Well my knowledge of it originally came from TV movie ‘ROUGH RIDERS’. Needless to say it was privately bought, which was my point.
“... my knowledge of it originally came from TV movie ‘ROUGH RIDERS’. Needless to say it was privately bought, which was my point.” [Reily, post 77]
Films rarely contribute much in terms of historical insight. They can induce interested onlookers to pursue more complete and in-depth knowledge.
1997’s two-part TV miniseries _Rough Riders_, directed by John Milius and featuring brilliant performances by a big cast of noteworthy actors, is one of the most accurate film treatments of events in US military history ever to hit the small tube or the big screen. But it was rife with its own errors - some due to dramatic license, others inexplicable.
The most glaring technical flubs were the image reversals, showing rifles and machine guns in closeup.
No one ever manufactured US Krag carbines with left-hand bolts, but viewers get to see them several times during the charge scenes.
The Spanish defenders are shown firing early Maxim guns with dazzling bronze water jackets; no Maxims were used by the Spanish in that battle. And the scenes change at dizzying speed: some of the guns feed from the right, some from the left. In reality, no Maxim of the day fed from the left. And there were no Imperial German artillerists there helping the Spaniards.
William Tiffany was not killed in action as the film purports. He died some months later of disease, while the regiment was encamped on long Island.
Perhaps the least fair portrayal was that of Stephen Crane, author of _Red Badge of Courage_, who was present during the battle. The film dwells on his alleged drinking and drug use, but he was neither a drunk nor a narcotics user (as actor Adam Storke spoke the lines). He was simply a very nice guy afflicted by what used to be called a “delicate constitution:” he was forever neglecting his health, scurrying off to remote spots and strange destinations in pursuit of stories and notable experiences. Things caught up with him; he died of tuberculosis (common at the time) less than two years after he covered the assault on the San Juan Heights.
Director Milius engaged in some dark foreboding near the end of the second part, showing Theodore Roosevelt’s youngest and favorite child Quentin as a boy of age eight or more. In actuality, Quentin was born in late 1897, so when TR returned home from service with the 1st USVC, he was still a babe in arms.
Sad to say, the Spanish-American War and the Mexican-American War garnered little attention during their recent centennial and sesquicentennial commemorations - save from PC activists and anti-American academics and the like.