I Love Virginia More: Gods and Generals

   Every war has more than one side. Each side has a cause. Every soldier in a war has a reason for supporting the side they're on. Gods and Generals is a Civil War film that looks at that in a certain way: For the sake of home. They say that home is where the heart is. Gods and Generals is a perfect example of that. The prequel to Gettysburg, (which was released in 1993,) Gods and Generals came to theaters in 2003. I'm warning you, this movie is hard to watch because of it's long running time of three hours and thirty nine minutes, but it can be worth it. We're going to look at reasons why...

  

From Left to Right: Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee

    Our story starts in 1861, at the start of the American Civil War. Robert E. Lee has been offered the role of Major General of the Union, or Northern, army. Because his home is in Virginia and it's a southern state, Lee declines saying, "And though I love the Union, I love Virginia more." Soon after Lee is chosen to lead the Confederate army of the South in which he accepts. Next we have Thomas Jonathan Jackson. He is a very religious man and will also be a strong general of the Confederates. During the war he'll gain the famous nickname of "Stonewall" Jackson, due to his poise in battle. Although most of the film is about the Confederacy, another side of the story is taking place within the Union. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain has left his wife and children to become a Lieutenant Colonel of the 20th Maine Regiment of the Union. Who will this war be in favor of, and who will survive? 

    Gods and Generals is a film of pure emotion. All my life, I've thought of the Confederates as "the bad guys" because they wanted to keep slavery. But I have ancestors who were in the South or even fought in the war at that time, and the film showed that those with the Confederacy were not all bad people. The Civil War was a war that tore people apart. In a scene set in Fredericksburg, we see the American Irish fighting on both sides. One man starts to cry during battle. Why? He is Irish, and he realizes that he and his fellow Irishmen are killing their own.
    
       So why is it called Gods and Generals? A lot of the characters in the film are portrayed as very religious, specifically Christian. Stonewall Jackson demonstrates this the most. He is shown reading the bible with his wife, and there are scenes where he prays with emotion. It is Stonewall himself that says during the movie, "My religious faith teaches me that God has already fixed the time of my death; therefore, I think not of it. I am as calm in battle as I would be in my own parlor. God will come for me in his own time." Religion will offer many people strength over the course of the war. But why "Gods" instead of, "God" and Generals? Of course "Gods and Generals" does sound better than "God and Generals", but is there anything more to it than that? I'm really not sure, so please leave ETF a comment with your thoughts on this! 

      Tears, as well as blood, will be shed in the Civil War. So, so many tears. Tears for family, tears for fellow men, and tears for homes. From the first to the last ten minutes, Gods and Generals displays the beautiful theme of home and the identity that one's home gives to them. In the film Lee talks about how a place could be a mark on the map to one person but so much more to another. He says that, "But to us, my goodness, they're birthplaces and burial grounds. Places where you and I learned to walk, to talk, and to pray. Places where we made friendships and oh yes, fell in love." Lee emphasizes that where you grow up makes a part of who you are. Some of the men in the war are not fighting for slavery. Some are fighting to protect their families. Some are fighting for the state(s) and the country they call home. 
        A beautiful song by Mary Fahl entitled, "Going Home" is accompanied with the film and is heard in the opening credits. The lyrics are perfect for this film: I know in my bones that I've been here before. The ground feels the same, though the land's been torn. I've a long way to go; The stars tell me so, on this road that will take me home. 

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Alone and Tormented: Tim Burton's Vincent

    Anyone who knows Tim Burton well, might know that his first short film was his own poem adapted into a story called, Vincent. It's a stop-motion animated film that was made in black and white. Even though it is between five and six minutes, Vincent is a very entertaining short worthy of being watched over and over again. 

      Vincent Maloy is seven years old. He's always polite and does what he's told. For a boy his age he's considerate and nice. But he wants to be just like Vincent Price. There you have it. In his first short film comes Tim Burton's poem about a little boy named Vincent. This young man loves all things dark and spooky, including Edgar Allen Poe. But will his passion for things of that kind drive poor  Vincent out of his mind?

    Vincent is an interesting watch because it makes you try to put yourself in Vincent's shoes. You might try to imagine what it's like to feel Vincent's kind of madness and you wonder if he really was tormented by it. In the film his mother tells him that, "You're not possessed and you are not almost dead. These games that you play are all in your head." One opinion on Youtube that I heard suggested that Vincent is schizophrenic. I found this to be an excellent idea as far as mental illness goes, but Vincent doesn't quite show the symptoms of schizophrenia.  

     So Vincent is interesting, but is that what makes it entertaining? There are a few factors. First of all, you have the great narration of Vincent Price himself. Price along with his voice was well suited to this kind of story and told it like no one could have. His voice had feeling and created some of the foreboding extremely well. Secondly, the part that seems to be the most engaging and exciting is the ending scene. Truthfully, it's very intense in which Vincent becomes overwhelmed by "every horror in his life." "Overwhelmed" might be an understatement. That word is one way to put it, but for Vincent it appeared to be a nightmare that he could not survive.

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The TV People: Poltergeist (1982)

 

    Halloween has ended here in America, and I didn't really get around to posting anything for the season. I suppose now is as good a time as any, so the Halloween flick we're going to look at right now is none other than Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist from 1982. I'm not going to lie, this movie freaked me out a little bit when I was younger. But I watched it again about a year or two ago, and it became one of my favorites.  Last year in 2015, a remake also entitled Poltergeist was released. From what I've seen of the remake, I like Steven Spielberg's better. Let's consider reasons reasons why:

      Once upon a time, there lived the Freeling Family in a community in California known as Questa Verde. They appear to be a very happy and loving family. There's Stephen, a real estate man, his wife Diane, their teenage daughter Dana, their young son named Robert, and their youngest daughter, 5-year-old Carol Anne. One night, the family finds Carol Anne loudly talking to the TV. In the few days that follow, the Freeling Family experience what seem to be supernatural occurrences, such as furniture moving by itself and strange behavior from the pets. Before they know it, Carol Anne has mysteriously disappeared. Will they be able to find her, or have they lost their home and their little girl to a poltergeist?

       The thing about Poltergeist is that is really is creepy. It only starts to get creepy at the part of the film when things go wrong. Before Carol Anne disappeared, the family wasn't all that concerned. Now they're scared out of their wits. One thing that can be noticed is that once the terrors begin to unfold, the film is able to let you know when something really evil is present. This changes the atmosphere to give even an innocent childrens' room a unsafe feeling. In one scene when the closet is sucking up everything in the kids' room, you can hear small bits of laughter. I found that as you hear that laughter and see toys flying into the closet at the same time, the joyful aura that the toys are supposed to have felt exaggerated, and therefore creepy as well. 

        
     Poltergeist has great special effects, and there was no use of CGI when making the film. With all of the scary things that go on in the movie, none of it looks cartoonish. Most of the time, the horrors of the film are separated from the outside world. This is because all of it is taking place inside the Freeling home. When there are scenes that aren't happening in the house, the whole story still looks real, making it all the more suspenseful and frightening. It may even be better than the remake. Regardless, Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist will always be a spooky classic.

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