History Professor REACTS to "Emancipation" / Reel History

Подписаться 82 тыс.

Просмотров 7 тыс.

50% 1

To mark the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Reel History analyzes the Will Smith Civil War film "Emancipation" and the iconic photo at the heart of its story. Learn more about the process of emancipation here: freedmen.umd.edu/chronol.htm
Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/reelhistory
Find Educator Resources on our website: www.reelhistoryfilms.com
Explore our online shirt store: my-store-c21f5c.creator-spring.com
If you wish to donate to our channel, our PayPal is reelhistory1944@gmail.com
Reel History delves into historical films to separate fact from fiction. These engaging episodes explore, contextualize, and clarify stories related to the most famous historical movies. In contrast to the more prevalent "reaction" videos, these installments seek not only to entertain but to educate and inform. For host Jared Frederick and producer Andrew Collins, these episodes are a labor of love and a means of expressing passion for the past as well as cinema. Courteous viewer feedback is always welcome. The views expressed are our own and do not necessarily represent our employers or organizations with which we are involved.
*Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. All rights belong to their respective owners. All original commentary and materials produced by this channel are the intellectual property of Reel History, LLC. To reach the Reel History team, email reelhistory1944@gmail.com.

Опубликовано:

31 дек 2022

Ссылка:

Скачать:

Готовим ссылку...

Добавить в:

Мой плейлист

Посмотреть позже

Комментарии : 107

@renegadeleader1 Год назад

Being from Massachusetts and a history geek I know all to well your feelings on wanting a sequel to Glory, and how the 54th's is really only half told. It kind of reminds me of how We Were Soldiers only accounts for about a third of the book it's based on, and only tells the first half of the Ia Drang Valley battle. Back to the Civil War and the 54th though, one of history and Hollywood's disservices is how the 54th's sister regiment the 55th is all but ignored and forgotten. The 55th was one of the first colored regiments to have black officers of their own. That alone is a story worth telling.

@ReelHistory Год назад

Ever read "Thunder at the Gates?" That would be good source material for a "Glory" sequel.

@renegadeleader1 Год назад

@@ReelHistory No I haven't, but I will in the near future!

@BigRed0059 Год назад

Unless it’s a cgi movie about blue aliens fighting space marines you won’t get a high budget war movie any time soon.

@ReelHistory Год назад

@@BigRed0059, so sadly true. People want escapism.

@Ugly_German_Truths Год назад

I'm not sure about a sequel to glory, but if there has to be one movie about black civil war soldiers it's probably a battle of the crater from their perspective.

@c.w.johnsonjr6374 Год назад

As a Louisianan who studies this era of the state's history, there were so many times in this film, which I wanted to like, that I rolled my eyes. The planters would never have allowed their slaves to be treated in the near Holocaust-conditions with which the film portrayals the Confederate camp. I did some research and Captain Lyons was murdered in 1864 by a Unionist guerilla who had a personal grudge against him. The scene of him being shot and the women being led away from the house would more likely happened in the burnt district of the Missouri-Kansas border war The story of the first three regiments of the Native Guards, going from Southern militia to the Northern army, and the racism they faced from both local Louisianans and Union officers, would have actually made a more interesting film. The First Native Guard actually did not breach the Confederate defenses at Port Hudson, let alone inflict any casualties on the defenders. They were given the worse ground to cross and were caught in a three-way crossfire that included snipers and siege guns. They retreated after Andre Cailloux was killed.

@JamieFHarbert 9 месяцев назад

Your statement about owners not allowing their slaves to be treated so harshly that just don't ring true nor sit well with me. The South was Starving Lee's army was on meager rations themselves things did get brutal. It's really disturbing when Southern CSA sympathizers talk about slavery as if it was a mere indentured servitude the fact is it was pure slavery and Slave owners were treating their slaves harshly even before the civil war broke out because of the underground railroad was starting to have an impact on the rate of numbers of escaping slaves.

@Mayan_88694 7 месяцев назад

False, sub human Neo confederate vermin, slaves were treated horribly by the confederacy. It was holocaust like. Pathetic vermin.🤡🤡🤡🤡

@renegadeleader1 Год назад

"Unfortunately some people still think that way." *Immediately pauses video 10 seconds and goes to get popcorn. This is gonna be good!

@frankkoumaros Год назад

Watched the movie finally and then rushed to RU-vid to finally see your review. YES!! I said the same thing when it was over. What a missed opportunity. They could’ve done so much with this story. …instead they made a mission impossible swamp chase.

