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Civil War epic shut down by 'PC crowd'? 'Gods and Generals' a painful disappointment at B.O.
WorldNetDaily.com ^
| Saturday, March 22, 2003
| Art Moore
Posted on 03/22/2003 7:15:13 AM PST by JohnHuang2
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To: JohnHuang2
It's four stinking hours long.
No way did my husband want to sit through this at the theatre with no pause button.
To: GOPcapitalist
And I have no doubt that, had it been six hours, you would be one of the first to whine over that point. As bad as the movie was I would have complained if it had been two hours. Length is not the deciding factor if the movie is coherent and well edited. Gods and Generals was neither.
To: JohnHuang2
The movie captures the perspective and spirit of Americans who inherited the great republic established by the founders. It is not embellished with any politically correct manipulation. It provides a window into the heritage of both North and South and shows how the "one" country was split into "two". At first slavery had nothing to do with the movement to secession, and the film faithfully describes this view.
For persons that are interested in understanding the real sentiments of history, this is a superb film. That Ebert and others choose to dismiss the film as racist drivel is unfortunate and should be understood by conservatives as just another uncaring dismissal by liberals, in the same vein as the dismissal of the rape of Juanita Broderick.
The fact of the matter is that Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson were noble Americans, Virginians in the same mold as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. They were not cruel slaveowners who relished in rebellion and inhumanity. They were Christian men who were given a horrible choice, to defend their homeland against the powers of the northern industrialists. Their flag was originally the stars and stripes, the stars numbering the count of the southern states, not the bars and stars. Their uniforms were originally dark blue. All these symbols and colors were changed to enable the southern fighting soldiers to be able to distinguish resident from invader.
The sympathetic view through which the film portrays is only sympathetic in the sense that the film does not seek as its main goal to criticize the South. Its main goal seeks to characterize in truth the Southern perspective. Although slavery was a moral failing of the South, it was also of the North. The Emancipation Proclamation was not put forward until several years after the war began. America, having began as colonies of religious castaways and indentured servants, was founded by people that viewed slavery as a fact of life. Slaves then were not only black, but white as well. Some slaves would sign a contract, that after so many years of indentured servitude, they would gain their freedom. The freed slaves would claim land and buy slaves to begin a new cycle of slavery. The negroid slaves were also freed from time to time and they too would buy and own slaves. It was a part of life then. In many respects, it is a part of life now, only the description and choices have changed.
Slavery as understood in America's past is dead forever. It will never be resurrected. However, there are groups that will use this chapter of America's history to attack America using the immorality of slavery. It is time that Americans study and understand what slavery was in their history, and that they accept its roots and its demise. In other words, no American should be ashamed of America's past in total. America has punished itself over its faults, and it should forgive itself as well. The men of the South were no less honorable than the men of the North. Abraham Lincoln summarized the issues in the great speech of Gettysburg. No one could summarize it better than it was in that speech.
As far as the economic success of the film, it will emerge this period of "suppression" to become a great study of history. For now, it is a gift.
83
posted on
03/24/2003 1:02:31 PM PST
by
Hostage
To: Non-Sequitur; WhiskeyPapa
I went up to Richmond last weekend to attend a wonderful conference:
Lincoln ReconsideredLew Rockwell told a joke which I would like to share with you.
When the last pope died, about 1976, and arrived in heaven, St. Peter showed him around, and then directed him to his heavenly home. It was a wonderful mansion surrounded by beautiful grounds and equiped inside with elegant and luxurious furnishings and conveniences many of which still haven't yet been introduced on earth (God does know about these things in advance). But the pope looked up the hill behind his mansion and saw a far, far more elegant mansion above his own. Who lives there? he asked St. Peter. Jefferson Davis, St. Peter answered. Why is his home so much more elegant than mine? the pope asked. St. Peter answered. Well, we have lots of popes up here, but we have only one American president.
84
posted on
03/24/2003 3:27:23 PM PST
by
Aurelius
To: Aurelius; WhiskeyPapa
Sounds like a real hoot.
BTW, Pope John Paul I and Pope Paul VI both died in 1978, not 1976. It's nice to see that the conference maintained the same standards of historical inaccuracy we've come to expect from Tommy DiLorenzo.
