GDG- Re: Civil War movies

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Mark writes:

I  personally think that the way a civil war movie is filmed and edited has 
much  to do with it's success. Glory, which I hold as the standard for Civil 
War  films is beautifully shot and masterfully edited. The characters are  
compelling and they look right for the time period. (No Fat old slobs running  
around in badly constructed Sutler Row uniforms)



It was one of the first films from Hollywood to use CW reenactors - one of  
the mini-series TV things do too (either "North & South  Book 2" or  "The Blue 
& The Gray" - I forget which offhand).
 
When I started in Civil War roundtables in California in 1987, as a member  
of the sadly defunct Long Beach CWRT (I was notified about its existence by the 
 late Richard Rollins) we had Ray Herbeck as a speaker, who was the  
historical/reenactor consultant for "Glory," come and do a program for us.   One of 
the things that he mentioned right off was the he had to look long and  hard for 
reenactors that had "the right look" for the film meaning age and  proper 
physical size.  He also stated that if you were over that in any  way, especially 
in terms of girth, you were always stuck as far back or to the  flank of a 
battle line as he could stick you so that the guys that made it on  camera for 
closer viewing would retain the look and the other guys were there  just to 
fill out the line.  In short, no fat reenactors were going to get  any good 
screen time if he could help it!
 
He had some great stories about recruiting bums off the streets of  Savannah, 
adding in Ohio State college students and some other sources for men  of the 
54th Massachusetts.  This film did indeed set the bar for any other  CW film 
that followed it - but it seems that Maxwell did not pay attention to  much of 
what "Glory" had to offer - which is very sad.
 
You might enjoy the fact that one of the West Coast Civil War conferences  
that was hosted that year by our Long Beach CWRT remains to this very day, some  
17 or so years later, the most talked about ever for the series of those fine 
 conferences (and it set the record for conference attendance too).  Its  
theme was "Hollywood And The Civil War" and each presenter, save for James  
McPherson who was keynote speaker, had to offer a program that ties into a CW  
movie.  I, being the then resident Atlanta Campaign expert on the West  Coast, did 
"The Siege of Atlanta and Gone With The Wind."  Others did  programs on the 
"Great Locomotive Chase," Grierson's raid via "The Horse  Soldiers, and 
Hampton's Beefsteak raid via "Alvarez Kelly," etc.  The first  evening was a series 
of silent CW films from the archives of USC's Film School  accompanied by a 
piano player - as theater goers would experience back in their  time, coupled 
with a lecture from one of the professors from that fine film  department.  I own 
a number of the "Gray Ghost" TV episodes and brought  those in for lunchtime 
viewing and a CW film was shown each evening.
 
It was a tremendous event and I am quite proud to have been a part of  it.
 
Greg Biggs



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