@wedgeantilles4712 Год назад

I can't stand when Hollywood do this type of thing. It's litteraly "let's take a story that basicly no one knows about or with something that's hard to substansiate, that way we can make things up as much as we want" and then people will watch this and think "oh, so that's what happened". And as usual, a good review and thank you sharing your opinions and even if opinions can be different, we can still be adult and respect them.

@davemac1197 Год назад

That's good shooting Wedge, now get the hell outta there before the Twitterati come after you...

@wedgeantilles4712 Год назад

@@davemac1197 Fuck people on twitter

@davemac1197 Год назад

@@wedgeantilles4712 - ew! No thanks!

@wedgeantilles4712 Год назад

@@davemac1197 But anyway, in all seriousness, it's pretty obvious towards who has a 20/20 vision that Will Smith asked for this role as a... How should you put "sympathy card" for his stupidity at the Oscars, I mean how can anyone be mad about a movie that involves slavery? How can anyone possibly be mad at someone who plays a slave? Nice going, good PR stunt Will.

@davemac1197 Год назад

@@wedgeantilles4712 - I've found that people who are up to no good all have the same thing in common: they all think we're even more stupid than they are. I'm seriously beginning to resent it...

@BigRed0059 Год назад

Welcome back!

@martinrenner2992 Год назад

From the article: "At one time in Louisiana he served our troops as guide, and on one expedition was taken prisoner by the rebels, who, infuriated beyond measure, tied him up and beat him, leaving him for dead. He came to life, however, and once more made escape to our lines." Geez, how could they leave that part out??

@ReelHistory Год назад

Good question!

@jimturner1600 Год назад

Fully agree with your questioning of the battle formation of the period in the Port Hudson fight, from all I’ve read and heard as a completely self-anointed amateur historian. However, whenever I hear Port Hudson, a comment from Steven Woodworth’s “Nothing But Victory, The Army of the Tennessee,” comes to mind that I think gives the director some cinematic leeway. Grant was at Grand Gulf, making up his mind about moving inland with a tenuous supply line, reading dispatches from D.C. and Banks, where Banks reportedly wasn’t prepared to cooperate with Grant’s Vicksburg campaign. Authorities in D.C. wanted Banks to capture Port Hudson quickly --- which didn’t happen ---and move north, where he would most likely take charge as he outranked Grant. “If any general could yet have snatched defeat out of the jaws of Union victory in Mississippi, Banks was the man,” Woodworth wrote. “In this case, his ineptitude saved the day by keeping him out of the Vicksburg campaign.”

@magnificus8581 Год назад

Thorough and knowledgeable review, love your content. Suggestion if I might? Set Design. I like the painting, maybe a stack of arms, flags?

@ReelHistory Год назад

Noted

@Rebelmediainc Год назад

Excellent review.

@ReelHistory Год назад

Thank you!

@Bigrago1 Год назад

For what it is I enjoyed the movie despite its shortcomings. As for American Civil War stories, I would like to see more on the Western Campaign like Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge or Shiloh. As well also some more on the Naval warfare such as the First Battle of Memphis or the capture of New Orleans. Though for a more condensed smaller story anyone of the Medal of Honor recipients would be nice maybe even the Great Locomotive Chase since those were the first awarded recipients. In terms of Civil War movies to look at there's Ironclads which is a made for television movie about the engagement between CSA Virginia and USS Monitor at the Battle of Hampton Roads, I believe it's on RU-vid.

@ReelHistory Год назад

Thanks for the perspective!

@chickencharlie1992 Год назад

You convinced me to check it out despite being a missed opportunity to tell a more substantial story. Wasn't gonna watch it, didn't even know it was about THAT photograph.

@ReelHistory Год назад

It is definitely worth a view if you are interested in the time period.

@meganrabish5691 Год назад

And this one isn't Civil War, but could you possibly do Wonder Woman, the 2017 film, since it's set during WWI.

@ReelHistory Год назад

Good suggestion!

@meganrabish5691 Год назад

Lincoln is a really good one.

@ReelHistory Год назад

On our list!

@MorganLemmons62 12 дней назад

There was no railway gun anywhere near the area of Port Hudson (where this is based around), nor a Confederate labor camp.

@filmsbyjoyshannon Месяц назад

Well done.

@caseclosed9342 Год назад

Still waiting on your Devotion video! Saw the movie I’m curious if some of the scenes like the parts with Liz Taylor and his claim of his commander refusing to pin on his wings on him are actually historical or artistic liberties. (I actually did like the movie in representation of Korean War veterans which my grandfather was one.)

