Non Civil War Books and Movies

O' Be Joyful

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Hmmmm….
One theme is fathers. The boy's father is away at war, "missing in action" Imaginary Adolf, who is supportive and empathetic is a substitute father figure. A wounded army officer interested in Jojo's mother acts in a fatherly, protective way. Even his mother at one point smears ashes on her cheeks to simulate beard stubble and dresses in the father's army coat and does an impression of Jojo's dad for the boy.
I was being sarcastic Matt, which has always been my tendency, in this case directed towards @Tom 's post about your need to gather cranberries. :D Thursday is coming quickly. But I still intend to see it.
 

Andersonh1

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I've finished volume 1 of Freeman's George Washington biography, and reading it reminded me of the early days of reading about the Civil War, when every page I turned brought new information that I did not know before, and it was a genuine delight to learn. Information is apparently scarce about much of Washington's life as a child and young teen (fables about cherry trees aside, which Freeman confines to the appendix), so the early chapters are built around Washington's grandfather and then father, and the Virginia society of the mid to late 1600s and early 1700s in order to give the colonial history and ultimately the society in which George Washington grew up. It's a tangle of land grants and multiple marriages due to high mortality rates and gets hard to follow at some points, but again it's history that I knew very little of. And I wonder about the state of education when Freeman wrote this in the 1940s, given how he refers in the foreward to people and events that "every man knows about" but which I knew nothing about. Washington's life was apparently far more well-known in the past than it has since become.

Once the narrative reaches Washington's teen years, he spends time as a surveyor, idolizes his older brother and spends time on a survey expedition to the Shenandoah. He keeps a careful account of the money he earns, and then when his brother died at the young age of 32, is appointed to succeed him in the Virginia militia, and leads several military expeditions into the Ohio which lead to conflicts with the French, since both France and England claim the same area.

It is an excellent book, and I still have volume 2 to look forward to. I'll need to keep my eyes open for volumes 3-6 at an affordable price online somewhere. My library only had volume 7, or else I could have checked these out from there as I did Lee's Lieutenants and the biography of Lee.
 

Matt McKeon

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I've finished volume 1 of Freeman's George Washington biography, and reading it reminded me of the early days of reading about the Civil War, when every page I turned brought new information that I did not know before, and it was a genuine delight to learn. Information is apparently scarce about much of Washington's life as a child and young teen (fables about cherry trees aside, which Freeman confines to the appendix), so the early chapters are built around Washington's grandfather and then father, and the Virginia society of the mid to late 1600s and early 1700s in order to give the colonial history and ultimately the society in which George Washington grew up. It's a tangle of land grants and multiple marriages due to high mortality rates and gets hard to follow at some points, but again it's history that I knew very little of. And I wonder about the state of education when Freeman wrote this in the 1940s, given how he refers in the foreward to people and events that "every man knows about" but which I knew nothing about. Washington's life was apparently far more well-known in the past than it has since become.

Once the narrative reaches Washington's teen years, he spends time as a surveyor, idolizes his older brother and spends time on a survey expedition to the Shenandoah. He keeps a careful account of the money he earns, and then when his brother died at the young age of 32, is appointed to succeed him in the Virginia militia, and leads several military expeditions into the Ohio which lead to conflicts with the French, since both France and England claim the same area.

It is an excellent book, and I still have volume 2 to look forward to. I'll need to keep my eyes open for volumes 3-6 at an affordable price online somewhere. My library only had volume 7, or else I could have checked these out from there as I did Lee's Lieutenants and the biography of Lee.
Can you get the other volumes through interlibrary loan?
 

Matt McKeon

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He doesn't try to solve problems, that's not the point. Its a fascinating look for an outsider on Japanese mores and customs.
I finished watching both seasons on Netflix. Other seasons exist, and I hope Netflix acquires them.

The people haunting this tiny restaurant are people who haunt all night places in some cases: a yakuza(mafia type criminal), police detectives, a taxi driver, people who work in other bars or clubs that close in the wee hours. But a lot of them seem like regular folks that shouldn't be up after midnight: salarymen and office ladies, retirees.
 

Matt McKeon

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I finished watching both seasons on Netflix. Other seasons exist, and I hope Netflix acquires them.

The people haunting this tiny restaurant are people who haunt all night places in some cases: a yakuza(mafia type criminal), police detectives, a taxi driver, people who work in other bars or clubs that close in the wee hours. But a lot of them seem like regular folks that shouldn't be up after midnight: salarymen and office ladies, retirees.
The tone is melancholy. The customers are people who seem (I'm quoting a review that is right on this) not to really like the people they turned out to be. The dishes they ask for and consume are often the simple, home cooked meals of their youth.
 

