Historical Ramblings

Let me just preface this post by saying that no matter how many times I watch Glory, I ALWAYS cry.  Sometimes more than once.  That being, said, let’s discuss it as a historical source.  I’m kind of torn as far as this movie goes because I feel as though it got quite a bit right, but still missed the overall impact of the 54th Regiment and what it signalled for the Civil War and the United States as a whole.

It seemed to me that an attempt was made to get at least the minor details right, such as Shaw’s burial in a mass grave, the presence of Gov. Andrews and Frederick Douglass, and the casualities suffered by the 54th Regiment at Fort Wagner.  Even some of the things the characters discussed, such as Trip’s line, “What will we get after the war?”  The realities about how blacks were treated during the war and what they saw coming after the war seemed pretty spot on.  Granted, there was probably a much more racist attitude than was presented; unlike Amistad the director of Glory decided to spare the audience their stomach.  But the general dislike and hatred of whites towards blacks in the army, even by the fighting Shaw had to do for the shoes, was present.  But I think Trip’s line is one of the things that really struck me.  You saw the optimism and the eargerness of the black soldiers to fight and join up with the army.  But what was shown to much less of a degree is what they thought would happen after the war.  I’m sure there was that doubt and I thought it was clever of the screenwriters to include that.

But this movie also had it’s downfalls and what I like to call its “Patriot moments.”  Two that really stick out in my mind actually come from the very end.  You have Colonel Shaw’s dramatic death and plummet back down the hill and Trip’s intense flag grab as he raised it into the air when Shaw was shot.  I also have a hard time believing that members of the 54th Regiment would tear up their pay stubs in an outburst against the US Government.  However, moments like these are, what I think, make it an attractive movie.  I also feel as if the movie missed the overall importance of this regiment.  It signaled a shift in the Civil War and the movie didn’t quite explain that until the very end .. with the text.  And there were also other black regiments than the 54th.  Although Montgomery discusses his regiment (or “little monkey children”) they are shown as a group of 4-year-olds essentially, and that’s the only other mention of colored regiments besides Shaw’s.  Also, didn’t General Butler create the idea of the contrabands?  If changing this one historical figure into a random one in order to create a villain, I’m going to have an issue.  On that note, there are definitely a few things off about this movie, but overall it’s a good movie.  To me, this is the type of historical movie that the general public would take interest in.  It isn’t ever really slow, it has an all-star cast (especially for the 80s) and it’s an interesting history.

Oh, but I do have one question - wasn’t flogging outlawed in the Army by the time of the Civil War?  Because that would make Trip’s punishment quite illegal. (I’m a mess during that scene too.)

Also, please watch the trailer.  Talk about intense.  No wonder it made $63,661 during its first weekend. (And it was only offered on 3 screens. Thank you, imdb)

So I was beyond pumped to find out that Barack Obama was going to be rallying at UMW this past Saturday.  When Natalie confirmed the rumors that had been circulating it just seemed to weird; I was positive something would happen and the rally would be canceled or postponed.  Well, for once my pessimistic side was overshadowed and the rally actually happened.  It was a crazy day, not only because a presidential hopeful was going to show up at such a small school, but because it was also a Discovery Day.  So, while my friends camped out all morning, I was off leading tours, lucky that they were saving a spot for me.

It was a long, long, long afternoon once we got inside.  Hot, smelly, rainy, smelly, cold.  Did I mention smelly?  People should remember to wear some heavy deoderant when going to rally.  It got so cold at one point that I had to remind myself that this was an oppotunity not to be missed and that it was completely worth it.  And, oh was it ever worth it.  Biden’s speech was exactly what it should have been and Obama did not disappoint.  Nor did he shorten his speech due to the weather which just threw him even more brownie points in my book.  It was absolutely amazing and although I am now exhausted, sick and completely run down, I’m glad I went.  Now, what I am not so happy about is that lit. review that took over my life.  I’d be happy if I never had to see that again …

But I leave you with just one simple photo from Saturday evening.

SO AWESOME.

