funny nod to the film.
Atun-Shei dying of diarrhoea, I know I shouldn't laugh, but I did.
Last comment, I swear.
I love war history and movies based on it, and you hit the nail on the head for me with the complaint about bloodless battles. I think it's unconscienable to portray violence without making an effort to show the EFFECTS of violence, the human suffering it entails. The civil war is so often romanticised in popular fiction, whereas the more you read about it, the more it looks like World War 1. The aristocracy manipulated the peasantry into an obscene theater of grotsquery, and the tactics had not kept pace with the weapons. Officers went to school that taught them a quaint and primitive style of warfare, not the mass slaughter of the industrial age. Not just the war itself, but the civillian experience and everything related to it sounds like absolute hell.
Honestly, he could have included, either in day two or day three, why Dick Garnett rode his horse. Garnett was accused by Jackson of cowardice and Lee woiuld not permit a court-martial to clear Garnett;s name. Jackson died before Garnett could clear his name, that's why he rode his horse during the charge. To prove he was no coward.
Yeah, that would have been a good add.
@@davidward2651
It's definitely in the novel.
Reading about it made dislike the old lemon sucker.
The battle of the crater perfectly incaptures the brutality of the civil war. Even a veteran of Stalingrad would be sickened by it
It's funny how people grossly overestimate the number of (German) veterans of Stalingrad. Between the suicidal orders and the Soviet treatment of PoWs being something of a tit for tat of German treatment of Soviet PoWs only 5000 Germans got home from that battle alive.
@@hubertblastinoff9001 Of those captured, but there were quite a few that left the battle before and after encirclement. Not in the hundreds of thousands surely, but there's thousands more german Veterans of Stalingrad than the surviving PoWs.
Haha, yeah ok buddy. Sure. The American civil war (and I'm a buff of it) was almost a single month of carnage for something like the Eastern front. You didn't have wholesale mass rape, slaughter and utter brutality of the eastern front in the ACW. So no, no vet of Stalingrad would be sickened by the battle of Crater. That's just a picnic for those guys.
@@hubertblastinoff9001 About 2.8 million Germans were taken prisoner during the war of which 381,000 (this of course includes those taken prisoner at Stalingrad) died. By comparison, 5.7 million Soviets were taken prisoner and 3.3 million died. As you can see, Stalingrad is an outlier and the Germans were far worse than the Soviets. The reason so many German prisoners died at Stalingrad is because the German troops were in very poor health when they surrendered and the Soviets at this stage in the war had limited food after losing their breadbasket in the Ukraine. Food was even being rationed in Moscow at the time of Stalingrad! Hardly the Soviets' fault that they didn't have the food to nurse hungry German soldiers back to health when Soviet civilians AND soldiers were going hungry as well.
I just purchased memoirs of a Confederate artillery officer (yeah, another distant cousin) who was at the Crater. I'm gonna see what he had to say about it.
That reflection on the Pickett's charge walk really touched me. It reminded me a bit of when the veterans of Gettysburg met again several decades later and shook hands across the stone wall.
I remember back when I watched this movie with my class, we were rolling at the Pickett's charge scene. We were 13 so not the most mature audience, but it still felt funny to see all guys pin wheeling and flipping in the air like it was an episode of power rangers.
I think that speaks to how the film really fails to represent pickets charge properly. While an adult watching it might try to keep in mind the horrible reality behind what is being shown, kids are usually the most brutally honest audience. And if a bunch of kids are laughing at what is supposed to be a filming of one of the most brutal and gory events of the civil war, then it hasn't done it's job.
Your vids keep on getting better and better. Thanks for all of your efforts!
Your critique of the lack of visual violence keeps making me wish that the film makers of "Saving Private Ryan" would make a film of the civil war
That movie is full of major issues as well. Nobody really cares about the villification and dehumaninization of German soldiers in a World War 2 movie, but in a Civil War it would much more inappropriate.
@@Yora21 ,
Explain why please.
He did. It's called Lincoln.
@@Yora21 how were the German soldiers dehumanized in Saving Private Ryan?
The transition from the stern looking Civil War soldier to a casual person making commentary is killing me.
