US Civil War

I’ve already addressed the Russian Civil War (1918-22) and the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), and from this war, the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863).   But I suppose a blog on the entire war is appropriate.

Background & Beginning.   Up to 1860, the United States was splitting up into two camps.  Northern states were more industrialized (though still highly rural), whereas southern states still relied on slavery to keep their plantations going.  In November 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election.  Since he was known to oppose slavery, the southern states feared he would abolish it (a decision he only made after the war began).  On April 12, 1861, southern forces fired on Fort Sumter outside Charleston, South Carolina, and the war began.

Union States (i.e. states which did not secede, though that includes some slave states): Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota, California, plus Missouri, Kentucky and Kansas.  West Virginia was actually formed from the mountainous northwestern counties of Virginia which opted not to secede – or rather, they seceded from Virginia, which itself had seceded from the Union. 

Confederate States (in order of secession): South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.  When Virginia seceded the CSA capital moved to Richmond.   (Fair warning: I’m living in Virginia now, and have been since 1990.)

With the capital there, including the Tredegar Iron Works and generals Lee and Jackson, Virginia is arguably the most important Confederate state.  Route 1 is still called Jefferson Davis Highway (named after the Confederate president) and Richmond is full of Confederate statues.  The city is well aware of its historical significance.

As Rhett Butler reminded the enthusiastic would-be rebel officers in “Gone With The Wind”, the Union states enjoyed higher population, far more railroads, and far more industrial capacity.  The South’s only chance was to knock out the Union quickly, because in a war of attrition the Union would prevail, which both sides recognized.

Sure enough, early in the war, the south enjoyed major victories such as Bull Run (two battles) near Manassas in Virginia, with such capable commanders as Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.  The Union’s numerical superiority was mostly squandered by General McClellan, who was mislead by his “intelligence” (?) chief Pinkerton to overestimate CSA forces.  When correctly apprised of CSA forces, as he was at Antietam in Maryland in 1862, McClellan did somewhat better.  In fact, the Union victory at Antietam persuaded the British and French not to intervene on behalf of the Confederacy. 

Vicksburg & (Spa)Gettysburg.  In summer 1863 a pair of major battles turned the tide for the Union.  At Vicksburg, in Mississippi, heretofore unknown Union general Ulysses S. Grant engaged in a brilliant campaign through the impassable swamps of the city to outflank the city and take it – a city previously deemed to be impregnable – it was “inconceivable” that any army could navigate those swamps.  Apparently not.  Capturing Vicksburg gave the Union effective control over the Mississippi River and cut the western Confederate states off from the eastern ones, splitting the country in two. 

At Gettysburg, in south-central Pennsylvania, Meade faced off against Lee in early July, and Pickett’s charge on day three failed to destroy the Union lines.  Defeated, the CSA forces limped back to Virginia, but Meade failed to catch up to them and destroy them. 

Next year, Lincoln put Grant in charge of Union forces (March 1864), and for his part Grant put Sherman in charge of another pincer of Union forces to attack through Tennessee – by way of Chattanooga – and eventually take both Atlanta (September 1864) and Savannah (December 1864). 

The south was able to launch one more attack into Maryland in July 1864 (intended to draw off Union forces from their assault on Richmond), but with Lew “Ben Hur” Wallace’s successful delay at Monocacy outside Frederick, Washington was successfully reinforced and CSA armies under Early were forced to retreat back into Virginia again without achieving any strategic victories.

End.  Sherman captured Atlanta and Savannah in 1864, Grant captured Richmond and Petersburg in early April 1865, so by then it was apparent to Lee that the war could not be won.  The CSA surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia on April 12 – four years to the date of the attack on Fort Sumter.  The war was over, the Union preserved, and slavery abolished throughout the entire country.   (“And there was much rejoicing…”)

Movies.  There have been numerous movies, including “North And South” (a miniseries) and “Birth of a Nation” (1915).  I like “Gettysburg”, and “Gone With The Wind”, though not exclusively about the war itself, certainly qualifies.  I’m not aware of any Civil War sitcoms or animated series – perhaps a lucrative, untapped market.

