pharaoh ' s army
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book review / bitter wolff in sheep' s clothing: in pharaoh' s army - tobias wolff: bloomsbury, pounds 12. 99
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book review / bitter wolff in sheep' s clothing: in pharaoh' s army - tobias wolff: bloomsbury, pounds 12. 99 | the independent
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the film' s title was drawn from a spiritual ,
mary don' t you weep ,
that mentions the drowning of pharaoh' s army in the red sea .
like ken burns' pbs documentary ,
the civil war ,
robby henson' s engrossing new civil war drama
pharaoh' s army
was inspired by shelby foote' s books about the war between the north and south .
visit itvs, the independent television service, a sponsor of
pharoah' s army .
written with the all of the concision and clarity that he brings to his fiction ,
in pharaoh' s army
ascertains wolff' s ability to turn life experiences into dynamic storytelling. wolff' s first memoir - and his most famous book -
this boy' s life
recounts wolff' s childhood with his itinerate mother and doltishly abusive step - father. and
in pharaoh' s army
reads as a continuation of
this boy' s life
; wolff' s feelings of inadequecy and fraudulence appear in their grownup forms in this story as
this study guide consists of approximately 25 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of in pharaoh' s army .
if you want a civil war film with a small
c ,
which examines the bitter, bone - chilling hatred of a people divided, then
pharaoh' s army
is the movie for you .
i' ve never heard of wolff' s in pharaoh' s army before. when a friend recommended the book (right after he binged read it) i was interested, but doubtful. however, once i started reading i was pulled into the strong, reminiscent story about the experiences of war. in pharaoh' s army reads like a collection of short stories, each one with value. a collection of memories of a young officer' s experiences in vietnam, working as an adviser in the delta. each story diverts into a secondary path, then wind
in a cameo as a southern sympathizing preacher, kris kristofferson has the line that explains the film' s curious yet not entirely prophetic title :
the pharaoh sent his army to fight israel, and they drowned in the red sea .
for the record los angeles times monday april 8, 1996 home edition calendar part f page 11 entertainment desk 1 inches; 21 words type of material: correction composers - - in friday' s review of
pharaoh' s army ,
the composers of the film' s score were misidentified. they are vince emmett and charles emmett. for the record los angeles times wednesday april 10, 1996 home edition calendar part f page 2 entertainment desk 1 inches; 24 words type of material: correction' pharaoh' s army' rating - - incorrect information was given about the film' s mpaa rating in friday' s calendar. the film is rated pg - 13 for brief violence and sexual content .
playing a man of unusually strong moral fiber and capacity for reflection, cooper makes abston a most appealing and admirable man. taut and spare ,
pharaoh' s army
has an authentic look and feel to it and has a restrained, evocative score by mark watters .
the best - known actor in the movie is kris kristofferson, who plays the supporting role of a southern preacher who uses the old testament to justify slavery. kristofferson' s daughter, tracy, worked as the associate producer and got him involved. on the basis of their work in
pharaoh' s army ,
john sayles cast cooper and kristofferson in his next film ,
lone star .
after pharaoh let the israelite people go, god led them by a pillar of cloud toward the red sea. but when they came to the wilderness, they turned and went down along the western side of the red sea and there made camp. when king pharaoh heard about this he thought that they were afraid to go into the wilderness. then he and his servants changed their minds once again and said ,
what have we done? we have let the israelites go and have lost them as our slaves .
so pharaoh gathered his army with horses and chariots and started to follow the israelites .
this is the first book by tobias wolff that i' ve read. as someone who has written about war, i found in pharaoh' s army to be a confirmation of everything i know about the effects of a combat deployment on young, developing human beings. wolff is a wonderful writer. i look forward to reading more of his work .
henson admits that he was for a time attached to his original title
sinkhole .
but the new title, which is coincidentally close to the title of tobias wolff' s vietnam memoir ,
in pharaoah' s army ,
eventually prevailed .
i' ve never heard of wolff' s in pharaoh' s army before. when a friend recommended the book (right after he binged read it) i was interested, but doubtful. however, once i started reading i was pulled into the strong, reminiscent story about the experiences of war. in pharaoh' s army reads like a collection of short stories, each one with value. a collection of memories of a young officer' s experiences in vietnam, working as an adviser in the delta. each story diverts into a secondary path, then winding back to the chapter' s main point. many of the side routes ending in irony, sadness, or dark comedy. wolff' s stories also hit home with my experiences in the army and in war. his chapter describing the tet offensive perfectly described the powerless feeling you frequently experience as a combat adviser. his glib, pithy attitude sounds negative, but reading between the lines, is not. a great, fast read that will hit close to home for many combat veterans. my only regret it not reading it sooner. it' s now a core member of my professional reading list .
