Film · Biograph · 1911
Pass it on
The Battle
48Watch it awake.
A boy runs from the charge, then goes back, and the fight is the spectacle.
The review
I put this on late because a teen and a short Civil War reel felt possible. Griffith, 1911, Biograph. A boy runs from a charge and then goes back. That second motion is the picture. The battle is the spectacle, and I am not walking anyone through the bodies.
Call the courage what it is: a correction of a panic, not a history of the war. One reel will not explain the fighting to your child. It will show fear and a return. If they can hold those two beats, fine. If they want the war told properly, leave it on the shelf.
Journal
Keep The Battle in the record.
No house has filed a sentence for this yet.
Live Historic number 48. Yours can differ.
The glance
Household and Truth and Stewardship are the thin ones.
Is a marriage, a parent, or a child a real life here, or just a prop?
This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.
Consider this
The Great Escape
60 instead of 48
The Great Escape is still a war film, and it scores 60 instead of 48. What you gain is industry: Digging, forging, and scouting are dull, and the dullness is the heroism.
The eight
- 5Industry
The charge is a soldier's job, and Griffith sells the battle as spectacle.
- 2Household
No parent or child is named; the boy is only a figure in the charge.
- 5Piety
Going back is a small conscience correcting his own panic.
- 7Courage
He runs from the charge and then returns, which is the reel's point.
- 6Republic
A Civil War charge is a debt to the line, paid in a one-reel battle.
- 6Temperance
He has to put the panic down before the return means anything.
- 4Truth
It is a 1911 spectacle of a battle, not a record of one named fight.
- 3Stewardship
A short Biograph reel leaves the spectacle and one corrected panic.
Where to watch
Finding the page.
Live Historic · The Battle · 48IMDb
