Posted on 08/08/2003 3:21:12 PM PDT by Radix
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:10:36 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
For all the controversy surrounding ''Buffalo Soldiers,'' you'd think the film would at least be interesting. Instead, Australian writer-director Gregor Jordan's adaptation of the 1992 novel by Robert O'Connor turns out to be much ado about nothing.
In case you haven't heard the saga: ''Buffalo Soldiers'' was bought by Miramax just before the tragedies of Sept. 11, 2001. Because of its subject matter -- US troops engaging in criminal activities overseas in the 1980s -- the film was labeled potentially unpatriotic and insensitive and had its release pushed back at least a half-dozen times by studio heads fearing a jingoistic backlash.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
They were also involved in an extremely racially charged incident during Teddy Roosevelts presidency, where the black soldiers, stationed in Brownsville, Texas, got fed up with being harrassed by the local equivelant of the kluckers and they went on their own little freedom ride, killing several townsfolk (rather indiscriminantly). TR was pretty liberal for his day and had been championing civil rights (even inviting the first black guest to the White House). When this incident happened, and not one of the black soldiers would say who had gone AWOL to riot in the town, he court martialed and cashiered the whole unit. It may be the beginning of the Republicans problems with the black community.
Now that's something I could get behind Jesse and Kwesi arguing with Hollywierd about. Wouldn't that be an interesting fight? "You ripped off our history for the title of a BAD movie!"
There are lot's of parts that Denzel could play, but he may think he already did this bit in Glory. I think it's too big a story to do right in a single movie. I'd love to see an HBO series, ala Band of Brothers or From The Earth To The Moon.
My actual fantasy is to have the Buffalo Soldiers be part of 3 or four episodes of a grand epic that covers from 1850 (enough before the Civil War to set the stage) to 1920 (enough after WW1 to show the aftermath). I've already got a rough outline if anyone is interested. Main characters are Sam Clemens, Edwin Booth (who saved the life of) Robert Todd Lincoln, General/Governor Lew Wallace (author of Ben Hur, judge at trial of Lincoln assasin conspiracy, Gov of New Mexico who ended Lincoln County Wars, ambassador to Ottoman Empire), Teddy Roosevelt, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, Edward the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm, etc. It's a good list and you can make a great case for these people either knowing each other or being connected through, at most, one other person.
www.reelwriter.com/hjohnson.shtm
www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwi/articles/fightingforrespect.aspx
As to the rest of your cast list, I know Tesla [and Marconi?] and Westinghouse and Edison were on [different corners of] the same playing field, but what stadium tunnel did Kaiser Bill and Queen Victoria use to come in? [Besides the two of them being cousins, or whatever.]
Well, the cousin thing is actually a grandmother / grandson thing, but that's a big part of it (the Kaiser's mom was one of Victoria's daughters, as was the Czarina, if I remember right). The way to get to stories involving them was through Clemens (on his trips to Europe he mingled with royalty in England and Germany) as well as through Robert Todd Lincoln, who was ambassador to England at one point in Victoria's reign. He certainly would have interacted with the Queen, and probably with the Kaiser as well. In addition Lew Wallace was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) at the same time and they were very heavily involved with the Kaiser, at least later, in the run up to WW1.
Hey, I'm assuming that I would have some artistic license, as well.
There's a new book I want to get (when I finish the new Tom Clancy I bought today) called Empires of Light about Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse and their competition to electrify the country. Based on the relative treatment by Hollywood and most history courses who would guess won?
http://www.tfcbooks.com
http://www.tfcbooks.com/mall/more/381tele.htm
Tesla was the inspiration for what started out as
"mad scientist invents killer ray gun" stories, and has since
morphed into a more familiar sci-fi concept, the "phaser".
He also did some interesting stuff with low-frequency
radiation and electrical power production. When Tesla was
just a kid, his brother drowned in an accident. He blamed (tortured) himself,
for years afterward. His curse, and indirectly, the blessing
that drove him to greatness...
Oops, gotta go. Kelly Rowland (Destiny's Child) is on Jay Leno...
By the way, I gotta ask, what is a "phsstpok"? The sound a balky steam engine makes?
I've known about Tesla since I was a kid. My dad had told me, not about Tesla but about his own ideas as a kid about transmitting power over the air (never pursued, just something that fascinated him). When I stumbled across Tesla and his work in Colorado I became fascinated, both with the verifiable reality and the fringe stories that probably can never be proved. Lots of people still remember the myths and fantastic tales that inspired the "evil scientist" cliche, probably because that is what Edison's friends in the media played up to spin Tesla as a kook. I've tried to concentrate on the things that he really did produce and demonstrate. When I ask people about the patent on radio or inventing radio controlled torpedos they never associate those things with Tesla or come close to the real dates that he did them.
My favorite is laying out the question about Edison and Tesla competing to see whose electric system, AC or DC, would win out to electrify the country (I leave out Westinghouse most of the time, until I tell them who really won). Most everyone assume that Edison won, which to them means he invented AC. This is particularly true of older New Yorkers because of the old Edison Electric Company that served the NYC area.
Do you know the story of Sam Clemens discovering the laxative effects of high frequency electricity?
forgot to mention, this is a character from a Larry Niven story, Protector. It's part of his Known Space books, which includes probably his best known book Ringworld.
I've always pronounced the name as "fist-pok." I think Niven actually uses the "balky steam engine" analogy in his description. Horribly dated science in the science fiction of this story (one of his few forays into biology and evolution) but a fun read, particularly as part of the entire Known Space "universe."
It certainly soured TR's relations, and it broke the almost automatic bond left from the Civil War and Lincoln between blacks and Republicans.
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