@ReelHistory Год назад

It is in the queue but is unavailable for us to purchase/download yet.

@dabeast987 Год назад

How was the movie overall? I was interested in it but weary now adays to spend the money to see in theaters.

@ReelHistory Год назад

@@dabeast987, if you are interested in the era, we'd say it is worth a trip to the big screen if it is playing in your area. We streamed it and may have had a whole different experience had we seen it in a theater. We liked the film, but it will not be a best picture nominee.

@caseclosed9342 Год назад

@@dabeast987 I would say it’s worth seeing in theaters if you like aviation movies. The same crew who made Top Gun: Maverick made Devotion (and one of the actors from Maverick is in it as well). There are tons of shots of planes flying and landing on carriers overall the cinematography is beautiful again similar to Top Gun. The plot is so-so kind of like a chick flick with not a lot of violence for a war movie (it’s PG-13). I personally enjoyed it but that was largely due to seeing it theaters with the plane scenes.

@Ugly_German_Truths Год назад

I always forget which one was the southern state with the bigger share of slaves to the population at the onset of the civil war, but either Georgia or South Carolina had a whopping 60% of the population in slavery.

@Ugly_German_Truths Год назад

Sequels decades later without the original cast are a cringey thing for me, so it would need a remake including the parts already shown in Glory to be really watchable. And if you do that, it would probably be more suited for a limited length series ala Band of Brothers or The Pacific.

@yadarehey1130 Год назад

So long as the ration is 60:40 to the negative, to at least 60:40 to the positive, I’m interested in historically based movies. That is just so I can get a better idea of what happened. After this I am kinda excited to see this movie.

@ReelHistory Год назад

You should definitely watch the film if you are interested in the era.

@yadarehey1130 Год назад

@@ReelHistory I am and will. Do you know if they ever released that Gettysburg movie centered around Burns? It’s one of the few American Civil War films I was actually looking forward to.

@ReelHistory Год назад

@@yadarehey1130, a movie about John Burns is news to us! There was a silent film made about him over a century ago. Also, Jared recently filmed a short documentary about Burns that will be coming out in a month or two!

@davemac1197 Год назад

Loved the "good material culture in unit military details", because that's what I live for! It almost rivals comedian and Oxford History graduate Al Murray's "simple job name description allocation system basis" in his explanation of how the British Army works ('Why The British Are Undefeated World War Champions', RU-vid). I think this is another lesson on Hollywood as propaganda, and no doubt made with an eye to somehow connecting it to the present day. The Henry rifle and period housing are really interesting observations I would have missed. My Civil War film recommendation is Cromwell (1970), starring Richard Harris and Alec Guinness, but there are no slaves involved as Norman King William I banned the owning of slaves in England after his conquest of the country in 1066.

@celston51 Год назад

I see what you did there.

@davemac1197 Год назад

@@celston51 - the trick is to keep moving so people don't see which way you go!

@ReelHistory Год назад

@@davemac1197, point well taken!

@emiliog.4432 8 месяцев назад

Nice work here but I would consider changing the opening music. The uplifting horns.

@gettysburgguy Год назад

Definitely check out the book Freedom National.

@americasrisingson Год назад

Excellent job, as usual. It's a shame. This movie had so much potential. The one thing I would LOVE to know is how much research they did on the labor camp in the beginning. There is no doubt that slaves were used in the construction of Confederate Infrastructure, I have just never heard of a labor camp being THAT big. I thought the Confederates wanted most slaves on the plantations or as servants in the Confederate camps like serving food or as teamsters for control purposes. Also didn't the plantation owners not want to give up their slaves to the government? I am just interested to know what makers of the film based that off on.

@dabeast987 Год назад

Have you considered reviewing the mini series Rough Riders starring Tom Berenger as Theodore Roosevelt?

@ReelHistory Год назад

OH YES! This is one of our producer's favorite films. Definitely on our list.

@dabeast987 Год назад

@@ReelHistory awesome! This has been a childhood favorite of mine since it aired on tv. It was one of the films that really boosted my interest in history.

@Silentt141 Год назад

Please do the Yellowstone prequel 1883!

@caseclosed9342 Год назад

And 1923

@johnkeith2450 Год назад

How about a movie about Duncan Kenner? The man who convinced Jefferson Davis to end slavery in the South in exchange for the recognition of the Confederacy by England and France.

@Clonetrooper1139 Год назад

England rejected the proposal completely. The PM stated that England would not recognize the Confederacy, ever. This effectively ended any hope of recognition from France as Napoleon III would have only gone along with it if England had. This was just a few weeks before Lee surrendered at Appomattox to Grant. It was obvious the Confederacy was done. European nations saw no reason to align themselves with the CSA at this point.

