HISTORICAL DRAMAS
Adaptation of Journey into the Whirlwind by Yevgenia Ginzburg—a common woman’s perspective and real experiences of the Russian Civil War, the reign of Josef Stalin, the Great Purge, and life in the gulag, serving 18 of a 15-year sentence for supposedly supporting Stalin’s rival during his vie for power. (06/05/2014)
Adaptation of End of Days by James L. Swanson. Focus on Lee Harvey Oswald and JFK in their early years, then to the events that tipped and routed them towards a destined collision on November 22nd, 1963, in Dallas. (LHO was distraught communist ex-defector who wanted glamour and failed at killing a general; JFK was a politician’s son who barely won the presidency and was campaigning for his haters with good ol’ boy LBJ in attempts to keep his prosperous regime intact.)
With Sam Rockwell as Lee Harvey Oswald—unless he’s now too old, otherwise he’s perfect.
Maybe Rob Lowe or Greg Kinnear as JFK? (04/26/2016)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this—the assassination of JFK.The story of Jonestown, the city in Guyana made by cult leader Jim Jones. It begins with the forming of his parish, his activism and community service, his descent into narcissism and drugs, his parish’s growth into a cult, the move from Indiana to Guyana, the stagnation and growing disinterest of the members, the visit of Congressman Leo Ryan with the intent to smuggle inhabitants out of Jonestown and back to America, Jim Jones’ ordered murder of Ryan and the coerced mass suicide of his parishioners, ending with the gruesome aftermath and repercussions. (07/29/2013)
“Denver” - The story of John Denver, from childhood to his start in music to his solo career; his political activism, his composition of Annie’s song on the ski lift, his extreme success and popularity (his multiple guest appearances, i.e. Muppets); his involvement with flying, and then NASA; his later life—remarriage, drunk driving, devoted to flying—and his 1997 death in an experimental airplane due to his inability to control the fuel exchange. Lastly are the investigation and his memorials—montage of real footage and recreation, with perhaps “Sweet Surrender” playing (one of his sadder songs). (04/23/2013)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this.“Black Caesar” - A prominent African tribal war chieftain, widely known for his "huge size, immense strength, and keen intelligence,” is kidnapped by slave traders and brought to Florida. On the ship, he befriends one sailor, and will only accept food from and speak to him. As they near the coast, a hurricane sneaks up on them and threatens to crash them into the reefs. The sailor knows what could happen, so he frees Black Caesar and they sneak up to a longboat. The captain tries to stop them, but the sailor pulls a gun on him and they get into the longboat and leave the ship. They were the only ones to survive, and are washed onto the beach. They used their tiny boat to lure large ships to them, in the guise of shipwrecked sailors. They’d then threaten to kill everyone with their guns and swords (taken from the captain, later amassing more) unless they were given ammo, food, and riches. They thrived this way for a while until one raid when one of their gathered riches was a woman that the sailor requested. He was enamored with the woman. Black Caesar soon fell for the woman and decided he wanted to be with her, so he challenged the sailor to a duel and won. The sailor was his only friend, and then he was dead… but Black Caesar got the girl, so that’s a bonus.
“He began taking on more pirates over time and soon was able to attack ships on the open sea. He and his crew were often able to avoid capture by running into Caesar's Creek (basically, his hideaway) and other inlets between Elliott Key and Old Rhodes Key and onto the mangrove islands. Using a metal ring embedded in a rock, they ran a strong rope through the ring, heel the boat over, and hide their boat in the water until the patrol ship or some other danger went away. They might also lower the mast and sink the ship in shallow water, later cutting the rope or pumping out the water to raise the boat and continue raiding. It is thought that he and his men buried 26 bars of silver on the island, although no treasure has ever been recovered from the island.
“He apparently had a harem on his island, having at least 100 women seized from passing ships, as well as a prison camp which he kept prisoners in stone huts hoping to ransom them. When leaving the island to go on raids, he left no provisions for these prisoners and many eventually starved to death. A few children reportedly escaped captivity, subsisting on berries and shellfish, and formed their own language and customs. This society of lost children give rise to native superstition that the island is haunted.