in pharaoh' s army, memories of the lost war ,
by tobias wolff is an autobiographical account of the author' s tour of duty in the vietnam war and the aftermath of his experience as he attempted to adjust to civilian life. the account also describes the contributing factors that led wolff to decide to serve his country, providing the insight that there are sometimes less than obvious reasons when one makes such a life - changing decision .
inspired by central italian battle designs, especially the equestrian conflict of leonardo' s battle of anghiari, titian' s submersion of pharaoh' s army in the red sea, with its great sweep of figures around a central void, powerfully develops aspects of the venetian tradition. in the woodcut the sea itself, in a very real sense the major protagonist, appropriately dominates the center of the design; for all its figural dynamics, the red sea is in effect a monumental stormy seascape - a pictorial theme of obvious interest in venice .
i kind of like the idea of an army getting sucked into a place where they' re drowning ,
said henson .
one of the key ironies is that the captain had never killed a man, he joined the army to free the slaves, and yet the first man he kills is a slave .
drawing from a story passed down over the years in rural kentucky near the tennessee border, writer - director robby henson, in his beautifully articulated
pharaoh' s army ,
brings war down to an agonizing personal level, where individuals, faced with people very much like themselves, are forced to make the toughest of moral choices. by concentrating on telling a story exceedingly well, henson creates far more impact than had he tried to send any obvious anti - war messages .
* note: this review also appears on my website * you don' t have to get too far into in pharoah' s army to realize this isn' t your average vietnam kill pulp. the memoir of wolff' s time as an army special forces officer in vietnam explores all the nooks and crannies of the wartime experience that have nothing to do with combat, saving the kinetic stuff for a kind of sort brief, violent salve. it' s a remarkable book, the first war memoir i read before i knew
war memoir
was a thing. anyone who knows wo
want to share imdb' s rating on your own site? use the html below .
ps: that' s director robbie henson. henson. nev - - er miind .
although the troopers in the detail eventually become anxious and restless in the stifling environment, the captain is reminded of his own farm which he was forced to leave when he joined the army .
a sequel of sorts to this boy' s life, this memoir detail' s wolff' s service in south vietnam during the war. as usual well - written, and unsparing in portraying his often less than exemplary behavior. as to be expected in a vietnam memoir, some dark and disturbing humor .
i' ve only read 2 of tobias wolff' s works - - both memoirs: this boy' s life and now in pharoah' s army. these two works have left me with an impression of him as a writer that strikes me as similar to my impression of writers like jack london, john steinbeck, and ernest hemingway. similar, but not the same. in ways, he has that
man' s man
thing about his writing that they have. in other ways, he is much more gut - wrenchingly honest and allows himself a vulnerability that i can' t imagine someone lik
pharoah' s army, based on a supposedly true kentucky legend, is a war movie without the war. for those who don' t fight the battles but still have to take sides, the inner struggles can be as heartbreaking as the war itself. director robby henson' s stark, unsentimental telling of the story has a powerful emotional impact. looking for enemies, a group of... read more
no frills or fancy camera work, but an effective and moving film none the less. pharaoh' s army is an intimate look at the civil war and how on a small scale it was waged without being on a battlefield. yankee cavalry led by chris cooper stumble upon the kentucky farm of a confederate wife played by patricia clarkson. from the get go there is tension between the troops and clarkson and her son. an accident forces the soldiers to stay and a forced bond between cooper' s character and the farm is forged. the film has very beautiful scenes of nature and farm life. the interaction between the main combatants is very well done, along with a strong script. the plot…
with director and writer robby henson on national public radio' s
morning edition ,
april 5, 1996 .
sometimes, it' s all in the acting. cooper and clarkson... well, just settle in. they crackle with confused attraction as enemies in unfortunate circumstances. cooper' s captain just wants to do the unpleasant necessary of raiding supplies and go on his way, but now he' s in a hostage situation with no one to offer a ransom .
