In Theaters: ***** Young Washington (2016)

 This is an excellent movie.  I just got home from the theater.  George Washington (William Franklyn-Miller) should have been killed in the battles with the french and Indians outside of Fort Duquesne.  The movie presents two battles in the area.  The first Washington was a colonel of volunteers, rising in rank rather quickly.  However they were overrun by the french and Indians, and Washington signed a surrender in which he took blame for the death of a French officer.  The second he was an adjutant as he had resigned his commission after the first battle.  However when things started going awry again, it was he who, although he was sick, rode forwarded and rescued many men and extracted a small victory from defeat.  This is when he should have been killed.  Native Americans fired at him but say he was protected so the could not hit him.  Washington returned a third time with a larger force.  The French abandoned Fort Duquesne after the Indians had a abandoned them.  They burned the fort and left.  

Several interesting things happen before this.  The movie starts with the death of Washington's father.  Where he had no father they would not let him attend school.  So his brother, Lawerence (John Foss) educated him (boy Washington played by Will Joseph).  Joseph has high ambitions.  He throws himself towards a young woman, Sally Cary ((Mia Rodgers).  However she ends up with a British aristocrat of the Fairfax family.  However it is Lord Fairfax (Kelsey Grammar) who gives Washington a job as a surveyor.  It is during this job that he observes a French fort, Fort Duquesne, in land claimed by Virginia.  This leads him to report to the governor (Ben Kingsley) and he is given his commission as a captain of volunteers.  In his adventures he recruits his friend, Chris (Leo Hanna).  He is with him on the surveying trip and in his first commission.  However he is killed.  This partly leads to Washington's resigning. 

Very moving look at our founding and I highly recommend this movie.

Christmas/ Civil War Movie/ Review: ****I Heard the Bells (2022)

 This movie tells the story of Henry W Longfellow and his writing the poem "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day" which became the Christmas song.  Longfellow (Stephen Atherholt) had become morose over the death of his wife.  Her dress had caught fire and she died of her injuries.  Longfellow attempted to put it out and burn himself in the process, scarring his face.  He wore a beard after this.

Longfellow had determined not to write poetry again, even though he had great success with poems such as Hiawatha, Paul Revere's Ride and Evangeline.  Add to this his son left home and joined the military.  This was during the Civil War.  He son was severely wounded, and forced to come home as a result.  He told Longfellow how he was in a church, and the bell, even though lieing on the floor, had inspired him.  This set Longfellow to writing his poem.

This historical drama is very good.  I would recommend it.  I understand it is fairly accurate, although there are different stories about how his wife's dress caught fire.  

At the Movies ****^ Nuremberg (2025)

 I think this movie may very well be considered for the best movie of the year.  It portrays the trial of the Nazi leadership at Nuremberg.  It made a great Veteran's Day activity.  It is about the relationship and interviews between Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) and the military psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek).  Göring was the number two leader of Germany behind Adolf Hitler.  Kelley is trying to get him to open up.  He even visits his wife and child for him, and carries letters.  The relationship comes to a head after the showing of a film about the holocaust, and the way the Jews were treated.  There is a very emotional scene when Kelley confronts him.

There were actually 22 men on trial at Nuremberg.  One suicided, and eleven were sentenced to death, including Göring.  However Göring missed the gallows by eating a cyanid capsule the day before.

Another very emotional scene is when the sergeant who interprets for Kelley Sergeant Howie Triest (Leo Woodall) admits that he in fact is Jewish; a German Jew.  He escaped just before the borders were closed.  There was only enough money for one to travel.  His parents and younger sister stayed behind.  His parents were killed in the holocaust.  His sister made it out of the country and was still alive.

A member of the supreme court, Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon) was called upon to prosecute for the Americans.  Kelley thought that Göring would be able to escape the hang man's noose by out witting Jackson.  He told this to a journalist, Lila (Lydia Peckham) when he was drunk.  As a result he is fired an sent home.  But he stays for the rest of the trial, and is able to give some needed insight to Jackson.  The case hangs in the balance, saying he didn't know people were eliminating the Jews.  His order he reinterprets to mete complet solution rather than final solution.  However when the prosecutor from England, Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe (Richard E. Grant) is able to get Göring to praise Hitler, the cards are played.  

Movie review: ***^Geronimo (1993)

This is a made for TV movie.  It features Wes Studi as Geronimo.  This is a movie that portrays the native Americans in a positive light.  It starts where Geronimo gives himself up the first time, explains his leaving the reservations and going back on the warpath with a small group.  It shows those things which lead to his arrest, or surrender the second time.  He was shipped to a PPOW camp in Florida.  He was allowed to eventually live the prison, but never allowed to return to his home territory.  He was relocated to Oklahoma. 
Others portraying roles in this movie include Matt damon as Lieutenant Britton Davis, who was part of the surrender, Jason Paric as Lt. Charles Gatewood, who actually negotiated the surrender,  for which he was banned to obscurity, Gene Hackman as Brigadier General George Crook, Robert Duvall as Al Sieber, a scout, Rodney A. Grant as Mangas, an Apache scout and Kevin Tighe as General Nelson Miles.   I am not a judge of how accurate this film is.  It often uses the Apache language with subtitles.  I imagine many Native American actors had to learn the language, as well as some Americans who communicate with the Native Americans. 

Movie Review: ***Dunkirk (2017)

This is a big movie, but in the end, trying to tell too many stories made for a jumbled mess.  Their were air force shots, Navy stories and Army stories.  However at times it was night and then day and then night, and it seems the stories didn't go in sequence, and it was confusing.  However, the point that came across is that at Dunkirk there were people helping people in a desperate situation, and in many instances they sacrificed their own lives.  The story starts a week into the surrounding of Dunkirk, and the Allied forces being hemmed in.  The stories are very compelling, that a a French Soldier trying to get out of Dunkirk, a family and their smaller vessel helping rescue soldiers, and a pilot who uses all his fuel shooting down that last plane, before he is captured by the Germans.  That the British were able to rescue so many, proved to be a turning point.  However this movie shows that many did not make it.  It seems ship after ship was being sunk.  The small boats were really the turning point.