“During the early 18th century, Caesar left Biscayne Bay to join Blackbeard (Edward Teach) in raiding American shipping in the Mid-Atlantic serving as a lieutenant on his flagship Queen Anne's Revenge.” They do three or four raids. They increase their fleet with the addition of the ship Adventure. During the last raid, the Queen Anne’s Revenge gets stuck on a sandbar in Beaufort Inlet, so they abandon it and all board the Adventure.
In 1718, Blackbeard docks at Ocracoke Island and throws a small party for his men and his whores. Robert Maynard, with two ships, Jane and Ranger, sneaks up on Blackbeard’s ship. Suddenly, the two ships are spotted and the Adventure is undocked and in battle in no time flat. They fire cannons on each other, with all three ships taking damage. Ranger has to bow out, due to massive damage, but Adventure and Jane close in on each other, get side-to-side, attach grappling hooks and pull the boats next to each other, making one big battleground on the decks of two ships. The second the ships slam together, both parties charge with their weapons drawn.
“Maynard and Teach fired their flintlocks at each other, then threw them away. Teach drew his cutlass and managed to break Maynard's sword. Against superior training and a slight advantage in numbers, the pirates were pushed back toward the bow, allowing the Jane's crew to surround Maynard and Teach, who was by then completely isolated. As Maynard drew back to fire once again, Teach moved in to attack him, but was slashed across the neck by one of Maynard's men. Badly wounded, he was then attacked and killed by several more of Maynard's crew. (Maynard later examined Teach's body, noting that it had been shot no fewer than five times and cut about twenty). The remaining pirates quickly surrendered,” except for Black Caesar, who had been ordered by Blackbeard (as the ships were closing in on each other, preparing to board) to blow the ship’s powder kegs if they lost, so as to kill the enemy and keep the ship from being taken. So Black Caesar stands on the galley steps, hiding, and watches Blackbeard die; he then runs down and sets the powder kegs to explode. “Caesar was stopped by one of the captives who tackled him as [he] prepared to light a trail of gunpowder leading to the magazine. He struggled with the man below decks until several of Maynard's sailors were able to restrain him. Taken prisoner by Virginian colonial authorities, he was convicted of piracy and hanged in Williamsburg, Virginia.” (11/10/2012)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this.Kurt Gerron—the story of a WWI Medic, German Actor, and Auschwitz victim. (08/29/2013)
John Brown, the fervent abolitionist and his actions in Kansas and at Harpers Ferry. (10/26/2012)
NOTE: Quentin Tarantino has since said that this is the film he wants most to write, and given that he pledged to only do ten films (and has done nine) maybe this will be his next and last? Regardless, do expect a podcast episode on this.
How Bulgaria saved its Jewish population during the Holocaust. (10/11/2013)
Dutch Resistance in WWII; inspired by episodes 18 & 20 of the 26-part British 1973 WWII documentary The World at War, as well as a short autobiography [given to me by my grandmother] written by a guy who lived in Holland during the Nazi Occupation. (08/28/2013)
“1956” — This film is about the birth, life, and fall of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Centered around a young adult male who is in the original protest as it passed by the radio building, where a group went in and their capture led to an open-fire on the protesting students (including our protagonist). He then joins up with his friend (another original protestor) and they join the fight in the revolution. [[Note: this film is about the revolution more than the protagonist, for the protagonist is made-up (probably) and merely a vessel for telling the story (probably). (“Probably” only because I might not find a perfect candidate to have the film be about, and that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing because I prefer the “vessel” idea.)]]
The film spans the entire revolution, from October 23rd to November 10th of 1956—including some beforehand, to introduce the characters and setting—and some more at the end, which is mainly the country recuperating along with the 1956 Summer Olympics that took place in Melbourne, Australia from November 22nd to December 8th, highlighting the Blood in the Water Match on Dec. 6, 1956, when Hungary played the USSR in a heated water polo semifinal, dominating their national oppressors 4-to-0 (all the while the USSR playing dirty and drawing blood) in a symbolic victory despite social and political defeat back home. (Hungary then beat Yugoslavia 2-to-1 for the Gold, and some of Hungary’s players defected to the West.) Note: I just looked this up again, and—surprise, surprise—Quentin Tarantino referred to the Blood in the Water Match as “the best untold story ever”. Further proof that the Hungarian Revolution should be explored for American audiences, not just in an inevitable podcast episode but maybe I ought to revive the script project…
There’s a part where the protagonist and his friend watch someone cut the communist coat of arms out of the Hungarian flag, and that flag (Hungarian flag sans-communist coat of arms) becomes the flag of the revolution. (This flag will fly in the background of the movie trailer’s title and will be featured at the end of the movie with a close-up on it at the end of the last battle.)