Pickett's charge should have used the majority of the special effects budget.
On just blood alone.
I mean, how expensive are bottles of ketchup and some water-balloons, really?
(joking)
I’m now 100% sure there is something wrong with your talking pictures. You might want to check them out. My talking magical pictures don’t change clothing.
He bought that from a second-hand Harry Potter store. =))
Also my magical talking picture does not colourise when talking about current times.
I know nothing of Gettsburg but I found these YT's very interesting mainly due to quality of Atun-Shei Films.
Loved the whole series. To the point I've been skimping work waiting for episodes to turn up. Thank you for your effort.
Good point about the goriness of the battles. ...Well, a lot of good points in general, but the horror and general bloodiness of warfare is something that really requires heavy use of special effects and nowadays with CGI assistance, I think filmmakers could show the blood and guts properly. Also the scale of some of those battles since it is easier to patch together scenes with the same extras added again and again on the scene to simulate much bigger armies. I remember seeing the "Battle of the bastards" in Game of Thrones, and even if I can't make the claim that it is realism at its finest, the massive amounts of bodies on the ground increasing until the sides are literally fighting atop a pile of bodies of their comrades was a thing that stayed with me for a long time. I also remember reading about the aftermath of Winter War (I'm a Finn, it's closer to home) and how thousands of Soviet who had died at Suomussalmi region were taken to a railroad station and piled up like logs so that they could be delivered home. ...Then the Soviets came, said that according to their official numbers they only lost 200 soldiers at that front so they'll take those, but from their perspective, the rest of the bodies don't exist. And the Finns simply dug a mass grave for them because spring was coming and disease outbreak because of corpses is no fun. The sheer scale of some battles is something that is hard to grasp without seeing it.
Newcomer to the channel here. Loving your content. I'm watching all 3 of these back to back and had to interrupt my viewing during interview excerpts just to show some support. This is informational entertainment at its best, and yet you consistently editorialize without sounding preachy. From a layman's perspective, your knowledge is unassailable and your pacing and presentation is delightful. I can't get enough!
Imagine if the battle scene was shot like the Battle of the creater in the opening of Cold mountain. That would have been amazing
Battle of The Crater is so amazingly done
I watched all of the parts to Fixing Gettysburg and loved all three of them. I'm up here for a family vacation this weekend and it really makes you think about what actually took place 157 years ago. Gotta love history. 😁
From a producer's standpoint, one advantage of having re-enactors in your movie is that they might bring their historically-authentic gear and uniforms with them. You have a lot of time, money, and effort that way.
Would definitely love to see a movie about the Iton Brigade.
Which one? There a number of units that had the moniker. But I assure you mean THE Iron Brigade. The Black Hats
mpetersen6 yes I mean the black hats, the rugged westerners. I was unaware of the other iron brigades though I'll have to look them up.
@@grenbelyfishman
Look on Wikipedia. It brings up a number of American Civil War units that acquired the moniker. It also goes into the later units that can be said to have descended from the Iron Brigade. One of them, the 32nd Infantry Division (National Guard from Michigan and Wisconsin in WWI and II) was the only US division to be referred to by name in reports. In WWI it was named Les Terribles by the French the were the first Allied division to piece the Hindenburg Line and went on to lead the AEF into Germany as the occupation began. The division earned its name of RedArrow signifying it had penetrated every line of resistance it had faced. During WWII on New Guinea and in the Phillipines the division spent more days in combat operations (654) than any other US division. Its first combat operation was in the Buna area of New Guinea. Ill trained, Ill equipped and poorly supplied a lot of the needed lessons the US had to learn about operating in tropical conditions were learned there. I've read an account of one 32nd veteran of Buna who was in hospital recovering from wounds and tropical disease. Present in the ward as patients were a number of Marines who had been on Guadalcanal. When the soldier was putting on his uniform when being discharged they asked him were he'd been (he'd kept quite while there, the Marines hadn't). When he replied Buna the Marines just stared. The division was still engaged in combat with Japanese holdouts after the Japanese capitulation on August 14, 1945
mpetersen6
“Where were you? Oh, Guadalcanal? Jeez, you guys had it rough.”
“You’re telling me! Anyways, what happened to you?”
