Historian Rates Nine American Civil War Battles In Movies

Garry Adelman, a historian, rates nine American Civil War battles in movies.

He comments on the Civil War-era artillery and rifles on display in Free State of Jones (2016), starring Matthew McConaughey; and Emancipation (2022), starring Will Smith. 

He explains the use of dynamite and other explosives seen in Cold Mountain (2003), starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger; Sahara (2005), starring Matthew McConaughey; and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967), starring Clint Eastwood.

He breaks down the military strategy seen in the battle scenes in Glory (1989), starring Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, and Denzel Washington; Gettysburg (1993), starring Jeff Daniels; and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012), starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, and Tommy Lee Jones. 

And finally, he separates fact from fiction regarding Civil War-era surgeries as seen in Dances with Wolves (1990), starring Kevin Costner.

Adelman is the chief historian at the American Battlefield Trust. He has also been a licensed battlefield guide at Gettysburg National Military Park for 27 years.

Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes (2024)

Opening up with Caesar's funeral, Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes then jumps forward in time "many generations" (probably several hundred years) from War For The Planet of The Apes, the end of the first trilogy of the stories in the revamped franchise.

Ape society in this post-apocalyptic world has evolved into numerous tribes and the film's protagonists are the Eagle Clan - who tame wild eagles as their pets.

Noa (It's Owen Teague) of The Eagle Clan finds himself alone when violent ape raiders from another clan kidnap his family and friends, leaving him for dead.

In his quest to track them down, Noa teams up with Raka (Peter Macon aka Bortus from The Orville), an orangutan follower of Caesar's teachings, and a talking human, Mae (The Witcher's Freya Allen).

Mae knows where Noa's tribe has been taken, the kingdom of self-proclaimed "Caesar", the bonobo Proximus (genre stalwart Kevin Durand).

He is employing his many captives as muscle to try and break into the ancient bunker complex around which he has set up camp.

This new Caesar wants to get his hands on the powerful human treasures he believes are stored within.

Mae, however, knows exactly what's in there and has her eyes set on a single, important item that she hopes might give humanity its "voice" back.

Narratively this sub-plot is the only real hiccup in Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes.

Mae - and. it turns out. others - seem very knowledgeable about the Old World and so you have to wonder why they waited "many generations" to put their mysterious plan into operation?

It would be a spoiler to go into too much detail, but the huge revelation in the denouement (which does NOT involve The Statue of Liberty) clearly sets up the - as yet unannounced officially - sequel, leaving so many questions unanswered.

This does, unfortunately, mean an otherwise gorgeous and enthralling movie feels slightly incomplete. 

None of which means I didn't love this film. Despite its 145-minute duration, this is a fantastic, engrossing, adventure romp that comes in a close second, in my admiration for the new CGI Apes era, behind Rise of The Planet of The Apes.

Pitched as the start of a new trilogy of movies, Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes is peppered with call-backs to the original films from the 1960s and '70s, from musical cues to homages (e.g. the human hunt sequence) and Easter Eggs.

Massive kudos to director Wes Ball (previously best known for the Maze Runner trilogy) whose love and enthusiasm for this franchise has helped bring out top-notch performances from the primarily primate performers (with guidance and assistance from the legendary maestro of motion-capture Andy Serkis).

Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes is a thing of beauty, blending location shooting with stage sets, inhabited by the breathtakingly perfect mo-cap apes (courtesy of Wētā FX).

The slight problem this visual feast caused me - particularly when it came to the interactions of the ape characters - was the constant hollering from the dark recesses of my brain going "wow, I wonder how they did that?" and distracting me from the unfolding story.

War For The Planet Of The Apes (2017)

As far as I'm concerned the original 1960s/'70s Planet Of The Apes movies are - warts and all - sacrosanct, critic-proof, indelible parts of my childhood and formative years.

The 2001 Tim Burton 'reboot' is best forgotten (as I think most people have).

And so I came to this decade's retelling of the classic story with a degree of caution.