So, Amistad was a movie I had indeed heard of but it wasn’t one I had ever seen.  I honestly didn’t even know anything about the events because it wasn’t something I had learned about in high school.  After watching this movie on Tueday I can honestly say that it is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen.  The acting was incredible, especially on the part of Djimon Hounsou.  Matthew McConaughey wasn’t even terrible.  It was one of the first movies we’ve seen this semester that, in my mind, is actually pretty spot on with the events.  You can tell that Spielberg made an attempt to provide a sense of accuracy to the movie and show what happened.  Granted, there were some mishaps with the movie and there definitely were some things that bugged me, but I’m willing to overlook them because of the dedication and effort put in by the cast and crew.  Although hard to watch, Cinque’s recollection of the days on the Tecora was numbing and eye-opening.  Even the pain at the very beginning when he’s picking away at a stone to get to the key to his cuffs.  I think these scenes were shot very well and really portrayed the horrors of their voyage to Cuba and America.  It’s obvious that Hounsou took his work seriously and really devoted a lot of time to embodying the character of Cinque and for that I applaud him.  All of the men who played the African slaves were incredible and the fact that they actually learned the Mende language still blows my mind.  Unlike previous movies where we were unsure of whether or not the language truly was accurate, of this one we are certain and it just seems to make the events even more real.

The one thing thatdid bother me the most though, was Morgan Freeman’s character.  I still can’t get over the fact that although there was actually a Rev. Pennington, a black abolitionist, Spielberg still made the choice to create a new character, someone ficitious.  It just annoys me a bit that the entire movie is based upon real people and actually references and addresses those people and then there’s Morgan Freeman as Theodore Jodeson.  To me, this is not an event that should have fictional characters.  I was also a bit bothered by the portrayal of Baldwin by McConaughey.  I think Baldwin was an amazing character in history, a well respected abolitionist lawyer who knew what he was doing.  However, for the sake of the movie and its storyline, there was a decision made to make Baldwin a nobody.  He was a petty theft lawyer who looked like a big fish in a small pond.  It just didn’t seem to add up for me.  I also expected Tappan to have a much larger role than the one he was given in this movie.

So yes, I do have some qualms with this movie as far as accuracy goes, but overall I think the movie itself is absolutely remarkable.  It’s quite an eye-opener and parts of it are just so difficult to watch that I don’t know if I could watch it again.  I also feel rather bad for it that it came out around Titanic, Liar Liar and Jurassic Park 2.  But I would like to thank Spielberg for saving us from an 8 1/2 hour speech that would have been delivered by Anthony Hopkins.  It was already long enough in the movie that I applaud everyone in that Supreme Courtroom at the actual event who sat through JQA’s actual presentation.  I probably would have jumped out of a window.

I think that in today’s class discussion on the historical accuracy of Disney’s “Pocahontas,” we actually covered a lot and really learned what this semester is going to be like.  It seemd like a vast majority of the class (and I think Dr. M’s “overview” at the end of class summed this general opinion up quite well) is that the portrayal of Pocahontas via Disney is not really that accurate at all.  I mentioned on the class wiki that once again, Dr. M was right and that determining this accuracy was indeed like “shooting fish in a barrel.”  Personally, I believe Disney should be given some credit since they did consult a wide range of sources that did know about the culture that the movie was trying to convey.  I believe that there was a bit that Disney did get correct and unfortunately, I think the bad outweighs the good with this movie.  Although the creators got (most of) the trip to the New World accurate and although the creators did get the idea of cultural superiority correct, I think the fact that the entire movie was based on a love story between two figures who barely knew each other and were separated in age by about 20 years makes it a little difficult to identify what it was that Disney got right.  I believe that it is an excellent movie for kids and that it is a wonderful way to introduce the idea of Native Americans and their interaction with the colonists.  However, if they wanted the entire thing based on a love story, they should not have used Pocahontas.  If the entire 90 minute movie were based on fictional characters and a fictional story line, I don’t think historians would have as much of a problem with it as they do.  But to learn that this is a movie that kids first see in a classroom and to learn that this is how they’re taught about Pocahontas and John Smith is just plain scary.  