wolff continues in the self - critical vein he established in this boy' s life, painting a picture of moral inadequacy as he went to vietnam and succeeded in staying alive, if little more. i think it' s extremely well done .
i completely fell in love with shelby' s three - book series ,
said henson by phone from new york .
during the american civil war, a union army captain leads his rag - tag cavalry troop up a misty creek to a remote farm to appropriate enemy (confederate) livestock. the farm is worked by... see full summary »
m * a * s * h m. a. s. h. è l’acronimo di mobile army surgical hospital, cioè ospedale militare chirurgico da campo. non c’entra nulla con questo bel memoir. tra l’altro, quelli (il film, e la serie) erano ambientati in corea, parlavano di quella guerra lì, anche se sono universalmente associati a quella del vietnam. la somiglianza però c’è: è nel tono, nell’ironia, nel piglio (apparentemente) cinico e (apparentemente) leggero. ma il libro di wolff non è un deliro di risate come m * a * s * h. i miei eroi: ell
tobias wolff has a knack for finding extraordinary truths in the mundanities and absurdities of everyday life. his 1989 memoir about his adolescent years, this boy’s life, still ranks as one of my all - time favorite reads. in this subsequent memoir of his years as an army officer in the vietnam war, wolff’s powers of perception are again on full display. i found it easier to think of each chapter in this book as a short story rather than as parts in a linear narrative. some stories resonated with
a gentleman goes to war. this boy' s life by tobias wolff is a classic. in that book he does a brilliant job capturing the ugliness of class prejudice in america, and the twisted strategems people use to rise in class. unfortunately, this book is not so much about vietnam as it is about wolff' s presence in vietnam - - in other words, what' s really on display is not his courage or patriotism but his, shall we say, genteel powers of detachment. he' s always saying ,
look, most of the grunts were low
during the american civil war, a union army captain (chris cooper) leads his ragtag cavalry troop up a misty creek to a remote farm to steal enemy livestock and supplies. the farm is owned by sarah anders (patricia clarkson), whose husband is away fighting for the confederate army, and her young son. when an accident forces the patrol to stay, the captain and sarah find they have more in common than they want to admit. thrown together by destiny, the captain and sarah are forced to make choices beyond their control .
the troops are a little cartoonish, but huckleberry fox is as precious a lamb as he ever was by debra winger' s bedside. will lucas plays clarkson' s son with a competence that will make you look him up to see who he grew up to be. he never acted again .
as the days pass, the captain begins helping with the chores on sarah' s run - down farm, particularly plowing the fields, which for him holds fond memories of home. a mutual and quiet respect develops between the two - - respect that is neither shared nor understood by the captain' s troopers .
during the american civil war, a union army captain leads his rag - tag cavalry troop up a misty creek in the cumberland mountains of kentucky. they come across a small, remote farm worked by sarah anders, a proud and defiant woman whose husband fights for the confederates and whose daughter has been
cooper was henson' s first choice for the part, partly because of his work in
matewan
and
thousand pieces of gold
:
i think chris plays 19th - century, morally conflicted characters rather well. once i decided who the characters were, the characters just wrote it for me. it was written so incredibly quick and easily. i' m working on a script right now that' s not nearly so easy - - it' s contemporary .
clarkson can currently be seen on televison' s
murder one ,
playing the key attorney' s wife. cooper stars in another movie due this month ,
money train .
richard tyson, huckleberry fox and robert joy, who play union soldiers under his command, all have a long list of screen credits .
abston (chris cooper), a union army captain, leads his civil war regiment to a kentucky farm run by sarah anders (patricia clarkson), whose husband is off fighting for the confederates. although cordial respect develops between abston and sarah, war - related incidents cause mounting difficulties and shifting loyalties. sarah' s young son draws the local preacher (kris kristofferson) into the situation, and, after a galvanizing sermon, a bloody confrontation is at hand .
