Re: (no subject)
Kelly Richter (U59611@UICVM.BITNET)
Fri, 8 Oct 1993 14:04:22 ECT
After having seen the TNT special I also have mixed feelings.
Maybe I was hypercritical but the potbellies and pasted-on beards
really caught my attention as well as the stilted battlefield scenes.
But lets be realistic. No one is ever going to reproduce the reality.
And I also am pretty tired of Burns being the anointed interpreter of
Civil War events.
Kelly Richter U59611@UICVM
> I don't have the sources at hand, but I believe that the Articles of War
> were revised by Congress at the outset of the war. The Paris Convention
> of 1856/7 modified some rules of international warfare, and although the US
> was not a signatory, Congress did have occasion to modify the Articles of
> War. Nowhere near enough research has been done on this revision and its im-
> plications for a number of issues, incl. treatment of POWs and the evolution
> of strategic doctrine toward total war. In 1862, Congress added an Article
> concerning the treatment of fugitive slaves -- as contraband, I think, but
> again I'd have to run & look it up. The Articles were available, although
> how widespread the distribution I don't know.
>
> I watched part of the "Making of Gettysburg" last night, and if it's any
> indication of what's to come, I have mixed feelings. The scenes from the film
> did have a sweep and majesty to them that is unforgettable. But the character
> hardly bring to my mind anything worth knowing about CSA or Union generalship.
> If the command school is using -Killer Angels- for anything other than
> its literary qualities (in the broadest sense), then I'd like to see their
> curriculum. The new biography of Joshua Chamberlain indicates just how
> atypical this man was, and how cloistered the 19th c. reformers' world was.
> Chamberlain is a sympathetic figure, no doubt, but it's a bit too much to
> see Ken Burns gushing over the philosopher-kings he thinks manned the battle-
> ments and led the troops. Sheen's Lee looks drugged, apathetic, and as if
> he just emerged from Plato's cave. It reminds me of Safire's -Freedom-,
> which has its characters weighing heavy issues of national policy and the
> country's future at almost every street corner.
>
> For what it's worth, I think "Gettysburg" will have a similar kind of impact
> as the Burns documentary: it will rekindle the country's fascination with
> the war and remind us of the real value of historical consciousness. But
> both films (if "Gettysburg" lives up to its billings and the preview last
> night) overstate the majesty and myth of the war (myth not = inaccuracies,
> but myth = exaggerations and distortions of character, motive, plot for
> sentimental reasons). This is why I have such difficulty with using reenactor
> and spending millions of $ on getting the right tobacco pouch for Lew
> Armistead: these folks concentrate on the trees rather than the forest. I'm
> anxious to see the movie, and to hear what list members have to say about it.
> Peter Knupfer
> Kansas State University
> pknupfer@ksuvm