“Buna.”
“.....holy shit....”
Maybe we could get Spielberg to do a film about this battle, where every minute is just D-Day from Saving Private Ryan.... it would just be visceral, shocking, and probably Xrated...
And, the Lost Cause myth officially and finally debunked
Or maybe instead of Gettysburg, do Petersburg with a focus on the Crater. I believe the Battle of the Crater was truly the most brutal, horrifying fighting of the war.
Cold Harbor by way of Saving Private Ryan would be the greatest dream.
I expect that the creeks and rivers near Gettysburg would be teeming with Bull sharks, especially as Lee's army crossed the Potomac in retreat. Miraculous Musket Rifles would spew "Buck 'N Ball" that would tear through body and limb as Union forces were driven out of Gettysburg town. Gatling Gun-equipped Federal forces would try to mow down the body of Lee's army, only to be taken out by "miles away" Confederate sharpshooters wielding #1 SMLE Miracle Rifles. The British officer-observer traveling with Lee's army would periodically whip out a cigar and raise clouds of smoke "to counter the malodorous stench of the marching, sweating Confederates." Union and Confederate Artillery Mortars would harry and kill each other after dark, firing star shells to correct their aim, as telegraph-equipped forward observers reported "flying limbs and heads in the distance." Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's troops, armed with Spencer Carbines, would drive back the Texans, then execute a "Fixed bayonet" charge, running like crazed demons. Pickett's charge on the third day would feature Tom Hanks, urging his men to "win it for 'Massa Robert." The miles to the union stone wall would feature more Gatling Guns and Hotchkiss revolving-cylinder cannon, scything through the advancing Confederate line like 1908 Maxim guns. The Union Balloon Corps would drop "Lit Torpedoes" (Iron bombs) onto the Army of Northern Virginia as they reached to top of Cemetery Ridge. Angry Confederates would shoot at the Balloons, turning some Hydrogen-filled Balloons into flaming, falling wrecks. A flying squad of Confederate Rangers would hurl grappling hooks to take down the stone wall, firing their M1 Garand rifles at the shocked and astonished Federals, who threw grenades in response. As the Green-Grey-clad Federals repulsed the Olive-Drab-clad Confederates, a defiant Confederate officer shoots at a Hotchkiss cannon with his .45" Caliber M1911, shouting, "The South Shall Rise Again!" before being blown up by an explosive shell. (Or is this too "Michael Bay"?;)
what makes it even worse us that D Day casualty rates don't even close to civil war battles. Hoods texans had what 80% casualties...Omaha Beach was around 9% if I remember correctly
Hoods Texans at Antietam had 80%
I remember how impressed I was when I first saw that movie, I was like 7, and didn't understand a word of it (given that english is not my first language), but I was so hooked.
When I some 15 years later saw it on dvd, I bought it and have seen it a few times... I enjoy it, but only really parts of it, and the movie is definitly a guilty plasure movie to me!
The parts that stands out for me, is the 20th Maine and their battle scenes, as well as General Longstreet.
A kinda cool but really goofy part of the movie is how so many sceens are made as if it was a still picture.
The Death scene of General Reynolds looks like it was copied 1:1 from a painting. So unnatural. lol
Watching this line of videos brings me back to when my father and his re-enactor buddies would nitpick this film to pieces when it was new. They'd always roll their eyes when the heroic music picked up as a bunch of middle-aged re-enactors lumbered against one another. Passable for an organized event. Loses all suspension of disbelief on film.
This critique is one of the most mindful, and informed discussions I've heard on any subject. Excellent work!
I'm sure many have said this, but I'd be fascinated to see your edit of the movie. Not that that would ever be legal...
commandert5 “My lord? Is that legal?”
It'd be interesting to create a whole series about the civil war from just before Lincoln's victory in 1860 all the way to Lee's surrender in 1865 with each episode going over the battles and politics of both nations in great detail
Finally! Ive been waiting to watch any of these til there were 3 to binge, thanks for releasing these so quickly! Loved the photoframe motif, reminds us of the historical breathing humanity that the film doesn’t. Great work as always!
My new favorite TH-cam channel. Congrats on just hitting 100K subscribers!