“lose faith. pray anyway. persist. we are made to persist, to complete the whole tour. that' s how we find out who we are. ”
in this extraordinary memoir of wolff’s vietnam experience, there is a haunting scene that reveals the major cultural differences between the american soldiers and vietnamese culture. wolff was a first lieutenant (he was a special forces member) assigned as an adviser to a south vietnamese unit. he had spent a year at language school in the united states and was fluent in vietnamese. he and some arvn (army of the republic of vietnam) soldiers are hanging out when two of the arvn find a small pup
when the israelites saw the egyptian army coming, they became afraid and cried out to the lord for help. they said to moses ,
why did you bring us out here into the wilderness to die? is it because there weren' t any graves in egypt? it would have been better to stay as the egyptian' s slaves than to die out here .
then moses said ,
don' t be afraid. stand still, and see how god will save you .
a gentleman goes to war. this boy' s life by tobias wolff is a classic. in that book he does a brilliant job capturing the ugliness of class prejudice in america, and the twisted strategems people use to rise in class. unfortunately, this book is not so much about vietnam as it is about wolff' s presence in vietnam - - in other words, what' s really on display is not his courage or patriotism but his, shall we say, genteel powers of detachment. he' s always saying ,
look, most of the grunts were low class brutes, i was different. sensitive, perceptive - - i didn' t really belong there at all !
it gets tiresome .
tobias wolff has a knack for finding extraordinary truths in the mundanities and absurdities of everyday life. his 1989 memoir about his adolescent years, this boy’s life, still ranks as one of my all - time favorite reads. in this subsequent memoir of his years as an army officer in the vietnam war, wolff’s powers of perception are again on full display. i found it easier to think of each chapter in this book as a short story rather than as parts in a linear narrative. some stories resonated with me more than others. in those, i found turns of phrase so potent that they were like gems. so sad and funny all at once. no one does the human condition like wolff .
wolff' s leadership skills, intelligence, and abilities were noted by his commanders in recruit training, even though he did not see those same qualities in himself. he was tapped to join special forces and attend language school in washington, dc. he went on to officer' s candidate school and parachute training and eventually was dispatched as a lieutenant to vietnam where the war was raging .
i' ve read a lot of books about vietnam over the years, but i still enjoyed wolff' s fresh perspective as a first lieutenant. his willingness to more or less describe himself as a coward in the face of danger and his attention to detail in describing his year in my tho in the mekong delta at the time of the tet offensive make this a good read regardless of how much you know about the vietnam - u. s. war. although best known as a short story writer, i' m looking forward to reading his memoir a boy' s li
i' ve read a lot of books about vietnam over the years, but i still enjoyed wolff' s fresh perspective as a first lieutenant. his willingness to more or less describe himself as a coward in the face of danger and his attention to detail in describing his year in my tho in the mekong delta at the time of the tet offensive make this a good read regardless of how much you know about the vietnam - u. s. war. although best known as a short story writer, i' m looking forward to reading his memoir a boy' s life next .
when i describe wolff' s work to people, i say he' s probably the most emulated short story writer in america. you have to read one of his stories and have read a lot of american creative writing work to know what i mean. and these are memoirs, which is pretty indicative of american fiction. he has the clarity of a baldwin, the structures of carver, and seems to have lived a life like hemingway. i don' t recognize his tone, which is often a little cruel, so i' ll say it' s distinctly wolff. this is p
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talk about getting out of the frying pan and into the fire. tobias wolff joined the army because he thought it would be safer than ships. as an 18 - year - old, he was working on a survey vessel in the north atlantic when, one day, a red - haired mechanic tried to kill him. wolff was sleeping with his head on an idle propeller; he heard a noise, woke with a start, and sat up just before the silver blades roared into life. they would have minced his head. he weighed up his chances of surviving a renewed assault, figured they were small, and signed up for the army on the grounds that most of the writers he admired - mailer, remarque, hemingway - had at one time been soldiers .
henson' s script is based on a kentucky legend about a boy who killed a yankee soldier and buried him in a sinkhole. henson came across it while researching one of his documentaries about southern history and culture .
a man who abandoned his family callously returns with his new girlfriend to sign the divorce papers and see his daughter who' s getting married. his arrival reawakens old family wounds and pushes his distraught wife to the brink of sanity .
tobias wolff provides us with a memoir that captures his experience of serving in the vietnam war. every human emotion, including the lack thereof, gets it' s due. wolff captures that war as deftly as tim o' brien .
when i describe wolff' s work to people, i say he' s probably the most emulated short story writer in america. you have to read one of his stories and have read a lot of american creative writing work to know what i mean. and these are memoirs, which is pretty indicative of american fiction. he has the clarity of a baldwin, the structures of carver, and seems to have lived a life like hemingway. i don' t recognize his tone, which is often a little cruel, so i' ll say it' s distinctly wolff. this is probably his best collection of stories, overall - - but with nothing as perfect as' bullet in the brain.'
