lookingland

last night i watched Pharoah's Army (another recommendation from

scarlite.

i read a review for this movie that called it flat and cliched. i have no idea what movie that guy watched.

here there be spoilers

while the pacing is a little strained and some of the choices aren't as strong as they could have been (i think the movie oughta have started with the yankees throwing the girl out of the grave, not with them burying her the first time, for example). "cliched" would have meant that the captain and sally would have fallen in love. "cliched" would have meant the oldstyle retribution from the preacher would have descended like a hoard and wiped out the yankees. "cliched" would have been for the kid to shoot the Captain (not Newt). my biggest fear while watching was that any one of these expected hollywood things might happen. none of them did. this is about the most unflinchingly honest portrayal of how a southern woman would react to the indignity of yankees stealing her cow, killing her chickens, spitting on her child, and then having the audacity to fall in love with her when she's a married woman and her husband is out fighting in the opposing army. the Captain's affection for her is totally believable in the context. so is her response.

this isn't a "great" film. it's enjoyable and interesting and the characters aren't prettied up at all (which is such a relief). everyone is dirty and the horses are muddy. it's excellent. on the other hand, the whole "pharoah's army" isn't as well explained as it should have been ~ felt like something was missing overall with the preacher character, but i love love love the fact that the Captain shoots the preacher's "boy" after his whole speech about enlisting because of the missionary who brought a slave to show them how he'd been whipped. that was excellent irony (and one of those moments that sort of gets buried and shouldn't have).

anyway, good gritty movie for fans of the genre ~ and a little extra fun for apparently being based on an actual event.