WGT REVIEWS

Home The Saga Archives Wild Geese Shops Bookstore Classifieds Heritage Key Dates Events WGT Forum Gallery Lands of Exile Living History Resources Bibliography Guest Book Contact WGT About Us PROUD SPONSORS OF WGT: AST Press, presenting "Campaigning With the Irish Brigade: John Ryan, 28th Massachusetts," an extraordinary look into the life of an enlisted man in one of the hardest-fighting regiments in the Union Army. Military Heritage Tours: Your guided tour to Ireland's Battlefields and Military Heritage. For the latest headlines about "Bloody Sunday" and Northern Ireland, visit Newshound, at Nuzhound.com VISIT THESE OTHER FINE IRISH SITES: Tara Hall, Headquarters for 'Fighting 69th' and Irish Brigade Memorabilia, online at Fighting69th.com. Irish Culture and Customs: Traditions, folklore, and more. Get an "Irish Brigade" t-shirt or sweat shirt with the graphic shown above from the Wild Geese Today's Irish Brigade Shop The Irish have fought in every corner of the globe and in nearly every uniform. Read their stories in A Military History of Ireland. Get an "Irish America: The Fenian Tradition" shirt, or other WGT item at the Wild Geese Today Store

AST Press proudly presents this unique Civil War memoir ... E-mail us for more info. MORE ON 'GODS AND GENERALS' 'Stonewalling' the Civil War - movie review "Gods and Generals" Music: AWOL - Movie soundtrack Book Casts Meagher as Bumpkin Historian: New Film Also Has Trouble With Meagher Musicians Kincaid, Whelan Help With Music (Article From Haunted Field Music) The Official Website for "Gods and Generals" Sony Music Site for "Gods and Generals" Soundtrack Civil War Music for 'Gods and Generals' Is AWOL The CD/DVD | The Film By G. Leslie Sweetnam Special to WGT So many lost opportunities! 'Gods and Generals,' the much-anticipated new Civil War film from Ted Turner Pictures could have borrowed from the war's history or even from the film's own DVD to produce a more lively, historically accurate accompaniment. WGT's chief music correspondent, Leslie Sweetnam, reports. Click on the CD to buy it As a banjo-playing re-enactor, the moments when I've felt most transported in time and place have been singing the great songs of the Civil War around the campfire. When everyone present is in uniform, the vehicles and modern buildings are lost in the darkness, and the conversation is reduced to "Have a sip of my 'Oh Be Joyful,' and 'Which one shall we sing next?" At these times, our temporary world looks, sounds and smells much as it must have for the boys on both sides, almost a century and a half ago. It was with a great feeling of intellectual kinship and hope, then, that I read the following from director Ron Maxwell's introduction to the CD/DVD set that I received a few days before the movie's opening: "One of the challenges of making a film which depicts mid-19th century America is to recreate its musical ethos. Folks at home were buying sheet music of old and new songs for singing around the piano. Soldiers already burdened with the essential accoutrements of warfare also carried harmonicas, guitars, tin whistles and banjos. Military brass bands and corps of fifes and drums paraded in city streets and played during actual battles. Congregations filled churches with hymns, while 'round many a Yankee or Rebel campfire, balladeers sang of home and loved ones left behind. "Gods and Generals" had to capture a mosaic of this musical expression. The bonus DVD accompanying this recording features a selection of this authentically recreated period music. In a couple of instances, these songs have never before been recorded, the sheet music and arrangements mined from dusty copies in national archives. In other cases the songs will be well knows as some of the most popular tunes of the war." The CD/DVD set Randy Edelman, who has written the score for over 50 movies. The CD contains the orchestral score composed partly by Randy Edelman, who created the competent score for "Gettysburg," the first of Maxwell's proposed Civil War trilogy, with the majority here contributed by John Frizzell. It also includes the song behind the titles, "Going Home," sung by Mary Fahl, words and music by herself, Glenn Patscha and Byron Isaacs, and the song behind the credits, Bob Dylan's "Cross the Green Mountain." I'm probably not qualified to review an orchestral score except as it supports the film, and this one does, while avoiding getting in the way too often. For those devotees of Irish culture, I'm pleased to report that it includes Mark O'Connor on fiddle and Paddy Maloney (yes, that Paddy Maloney) on tin whistle and pipes on about seven of the cuts, with O'Connor playing both Irish and Appalachian styles. While Frizzell has the good sense to shut the orchestra to pianissimo or less when they play, they are not given more than a bar or two before the orchestra returns, echoing and expanding the theme. It's a powerful tease. Less often is more and the two brief duets, especially one on "These Brave Irishmen" were the musical high point of the movie for me. In "Fife and Gun," on the "Gettysburg" score, Edelman took the bright cheeriness of a fife-and-drum corps and gradually introduced a dark, menacing bass background, to terrifying effect. On the "Gods" score, a large chorus of human voices, particularly men's voices, create a sound of inevitable, impending doom in a way I've only heard in movies about the Russian Front in World War II. "Going Home" is sweet and poignant, with a tune synthesized from a dozen folk ballads and a simple structure. It sounds like the 1860s until the bridge, which uses several very contemporary hooks of tune and harmony to snatch at your heartstrings. It only succeeded