Re-watching Pickett’s Charge in ‘Gettysburg’ the main thought I had was, if the Confederate soldiers looked anything like the re-enactors in the film, half of them would died of a heart attack before they made it to the fence line.
Thank you for the personal anecdote. I love your depth of knowledge and humor but the personal note caught me off guard and made me tear up. Took me back to my second trip to Gettysburg. I had been once before, eleven years previous, and was looking forward to visiting the 1st Minnesota monument again. I made myself wait until the second day of my tour. I knew I was going to cry, I had known for a year I was going to cry, I tried not to cry, but as I sat there and looked out across that field and thought about those Minnesotans charging down that slope to certain slaughter...I cried. It just...gets me. And I’m from Iowa, I don’t even care about Minnesota, bunch of north woods hicks with their goofy accents and their mooses....
Wow. Honestly: This is as good as you can get about this topic in TH-cam. We dont need another documentary. But we need Videos like these. A personal view, good informations mixed with some humour. All of it shows how much you actually care: about history, about movies & most about people. Great Work. Greetings from Germany.
Love watching your videos and takes Atun-Shei! Keep up the incredible work!
Also your story about walking Pickett's charge and meeting the Union Reenactor at the end was beautiful
thank you. as repulsive as i find "the southern cause", and how much i desire a better world, i am also a Texan, and it's very conflicting to deal with memories of the bravery(stupidity?) of confederate troops...it's a very, very difficult thing to police inside your mind and rearing. i am around 50, so "lost cause" was taught heavily in school, and your description of the march made me tear up. and yet, i am fully committed to erasing the "honor"...smh. tough stuff.
That's the complexity of actual history in its realness. You can't paint the full picture of something like the Civil War in black and white, such as painting each Confederate soldier as evil. The vast majority of Confederate troops didn't give a shit about slavery one way or another, as they weren't slaveholders. The actual slaveholders were usually either officers in the Confederate army, or managed to pay their way out of serving. To the average footsoldier, it was about repelling invaders, as simple as that.
Well, we often have empathy for the multifaceted, complex “bad guy”, who is misguided or is forced to be on the wrong team, etc.
"it's very conflicting to deal with memories of the bravery(stupidity?) of confederate troops". The Civil War was nasty, anybody who committed to involvement was brave. I appreciate the union soldiers who continued even though they often fought under incompetent officers. Not my evaluation of the officers but theirs.
Can't waste time feeling guilty for some ancestors misrepresenting history and it catching on as popular, we can only correct the history we know and put it out and hope it replaces the krap some got away with. That's the challenge of history, to learn what and why they did what they did, and constantly update our knowledge of the what and the why. The time to feel any guilt is how we go on talking about it if we then carry on putting out known errors. History never changes, only our knowledge of it increases.
I think that Atun's comments about the "pimply faced 17 year old" does a pretty good job of expressing how it's possible to sympathize with the inhuman suffering that these soldiers went through, while still being able to acknowledge that they were "on the wrong side of history."
At the end of it all, when you grip your weapon and prepare to meet a violent end, to lose friends and comrades, to see unimaginable horrors - politics are far, far away from your mind. Once those men enlisted, or were conscripted, the "why" very quickly ceased to matter. All that mattered was getting through that moment, that battle, the war, and getting home.
The kid choking on his own blood in some worthless field, hundreds of miles from his home, for a cause he doesn't even fully understand - he never had the chance to grow beyond the moment. How can we be sure that he wouldn't have compassionately supported reform in his hometown community? How do we know that he wouldn't have gone home and gone down in history as some kind of saint? We never will, because he never got the chance. At the very least, I think it's fair to accept that this war (as all wars) was a tragedy, and that ordinary people were deeply affected by it regardless of their views. You cannot feel repulsed at the horrors of chattel slavery and simultaneously wish that kind of wretched suffering on another group of people. The soldiers of both sides are lions for suffering what they went through. It's the people who gloss over that in favor of romanticizing that struggle, who are at fault. Not the ghost of some man who died more than a hundred years ago, alone and longing for home.
I remember thinking Day 3 was some sequel when I was a kid because it was on the other side of my Gettysburg disc.