i found this surprisingly compelling. it' s competently acted and directed and it brings up some provocative ideas about the internal conflicts folks went through during a time when they had to turn on their own countrymen. i thought it was pretty good .
so this woman' s acting career isn' t really going as planned or whatever. she finally gets a role on this heart break hospital soap opera because this movie is so meta har har har. then she... see full summary »
i really like memoir, and this was no exception. vietnam era stuff sometimes gets to me because of my dad' s experience and the resulting psychological trauma, but this was really well done. wolff is an honest storyteller who didn' t shy away from painting himself in a less than stellar light. this isn' t really a
front lines of battle
kind of war memoir, though clearly we get some of that. it' s more about the situation he found himself in, constant struggle he felt throughout, his platoon, frien
it stars chris cooper (matewan, lonesome dove) as a union army captain who leads his rag - tag cavalry up a misty creek on a foraging mission. they come upon the small, remote farm of sarah anders, played by patricia clarkson (the untouchables, the dead pool). anders is a proud, defiant woman whose husband is away fighting for the confederacy. she also harbors an intense and justified hatred: yankees dug the body of her infant daughter out of the community graveyard for being part of a confederate family .
whether he is evoking the blind carnage of the tet offensive, the theatrics of his fellow americans, or the unraveling of his own illusions, wolff brings to this work the same uncanny eye for detail, pitiless candor and mordant wit that made this boy' s life a modern classic .
war stories are really my brother' s forte, but i thoroughly enjoyed this book. it' s a memoir of vietnam, and because i read it for a creative non - fiction class, i' m left wondering whether a few things actually happened. is truth crazier than fiction? i also really loved the interjections of writerly advice within the narrative, and wish wolff would have given us more. a young man overseas, always with a novel in the back of his head. in many ways, i related. in many ways, i found truth within his
i really like memoir, and this was no exception. vietnam era stuff sometimes gets to me because of my dad' s experience and the resulting psychological trauma, but this was really well done. wolff is an honest storyteller who didn' t shy away from painting himself in a less than stellar light. this isn' t really a
front lines of battle
kind of war memoir, though clearly we get some of that. it' s more about the situation he found himself in, constant struggle he felt throughout, his platoon, friends, family and personal growth. highly recommend .
burns used it as a bible for his series. i did, too. i tried to make the language as historically accurate as the events. for instance, the phrase' meeting the elephant' was a term that came from shelby. it means going into a day' s battle .
in the finished film, the boy, played by newcomer will lucas, stays mostly in the background. the murdered yankee is an injured soldier, the boy' s mother (patricia clarkson) is defiantly anti - union, and the union captain (chris cooper) who takes over their farm is a reluctant leader .
a lot of people in kentucky have this background ,
he said .
everyone assumes if you' re from kentucky, you fought for the south, but that' s not necessarily true. i only realized it when i was doing research. many of us don' t even know where our ancestors fought in the war .
: by the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread until thou return unto the ground, for out of it we was taken. dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. heavenly father, pick this child up on heaven' s side. put the grave behind for the promise on the other side, that she might live and abide with you .
a good, not great book. there is a lot of introspection of tobias wolff' s time in vietnam without a lot of stories. mostly about his life before, in training and after. i read this because of a reference to it in
the road not taken: edward lansdale and the american tragedy in vietnam
, and i happened to have the book .
the book is only incidentally a portrait of the war, which is perhaps just as well: there is no shortage of those. but wolff is a high, clear writer - one of the best - and this is, in effect, volume two of the autobiography he began in this boy' s life. even under fire, wolff was self - consciously having an experience, giving himself something to write about one day. and quite a large part of what is only a small book is taken up with memories of the author' s father, an ex - convict whose indisciplined life fostered in wolff the desire for order. so far as combat goes, we are offered, in clean and suggestive lines, a choice sequence of pregnant incidents .
a lot of my past nonfiction work has dealt with how you never know what the facts really are ,
he said .
this is based on oral history. who knows what the actual history was? harry caudill told me this story. the rest of the script is imagined fiction. it' s a pretty barebones little legend that we spun into a story .
this was on a list of movies i made years ago after reading a book about the civil war in film. it' s a nice overlooked movie, but does get slow in places. gives a good look at how the war affects those behind the front lines, and how hard it is to be civil and neighborly in a land where it literally was neighbor against neighbor. 3 .