Books.   Shelby Foote has written a large non-fiction account, and as I’ve noted in prior blogs, there are at least two alternate history series.  The more modest one, written by none other than former Republican congressman from Georgia, Newt Gingrich, speculates on what might have happened if the battle of Gettysburg had never occurred.  The more ambitious series, by Harry Turtledove, makes Antietam (err, Camp Hill) a Confederate victory, the British and French intervened to force Lincoln to an armistice, and as a result the CSA won the Civil War and remained a separate country.  The two countries faced off again in 1884 (the Second Mexican War), again in 1914 (WWI), with the US allying with Imperial Germany, and then again in 1941 (WWII), with the US allying with as yet still Imperial Germany (the Nazis never took power).  The CSA by that point is led by a dictator, Jake Featherston, who engages in a major operation to wipe out the south’s black population in concentration camps.  Sounds familiar?   

Uniforms.   Although there were some variations between state units, the basic uniform was a sack coat in dark blue for Union troops and grey for Confederate troops.   Both sides wore kepis (flat top cloth hats).   With Civil War re-enacting a popular hobby (are there Russian and Spanish Civil War re-enactors?) replica uniforms are available online.  At some point I’ll buy a Union kepi….

Weapons.  Muzzle loading black powder rifles were standard on both sides (though repeaters came into use late in the war by Union forces).  These were difficult to use and veteran forces generally had three times the firepower of inexperienced troops, an advantage which only dissipated well after the war as smokeless powder breech-loading rifles became state of the art.  In the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) both the French and Prussians were using breech-loaders, though still using black powder.   As noted in a prior blog, the French invented smokeless powder. 

Both sides used cannons.  Decades before the Wright Brothers, balloons marked the extent of air forces, and the main naval ships were ironclads, though the Union navy’s Monitor marked the introduction of a revolving turret.  The Union navy focused on blockading Confederate ports to prevent trade and supplies arriving, mostly successfully; Wilmington, North Carolina being the final Confederate port to fall to Union naval forces.

Relatives.  Both grandparents on my mother’s side came from Poland through Ellis Island around the turn of the century, but my paternal grandmother’s family came to the US before the Revolution and were in New York at the time of the war.  My uncle said our great-grandfather was in the Brooklyn F.D. at the time and would have been exempt from military service (including the unpopular draft), but other male relatives would have been in Union blue at the time with New York regiments.  Ancestry.com listed several Broughtons from New York in the Union army, though I’m unaware of which if any were my actual relatives.  The odds are high that I have Union veterans in my family, most plausibly great-grand uncles. 

States’ Rats vs. Slavery.  Decades after the war, and more recently, many apologists for the South, plus many non-CSA advocates who should know better but want to appear more intelligent than they actually are, tried to retroactively make states’ rats the main cause of the war.  Of course, this conveniently ignores the Confederates themselves, who consistently maintained in April 1861 and throughout the war that the retention of their “peculiar institution” of slavery was the #1 reason for firing on Fort Sumter and leaving the Union.  Of course, even the assertion of states’ rats begs the question of which particular states’ rats they were defending, the most important being slavery.  Southern states even disputed New York asserting the rat to prohibit southerners bringing their slaves with them to New York, so that argument is disingenuous. 

Confederate Flag.  Although not actually the flag of the Confederacy itself, the battle flag, aka the “Stars & Bars”, nevertheless serves as the de facto CSA flag as far as contemporary enthusiasts – and less sympathetic observers whose ancestors were slaves – are concerned.  I’ve addressed the topic in a prior blog.  I’ve noticed that many, if not all, of those who proudly display the Confederate flag also make the above-noted argument that states’ rats, not slavery, was the reason the south attempted to secede from the Union.  Uh, yeah….

As I noted earlier, while advocates can certainly attempt to assert that their use of the flag is merely an expression of “Southern pride” and not a conscientious advocacy of slavery or opposition to the Thirteenth Amendment – or an assertion of white supremacy – it’s equally legitimate for blacks to resent the flag and consider it a de facto assertion of white supremacy.  For my part, I purchased a 35 state Union flag to assert my own support for the Union cause, on behalf of my New York ancestors who fought for the Union.  One day I hope to identify exactly who they were….