To date, the new franchise was running 50/50. I really enjoyed Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, but was ultimately underwhelmed by Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes.

This left me uncertain of what to expect from War For The Planet Of The Apes, as the same team that had fumbled the ball with Dawn were behind this new offering.

But not only had they learned from their mistakes, but writer-director Matt Reeves and co-writer Mark Bomback have managed to deliver a genuine epic of sweeping emotions and spectacular action.

The time-frame has moved on several years from Dawn.

Caesar (surely an Oscar-worthy mo-cap performance from the brilliant Andy Serkis) and his colleagues fighting the war that the rogue Koba started, but are trying to convince the humans that they just want to live in peace.

However, when The Colonel (Woody Harrelson, in full Marlon Brando/Colonel Kurtz mode) kills members of Caesar's family, the conflict becomes personal and the super-intelligent chimpanzee makes it his mission in life to exact revenge on The Colonel.

The situation is complicated by the discovery that the virus that caused all the problems to start with is continuing to mutate, causing additional problems for the human species.

Taking a small band of loyal followers with him, Caesar sends the rest of his tribe off to safety, then sets out on his crusade.

More than ever, War For The Planet Of The Apes focuses on the simian side of the conflict.

While Caesar is a flawed protagonist, the apes are definitely the good guys and the humans - violent and stupid - are not shown in a great light.

Although primarily a dramatic and violent war film, balanced with some genuine humanity and tragedy, I was surprised by the injection of moments of humour - largely due to the addition of Bad Ape (Steve Zahn) to Caesar's band.

The film is also full of wonderful nods to the original movies, from the introduction of young Nova (Amiah Miller), the mute child who is the one human to side with the apes; through the striking ape crucifixions; to the alpha/omega icongraphy of The Colonel's military encampment.

In spite of its two hours and 20 minutes duration, War For The Planet Of The Apes holds your attention and draws you in, you can't help but feel genuine emotional attachment to the computer-generated, simian characters. Every emotion can be read on their faces as they experience them, you hear ever change in timbre in their voices.

The special effects, especially with regard to the motion-capture portrayal of the apes, are simply incredible. They are so good you truly believe in these characters without a second thought.

This is the gold standard by which other effects-heavy movies should be judged now.

The effects are so good and, more crucially, the performances by the actors portraying the characters created through motion-capture are so impressive that, if you immerse yourself in the movie, it feels as real as any movie shot without any special effects.

And director Matt Reeves has such an incredible artistic eye for visuals, encapsulated perfectly in the final scenes that - clearly deliberately - evoke the feeling of an old school Hollywood Biblical epic when the apes ultimately come to their 'promised land'.

War For The Planet Of The Apes can clearly be read as a prequel to the scenario established in the 1968 original, as it sets up the fall of mankind and the rise to dominance of the apes.

With the advances in movie-making technology, and in the gifted hands of a visionary director like Reeves, I'm now hoping for a genuine remake of the original to bring the franchise full circle.

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (2014)

Director Matt Reeves and Twentieth Century Fox have pulled off a cunning bait-and-switch with Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, getting the summer blockbuster crowds flocking to see to a sub-titled foreign film!

Because that's essentially what Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes is with almost as little English spoken dialogue as an Arnold Schwarzenegger flick, about 75 per cent of the movie is the apes signing - or grunting - to each other, translated as sub-titles.

And the apes are magnificent. There is no denying the brilliance of the special effects and the emotional depth the actors manage to portray through motion-capture.

The script by Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silveris also heavily biased towards the simian elements of the story with the humans being two-dimensional at best.

We have followed the key apes - such as Caesar (Andy Serkis) and Koba (Toby Kebbell) - from Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and they are given solid character arcs. However, in stark contrast, the humans we meet for the first time here we never really get to know anything of any substance about and so they generally come across as broad stereotypes.

Gary Oldman's character, Dreyfus, for instance adds nothing to the story, except his final act of destruction which could have been committed by any of the nameless supporting characters.