then moses lifted up his stick over the sea and god made a path dry up through the middle of the sea. the water stood up in walls on both sides and a wind made the ground dry. that night the israelites walked through the sea on dry ground to the other side. in the early morning before sunrise when the cloud lifted, the egyptians started to follow the israelites through the sea. but god made the chariot wheels fall off. so the egyptians said ,
let' s get out of here! jehovah is fighting for the israelites .
then when the sun came up, god told moses ,
lift up your stick again over the sea .
when moses did so, the walls of water fell down and the sea returned to its place. all the egyptians drowned, and the israelites saw the dead egyptians on the seashore. then they feared and believed in god. and the israelites sang a song praising god. miriam, the sister of moses and aaron, led the israelite women in singing and dancing for joy. that day god had saved the israelite people from the egyptian army .
good book but not long enough to go as deeply as i would have liked. while chronicling a year' s military tour in vietnam, wolff renders that hazardous and appalling situation in as clear a way as i have ever read, offering up with stark clarity the dehumanizing aspects of war, the terrible compromises that must be made, and the sacrifices of conscience that go along with being a soldier .
way too many rewards from reading this book to even mention. his sentences, both in fiction and non fiction, are some of the best i' ve ever read. it' s like listening to a smarter person than you' ve ever known, speak with a poetic frankness absolutely void of sanctimony. and there are several passages / lines in this one that' ll keep you thinking for days .
original story took place at meshack' s creek, kentucky, in 1862; the town no longer exists. tompkinsville is the nearest town officially recognized by the us postal service, roughly 6 miles to the west of the creek. the general area (cumberland gap), during the civil war, experienced some of the most brutal clashes of the war; not only battles, but brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor .
it' s a film about people who are always reacting to events. they' re fully realized, they have their own agendas, but pretty soon they' re drawn towards this point. the mother reminds me a lot of people who grow up in that area. she has a stubborn scots - irish sternness, she has a chance to melt but she really doesn' t. you see a hardening of her attitudes .
known for his expressive brushwork, brilliant color, and hazy, atmospheric effects, renaissance painter tiziano vecelli, called titian, along with giorgione, was the founder of arte moderna, a nuanced style characterized by dynamic asymmetry and non - hierarchical compositions that broke from the work of his master, giovanni bellini. after giorgione and bellini died, titian introduced many innovations and was the considered the master of venetian painting. titian' s 1548 painting equestrian portrait of charles v established equestrian portraiture as a new genre that referenced both the roman tradition of equestrian sculpture and the medieval representations of christian knights. one of titian’s most famous paintings is the rape of europa (1562), which introduced a powerful diagonal structure—almost baroque in its blurred lines, swirling color, and vibrant brushwork. after a very successful career with many prestigious commissions, titian died of the plague that swept venice in 1576 .
inspired by a true story of union soldiers that are headed south during the civil war (1862) with captain john hull abston played by chris cooper they stumble upon a home while traveling up a creek in southern kentucky. that home happens to inhabit the wife and son of a confederate soldier that' s gone to war himself. a really good cast with a solid story, some shotty camera work that is expected in some indie films. overall worth a watch .
this is one of those rare books; a memoir written with unflinching honesty. in turns funny, brutal and melancholic, i found this an altogether different take on the vietnam experience. wolff' s initial description of his entry into the military and subsequent deployment to vietnam was quite amusing to read however it is the misery of command that he endures that held my attention. he finds cruelty, misogyny and distrust everywhere he turns and struggles with his conscience as he attempts to come to
the vietnam war memoir has been harder than expected to find. tim o' brien is probably the famous name of the genre, but as it turns out, he is writing fictionalizations. guns up! is strong and full - throated in its one way. enter tobias wolff. at first echoing will manchester' s (ww2 vet) seemingly distant / dissociated / even perverse confrontation with the absurdities and hollowness of war, wolff quickly gets involved in a slightly mournful but at times mordant dissection of military realities. he
although always keenly aware of dürer' s example, titan forged for himself a new kind of graphic vocabulary. he seems to have drawn across the entire surface himself, either in a full - size cartoon or, more probably, on the block itself, this is most clearly suggested by the great pen strokes of which the cloud is constructed. his use of cross - hatching, literally fluid in in its effects in the rendering of rippling waves, achieves an extraordinarily abstract richness in the synthetic structures of the great rock .