Gettysburg

My visits up to New Jersey, by way of Pennsylvania to avoid tolls, sometimes took me up Route 15 from Frederick, Maryland to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a route which led close by to Gettysburg, which is roughly a half hour northeast of Frederick and close by Route 15.   On those occasions I had no time to stop by the battlefield, but with a more recent surplus of weekend time, I made it a point to visit.  No one else cared, so I went by myself.

Background.  From 1861-1865 our country, the USA, was embroiled in a costly Civil War which cost the lives of 620,000 men, more than our WWI and WWII casualties combined.  The war started well for the Confederates, led by mostly capable men such as Lee, Longstreet and Samuel L. “Stonewall” Jackson, but in 1863 a pair of major battles at Vicksburg in Mississippi and Gettysburg in Pennsylvania smacked the rebels down and put them on the defensive.  Within the next two years the Union, its armies now finally led by competent men like Grant & Sherman, battered down the CSA armies, capturing Atlanta and Richmond and driving them to surrender at Appomattox, Virginia in April 1865, almost four years to the date of the firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina which started the war.

The battle itself took three days, July 1-3, 1863.  Confederate forces, led by Lee himself, collided with Union forces led by Meade.  On the first day the rebels succeeded at pushing back the Union forces south of the town itself, which eventually solidified into a “fishhook” mainly centered on the tactically superior higher ground. 

On the second day, Union forces on Little Round Top, the far southern flank of the fishhook, successfully fought off a heavy Confederate assault on the hill.  It reached the point where the Union commander, Colonel Chamberlain, realizing his men were almost out of ammunition and would be overrun by the next wave of Confederate attackers, decided to switch things around and ordered his men to fix bayonets and attack down the hill, a gutsy move which surprised the Confederates and overwhelmed them, defeating the rebel attempt to capture the high ground and saving the day. 

By the following day Pickett’s units finally showed up (well after he did) and Lee ordered a full frontal assault against the well-fortified Union lines on Cemetery Ridge.  Over open ground the rebels suffered heavy casualties from rifle and cannon fire, and only reached the Union lines at one point: the Angle, and all those rebel forces were killed.  Some of the artillery plaques noted that the guns fired canister against the rebels at point blank range.   

After the failure of Pickett’s Charge, the battle was over and the respective armies returned south.  The Union forces weren’t quick enough to capture Lee’s retreating armies, so the war had to go on for almost another two years.  However, the rebels were no longer strong enough to venture north again and were permanently on the defensive at this point, thus the battle represents a turning point in the war.

  

Four months later, Lincoln came and gave his famous Gettysburg Address.  I was a little late to witness it, but there’s a cemetery there now. 

1970s.  Back when I was living in the USA as a kid, my father and I, accompanied by three other father-son pairs, all of us Cub Scout or Webelos boys, visited Gettysburg on a camping trip.  Since this was around 1977 or 1978 my memories are hazy, except for a few details.  First off, the Visitor Center back then was much smaller; second, we toured the battlefield including Little Round Top and Devil’s Den; and third, we actually marched across the field from Pickett’s starting point all the way to the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge.   I enjoyed it but as noted above haven’t had the opportunity to revisit since then, notwithstanding passing close by several times.

Current visit.  The current visitor center is much larger and dates from the 2000s.   On Saturday, October 6, I saw the weather was overcast but not rainy.  I stopped by the visitor center and purchased a t-shirt, pint glass and fridge magnet, and then walked over to where the Union lines were on Cemetery Ridge.   I visited the Pennsylvania memorial which has a second story.  I walked down to Devil’s Den and up Little Round Top.  Then I walked back to my car in lot 3.  One of the guides at the visitor center warned that walking the entire battlefield area is a bit much, and he was right – all this walking, on its own, took over 2 hours.  I finished off the day by driving up into Gettysburg itself and then taking York Road back up northeast to Route 15.  Gettysburg features a small college and tons of stores, so it’s well worth visiting in its own right.  It’s another small US town which has succeeded at keeping its small town charm intact.   Maybe this has something to do with the battle.

The next day was sunny, so I decided to go back again.  This time I drove around the auto-tour route, going northwest and then down Confederate Road, a western path which runs through where Confederate lines were.  There’s a huge statute of General Bruce E. Lee up on his horse facing the Union lines, and back at Little Round Top the view with an afternoon sun is breathtakingly beautiful to the west.   I also checked out the visitor center’s museum, which had extensive s**t and nice narratives of each day’s battles. 