in dragging my spirit back to the 21st century. I should have taken it as a warning. Mary Fahl The DVD with the set includes the music videos of the two songs, shot on location with the actors looking on. In the "Going Home" video, like the song, the anachronisms pulled me from the place that the song was trying to take me. Fahl sings beautifully and looks smashing, but the slinky dress, mascara, and lip gloss was incompatible with the historical scenes and characters so carefully and historically portrayed. Bob Dylan's video works very well. He rides into a Confederate camp after a battle, wounded men lying about, to retrieve the body of a friend or relative, and rides out with it on his pack horse to "Cross The Green Mountain" to take him home. Dylan looks and sounds haggard and old and perfect and he fits right in. Remember him in "Pat Garret and Billy The Kid"? Just one of the guys. For anyone even mildly interested in Dylan's amazingly long career, this is an artifact worth seeking and savoring, but like the movie, it's mostly a visual pleasure. The music is Dylan, not period, though suitably measured and poignant. I treasure lyrics from many of this poet's songs, but the lyrics of 'Cross The Green Mountain have not stayed in my mind after half a dozen listenings. I wondered if anyone in would sit through the credits at the movie to hear a new Dylan song. After the four-hour movie, no one could. The DVD also includes the Theatrical Trailer and "Bonus Footage" of four scenes of period music. "Aha, here we go!" I'm thinking, "This is what I've come to review." Ted Turner Pictures Jeff Daniels and Mira Sorvino from the film: luckily for us, says reviewer Sweetnam, merely speaking. In the first, Chamberlain and his wife Fanny (Mira Sorvino) sing "Kathleen Mavourneen" in their Maine home, as she plays the piano. Pleasant enough for Joshua and Fanny, it lacks the vocal quality for a center-stage performance. It is probably a good example of domestic entertainment of the period. Mercifully, it's not in the movie. The second is "Song of the Rebel Irish," created by David Kincaid, whose "The Irish Volunteer" album of newly unearthed Civil War Irish soldier songs I have reviewed for this site. The wartime lyric came without a melody, but Kincaid found a period tune that fit the lyric's difficult meter and put them together to create as historically accurate a "new" Irish song as can be found. Ben Shaeffer, as "Sgt. Fitzgerald" plays period guitar and sings three verses at the campfire as Jackson watches from the shadows. Sadly, the scene is not in the movie. Third is "Steal Away," opening with half a dozen Blacks singing in rich harmony around the fire. The camera almost immediately cuts to a dramatic scene near the fire, but the singing goes on under the dialogue, perfectly demonstrating how little extra time is required to use music to set the mood for a scene. Sadly, there's little like it in the movie. Courtesy of Haunted Field Music David Kincaid (center) and John Whelan (right) with Stephen Lang (as "Stonewall" Jackson). Last is "Boys of the Irish Brigade," from David Kincaid's aforementioned album and, my goodness, there he is in blue, playing bodhrain with a band that includes John Whelan, the famous Irish button-accordion player, also heard on "The Irish Volunteer." The camera pans to the Irish Brigade in Fredericksburg, and the music stops as they are called to fall in. They right-face and step out to their destiny before the storied Stone Wall as the tune strikes up again, proving that the Irish are such great soldiers and so rhythmically proficient that they can march to a waltz. Sadly, the band is heard but not seen in the movie, and they're not such bad lookin' fellas. Read Leslie's review of the 'Gods and Generals' film soundtrack. Buy the "Gods and Generals" Soundtrack (CD/DVD) now at Amazon.com. LINKS Read more about Thomas Francis Meagher. Read about the Irish at the Battle of Antietam. Read about the Irish at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Photogaphs from the set of "Gods and Generals" by Jim Wassel. G. Leslie Sweetnam is a member of the 27th Connecticut Volunteers Civil War re-enactment unit. His folk music roots go back to the turbulent 60s (1960s, that is) and he has been playing banjo and singing Civil War and Irish songs for more years than he probably wants to think about. Leslie keeps himself busy making a fine line of bentwood wall, table and floor lamps. He is also available to do a first-person portrayals of the life of a Civil War soldier, complete with music, for schools or any interested organization. A top-notch pilot, Leslie has recently launched an aerial photography business. Learn more about Leslie's varied wares at GLSweetnam.com. From the Publisher Jeff Shaara, right, explores the lives of Generals Lee, Hancock, Jackson and Chamberlain as the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg approaches. Shaara captures the disillusionment of both Lee and Hancock early in their careers, Lee's conflict with loyalty, Jackson's overwhelming Christian ethic and Chamberlain's total lack of experience, while illustrating how each compensated for shortcomings and failures when put to the test. The perspectives of the four men, particularly concerning the battles at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, make vivid the realities of war. Buy GODS AND GENERALS at AMAZON.COM . . Buy a hat, shirt, mug or other great "WGT" item at Show the world you are one of "The Wild Geese" Search WWW Search TheWildGeese.com E-mail us for more information about The Wild Geese Today Click to return to The Wild Geese Today's Home Page Copyright © 2003, GAR Media. All rights reserved.