This channel is one of my favorite TH-cam channels if not my very favorite!
I really appreciate the videos you've made about the film, Gettysburg, & Gods and Generals. It's refreshing to come across someone who understands the ACW, and isn't afraid to speak candidly about the inaccuracies and BS in those two films. I have subscribed to your channel. Thanks for taking the time to do what you're doing.
It's a shame the movie didn't have time to show the Confederates kidnapping Black Pennsylvanians into slavery.
Fake News! Oh wait🤦🏿
He made the same point in the first video.
Actually, Ron and Ted didn’t have money for extras, save for paying for their lunch and stuff. Most of the reenactors volunteered as extras for this film.
This might also explain, in part, some of the creative decisions made in this film.
You knocked it out of the park, man! Well done!
Awesome review again! Really like the sharing of your personal experience at Gettysburg! That is truly a once in a life time moment, one that any History buff or History Teacher would envy. I am sure nearly anyone would get caught up in the reenactment and start to feel the intensity of that charge, regardless of their opinion about either side.
After watching this series, I became paranoid of photos in my home, out of fear that one might have ill intent. As I check my photographs, I see an old black and white photograph, one I don't recognize. It's an old photo, of a man in Civil War Uniform, though I can't tell which side. Perhaps it was an ancestor of yours. After inspecting it, I for a while put it down, and go off to do something else. I then hear something else behind me. Turning, I see the photo has moved just a bit to the left, and turned slightly; the man is now wearing a cleary different uniform, in distinctly different pose, now holding a Bowie knife in one hand, and revolver in the other. My cat leaps to the windowsill, and I turn turn to look at him, then back to the photograph, now pointing the gun at me...
Deliver the photograph unto the magistrates assembled in the courts in the shire in which you reside.
these battle scenes really make you appreciate what some decent stunt performers could have done for the production in general.
This has become my new favorite channel. Keep it up.
I just found your channel this week and I love it. Your knowledge is awesome. Your insights are sharp. Your humor is effing hilarious. Love your work! Please keep it up! Your Checkmate Lincolnites videos are fantastic! *chef’s kiss*
I tried cuttin it down to 90 minutes like you wanted but yet again Longstreet took his time 🙄
I UNDERSTOOD THAT REFERENCE!
Theyah is no time for that
Minus the Love stories I think "Free State of Jones" is more of what your'e looking for. That or the battle scene in "Cold Mountain"
I've only been watching for a couple weeks now, so did the big hits back catalog first. Great acting energy, full marks for effort all throughout, and now the production quality and video quality has gotten almost too good for youtube. Excellent work
I hear you about the 'I felt it' moment when I did the 'in the moment' battlewalk in 2013 on July 1st when I realized that at that time 150 years earlier the 2nd and 7th WI were charging past right where I was. The world around me just came alive, as if I was transported to 1863, and I realized the ferocity, 'heard' the volleys, the orders, the screams, the moans and I 'saw' Reynolds go down behind the 2nd WI. I 'watched' the 2nd WI and 7th WI slam into the 7th and 14th TN respectively and it all just came alive. By the time the park ranger had finished talking, I realized this sharp fight was over, prisoners and Reynolds body were being transported to the rear by this point and I looked over towards the railroad cut, nodding to myself that the 14th Brooklyn, 95th NY and 6th WI were charging the railroad cut. I'm a midwesterner, who was in my twenties living in MI at that time, so the thought of 'this could have been me' hit me (as I stood on my toes looking at where the 24th MI was flanking the position with their unloaded rifles). Nowadays twenty something college kids cry out for a 'safe space' and claim PTSD because someone said something to someone else deemed to be offensive by someone else...what a contrast to a man like Lt. Col. Dawes of the 6th WI who did get something like PTSD (Soldier's Heart) because of the trauma he saw. How could one not get it from attacking the railroad cut alone, much less fighting through the entire war, bearing the responsibly for all the men struck down under your command?