I remarked to one guy that if General Meade was as large as his statue, no wonder “we” won.  He laughed and replied, “y’all won.”  I observed other tourists wearing Stars & Bars insignia clearly showing their loyalties.  But everyone was in good spirits.  I couldn’t find any Broughtons listed on the New York memorials, although Ancestry.com lists multiple Broughtons from New York as having fought in the Civil War.  New York sent more troops to the Union than any other state, and of my relatives, the Broughtons were in New York at the time of the war.  I’ll keep looking.  [My uncle told me our direct ancestor was in the NY fire department during the war, suggesting that he was exempt from the draft as an essential worker back home in Brooklyn.]

Movie.  As noted in one of my prior blogs, they did make a movie of the battle (1993), with an A list cast:  Martin Sheen (Lee), Tom Berenger (Longstreet), Jeff Daniels (Joshua Chamberlain),  Oscar Goldman from the “Six Million Dollar Man” (Richard Anderson) as Union general Meade, George Lazenby from “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” as CSA General Pettigrew, Sam Elliott as Union cavalry general Buford, and even Ken Burns as a Union soldier.  It narrows its focus to the three days of the battle, its day two focus to Chamberlain’s heroic defense of Little Round Top and its day three focus to the ill-fated Pickett’s Charge, Pickett himself flamboyantly portrayed by Stephen Lang.  I also enjoyed Longstreet (Berenger)  having a candid chat with British observer Freemantle, correctly referring to England’s own civil war (1642-51) and accurately predicting that the British, who abolished slavery in 1833 and were very active in shutting down the slave trade, would be ill-inclined to support the Confederate cause.

Books.   The movie mentioned above is based on Michael Shaara’s 1976 book The Killer Angels, which I have not read.  I have read the trilogy by Newt Gingrich (yes, the former Republican congressman from Georgia), Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, Grant Comes East, and Never Call Retreat: Lee And Grant: The Final Victory.  This is actually an alternative history narrative.  Unlike Harry Turtledove’s Timeline, beginning with How Few Remain and continuing for 10 more books beginning in 1914 and ending in 1945, Gingrich’s narrative doesn’t assume Antietam didn’t happen (1862 Union victory which dissuaded the British and French from supporting the CSA) but instead speculates on what might have happened if Meade and Lee didn’t stick around to do battle at Gettysburg, i.e. the battle itself never happened (no victory for either side).  I found the ultimate outcome surprising, which made reading the books actually fairly interesting.  

I strongly recommend a visit to Gettysburg, which should be de rigeur for Civil War buffs of either side (as noted above) and should be interesting enough even for those who don’t bleed blue (as I do) or grey.

Back Country Roads

On my most recent drive back from Fort Lee, ultimate destination Frederick, Maryland (hi Mom!) I varied the route even more.  Normally I’d take I78 west, continue onto I81 west past Harrisburg, follow that all the way to Hagerstown, Maryland, and then loop back east on I70.

However, my travels on Route 30 through Pennsylvania, particularly from York to Lancaster and back, put me across the Susquehanna River at Wrightsville/Columbia.  Route 30 crosses the river on the Wrights Ferry Bridge, a modern 1972 four lane bridge.  Yet parallel to 30 is 462, part of the old Lincoln Highway, and crossing the river on the Veterans Bridge, a much fancier old bridge dating from 1930.  Imagining the traffic across this bridge being Model T’s and A’s is not hard at all – at least not for me. 

The map also shows that Route 30 continues west of York all the way to Gettysburg, where it hits Route 15 coming up from Frederick.  BINGO.   I took this route.  However, while Route 30 is 4 lanes with a median from York to Lancaster, and fairly rapid transit, west of York it zips down to another two-lane country road:  scenic but none too fast.  Two towns along the way have roundabouts, though.  From Gettysburg to Frederick, Route 15 passes through blue mountain scenery, a good complement to the turn-of-the-century small-town route of 30 from York to Gettysburg.  

As it is, Route 30 continues further west of Gettysburg to Chambersburg, where I81 passes through on its way up from Hagerstown.  And Route 15 continues northeast of Gettysburg to Harrisburg, where I81 likewise comes up from Carlisle.  All these roads are connected?  Amazing.  I had no idea.