@johnkeith2450 Год назад

@@Clonetrooper1139 But the South was willing to end slavery right then. A point that does not play well with many, and is something that could never be put in film, because it does not fit the narrative.

@jimplummer4879 Год назад

I was just going to say the cotton gin revitalized slavery.

@Oakestates Год назад

I'd like to see more movies on Fredrick Douglas or the Harpers Ferry uprising.

@ReelHistory Год назад

Amen to that! Have you seen "The Good Lord Bird?"

@Oakestates Год назад

@@ReelHistory I haven't, is it good?

@ReelHistory Год назад

@@Oakestates, picture the story of John Brown as if it was told by Quentin Tarantino! Immensely entertaining even if embellished.

@Oakestates Год назад

@Reel History ooh hell yeah!

@mcnultyssobercompanion6372 Год назад

According to Variety, Smith, whose net worth has to at least hover around $100 million (at least), was paid $35 million dollars to appear in this absurd, cynical, arguably exploitative film. In downtown Philly just now I saw multiple black men wearing rags similar to Smith's "costume" that he wears in this film. How much of a percentage of a percentage of Smith's net worth would it cost to get those guys some gloves and winter coats? A negligible percentage. So what is Smith waiting for? To be as obscenely wealthy as Smith is and then pocket $35 million more on top of that isn't what he's "earned", it isn't his "salary", it's greed. And all in the service of telling, inaccurately, this slave's important story. There's dignity in getting that story right, but what does Will Smith care about dignity? He's trying to win another Oscar.

@stephicohu Год назад

I like the movie being in black and white

@davemac1197 Год назад

It's a nice creative touch and underlines that this film is a story extrapolated from a monochrome photograph, but I wonder if the filmmaker is also trying to suggest the issues are black and white. History (the true story) is usually more more complex and messy. I think I would have appreciated some colour and context to this story.

@ReelHistory Год назад

It definitely sets the tone.

@stephicohu Год назад

@@davemac1197 : could be, but having only two colors and vast amounts of grey makes it easier to zoom in certain pointed issues, for example the whipping done to his back.

@Ugly_German_Truths Год назад

That was not a good take on the economic realities of slavery there, Professor. The overall share of the GDP may have been large, but it had been only kept up by slave SALES for decades as the cotton price was relatively low and feeding and housing slaves was not cheap, so barely anybody got rich by farming with slaves, the profits were made by selling off surplus slaves and with the resistance to allowing new slave states to join the Union ever growing, it was predictable that soon the market would collapse for that with no new areas being opened for trading to. Also the last strips of land that were open as slave states if you believed the compromise of 1850 would stay the rule, were not well suited for plantation agriculture, so the need for slaves in New Mexico/Arizona would be lower than in the original southern states, even California would not have been that good for the expansion of the system. So yes, there was a lot of money involved in slavery, but it was not unlimited and wouldn't have lasted more than another generation or so. In Part that's behind the golden circle idea of expanding southwards through conquering all land around the caribbean...

@jimplummer4879 Год назад

The slaves did have agency and free themselves.

@ReelHistory Год назад

You are in good company here!

@jimplummer4879 Год назад

@@ReelHistory thank you. I am a big fan of History and Lincoln and that era.

@DrTarrandProfessorFether Год назад

This strange movie makes little sense historically. It makes Confederates (I am a Strong Unionist Reenactor) but this makes German SS murder squares look like boy scouts. Killing runways makes no sense. The near end with dead Rebs all along the shore makes no sense… you do not take on a gunboat except by ambush. The attack on Port Hudson was pretty good… except the huge canon… just field pieces would be used. Early black units did attack in Later July 1863 and suffered heavy losses… the fort gave up after a long siege. Just the Rebs we’re too cruel and just shooting yankee prisoners did happen but not for not just like in this show. And a black servant (slave or not) holding weapons would really freak out Confederate Soldiers and Civilians. Random killing slaves just waists labour and starving them makes them very weak….

@roymcnicholas4825 Год назад

It's just a will smith film to get back into the good books ..how many more slave films do we have to sit through there is so many black actors and actresses that are so talented

@ReelHistory Год назад

There are plenty of slave narratives and stories of emancipation worth telling on screen.