It's ten years since the outbreak of simian flu (as seen at the end of Rise) and the apes have made themselves a nice home in the woods outside of San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge, while human civilization has collapsed and been at war with itself for increasingly less resources.

Despite living just across the bridge from each other the apes haven't seen any humans for two years and the humans in San Francisco seem even more oblivious to the colony of apes (I know this is all post-apocalypty, but I did find this a bit hard to believe).

The humans need the energy from an hydroelectric dam up in the forest (to power their iPads mainly) and so send out a small party to scout it out. The group includes Malcolm (Jason Clarke), his son Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Malcolm's girlfriend Ellie (Keri Russell) and fine Fringe alum Kirk Acevedo as the required troublemaker - and they unexpectedly run into the apes. Naturally hilarity ensues.

Caesar reluctantly comes to trust the humans, while scarred-up Koba hates them with a white-hot fury and does his best to sabotage any moves to establish respect or friendship between the two neighbouring colonies.

Most of the humans - barring Malcolm and his make-shift family - aren't overly fond of the apes either and so inevitably tensions come to a head and conflict breaks out.

The storyline of Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes isn't particularly clever or original and ultimately it comes off feeling like a bridging film between the fantastic Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and whatever is coming next in the franchise.

Also, for a summer blockbuster (and especially one with a surprising amount of subtitles), it's a very "talky" film, with some noticeably slow patches between the fast-paced action sequences.

In hindsight, this is an Apes film for lovers of the franchise that, despite its big build-up, seems quite small in its execution, portraying what is presumably a key moment in the development of (this iteration of) The Planet Of The Apes, rather than being the self-contained epic some might have been expecting.

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes is enjoyable, but not to the same degree as Rise. It goes part way towards realising the potential set out in the original film, but with the inescapable feeling that there is still a lot more to come.

The main takeaway from Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes for me was a hunger to see where the franchise goes next.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)

It is inevitable that one day mankind will be superseded by ape-kind and I will be at the front of the crowd, waving my flag and cheering on our new simian overlords.

With that bias in mind, my predisposition was to expect greatness from Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (hoping it would wipe, forever, from our collective consciousnesses Tim Burton's ill-conceived abomination of 2001).

What I wasn't expecting was just how damn awesome it was!

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is, without a doubt, the most perfect piece of filmmaking of 2011, from Rupert Wyatt's direction and Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver's script to the motion-capture apes and the humans they interact with.

The plot pacing was superb, the foreshadowing excellent, and the beautiful little Easter eggs for fans of the original ape films (from Caesar's model of the Statue of Liberty and the name "Bright Eyes" through to line-lifts such as "it's a madhouse", "get your hands off me..." and a certain other key line delivered by a key character) simply showed how much care and attention had gone into this movie, and its respect for its cinematic predecessors.

James Franco plays research scientist Will Rodman, working on a cure for Alzheimer's, but a catastrophic accident during final testing makes his boss order him to have all their test subjects - chimpanzees - put down.

Will takes pity on a baby chimp and takes him home to be a companion to his father Charles Rodman (John Lithgow), a former music teacher and scholar now in the grip of Alzheimer's.

The chimp, who they name Caesar, soon becomes a central part of the family unit, especially when Will tests his gene-therapy on his father and it works.

Unfortunately, years later, the therapy starts to wear off for Charles and he finds himself in an altercation with his obnoxious neighbour, a pilot called Hunsiker (Stargate's David Hewlett).

Caesar jumps in to save his friend and ends up being taken in by the authorities and handed over to an animal control centre run by John Landon (Brian Cox) and his obnoxious son Dodge (Tom Felton).

It is here, eventually, that Caesar hatches his plan to liberate his fellow apes and take revenge on mankind.

That brief summation of the early scenes of the movie doesn't even begin to do it justice.