I appreciate the review of the movie Gettysburg. There is a lot that could be improved with it, however, I believe it is one of the most important American war films ever made and that it has it's place. I believe it is a masterpiece, given it's budget, given the numbers of men portrayed on screen and given that it was a movie designed for the average person who read a sentence about Gettysburg in their history textbook in high school. I also contend that while the lack of extreme violence shown in Gettysburg isn't accurate, I don't think that a made for TV mini-series in the early 90s could have shown more. I quote Roger Ebert's review from 1993 on the little Round Top sequences "Yet they repel repeated charges, taking deep casualties, in sequences so desperate, bloody and protracted that for once we sense the sheer physical exhaustion of combat, the combination of fear, fatigue and determination" and on the Pickett/Pettigrew/Trimble Charge "And most of all, we experience the horrifying reality of battle itself. What Lee called on his men to do was walk a mile across open ground, in the face of withering fire...I began watching with comparative indifference, and slowly got caught up in the majestic advance of the enterprise; by the end, I had a completely new idea of the reality of war in the 19th century, when battles still consisted largely of men engaging each other in hand-to-hand combat. And I understood the Civil War in a more immediate way than ever before." The movie Gettysburg got me interested in history at large as I was growing up and played an important part in helping me visualize the American Civil War. If the movie was more violent, I doubt my parents would have let me see it (they actually wouldn't let me watch parts of the movie such as parts of the Little Round Top fighting and would cover my ears whenever profanity was uttered...different era) and if they hadn't I doubt I would have cared enough to make American history at large a passion.
Movies have gotten more violent and the audiences today accept and sometimes glorify in the violence. I honestly think that if Gettysburg was made accurately gory as real fighting is, it wouldn't horrify as many people as you think. Gettysburg is something you could show to a middle school or high school classroom to give them a taste of what the American Civil War was like. The movie Gettysburg brought the American Civil war to the average person and it is one of the most purchased war movies for home viewing of all time. The movie did far more good than harm since it got people interested enough to go out to the battlefield itself and it had enough detailed moments for the seasoned buff to appreciate (ex. Maj Cromwell in the triangular field with 124th NY, Gen Warren watching on Little Round top, the Iron Brigade of the East was wearing black hats, etc...)
Also, if you are this critical of Gettysburg, being based on a piece of historical fiction, I don't know if I want to hear you on the new Grant "documentary" given...sigh...how I, nor any serious amateur historian or professional historian I know has little nice to say about it besides from the fact that at least it gave Grant more recognition than what he has gotten.
Happy 4th of July everyone
Yes! I'll be Watching "1776 on TCM ... That's my Guilty Pleasure! ... Adams,Franklin and Jefferson Singing and Dancing their way to Independence really Stirs my Blood!
@@jamesalexander5623 Conveys more real history than most people remember even with the theatrical treatment.
I actually really like the British officer, he gives an outside perspective on the Battle.
I feel like if you include someone THAT external to the plot of the movie, you'd have to make him more than just the passive observer that Fremantle is - he doesn't offer any opinion, contradicts or comments on anything, really. In that sense, he is more a waste of space or another side-show character that should have went in editing.
@@hiltibrant1976
Freemantle was strictly an observer, and an unofficial one at that. He most likely had instructions to offer absolutely no opinions, no recommendations, no offers of help, nothing what so ever. I would not be surprised if after Gettysburg he reported to the British Ambassador Lord Lyons in Washington to inform him the South was doomed to defeat. Of course by that time the North had long gained the moral high ground and the anti slavery sentiment in the UK assured that Britian would not intervene on the Souths behalf.
I really loved that little story you shared with the 150th Anniversary of Gettysburg. In spite of all the corniness and how people are more taken by the movie. They still came to very grounds where it happened and made sure that those men, from either side, whether they died or survived on those fields, not be forgotten. I’m glad you were there too.
As long as we keep coming to these fields. Their stories will not fade away. People will continue to remember who these men were, what they did there, and more importantly, why they were there.
Great job on all three videos!
When Custer leads the cavalry charge, JEB Stuart should yell, “It’s a trap!”
90% sure the extras weren't paid and had their own equipment
The rendition of the Gettysburg soundtrack at the end was so stirring, I must’ve replayed the credits at least five times
This was a perfect backdrop for fixing my broken door with only a screwdriver. Your aggravation perfectly matched mine. Thanks.