GDG- movies

[Chet Diestel]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "keith mackenzie" <bluzdad at yahoo.com>
To: "GDG" <gettysburg at arthes.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 9:04 AM
Subject: RE: GDG- movies


> Esteemed GDG Member K Contributes:
>
>
> I always thought Red  Badge of Courage with wossname, Audie Murphy, was a 
> pretty good Civil War Movie.
>  K.

  Despite the editing job by the studio, "Red Badge of Courage" remains, 
IMHO a great look at war itself, which, after all is the great theme of 
Stephen Crane's small masterpiece of literature.
  Director John Houston used the film to express his feelings about war and, 
more importantly, the young men who fought them that he had impressed upon 
him during his time in World War II, where he directed (as well as filmed a 
good part of) one of the most magnificent war documentaries of all 
time ---"The Battle for San Pietro."
  And it was brilliant casting to make the film's stars Audie Murphy and 
Bill Mauldin (the great cartoonist) --- the two great symbols of America's 
World War II GIs --- as the two principles players in the film. There is a 
moment in the final charge when both Murphy and Mauldin instinctively adopt 
the running crouch of combat veterans which adds a realism Central Casting 
could never match.
   It may not be THE MOVIE or "Gods And Generals," but it has a lot of the 
elements of soldiering and combat that I wished those two movies had.
    With regards,
             Chet