As well-rounded as the human characters are, the film truly belongs to Caesar - the CGI ape created by motion-capture technology and based upon the performance of the incredible Andy Serkis (already renowned for brining life to such diverse characters as Gollum and King Kong).

Given that the bulk of his feelings and emotions are expressed through sign language, gestures or facial expressions, Serkis has made Caesar an incredibly complex and well-rounded character.

If he doesn't get some mighty gong for his performance here then there truly is no justice in the world.

You also have to feel slightly sorry for Tom Felton, having played the 'bad boy' of Hogwarts, Draco Malfoy, for all these years, his first post-Harry Potter role is just as objectionable. But he suitably slimy as Dodge and gets his just desserts at the hands of the apes he loves tormenting.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is a classic 'science-experiment-gone-wrong' movie and naturally ends with a breath-taking action sequence that makes great use of the streets of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

However, that's not the end of things because as the closing credits hint, and picking up on clues sown throughout the movie (man's first manned mission to Mars, spacecraft disappearing etc), the groundwork was been laid seamlessly for the inevitable sequel.

And it couldn't come soon enough...

Reed Richards Works With ANSA??? Is There A Fantastic Four Connection To The Planet Of The Apes Franchise?

In an era of rapid technological advancement and scientific discovery, one man stands at the forefront, driving humanity toward new horizons: Dr. Reed Richards. His expansive credentials stretch beyond what could be expected of a single man:

• An advisor to the ANSA, Dr. Richards has played a crucial role in the United States' burgeoning space program.
• His theoretical models on propulsion systems and space travel have been instrumental in developing technologies that have made manned missions to the stars a reality.
• In the field of biology, Richards' research of genetics is opening new doors to understanding life itself.
• Beyond his research, he is deeply committed to the education and mentorship of our future scientists.

Fantastic Science with Mister Fantastic airs weekly on ABC.

• In his spare time, Dr. Richards develops fantastic new technologies to make everyday life easier as CEO of ReedTech.
• And last but certainly not least, Dr. Richards has regularly saved the planet from threats unknown as a member of the Fantastic Four!

So, in the alternate 1960s of Fantastic Four: First Steps, Reed Richards works with the "United States' burgeoning space program" i.e. the American National Space Administration (ANSA).

In the 1968 movie (on our world) Planet of The Apes, astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) and the crew of the Icarus were also part of ANSA.

Again, in our world, Disney controls the rights to both the Planet of The Apes franchise and, of course, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Is this some subtle hint of an impending crossover? Or just a sly wink and an Easter Egg for us Apes/FF geeks?

I'm hoping for the former, but suspect the latter.

More faux magazine covers from the Fantastic Four: First Steps

THROWBACK THURSDAY: That Time When I Went Blonde

Given what a startling transformation it was, it has always surprised me that there aren't more pictures of the time two of my friends at university bleached my hair for me.

Of course, smart phones weren't around in the late '90s, so, as far as I am aware, the only extant picture of my "blonde period" is this one that Paul found when riffling through his collection of old uni snaps.

Fellow Scriptwriting for Film & TV students Lou and Rosie had dyed my hair, at my request, and I rather liked it.

I also, as you might be able to tell from the blurry picture, had thicker hair back then; I don't think I could pull this look off now.

University is, of course, when you get up to this kind of shenanigans, even when you're a supposedly "mature" student in his late 20s.

A blurry close-up of my startling John Constantinesque hair-do

The Descent (2005)

Neil Marshall is one of the UK's finest directors, with Dog Soldiers, Centurion and Doomsday to his credit, but the action-horror that brought him into the public consciousness was The Descent.

A year after her daughter's death in a car crash, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) and five fellow extreme-sports enthusiasts find themselves lost and trapped in a previously unexplored cave system in the Appalachian Mountains.

Marshall's innovative tale of the all-female expedition soon makes them prey for the cannibalistic humanoids who live down there.

To Marshall's credit - he wrote the screenplay as well as directing - the first half of the movie is just the women pitted against the natural hazards of the cave system, and if you weren't claustrophobic going into this film these scenes are enough to make you think twice about ever considering going underground again.