@mcnultyssobercompanion6372 Год назад

Sorry, I just have to vent. As a West Philadelphian, seeing multi-millionaire Will Smith cosplaying on that poster as a disheveled, "unfortunate" individual makes me sick. _Too many_ of my neighbors- his FORMER neighbors- struggle horribly everyday, some of them sometimes resemble his image on that poster. But what has multi-millionaire Will Smith done for his people? Nothing. His city bleeds and he remains ensconced out on the West Coast drowning in piles of money. But he'll put on layers of makeup and let expensive cameras film him in a _pretend_ state of destitution in preparation for awards season. Must have been a good feeling for multi-millionaire Will Smith to remove that makeup at the end of each *highly paid* shooting day. I'm sorry it just makes me sick. He wants to cynically bathe himself in black struggle when it's Oscar season while the life *he actually lives* _directly contributes_ to the conditions that cause poverty-stricken Americans _to suffer_ daily. Including, yes, his _former_ neighbors here in West Philly, where he makes such a big deal about being "born and raised". The next line to that verse should be: "...and then abandoned." With a meager donation that makes up a percentage of a percentage of his net worth Will Smith could help countless needy individuals in West Philly. He never will. Not to any degree that matters. Why? Because Big Willy's due in the makeup chair. Make that money, scoundrel.

@davemac1197 Год назад

BLM and socialism are both scams designed to enrich the people running the scams and keeping their supporters poor and downtrodden in order to perpetuate the gig. The solution is not to buy into any of it and believe in yourself, your country, and your constitution. (I also appreciate The Wire reference in your choice of profile name!)

@caseclosed9342 Год назад

Careful, he might slap you! (Seriously though, good point. MANY celebrities coming from various different impoverished and marginalized communities do this and it’s an issue.)

@garrisonnichols807 Год назад

Hey is there any history where people aren't suffering? Seems like you focus to much on war movies.

@ReelHistory Год назад

Go back through our library. Maybe you'll enjoy "a league of their own" or "dazed and confused" for example. With that said, suffering is a popular plot device used by studios to sell the product.

@MorganLemmons62 12 дней назад

Holy shit. That entire battle scene is incorrect. The field would have been strewn with downed trees, and the Priest Cap, the point that they attacked would have looked different. There was only one line, not multiple as shown. This movie fucking sucks.

@Weknowbetter622 Год назад

My ancestors were in the Civil War including the 54th Massachusetts and units out of Pennsylvania. This guy here has no idea what anything was really like because he has book knowledge and that is it! My ancestors left a history of what they faced on the Battle Fields! He is telling his audience just what they want to hear! Thumbs Down!

@ReelHistory Год назад

Uh, so how are we misleading viewers? Sorry if we don't meet your standards.

@Weknowbetter622 Год назад

@@ReelHistory You pick apart the movie calling out flaws when it was one of the best I have seen. I had an ancestor who was in the 54th Massachusetts and described how the slaves lived. My Great Grandfather was a slave in Savannah and was freed by the 54th Massachusetts and he spoke of how it was in the Camps and when they headed North after the Civil War. I enjoyed that film which was about an enslaved man carrying about his family who could have kept going but did not. Then there is the enslaver telling the blacks he was their God. Maybe that was offensive to you but it happened more than folks want to admit. It was one of the best I have seen since Glory. Sorry if you don't "Get" it. But then you may not ever "Get" it!!

@Zarastro54 Год назад

@@Weknowbetter622 Did we watch the same review? Nowhere did he dismiss or belittle the struggle of slaves or black soldiers. His biggest criticisms were anachronisms due to the lack of concrete evidence of the individual being portrayed and the possible amalgamation of his story with that of someone else’s. You have poor listening comprehension skills if you think he was downplaying the black experience in this review.

@kenrup Год назад

It's a tale of struggle and survival. Was it billed as a historical documentary? Jared, you must be a real pain when stories are being told around a campfire. Let a story be a story. If you really want to tear something up, do the Audey Murphy Red Badge of Courage. That will keep you going for a while.

@stephicohu Год назад

To often from movies people believing that the incidents are true and are not true. Take the the movie Pearl Harbor by M. Bayn, most of the movie was totally taken out of context out of real history.

@wedgeantilles4712 Год назад

@@stephicohu That movies only purpose was to portray the japanese as "bad guys" , and display situations that never happened as oppose to things that did.

@stephicohu Год назад

Glory should be review. I think it would be interesting to do the Ft. Pillow Massacre

@ReelHistory Год назад

@@stephicohu, coming in 2023!

@ReelHistory Год назад

Ken, we actually interpret The Red Badge of Courage as a WWII movie set during the Civil War! Definitely worth checking out at a later time. And Jared is actually a lot of fun around a campfire! 😉