I’m hoping that this is the worst of the bunch and that the movies slowly get more and more accurate as the weeks go on.  Historical filmmakers have to have some sense of dignity, right?  I don’t know how well I can handle ripping movies to shreds every week.  Maybe it’s not Disney and it’s just Mel Gibson.  (And if that’s the case I guess we should be ready to bash ”The Patriot” in a few weeks.)

So, as those of you who have followed this blog before know, it was originally started for an experience in Digital History.  Well, who knew that I would need it for yet another McClurken class? (I probably should have seen it coming.)  Nonetheless, I’m actually really excited about taking this class.  Historical Films have always been a favorite genre of mine, so the chance to actually take one of my favorite movies and pick it apart is very exciting.  I’ve never paid too much attention to the historical accuracy, unless it is completely off base.  I’m typically one of those nerds that will refuse to see a movie until I’ve read the book.  In a way, determining the accuracy of that sort of film will come in rather handy when it comes to my semester long film project and to be honest, it was never the type of skill that I ever thought I’d need in order to pass a class.  It will definitely be an adventure, but I think going through the different films each week will definitely be good practice.  Although, I have to admit, starting with Pocahontas probably won’t be THAT big of a help since we all know how historically accurate Disney can be (did I REALLY just say that?)

It will definitely be a good class and I’m very excited to see how it turns out and to read over everyone’s projects at the end of the semester.  We’ll see how things go!

Just when we thought we had escaped our websites, we all got those wonderful “Corrections” emails. Well, I’m happy to say Lisa and I are pretty much done with our edits and corrections. She sent me the edited bibliography for the official website and is proofreading our timeline. I went through and made sure the dates were all consistent in the Omeka exhibits and fixed the About Us page, as well as the bibliography on the official website and added the acknowledgments section that Dr. Preston wanted. When Lisa lets me know she’s finished the timeline I’m gonna breeze back through it and double check her recheck and make sure we’re good to go on that end. Andrea and Talya are working on their issues too so that everything will be done for Friday. One more class and then we’re REALLY done with these sites. Oh boy.

PS - I really hate the packing process.

I noticed Andrea made a post about doing these gigantic projects we spent all semester working on individually. And, not to argue, but I can’t seem to grasp how that would have even been possible. The projects would not have been able to be as large of a task as they were which would make them far less impressive than they’ve ended up being. I can’t see how these projects would have been completed in one semester unless there were at least 2 people working on them and even that is cutting it close. I don’t think our project would have been successful had it been just one person because not only was there the 450 images that needed to be scanned and uploaded, but the data needed to be filled in, the exhibits needed to be made and there probably wouldn’t have been any transcriptions. Also, the official website had to be made as well. In my opinion, that is far too much for one person to handle and handle well. Our project, by listening to everyone else’s presentations these past few weeks, isn’t the only one that would have taken more than one person. I’m having a hard time figuring out how one person would have been able to research all of the historical markers in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County and still be functioning properly. The alumni project wouldn’t have had as many interviews, I imagine, and the James Farmer group would have been struggling as well. In order for these projects to be done by one person, they would have had to require much less and I just don’t think the websites would have been successful. I don’t know, that’s just my opinion.

But hey, I think we all did a fantastic job this semester.  I think we learned a lot more than we ever thought possible in a digital history class.

Lisa asked me an interesting question the other day while we were holed up in the library resolving our crisis. “If you could start from the beginning and do the project all over again, would you have done it differently?” Well, to be honest, yes, I probably would have. What I think none of us realized until it was too late, is exactly how amazing this project could have been. Yes, it was rather complicated for us since we had to construct two websites, and that first one took quite a lot of time, especially on my part. However, our second website could have been so much more developed as far as Monroe’s mission to France goes, and I just feel like we didn’t do it justice. Does that mean I’m unhappy with the way our project turned out? Not at all. In fact, I’d say just the opposite. I’m very pleased with the way everything turned out in the end, granted it was a very long road to get there. I think our site came out looking professional and, thanks to Jim Groom, it looks more like a website than a silly amateur blog. I think we created a well organized website that grants the public access to National Archives Microfilm that most people did not have the ability to access prior to this project. I’m really happy with the way it turned out and I only hope that Dr. Preston likes his official website as much as I do.