The monsters don't show up until the midway point and from then on it's a brutal fight for survival, magnificently shot with various lighting gimmicks to emphasize the oppressive and terrifying situation the women are in.

One of those films best watched with the lights off and curtains closed - for the full atmospheric effect - The Descent is a superlative horror movie, on both psychological and physical levels, that just gets better and better with repeat viewings.

And for those wondering, the title also refers to Sarah's descent into madness.

Logan (2017)

It's 2029 and mutants are an endangered species, with no new mutants being born. Logan (Hugh Jackman) is making a living as a chauffeur in El Paso, Texas, keeping his head down and nursemaiding a 90-year-old Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart).

Both men are well-past their prime, sickly, and losing control of the abilities that made them such key members of The X-Men.

Charles is battling dementia, meaning that his mental powers go out of control when he fails to take his medicine and has a seizure, while Logan finds his healing power is not what it was.

The world isn't exactly post-apocalyptic, it's just bleak and run down. Like the film's protagonist.

Thrust into this mix is a young mutant, Laura (Dafne Keen), whose talents seem very similar to Logan's.

And she is being pursued by the paramilitary Reavers, led by Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook), the head of security for biotech company Alkali-Transigen.

It turns out that Transigen has been creating clones from the DNA of known mutants, to be trained as soldiers, only the children had no interest in fighting.

One of the nurses at the company's research facility managed to spirit Laura away before any further harm could be done to her.

But Transigen wants its "property" back.

Beyond just the strong language and graphic violence, Logan is unlike the majority of mainstream comic book superhero movies.

Director James Mangold has a singular vision for this unique take on the genre. There are no superhero costumes, everything is very down-and-dirty, tired and almost drained of colour.

The world isn't going out with a bang, it's just running out of steam... unless a new generation can be found to get things going again.

There is, as you would expect, plenty of action in Logan, and some grand special effects sequences, but this is a more contemplative and cerebral movie, examining such themes as the power of mythology and labels, for good or ill; the consequences of violence; the ravages of time.

It's a road movie crossed with a contemporary Western, set against a desert backdrop, stirring up echoes of Unforgiven, Shane (which is acknowledged in the film), Badlands, Mad Max (particularly Fury Road and Beyond Thunderdome) and others.

Interwoven with this is the family dynamic of Logan, his "daughter", Laura, and his father(figure) Charles, coming to terms with the reality of their situation, their places in this new world, and their destinies.

Given the size of these personalities, the villains of the piece (Pierce and his boss, evil scientist Rice, played by Richard E Grant) play a distant second fiddle to the protagonists, but that doesn't really matter.

It's all about closing a major chapter in the cinematic world of The X-Men in the most visually elegiac and lyrical way possible.

Logan is a live-action encapsulation of a Johnny Cash song (which is why his The Man Comes Around over the end credits works so well).

James Howlett, aka Logan, isn't the Wolverine we know from the earlier X-Men films, age is finally catching up with him and he no longer feels indestructible, but this gives Hugh Jackman the opportunity to give the character everything he's got.

This is a magnificent, and tonally perfect, heart-breaking yet optimistic, send-off for the superhero that he has played since 2000, and will - forever - be associated with him.

Game For A Laugh

Looney Tunes Monopoly, which we played earlier this month, was one of the best

What some of you may not realise about me is that my gaming interests aren't limited to just roleplaying games and skirmish wargames. Rachel and I also host an (almost) monthly Monopoly Club.

Joining us at the table are Clare and Pete, making this a kind of spin-off from the Tuesday Knights (our roleplaying group).

Pete is a collector of the many, many themed-Monopoly sets and so every time we get together we play a different iteration of Monopoly.

In the two-and-a-half years we've been going, we've traded property and bankrupted each other in the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons to Harry Potter, James Bond to The Simpsons, and Indiana Jones to Scooby-Doo.

