The Civil War On Film – 8 in a series – “…Lost Cause adherents deny the immorality and cruelty of slavery….”

The Civil War On Film - 8  in a series -

The last component of the Lost Cause, and perhaps the key component, is the cherished belief in happy slaves and sub-human African Americans in need of civilization and Christianity. Lost Cause adherents deny the immorality and cruelty of slavery and insist slavery was a benign and misunderstood institution.

Movies profiled in this book:

The Civil War On Film – 7 in a series – “…honorable Southern generals stand in contrast to venal, uncouth Northerners.”

The Civil War On Film - 6  in a series -

In keeping with the binary nature of ideologies, the honorable Southern generals stand in contrast to venal, uncouth Northerners. The Lost Cause insists upon the illegitimacy of Abraham Lincoln’s election and his personal villainy as a backwoods barbarian, miscegenationist and all-purpose bad dude.

Movies profiled in this book:

The Civil War On Film – 6 in a series – “…the so-called Irrepressible Conflict.”

The Civil War On Film - 6  in a series -

While any past event is vulnerable to the mythmaking of film, the Civil War might be the most contested event in American History. No national historical moment has been more written about (except perhaps World War II), argued over and romanticized than the so-called Irrepressible Conflict.

Movies profiled in this book:

The Civil War On Film – 5 in a series – “In our Civil War we didn’t fight outsiders…”

The Civil War On Film - 5  in a series -

Part of the problem was and is that civil wars create particular problems that World War II does not. In our Civil War we didn’t fight outsiders such as the Germans or the Japanese, we fought ourselves. In this way a civil war is a family fight and afterward we are forced to live with our family.

Movies profiled in this book:

The Civil War On Film – 4 in a series – “…the entire slave economy stood as a shining moment of magnolias and gentility.”

The Civil War On Film - 4  in a series -

Many Americans believe two centuries of legal human bondage left no great national scar. Our movies and television programs tell us enslaved people were happy, their owners were misunderstood men of honor and the entire slave economy stood as a shining moment of magnolias and gentility.

Movies profiled in this book:

The Civil War On Film – 3 in a series – “…films doomed to be mediocre at best and ideologically horrifying at worst.”

The Civil War On Film - 3  in a series -

“Add together the tendency for American war movies to be stereotypical and to celebrate a white man’s vision of martial glory, sprinkle in the fraught nature of Civil War memory and you get a sub-genre of films doomed to be mediocre at best and ideologically horrifying at worst.”

Movies profiled in this book:

The Civil War On Film – 2 in a series – “…movies not only wear history at best as a loose garment…”

The Civil War On Film - 2  in a series -

As historian Thomas Cripps said, “movies not only wear history at best as a loose garment, but their makers care more for following well tested recipes for making good grosses than for the niceties of history” (Cripps 1995). There is no movie genre where this is this more true than Civil War movies.

Movies profiled in this book:

The Civil War On Film – 1 in a series – Introduction

Civil War On Film - 1 in a series -

 Our culture’s most powerful ideas about the past come, not from books written by professional historians, but from popular images and mythologies, including those that come from films written by screenwriters. Screenwriters write Civil War movies for mass audiences, who tend to believe what they see. And films, unlike books, don’t get relegated to the back shelves of libraries.

Movies profiled in this book:

Now Available: The Civil War on Film (Hollywood History) by Dr. Rosanne Welch and Dr. Peg Lamphier via Instagram

Now Available: The Civil War on Film (Hollywood History) by Dr. Rosanne Welch and Dr. Peg Lamphier via Instagram

Now Available: The Civil War on Film (Hollywood History) by Dr. Rosanne Welch and Dr. Peg Lamphier via Instagram

My newest book The Civil War on Film (co-written with my colleague Peg Lamphier as part of ABC-Clio’s Hollywood History series) was published today.

Peg and I discuss 10 Civil War films based on their accuracy and cultural context. It is no surprise that we agree with a collection of historians that the most accurate of all the films of the Civil War is Glory (written by Kevin Jarre), though even that film makes the ‘mistake’ of omitting the fact that Harriet Tubman served as a spy for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.

As we say about many of the films, one film can’t encapsulate the entirety of a historical event (though Free State of Jones (written by Gary Ross) does try, and here we admit that that attempt to do it all makes for a long and plodding film, which is sad since it is a thorough portrait of Reconstruction, which is nearly never covered in films as they all prefer ending when the war ends).

As always it was a pleasure to work with Peg. We’re in the middle of our second book for this series – chronicling how Women’s History is covered in films coming sometime in 2021.

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!

Follow me on Instagram

Now Available: The Civil War on Film (Hollywood History) by Dr. Rosanne Welch and Dr. Peg Lamphier

My newest book The Civil War on Film (co-written with my colleague Peg Lamphier as part of ABC-Clio’s Hollywood History series) was published today. 

Peg and I discuss 10 Civil War films based on their accuracy and cultural context. It is no surprise that we agree with a collection of historians that the most accurate of all the films of the Civil War is Glory (written by Kevin Jarre), though even that film makes the ‘mistake’ of omitting the fact that Harriet Tubman served as a spy for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. 

As we say about many of the films, one film can’t encapsulate the entirety of a historical event (though Free State of Jones (written by Gary Ross) does try, and here we admit that that attempt to do it all makes for a long and plodding film, which is sad since it is a thorough portrait of Reconstruction, which is nearly never covered in films as they all prefer ending when the war ends).

As always it was a pleasure to work with Peg.  We’re in the middle of our second book for this series – chronicling how Women’s History is covered in films coming sometime in 2021.

Want to use The Civil War On Film as a classroom text?
Contact ABC-CLIO for more information

The Civil War on Film will inform high school and college readers interested in Civil War film history on issues that arise when film viewers confuse entertainment with historical accuracy.

The nation’s years of civil war were painful, destructive, and unpleasant. Yet war films tend to embrace mythologies that erase that historical reality, romanticizing the Civil War. The editors of this volume have little patience for any argument that implies race-based slavery isn’t an entirely repugnant economic, political, and cultural institution and that the people who fought to preserve slavery were fighting for a glorious and admirable cause

To that end, The Civil War on Film will open with a timeline and introduction and then explore ten films across decades of cinema history in ten chapters, from Birth of a Nation, which debuted in 1915, to The Free State of Jones, which debuted one hundred and one years later. It will also analyze and critique the myriad of mythologies and ideologies which appear in American Civil War films, including Lost Cause ideation, Black Confederate fictions, Northern Aggression mythologies, and White Savior tropes. It will also suggest the way particular films mirror the time in which they were written and filmed. Further resources will close the volume.

  • Makes clear that depictions of the Civil War on film are often mythologized
  • Analyzes films in a manner that shows students the historical context in which the films were made and viewed
  • Goes beyond just synopses and historical facts, helping students to develop critical thinking skills
  • Stimulates debate over the various ways the war was interpreted and experienced

Film discussed include:

  1. Gone with the Wind (1939)
  2. Friendly Persuasion (1957)
  3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
  4. Glory (1989)
  5. Gettysburg (1993)
  6. Andersonville (1996)
  7. Ride with the Devil (1999)
  8. Gangs of New York (2002)
  9. Lincoln (2012)
  10. Free State of Jones (2016)

 

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!

More books from Dr. Rosanne Welch