In terms of our contract, we actually stayed with it for quite a while. The official website was done on time (to the best of my ability) and technically was “done” by the date we had set. The reason for the never-ending edits afterwards was because of Dr. Preston and the way he wanted things done. He liked it, and then he wanted something changed. And then he liked it again, and then he thought of something else. It wasn’t until the very last day I could work on it that it was officially done because I told Dr. Preston it had to be finished.

The second website we had a little bit of a harder time staying on track with which really bugged me.  Many of our earlier milestones were met, but then some of the other things that I think we should have finished by our deadlines were not, and I’m not sure we could have met them. I did what I had set out to accomplish by the dates we had chosen to the best of my ability. If there were things I didn’t get from other group members on time, or if other group members didn’t make their deadline, there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I wasn’t about to hunt them down and watch them complete it on time; they’re big kids. But I realized while doing this project that no matter what, someone is always going to be doing more work than others in a group environment. It always seems that someone needs to consistently check on everyone else and finish what others have neglected, and this happened to us. Deadlines were not met because some members wanted to take on more work than they could handle and never finished one task before starting another, trying to hurry through their workload. But then some of us had an excellent flow of communication and helped each other as much as we could. I still feel like I was burdened with more of the work, but I don’t mind because in the end the project came together and accomplished what we had outlined in our contract.

Nonetheless, I’m really happy I took this class. It taught me how to challenge myself in a new way and I feel like I can survive anything now that I survived Digital History. And this makes 650 words.

So, tonight I had a mini-heart attack. First of all, I’m in the library because the wireless is infinitely better than the internet connection in the dorm rooms. But aside from that, Omeka went down for a little bit tonight. Talya, Andrea and I, who were all conveniently working on Omeka at the time, suddenly had that pleasure of inserting metadata and exhibit information taken away from us. For some reason, Omeka told us we didn’t have it installed and for about 25 minutes, we couldn’t log in to work on anything, nor could be look at the exhibits by clicking the link on our website. So, needless to say, we all went into panic mode. Luckily, Andrea checked it at the right time and everything was working again. So all the metadata is now done (so I’m told) and the only thing left to be uploaded to an exhibit are transcriptions 4 and 5 which Lisa is sending to me ASAP. Once that’s uploaded, everything is done. Scary to believe we actually made it to this point. To be quite honest, I was worried most of the semester about how everything was going to come together, and for a while I didn’t believe it would. So to be where we are right now feels pretty good and it is a huge relief. I just can’t wait for this project to be finished.

Oh, and once again, my apologies Dr. M for the 60 emails I’ve sent you today.  I wouldn’t be surprised if you blocked my email address at this point.

So, this morning, Lisa and I (and Andrea stopped by for a while) were in the library for what seemed like a very long time (I don’t know, is 3 hours locked in a room staring at a screen with slow internet long?) Luckily, we were able to go through every scan and pinpoint which ones had changed titles and as a result, fine the scan number and it’s corresponding ID number. Now that I have that long list, the exhibits can get done without worrying about having the correct documents in each one. Which means we are back to where we started before the mishap, and as a result, my plan for the rest of the day is to work on the exhibits and get through as many as I can. I was able to get 2 of them done before I had to leave the library for class this morning, but plowing through the last 35 doesn’t seem too daunting (haha.) I know Andrea needs a lot of help with the metadata so we’re all trying to help her out with that as well. Once the exhibits are done, I think everything will be A LOT better, and from then on it will just be tying up loose ends. So, this is the part where I begin to channel the little engine that could and repeat “I think I can” (or, in our case, “I think we can”) and get cracking.

The fact that this is due in less than a week STILL scares me. Like, a lot.

It’ll be fine.