February 3, 2003
CAN 2003 BE MORE CONSERVATIVE THAN 2002 IN FILM?
Q&A: Civil War film 'Gods and Generals' (Steve Sailer, 1/29/03, UPI)UPI: After the recent controversies over Southern state flags and Trent Lott, do you expect criticism because you don't depict the Virginians Lee and Jackson as nearly Nazis?Maxwell: As a filmmaker I must work very hard at keeping contemporary politics out of any historical film. Today has nothing to do with the people who lived in the 1860s. It's actually the other way around. Their lives, portrayed with fidelity within their own historical context, provide the foundation and continuity for own time. To distort their story through a politically correct lens would be to render futile the whole endeavor of making a historical film in the first place. [...]
Q: Everybody knows the name "Stonewall Jackson," but he's almost never been shown in a movie. Why is he still legendary today?
A: This film is about heroes, but doesn't indulge in hero worship. There's a difference. The characters are presented in their full humanity within the historical context in which they lived.
As epic heroes go, Jackson meets the test: strong moral character, devoted to country, loyal and brave and daring, a ferocious warrior, tender with those he loves, severe with those whose infractions he finds intolerable, dangerous to his enemies. And, he dies at the moment of his greatest victory. Sounds like one of those characters in Homer's "Iliad," doesn't he?
Q: "Gods and Generals" is unusual for a Hollywood picture in several ways. For instance, you depict Stonewall without sarcasm as a devout, outspoken Christian. Is there a market for this?
A: The plain fact is that most people in America say they believe in God and most of these folks profess to be Christians. But like the old ad line went, "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's real Jewish Rye." If we were watching a film about Alexander the Great, it would be important to see an Alexander who believed in his pantheon of Greek Gods. To do otherwise would be false. To ignore Jackson's devout Christian faith would be to conceal one of his most important dimensions.
Mr. Maxwell's Gettysburg was a fine film, if not quite up to the perhaps unachievable standard of the much beloved book, The Killer Angels. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 3, 2003 9:07 PM
OJ
The fact that "Gods and Generals" is a Ted Tuner picture
which also features West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd
in a small role will not make the film immune from some criticism, I'd be willing to bet, but it will make it unlikely to grow into any firestorm of outrage over the "non-Nazi" portrayal of the southern leaders. If Turner wasn't involved and if Phil Gramm was the only politician in the film, instead of both he and Byrd, then the movie would likely become radioactive even before its initial release.
People tend to forget until his 1986 dalliances with Castro and Gorbachev, Turner was considered an up-and-coming hero to some on the right, and was backed by people like Sen. Jesse Helms in his bid to buy CBS, under the idea he would toss Dan Rather out on his keister and remake the news department in the image of the more conservative CNN (stop laughing). Turner's image has completely flipped since then, but his southern heritage is still a big enough part of his overall makeup that he doesn't force his other politically correct believes into recounting events of the Civil War, which include "Gods" and the earlier "Gettysburg."
Gettyburg was a decent enough film. Jeff Daniels was excellent as Joshua Chamberlain and 15,000 Civil War Reenactors gave the film, er, gravitas in the battle scenes.
But, MSheen destroyed the film with his lousy portrayal of R.E. Lee.
Agreed, Sheen was awful.
And you thought they could have shown the 1st Minnesota in action.
Anyway the best CW film by far has to be Glory.
Kohn:
George Allen's in it too and since he's a rising star and the rest are no longer at the epicenter of political life, a stink will be made.
Eric, I still get a sinking feeling in my gut when thinking of Sheen's casting for the role and his high school portrayal ... the midget. Otherwise the rest of the film was the best on the war extant; but could never equal the book.
I like Maxwell's panache in the interview and wish someone would send a copy of it to Peter Jackson before he finalises the coming film of the "Ring." It sounds like he may blow the series and that would be a shame. Does anyone know if Byrd wears a sheet in "Gods?"
Genecis:
No, but he did ask to play Nathan Bedford Forrest.