The Soviets have a press release claiming that the imperialist West took advantage of the unrest caused by the original protest by paying for fascist hooligans to come stage a counter-revolution against Hungary. The freedom fighters laugh at this label and say that the Soviets really couldn’t think of anything better to say, but they just couldn’t admit that their plan wasn’t working and that there was a revolution going on. (As the fighting continues, there is no way to hide the fact that it is a revolution.)
There’s a part where they go into a recently-captured (by force) police station to take the guns and armor, and they go downstairs to the jail cells and find a couple very confused inmates. The friend asks the inmates if they are proponents of the Hungarian government; all but one say no. The guy asks again, and that one still says “sure, I’m a proponent,” because he believes that that’s what the right thing to say is. So the guy shoots that one guy and lets the others out and arms them for battle, saying “welcome to the revolution.”
Later, the two meet Gergely Pongrátz, the de facto leader of the revolution (he led the largest and best-known group of freedom fighters at the height of the revolution); they are told that they are about to meet “Moustache,” which they don’t understand (it was Gergely’s nickname amongst the troops). They follow him into battle and the friend is killed in a heroic act at the Corvin Cinema (where Gergely’s troops held their ground). The protagonist gets away when the Soviets break through the line on the opposite side of the cinema and infiltrate it (the friend did something that kept them from infiltrating on that side, which gave the protagonist and others the time enough to escape).
Highlight the rebels tearing down statues of Stalin (which end up making for famous pictures) in the rising action; also Prime Minister Imre Nagy’s support for the revolution (hesitant at first to do so because he would (and did) immediate make an enemy of his overlord, Stalin); the troops rallied around Nagy to lead the country independent of the USSR. (Nagy was executed after the revolution was quelled.)
At the end, highlight the Blood in the Water Match in the 1956 Summer Olympics, and also that “the Hungarian Freedom Fighter” was TIME Magazine’s Man of the Year (in which case, the protagonist should look like the guy on the cover, as he could possibly be the inspiration for the cover’s painting). Also, note that some unceasing rebel groups still fought on their own even though the ‘revolution proper’ was over. (10/14/2012)
The story of Philippe Pétain, hero commander of the French Army in WWI when he pulled a victory out of the nine-month slog in the trenches of Verdun, then slowly growing mad with power during the interwar period and—as France fell to the Nazis and Pétain became Prime Minister—turning unoccupied France from democratic to fascist for the remainder of WWII, as “Vichy France”, a sub-regime of the Third Reich. Highlighting the Nazi invasion, victory, takeover, and division of France, the surrender worked out by Pétain so he could assume control, his changing of rules, slogans, and symbols, and de Gaulle's frequent efforts to stop him and free France from the Nazis. (de Gaulle, who eventually succeeded Pétain as Prime MInister, described Pétain's life as "successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre".) (08/28/2013)
The story of the Japanese Internment in WWII (Pearl Harbor, suspicious and preemptive actions by citizens and FDR alike, seizure and relocation of innocents and reallocation their personal property, internment, racism, etc.) and ultimately the ‘apology’ coerced out of Pres. Ronald Reagan on behalf of a horrified and ashamed American people. (08/04/2013)
A film about Bosnia in 1990s: Kosovo, Serbia, etcetera… Yugoslavia breaks-up in the Fall of the USSR but the sub-nation of Bosnia & Herzegovina is split along ethnic lines, where Croats to the north, Serbs to the south, and Bosniak Muslims in the mix all wanted their sub-nation to go the way of one or the other; a shooting at a wedding in Sarajevo (the capital) saw a Serb family lose its patriarch in the Bosniak Muslim enclave, sparking ultimately a full-on war between Croats/Bosniaks and Serbs, eventually with support from the nations of Croatia and Serbia (and the abstention of the US and NATO for quite some time—see The Cranberries’ single “Zombie” as American commentary) and almost four years after it began NATO finally brokers a peace in—of all places—Dayton, Ohio? (In the aftermath of the Bosnian War, only 12 Croats, 4 Bosniaks, and 45 Serbs were convicted of war crimes.) Except it doesn’t end there, because former Soviet leader (then ‘democratic’ leader) Slobodan Milošević (who had brokered the Dayton Accords on behalf of the Serbs) realized NATO didn’t care about Southeast Europe so he revived his genocidal dreams and attempted to eradicate the Albanians of Kosovo; NATO finally intervened, again, bombed Serbia and tried Milošević for war crimes (first sitting world leader to earn the UN’s utmost criminal investigation) but Milošević represented himself, which dragged-out the trial, and he died before he could be convicted. The end? (10/01/2013)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this.Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe had fought for a decade against the oppressive regime of their president. he lost a rigged election and campaigned for democratic change. he was arrested and beaten and accused of treason countless times. he told the president, Mugabe, "there is a long line of dictators who have refused to go peacefully – and the people have removed them violently." he gave a speech that included the bit "From Monday, 2 June, up to today, 6 June, Mugabe was not in charge of this country. He was busy marshaling his forces of repression against the sovereign will of the people of Zimbabwe. However, even in the context of the brutalities inflicted upon them, the people's spirit of resistance was not broken. The sound of gunfire will never silence their demand for change and freedom." this man is a wordsmith. he was arrested, imprisoned, tortured. he was beaten into unconsciousness, awakened, beaten into unconsciousness, awakened, beaten into unconsciousness, awakened... he received threats of assassination. he ran for President in 2008, and in a heated and suspenseful race, ended up dropping out as it dragged on and the threats poured in. later that year, after negotiations, Mugabe gave Tsvangirai the position of Prime Minister as long as Mugabe could remain President. a small win for Tsvangirai and a large win for Zimbabwe. yet, in 2009, he didn't win the goddamn Nobel Peace Prize—Obama did, and Obama didn’t even know why. after all of that. wow. funny ending: on September 11th, 2013, the position of Prime Minister was abolished in Zimbabwe by Mugabe. two steps forward, two steps back... (10/25/2013)
The beginning of The Ringling Bros. circus and PT Barnum's circus, along with the latter’s sideshows. Starts when PT founds his, then flip-flops between PT and the Ringlings until they unite, then it's one singular story... (08/29/2013)
The story of Zulu leader Shaka, who revolutionized combat and society in Southern Africa and made the Zulus a force to be reckoned with, along with forming the Zulu Kingdom. (07/29/2013)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this.“Strange” - A biopic of Robert Strange McNamara, highlighting his role as chief statistician [as SecDef] in the Vietnam War, but also touching on his Air Force stint in WWII, his “Whiz Kid” period with the Ford Company, his tenure under JFK and advice during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his job as president of the First World Bank, along with his Policy Analysis, fear of Domino Theory, Project 100k, and his later regrets and personal life. (10/18/2012)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this.“Kingfish” - Adaptation of Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression by Alan Brinkley; biopic of Huey Long, the populist US Senator from Northern Louisiana, assassinated at age 42, halfway through his first term; public service lawyer turned Louisiana Governor, a critic of FDR yet an autocrat himself, denounced as a fascist while praised as a socialist for all the policies that FDR later adopted as his own, given their popularity with the public during the Great Depression; shot to death in 1935 before he could challenge FDR for the Presidency; the story of his life told vicariously through his aides, family, supporters, rivals, and citizens (and their gossip), to emphasize the lore, legend, and ego of a man who seemed too outlandish to have existed as a real person. (03/12/2014)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this, if not a desperate attempt to adapt it again.“The Cowardly Lion”, the Story of William Jennings Bryan. Highlights his early career as a politician, into his first presidential campaign in 1896 where he backed bimetallism and was backed by the Populist Party (but lost); and the one in 1900 where he did the opposite and got penned as the Cowardly Lion in “The Wizard of Oz”; and his third attempt; and his term as Sec. of State under Wilson until he resigned because of Wilson’s approach to WWI; and his battle for prohibition, and his victory for our detriment. Throughout the film is expressed his strong belief in God and Creationism, and his battle against the theory of evolution—and it ends with the Scopes Monkey Trial, and his loss in it, and his death five days later, which some attribute to diabetes & fatigue but some attribute to his questioning of his faith after being badgered by baller-ass defense lawyer Clarence Darrow as a witness for “Creationism” against trial-volunteer John Scopes. (03/01/2013)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this.
Original documents created on the dates parenthesized following each item.