To: Non-Sequitur
Always the stickler for trivial details. I said "about" and that was my insert anyway. I think that the material presented at the conference met a high standard of accuracy.
86
posted on
03/25/2003 9:15:02 AM PST
by
Aurelius
To: PatrioticAmerican; All
The fact that people don't want to sit in the movies for four hours is a universal complaint. After what I've read, I am not going to see it in the movie theaters. I'll buy the DVD or something.
87
posted on
03/25/2003 9:18:39 AM PST
by
cyborg
To: Hostage
"Abraham Lincoln summarized the issues in the great speech of Gettysburg. No one could summarize it better than it was in that speech."Note on the Gettysburg Address
by H.L. Mencken
The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history...the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put it into the cold words of everyday. The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination that government of the people, by the people, for the people, should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves.
88
posted on
03/25/2003 9:51:25 AM PST
by
Aurelius
To: Aurelius
I think that the material presented at the conference met a high standard of accuracy. No doubt without placing too much emphasis on those 'trivial details'.
To: JohnHuang2
Reviews almost do no damage to box office receipts. Make a movie that people want to see and they go see it. The guy's a whiner who can't face the fact that he made a bomb.
90
posted on
03/25/2003 10:39:19 AM PST
by
sakic
To: Non-Sequitur
"No doubt without placing too much emphasis on those 'trivial details'."Believe what you like.
91
posted on
03/25/2003 2:08:03 PM PST
by
Aurelius
To: Aurelius
Believe what you like. Why not? You do.
To: Hostage
Their uniforms were originally dark blue.
That was the main problem I had with the movie, that it was hard to tell which side was which because both sides wore dark blue. Otherwise, i liked it. But i like anything that tells the truth about the CW.
93
posted on
03/25/2003 2:22:49 PM PST
by
uncitizen
(hostile freepers need not reply)
To: sakic
I've gotten to the point where I ignore most reviews. If it has a neat trailer, I'll see it. Frankly, if movie producers would sink more money into top notch trailers in the movie houses, on TV and on video, they'd see a better return than trying to pander to a bunch of effete reviewers.
94
posted on
03/25/2003 2:26:30 PM PST
by
Chancellor Palpatine
(Paleocons, the French and the UN - Excusing corrupt power mad dictators for decades)
To: uncitizen
That was the main problem I had with the movie, that it was hard to tell which side was which because both sides wore dark blue. They had that same problem in some of the early battles of the war.
To: All
OK while we're on the subject of movies has anyone seen 'Chicago'? My wife is going to drag me to that this weekend. What am I in for?
To: JohnHuang2
It's a thought provoking movie, but unconventional and not in-sync with the short attention span and conditioned expectations of the modern moviegoer. Does it accurately represent the way people spoke and interacted - formally and at length? Maybe. The history of everyday life is finally more interesting than the history of great men and ideas.
The battle scenes are a brilliant display of interrupted violence - reloading here, dying there, the dreamy sight of men flowing past in uniform on a pleasant afternoon, half modern warfare, half county fair. It's precisely the way Tolstoi (who fought in the Crimean War in the 1850's), described battle in War and Peace.
97
posted on
03/25/2003 2:31:32 PM PST
by
monkey
To: Non-Sequitur
"Why not? You do."Actually, I make a sincere effort to believe what seems to me to be most likely true. But you won't believe that because you don't want to.
98
posted on
03/25/2003 2:31:38 PM PST
by
Aurelius
To: Renatus
Ditto!
99
posted on
03/25/2003 2:39:31 PM PST
by
scott7278
(Peace had it's chance, now it's bombs away!)
To: Ff--150
Duh! Sheeple can't sit that long--but it is heartening to see Terrible Ted yet losing more money however...I have a few issues with Ted myself, but he's already lost a few billion on paper as it is ;o)
BTAIM, the movie was fantatsic! Without a doubt, it is one of the most Christian films ever produced.
Just think, that if the idiots that GAVE an Oscar to a pedophile and another to the liar Michael Moron are against it, it must be a GREAT movie.
Furthermore, the detractors that state that 4 hours is too long probably have no problem staying that long for a football game, a round of golf, a race, or various other activities - they're simply looking for an excuse. The movie was too short!
100
posted on
03/25/2003 8:16:45 PM PST
by
4CJ
('No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.' - Alexander Hamilton)
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