Matt McKeon

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The tone is melancholy. The customers are people who seem (I'm quoting a review that is right on this) not to really like the people they turned out to be. The dishes they ask for and consume are often the simple, home cooked meals of their youth.
I'm pretty sure some of the meaning is "lost in translation." There are rituals around eating and family interactions that are cultural and some that are universal.
I spend half of one episode wondering why one couple couldn't communicate or even read the other's letter until I realized that one person was Korean. The subtitles of course are all in English.
 

Wehrkraftzersetzer

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well: Dr Herbert W. Franke - Der Elfenbeinturm
most of You unfit to read it, but brilliant
 

Matt McKeon

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Midway
Saw it at the movie house last night, the only place to see it. Jam packed with plenty of action, a little incoherent, and no cliché remains unsaid.

Considering its complexity, I think a miniseries is in order. Plenty of incredibly dramatic moments.
 

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Midway
Saw it at the movie house last night, the only place to see it. Jam packed with plenty of action, a little incoherent, and no cliché remains unsaid.

Considering its complexity, I think a miniseries is in order. Plenty of incredibly dramatic moments.
Thanks for the heads up.
 

Matt McKeon

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The Aeronauts
God Almighty, I wished I had seen this in IMAX. Its the story, very, very loosely based on the balloon ascent of British pioneer meterologist James Glaisher. He reached an altitude of 7 miles in 1862. In the movie he is accompanied by the fictional Amelia Wren, played by Felicity Jones, standing in for a composite of several women balloonists.
The real star in the incredible feeling of being alone in silent ocean of cold air. A visual delight.
 

Matt McKeon

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The Public
Emilio Estevez is a mild mannered librarian in Cincinnati, when a mob of homeless men take over the 3rd floor of the library. Stung about being made the scapegoat in a earlier dispute over a homeless man, Stuart stays with the men as they barricade the entrances. For the homeless guys, its literally life or death; its the coldest night of the year, and the city's homeless shelters are overfilled.

A fast moving and well acted, if not quite realistic melodrama.
 

Andersonh1

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Got some books off my wish list for Christmas today, two somewhat related to the Civil War but not entirely, and the third very much about the war.

- Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made by Eugene Genovese
- The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis - this was a devotional that apparently meant a lot to Jefferson Davis, particularly while he was imprisoned in Fortress Monroe
- Pickett's Charge by George R. Stewart.

Between these and the rest of volume 2 of Washington's biography, I'll have plenty to read in the near future.

In addition, I got a few movies as well. You may notice that John Wayne turns up quite often!
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - a classic, no doubt, and I haven't seen it in years.
- The Searchers - supposed to be one of the all time great westerns, but I've never seen it.
- The Undefeated - like so many of these, I saw a few scenes on Youtube that made me want to see the whole movie. This one looks like a couple of officers, one Union and one Confederate, trying to deal with post-war life.
 

O' Be Joyful

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The Searchers - supposed to be one of the all time great westerns, but I've never seen it.
A complicated film, but a must see. It took decades for it to be appreciated. It took me a few viewings to fully take it in.

The plus is Natalie Wood. ;) And Capt. Pike--gratuitous Star Trek reference--a.k.a. Jeffery Hunter.



 

Matt McKeon

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Got some books off my wish list for Christmas today, two somewhat related to the Civil War but not entirely, and the third very much about the war.

- Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made by Eugene Genovese
- The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis - this was a devotional that apparently meant a lot to Jefferson Davis, particularly while he was imprisoned in Fortress Monroe
- Pickett's Charge by George R. Stewart.

Between these and the rest of volume 2 of Washington's biography, I'll have plenty to read in the near future.

In addition, I got a few movies as well. You may notice that John Wayne turns up quite often!
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - a classic, no doubt, and I haven't seen it in years.
- The Searchers - supposed to be one of the all time great westerns, but I've never seen it.
- The Undefeated - like so many of these, I saw a few scenes on Youtube that made me want to see the whole movie. This one looks like a couple of officers, one Union and one Confederate, trying to deal with post-war life.
Santa was good to you! The Undefeated is a little lighter than either the Searchers or Liberty Valance but its very entertaining.
 

Matt McKeon

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A complicated film, but a must see. It took decades for it to be appreciated. It took me a few viewings to fully take it in.

The plus is Natalie Wood. ;) And Capt. Pike--gratuitous Star Trek reference--a.k.a. Jeffery Hunter.



Wayne plays a man driven by his hatreds, terrifying in his rages, focused and cunning in his vengeance. But he's not a villain, or a 'badguy' in any conventional way. A couple of parts have aged not so well, but its a great film.
 
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