anders understandably is the most unwilling of hostesses, but abston is an uncommonly decent man who joined the union forces specifically to free the slaves. a farmer himself, he is soon plowing anders' field and chopping her wood. although anders remains wary, she and abston find themselves relating to each other like human beings rather than enemies. indeed, abston, three years a widower, is clearly longing for a wife and his home, so like anders' place. inevitably, abston' s kindness to
the enemy
is not going to sit well with all his men, and suspense develops as to just how long this brief time out from war will last and how it will play out .
so much of the life - and - death part was just luck, though. wolff explains how swiftly the military certainties dissolved.' despite the promise implicit in our training - if you do everything right, you' ll make it home - you couldn' t help but notice that the good troops were getting killed right along with the slackers and shitbirds.' he describes his close calls - a hand grenade under his truck that by some miracle didn' t explode, a howitzer that fell from a helicopter, a fateful hand that fell on another man' s shoulder - and winces. there just isn' t a way to make them mean anything, apart from that he was lucky, and the others weren' t .
as a child, i sometimes watched the news, at least when passing the old television with the big antenna atop the house which picked up two stations - - the nbc and cbs affiliates. almost every night, at least from the age i remembered anything i saw, we heard news stories from some strange place with jungles where a lot of americans engaged in war. the place, of course, was vietnam. tobias wolff provides a first - hand look at his experience as an officer both before and during his being stationed there. the majority deals with time spent in the my tho region. i enjoyed his sincere narrative which showed his development as an individual and as a soldier. he offers keen observations on both the vietnamese and american forces. i want to read more of wolff' s work in the future .
but the chaos of war was not the first time that wolff was forced to deal with the challenge of uncertainty in his life. he did not do well in school and his home life was in shatters. he had a supportive mother but his father was a liar and a con man and was serving time in prison when wolff was in the process of deciding what to do with his life. after having dropped out of high school, wolff was working as a crew mate on a coast and geodetic survey ship. a night of too much partying caused him to miss his ship' s departure. since he had disappointed his mother too many times in the past, he decided he had to do something to make her proud and prove his worth. those feelings and the fact that many writers he admired—especially ernest hemingway—had served in the military, led him to enlist .
this is one of those rare books; a memoir written with unflinching honesty. in turns funny, brutal and melancholic, i found this an altogether different take on the vietnam experience. wolff' s initial description of his entry into the military and subsequent deployment to vietnam was quite amusing to read however it is the misery of command that he endures that held my attention. he finds cruelty, misogyny and distrust everywhere he turns and struggles with his conscience as he attempts to come to terms with not having the courage to change things. a particularly nasty act in the bush forces him to stand his ground and halt the activity. just as he is coming to terms with this minor success, he is completely downcast when rather than thanks, the victim willingly returns to the perpetrators. this scene, to my eyes, was a microcosm of the whole book. very few little victories and even then, usually a price to pay. this is a short book but a riveting read and will particularly appeal to anyone interested in the realities of command during conflict .
if you' re looking for a civil war film with a capital
c ,
featuring the panoramic battle sequences of a nation divided, rent
gettysburg
or
glory .
the film - - the first feature - length film by robby henson - - is set in the remote cumberland mountains of kentucky. here, loyalties vary from homestead to homestead and the war is fought by roving bands of marauders interested not in lofty ideals, but food and shelter .
as the riders approach, sarah and her young son (will lucas) attempt to hide their meager belongings, particularly a musket, a milk cow, and a photograph of the absent husband and father dressed in confederate gray .
the yankee detail finds it all anyway, but before they can leave, the youngest soldier, newt (huckleberry fox) falls on a hay fork and is critically wounded. the detail decides to hole up at the farm until newt is well enough to be moved .
the close quarters of the farmhouse force sarah and the captain to interact as they care for the injured man. slowly they begin to speak not as enemies, but as people. the capain eventually reveals that the war has taken on of his family members as well - - his wife .
the conflict between the rebel - hating troopers and the relationship between sarah and the captain, played out on a backtgrop of hunger and desperation, illustrates the personal wars that were fought away from the battlefield .
the sullen beauty of the cumberland mountains - - brooding sky, barren trees and muddy farm yard - - provides a haunting backdrop for the personal conflicts. henson, a native kentuckian, shows an understanding not only of the civil war, but of the physical and emotional terrain upon which it was fought .
