Radio War Nerd EP #362 — The US Civil War, Part 13: Civil War Movies, with Eileen Jones

I’d love to hear something about Gen. David Hunter and his attempts to free slaves and form regiments of Black men in the south (to the chagrin of Washington) in a future episode. (Apologies if you’ve already covered this and I’ve missed it).

Hammer and Camera

Civil War as backdrop we also got "Cold Mountain" (Odyssian journey- back-home after the human catastrophe of the battle of the Crater, the uniquely Appalachian home front, and the depredations of the NC home guard), "Dances With Wolves" (indirect analysis of PTSD?) and the History Channel's version of "Roots" (the war crime that was Ft. Pillow). Also, I was hoping to hear about y'alls take on "Andersonvile"🙁

Jonathan McClintock

Another stinker of note was 'Santa Fe Trail'. Ends at Harper's Ferry with the demise of sinister rabble rouser John Brown (Raymond Massey), whose downfall is ably engineered by heroic duo Jeb Stuart (Erroll Flynn) and George Custer (Ronald Reagan). The former was actually there, adding a note of verisimilitude to an otherwise fabricated 'romance'. Slaves had a walk-on part as dupes of white abolitionists. 1940, Michael Curtiz. After Auschwitz best forgotten.

Martin Davis

Mark nearly got it right at 19:32: the men producing movies are/were white, movie goers are/were mostly white, and most white people probably aren't entertained by white people being depicted as extremely evil and blacks being innocent victims.

David Andrews

It does fit with the overall themes of the discussion. It portrays the Civil War as a senseless and tragic conflict where neither side has the moral high ground (including the Union operating a prison camp where inmates are tortured). Eastwood even has that line, "I've never seen so many men wasted so badly." There's no mention of slavery or the fact that the South started the war, etc.. But oh well. I think it's a great film regardless.

a clash of purple

Should “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” be considered a Civil War movie?

John Zich

How about "The Traitors of Westpoint?"

Peter

Only if it's Shiloh

William

Crowdfund a War Nerd Civil War script with Eileen's help!

Peter

I got kicked off twitter for writing that they should have hanged General Lee as a traitor.

Great episode, great guest. Loved this one.

Crunky

I know this will be unpopular but what Nat Turner did was wrong. Slavery is not worse than murdering the kids of someone who treated you well. 2 wrongs don’t make a right.

Alejandro

I was originally from the south and as an early teen i moved to the north. I remember romanticized the south in movies not for any other reason then I used it as I am not like all of you. It took until those riots in Charlottesville for me to think oh shit I don't want to be on these guys side. But i do remember thinking the north are monsters burning down your country

William Vetter

Eileen saying "God this has been delightful!" at the end there is how I felt about listening to the episode

(American spirit menthol

A wonderful short film (based on a short story) using the Civil War as a setting was An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. It was turned into a Twilight Zone episode in the 60s. I'm pretty sure it's been discussed on the show before. As for Grant, I'll put in a vote for the cartoonishly silly The Legend of the Lone Ranger featuring Ulysses S Grant played by Jason Robards. I used to watch that over and over as a little kid. It has Christopher Lloyd as the baddie kidnapping President Grant. It's pretty goofy, but not nearly as bad as the Johnny Depp one that came out a while ago. Bring some popcorn and be on the lookout for Hawk from Twin Peaks.

Eric Snow