FARM ON THE FREEWAY.   Sometimes you’re in a hurry.  You don’t have time to take the scenic route.  In that case the freeway is better.  But it’s a rare freeway that gives you any kind of view.   The New Jersey Turnpike is probably the most efficient at bringing you from Delaware to NYC as quickly and directly as possible, but no part of it is attractive.  I70 between Frederick and Hagerstown, and I78 between Allentown and I287 in New Jersey, are the nicest freeways I’ve seen in awhile. 

Bypasses.  Every now and then a major highway passes through a city center.  I95 passes close by downtown Baltimore and Richmond, and right through the center of Providence, Rhode Island.  I91 in Connecticut cuts right through downtown Harford.   Also many newer, modern interstates often seem to run parallel with older, slower routes.  In New Jersey, I80 follows Route 46, I78 follows Route 22 (continuing west into PA), and along the East Coast I95 closely parallels Route 1.  The newer highways tend to bypass the big cities while the older routes run straight through.   It all depends on how much of a hurry you’re in and how much you want to see. 

Other things to consider.  (A) Tolls.  I mentioned in a prior blog, the fastest route from DC to NYC and back has the most tolls.  Driving through PA has no tolls up to NY and only $1 going back.  Modest 4 lane state routes and two lane back country roads almost never have tolls.  (B) Traffic.  Much of the speed of freeways is compromised by construction delays, accident delays, and plain old rush hour traffic.  Theoretically, the NJTP route to NYC is 4 hours under optimal conditions, compared to 5 hours toll-less through PA.  But traffic delays can easily erode that advantage by 30 minutes or an hour, completely negating it.  (B) Night-time.  The picturesque views of the countryside are almost impossible to see at night, so the aesthetic advantage of the back roads is almost nil if you’re travelling then. 

Back Roads Part II – A Vast Conspiracy

If I were inclined to believe that totalitarian dictatorship, despite its dismal track record to date, nonetheless remains the optimal choice of government for a modern society, I could find a clever way of introducing it.   Naturally, Americans and Europeans intoxicated and addicted to this hazy notion of freedom, as abstract and meaningless as it might be, therefore resist vehemently and stridently any overt efforts to restrain said liberty.   Thus subversion and misdirection are necessary to achieve the desired outcome.

My fellow travelers of the so-called Pinko Persuasion, though their motives be pure, nonetheless fall prey to the easy siren song of mass transit.  Buses, trains, light rail, etc.   If we can’t control how people think – though that remains a work in progress on our campuses across the country – at least we can control where they go.   However, America is a huge country.  Adapting the entire country to mass transit on the interstate, intrastate, county, city, and neighborhood level is obviously impractical.

No.  The better solution is this:  adapt the interstates to computer control of otherwise privately owned vehicles.   Upon entering the freeway, the vehicle’s computer links with the Traffic Computer to disclose passengers, origin and destination.   The Traffic Computer coordinates this with all the other vehicles on the same road.  The Traffic Computer takes complete control of each and every vehicle.   Not merely speed, but also steering, braking, and lane changes.  New vehicles will be equipped to allow this; older vehicles can be retrofitted at no expense to the vehicle owner.  A condition of travel on the freeway is the express consent of each driver to relinquish manual control of the vehicle to the Traffic Control computer until the vehicle exits the freeway at its appropriate exit and rejoins the local roads.  

Doing so would allow traffic on the interstate to flow much more rapidly and safely.   55 mph?  Consigned to the horse and buggy era.   Try 100 mph.  That’s more like it.   Drivers can sit back and read, sleep, consume intoxicants, perhaps even engage in more pleasurable activities (monitored by the Traffic Computer – for purely safety reasons, of course) without any fear of loss of control or accidents.   The end result?  Faster traffic, less accidents, and immensely improved monitoring of the travel patterns of America’s private citizens.  

Why not add police stations to the freeways?   “Drivers” or passengers identified as having outstanding warrants could find themselves diverted to the proper authorities by the ever-cooperative Traffic Computer.  Since all drivers relinquish control of their vehicles upon entering the freeway, the Traffic Control computer could theoretically take them anywhere – not merely their intended destination.  If our immediate goals are less ambitious….then others, merely under surveillance, can be observed easily and records retained.  The only way to avoid scrutiny would be to either stay home or remain on the “small roads”.   And our goal is a step closer….

