Re: What kind of person was Stonewall Jackson?

Yes, I may be a bit extreme. I am not saying that Jackson was a bad man. Or

that I need him to be a bad man. I am just saying that at no point in the 
film Gods and Generals did he reflect upon his own role in history. There 
was no scene in which the Confederate generals thought about the nature of

slavery. It was briefly dismissed as doomed to disappear on it's own, and 
therefore irrelevant to the war. There was talk about courage and honour. 
And cincerity. But not a word about slavery. There should have been scenes

where the nature of the conflict would be apparent. It may be that no such

scenes were possible because it never occurred to the confederate generals

at the time. But then that too would make a great scene: The generals
filled 
with heroic nonsense indifferent to the slaves that cook their meals and 
pick their cotton. They could toast their own courage, only to tell the 
nigger to get inside and shut up in the next sentence.

Anyway, this is just my opinion. Hope you don't take offence.

Mike




"Will in New Haven" <bill.reich@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> skrev i melding 
news:f16dd558-ea87-490e-ab18-6846024ea76f@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Jun 28, 7:29 am, "Michael" <michaelwy...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Thanks for you reply "Will in New Haven" . I know a little history, but
I
> have much to learn yet. Another scene that bothered me from the film
Gods
> and Generals was when they had Stonewall Jackson crying about the death
of 
> a
> little girl. And also they had him praying at all sort of times. That
film
> really made me puke.

Neither would have bothered me. It was a pious age, even though they
did not flinch from what we consider a great moral failing. Jackson
was even more pious than the average man in that day and age. He
certainly _did_ pray openly and on many occasions. The story of his
mourning the death of a little girl is not at all incompatable with
what we know of him.
I don't know the film and I never read the book but it sounds like an
accurate ****trayal of Jackson, up to a point. You must know that he
didn't _think_ he was a villain. So he forgot to snarl and curse and
tie little girls on train tracks. Do you want all your historical bad
guys to wear a black hat and kick puppies? Or do you think that people
on the wrong side should be ****trayed _dis_honestly because it would
be more politically correct?

>
> I guess, I would compare the south with apartheid (they had appartheid 
> there
> untill 1964). Yet unlike apartheid the south is shrouded in
sentimentality
> and myth. Even one of my favorite songs The Band's The Night They Drove 
> Old
> Dixie Down is full of this feelling. They should be celebrating the fact
> that a great evil has gone from the world. They should have scenes in 
> movies
> where the brave soldiers are confronted with evil they defended and
which
> show the moral dillemma that resulted. In stead they show Stonewall 
> Jackson
> praying and crying about little girls like he was some kind of saint.
>

When the Ministry for Truth, comrade, makes the movies, they will
impart the proper values, I assure you. Even if they have to lie.
After all, the fact that he prayed all the damn time is so
inconvenient. Try very hard not to say _should_ about art for a week.
It would be a great exeercise for you.

–
Will in New Haven
“I have seen the David, seen the Mona Lisa too
And I have heard Doc Watson play Columbus Stockade Blues"
Guy Clark - "Dublin Blues”
--