cooper and clarkson give their characters the depth they deserve, the ensemble cast of union troopers lend authenticity to the mission, and a cameo by kris kristofferson gives this small film a little extra star power .
on march 22 it will be screened in three areas of north carolina; raleigh, durham, and chapel hill. other play dates will be booked through april .
but the best chance to see the film will be on video. it is scheduled to be released on cassette in may .
a kentucky native who got his filmmking education at new york university, henson has ancestors who fought on both sides of the war, though he wasn' t aware of this past until he started doing documentary research .
the movie was shot quickly in the rainy spring of 1994, on a budget of less than $ 500, 000, about half of it provided by government grants that no longer exist for filmmakers .
i relied on having grown up around that countryside, so there were short cuts in finding locations ,
he said .
we picked a location that had the perfect creek, pasture and hillside, but there was no cabin or barn, so we had to bring those in. we relocated an existing log cabin, an authentic 200 - year - old cabin .
we really had a tremendous cast for a film that cost this little ,
said henson .
i' ve got robert joy as the fourth or fifth lead in my cheap movie! but actors will do something for love if the script is sufficiently character - driven .
if you grow up around them, sinkholes are mysterious places ,
he said .
i liked that title. but everyone outside of kentucky would look completely glassy - eyed if you mentioned it .
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jermaine fowler and omari hardwick of sorry to bother you take us back in time to the worst jobs of their careers .
during the american civil war, two friends join the bushwhackers, a militant group loyal to the confederacy .
when a posse captures three men suspected of killing a local farmer, they become strongly divided over whether or not to lynch the men .
a coach with a checkered past and a local drunk train a small town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the championship .
a former slave affects peace between native american tribes and homesteaders in 1860s around western texas .
a drama based on the experiences of kathryn bolkovac, a nebraska cop who served as a peacekeeper in post - war bosnia and outed the u. n. for covering up a sex trafficking scandal .
in the future, a kickboxer and a robot lead a revolution against ruling cyborgs .
a wealthy american quaker woman rebels and marries a french baron for love. a plan to start a parisian salon with a distinctively democratic air brings conflict with her new surroundings... see full summary »
set in california the story traces the intense summer romance between middle - class katie (megan wilson) and cute and very cool juvenile delinquent boyd (brian vaughan) .
doc jenkins is a singer / songwriter who tries to leave his singer / songwriter roots to be a music
mogul
, and gets tangled up in a bad publishing deal. he enlists a team of cronies, ... see full summary »
brothers, sean and tommy donnelly live and work in modern day texas. tommy has always been troubled and sean has always been there to help him but when tommy gets himself $ 6, 000 in debt... see full summary »
no, it was not good. i like chris cooper very much, he is great in the patriot, he can do a great job, but here the whole film is so plodding, so gooey and so slow that yawns creep in almost immediately. i understand the intent of the director, but he failed. the tedious, slow, ineptly weak drama drags almost seemingly endlessly for 90 minutes, and even some shooting at the end does not revive this tomb of nature. bleak, vapid, bland and sepia - tinted tonality is miserable, the performance is at times basic of almost all other actors, and the whole thing is very very dull. i watched this film by force and self - discipline. it never helped, and even the very reality of the whole plot did not help to make this work a bit livelier. no, this one does not work, i am sorry, but this is my impression
pharaoh 's army is a 1995 american film directed , written and produced by robby henson , starring chris cooper , patricia clarkson and kris kristofferson . the film takes place in kentucky during the american civil war and focuses on an uneasy encounter between a small squadron of union army soldiers that take up residence at the farm of a woman whose husband is fighting in the confederate states army . 
pharaoh's army is a 1995 american film directed, written and produced by robby henson, starring chris cooper, patricia clarkson and kris kristofferson. the film takes place in kentucky during the american civil war and focuses on an uneasy encounter between a small squadron of union army soldiers that take up residence at the farm of a woman whose husband is fighting in the confederate states army.
pharaoh's army is a 1995 american film directed, written and produced by robby henson, starring chris cooper, patricia clarkson and kris kristofferson. the film takes place in kentucky during the american civil war and focuses on an uneasy encounter between a small squadron of union army soldiers that take up residence at the farm of a woman whose husband is fighting in the confederate states army.