Our little group not only keeps a running league table of our various victories but also a table of our gradings of how well produced and how innovative these reskins of the classic game are. 

If you want to learn more about our adventures in board gaming (or just check out some of the eccentric hacks of the classic original board game), then please visit Don't Talk About Monopoly Club (it's the first rule of Monopoly Club).

All this talk of board gaming, reminds me of the recently announced documentary: The Hobby - Tales From The Tabletop.

This fascinating dive into the culture of board gamers "explores the passionate world of modern board gaming, following enthusiasts who find community and meaning through games".

PULP PICTURE OF THE MONTH: The Legend Of Tarzan (2016)

To cut a long story short, The Legend Of Tarzan wasn't just the best action movie of the year it was released, but also found a place as one of my all-time favourites.

Director David Yates' period piece is as near perfect a Tarzan tale as I could have hoped for, drawing on Edgar Rice Burroughs' source material (as well as the popular pulp era movies) to serve up a true edge-of-the-seat, straight-forward, non-stop, roller coaster of an old school, ripping yarns adventure.

Simply put, they don't make films like this any more... more's the pity.

It's Africa in the late 19th Century and Belgium emissary Leon Rom (Spectre's Christoph Waltz) is the sole survivor of a diamond-hunting raid on the mythical city of Opar. Captured by Chief Mbonga (Guardians Of The Galaxy's Djimon Hounsou), Rom is offered a deal for access to the city's diamond supply: he must bring the chief's arch-enemy to him. This being Tarzan!

Tarzan aka Lord John Clayton III (True Blood's Alexander Skarsgård) has returned to England and is living the life of a lord with his lovely wife, Jane (Suicide Squad's Margot Robbie).

He receives an invitation from King Leopold of Belgium to visit the Congo and is reluctantly persuaded by American George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson) to take up the offer, as George wants to follow up rumours of illegal slavery in the country.

Along with Jane, the two men head to Africa, and the pretence of John Clayton's invitation being a diplomatic issue is quickly torn asunder when Rom and his mercenaries attack the village where our heroes are staying, kidnapping Jane in the process.

The Legend Of Tarzan then becomes a race against time, not only to rescue Jane, but then to prevent Rom getting the diamonds to the coast to pay off a huge mercenary army that will soon be landing to enslave the country's entire native population to work for King Leopold.

As well as drawing on the traditional source material, both Burroughs' novels and the early films (there's a couple of Weissmuller yodels - but given a more bestial remix - as well as visual nods to my favourite Johnny Weissmuller outing as Tarzan: 1946's Tarzan And The Leopard Woman), The Legend Of Tarzan also draws heavily in tone and style from another of my all-time favourite pulp action films: Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

Waltz, while playing a variation of his usual deadpan arrogance, is essentially a different take on Paul Freeman's Belloq. The dinner scene between Rom and Jane is a clear homage - down to the knife-stealing - of the similar scene in Raiders, between Belloq and Marion.

The Raiders' tone is also reflected in the moments of levity that slip seamlessly between the darker, more violent, episodes (I'd cite the fight between Tarzan and a train carriage full of soldiers as a particularly strong example of the balance of action and humour).

The CGI effects are slick, dynamic, and beautiful, sucking you into the film rather than shattering any suspension of belief you may require for Tarzan's magnificent, superhuman, displays of strength, endurance, and agility, or his - and others- interactions with the fearsome wild life of Africa.

Kudos also to scriptwriters Adam Cozad and Craig Brewer for a screenplay that continually escalates to a monumental showdown, while cleverly weaving in Tarzan's origin story - in flashbacks - without reducing The Legend Of Tarzan to being simply yet another retelling of the 'birth' of Tarzan Of The Apes.

If you like old school adventure movies, particularly those that inspired, or were inspired by, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, then this is the film for you. It's exciting, inventive, and thrilling, modern-yet-retro, and a must see for Tarzan fans new and old.