The Best of War on Film

Memorial Day just passed.  This is an American holiday celebrated on the last Monday of May, and it honors the men and women of our armed forces who have died in the course of duty.  Veterans’ Day, on the other hand, honors all of our veterans, living and dead, and is marked on November 11, the date of the Armistice of WWI.  I have lots of relatives who served in the military, but I’m not aware of any who have died in any wars.  For all I know I may have a relative who died in the 100 Years War (probably on the English side) or died fighting for Poland or Russia.  Who knows.   But in any case, it’s fitting that we review the topic of war once again, by way of appropriate movie reviews.  I can’t review every movie, but I will pick my favorites and discuss the more well known films.

 Civil War (1861-65).  The US Civil War, that is; for the Spanish Civil War, there’s “For Whom The Bell Tolls” (with Gary Cooper), and for the Russian Civil War, there’s the interminable “Dr. Zhivago”.  The US version is a popular setting for many films:  “Birth of a Nation” and “Gone With The Wind” are probably the most famous, but my favorite is “Gettysburg”.  It has an impressive cast of Jeff Daniels as Joshua Chamberlain, Tom Berenger as Longstreet (see above), and Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee, and it’s only about what was arguably the most important battle of the war.  So instead of the dull tedium of Stonewall Jackson rambling on about God and Jesus, or Lincoln stressed out about slavery and unruly Copperheads, or even brother against brother or slaves and the Underground Railroad, the war is truncated down to 3 days in July, 1863 in Pennsylvania. 

 Boer War (1899-1903).  “Breaker Morant”.  Enough said.

 World War I (1914-18).  Trenches, poison gas, biplanes, puttees, and lots of mud.  “Private York” (another one with Gary Cooper) was dull as hell – only the last 25% was in France.  “Wings” was an excellent 1927 silent film about the air war, followed up more recently (2006) with “Flyboys”.  “Joyeux Noel” covers the Christmas Truce of 1914, and “A Very Long Engagement” is 1/3 mystery, 1/3 chick flick, and 1/3 WWI drama.  “Gallipoli” has a young Mel Gibson as an Australian soldier fighting the Turks, “Lawrence of Arabia” has Peter O’Toole as the title character, and “Blue Max” has George Peppard as an ambitious German pilot.

            But the best has to be “All Quiet On the Western Front”, the original 1931 version in black & white with Lew Ayres as Paul Baumer.  Not only because it’s from the point of view of the Germans, but also it gives us a sense both of the heroism of the soldiers on both sides and the slaughter and pointlessness of it all.  The B&W really adds to the idea that “this war happened a long time ago”. 

“The Lost Battalion” is a close 2^nd.  Ricky Shroeder plays a US officer in a unit of New York misfits surrounded by Germans.  A German lieutenant complains about the Americans, “They don’t retreat when they’re supposed to!”  His superior cooly replies, “how inconsiderate of them.”

 World War II (1939-1945).  I’ll divide this into Europe (enemy: Nazi Germany) and the Pacific (enemy: Imperial Japan). While there is no lack of WWII films set in Europe – “The Longest Day”, “Kelly’s Heroes”, “Where Eagles Dare”, “The Dirty Dozen”, “The Big Red One”, “The Eagle Has Landed”, “Downfall”, etc., I like “Saving Private Ryan” the most.  Spielberg definitely kicked it up a notch.  The problem with most WWII films is that, as history buffs, we already know the Allies won and the Germans lost, so there is little drama amidst the so-called action.  The Germans may kill off a few Americans or British, but we know they’ll lose.  Here, however, Tom Hanks, Matt Damon (no Ben Affleck), and the rest of the gang are clearly in danger of being overrun by crack Waffen SS units.  I like how Spielberg puts the good guys at a temporary tactical disadvantage to dial the drama and excitement up to 11.  My heart was pounding when I saw this in the movie theater, even when I watch it at home and know what’s going to happen.  Nothing like that occurs in “The Longest Day”, which had previously been the top D-Day movie.

            An honorable mention should go to “To Hell And Back”, which was the story of Audie Murphy, the most highly decorated US soldier of WWII.  He actually played himself in the film, which is why it seems far more realistic than most other films.  And we have to give “The Guns of Navarone” credit as a classic as well.

            “Enemy At The Gates” is a rare treat: Eastern Front action, in Stalingrad.  Jude Law plays a Russian sniper, Rachel Weisz his beloved (Red Army babe), and Ed Harris plays the German sniper who is his nemesis amidst the carnage and rubble of the city.  We even have Bob Hoskins as Krushchev.  The book, however, was much better.

            For the Pacific, there are options:  “Tora! Tora! Tora!” views Pearl Harbor half from the Japanese perspective.  “Guadalcanal Diary”, “The Sands of Iwo Jima”, “Flying Tigers” (John Wayne film about the American Volunteer Group, better known as the “Flying Tigers”), and “The Thin Red Line”, which I really hated.  While Spielberg did make “The Pacific” miniseries to mirror “Band of Brothers”, he made no Pacific equivalent of “Saving Private Ryan”.  Clint Eastwood did “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima”, a pair of films which complement each other, dovetailing the two stories.  The first takes the perspective of the Americans, with particular emphasis on the bond-selling tour of the flag-raisers; the second takes the view of the Japanese – and Eastwood manages to be sympathetic without dividing his loyalties equally. 

            “Fires on the Plain” is an excellent Japanese film.  I see that most Japanese movies about WWII tend to focus on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, i.e. “woe is us, those damn Americans wiped out two whole innocent cities!”  This movie is somewhat less apologetic.  The story is about Japanese soldiers isolated in the Philippines, starving and outmatched by Americans.  The soldiers are young and not particularly interested in blowing themselves up or committing seppuku; they’d rather surrender to the apparently invincible and well-fed Americans and at least finally get something to eat. 

 Korea (1950-53).  Actually, the war is still going on, as what stopped the war in 1953 was a cease-fire.  “M*A*S*H” was funny, but had no combat in it.  “Tae Guk Gi” is my favorite.  This movie (in Korean with English subtitles) is about two South Korean brothers; the older joined the ROK army to look after his younger brother, who had been drafted – but when he gets home and finds his fiance has been executed by South Korean forces for allegedly “collaborating” with the Reds while their village was occupied by the North Koreans, he goes nuts and switches sides, becoming a maniacal leader of an elite North Korean unit (above lower left).  The movie is filmed with the same direction technique as “Saving Private Ryan” – that intense, confused, style which made “SPR” so remarkable and exciting.

 Vietnam.  “Dead Presidents”, “Casualties of War”, “Forrest Gump”, and “Good Morning Vietnam”, are a few of them.  “Go Tell The Spartans” takes place earlier, before the US sent ground troops.  ‘We Were Soldiers” comes right on its tail, 1965.  “Deer Hunter” has to be the worst Vietnam War movie I’ve seen:  too much “wedding and hunting in Pennsylvania” and not enough “combat in Vietnam”, and no – Christopher Walken playing Russian Roulette doesn’t count as combat.  My favorite is “Platoon”.  What I don’t like about “Apocalypse Now” was that it wasn’t a typical combat film.  It was more of a clever adaptation of Heart of Darkness to Vietnam than an attempt to show us what the war was like, or about.  “Captain Willard” from “A-Now”, Martin Sheen’s son Charlie (“winning!”) was excellent in “Platoon”, as were Willem Dafoe as Sgt. Elias and Tom Berenger as Sgt Barnes.  Even John C. McGinley (“are you a fan of Michael Bolton?  I worship the man!”) is in here.   “Hamburger Hill” I thought was too much...(A) racial tension?  CHECK!, (B) Vietnamese prostitutes? CHECK!, (C) unpopular officers?  CHECK! 

            “Full Metal Jacket” gets my #2 vote.   The dialogue alone is fantastic.

             “Me so horny, love you long time!”

            “Too beaucoup!  Too beaucoup!”

            “WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION??” and

            “It’s a huge shit sandwich, and we’re all going to have to take a bite.” “Does this mean Ann-Margret’s NOT coming?”

 And I’ll wrap up with three: Grenada (“Heartbreak Ridge”), Desert Storm (“Three Kings”) and Iraq War (“Hurt Locker”).