HISTORICAL DRAMAS (cont.)
Completing the legend of D.B. Cooper. - It’s 1971. A man in a black suit and tie buys a plane ticket in Portland under the alias Dan Cooper and boards a Boeing 727; he robs the plane and parachutes into the wilderness. The plane continues on as he lands in the trees and abandons his rig, money in tow. But being lost in the woods while alone is terrifying, and paranoia gets the better of him; but he will not drop the money; the environment is fickle and fights with him, but he will not abandon the money. Eventually, in a confrontation with a bear on a riverbank, he loses the money; he was quenching dehydration, and now he’s beyond satisfaction; the money is gone in the river, and he’s devastated—so maybe he dives after the money, following it over a waterfall?... And the media is all abuzz and the police are questioning wrong suspects. Conspiracy theories abound. Idk. (05/13/2014)
“The Mud Trapper of Rat River“ - Albert Johnson, a Canadian trapper in 1931, didn’t have a fur trapper’s license. The Mounties tried to confront him, but he just pretended that they weren’t there. Eventually the Mounties sieged his shack (with 9 men, 42 dogs, and 20lbs of frozen dynamite) and blew-up his shack, with him inside, but he survived in a pit inside his pit, and he escaped. He fled—on foot—for a month in blizzard conditions, across insane terrain, duping the Mounties with false paths and reversed tracks. Eventually, a WWI Flying Ace was contracted to find and kill him, and he did. The whole time, Albert spoke not a single word. (08/19/2013)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this.“The Carpenter” - The early eighteenth-century story of carpenter-turned-master-thief Jack Sheppard, a true-life Robin Hood whose prison escapes brought him peasantry fame, and the understory of Jonathan Wild, a morally-bankrupt vigilante manhunter who captures Sheppard and sells him to the executioner. (08/29/2013)
“Stohr & Yufe“ - The parallel stories of twins separated at birth—one raised Jewish in the Caribbean and the other raised Catholic in Nazi Germany. Their starkly different settings saw them raised under different ideologies yet, upon eventually meeting each other, they realized “they had similar speech and thought patterns, similar gaits, a taste for spicy foods, and common peculiarities such as flushing the toilet before they used it.” (04/23/2013)
“A Puff of Madness” - Loosely based on Sabina Eriksson and her sister Ursula. Two Swedish identical twin sisters reunite and Sabina “catches” Ursula’s clinical insanity, suddenly suffering the same symptoms. (They believe people are inside-out and that cops are going to take their organs. At one point we see the world how they see it—the harvester cops and other post-apocalyptic things.) They then run away together and cause mayhem on the highway, during which time Ursula gets incapacitated. Sabina returns to normal after separation/sedation while Ursula is laid-up in the hospital. Since Sabina appears normal they let her out of jail—and the insanity comes back, and after going batshit she resists a cop who’s trying to help her, and she kills him. She flees and jumps off a bridge… Ursula awakens and, surprisingly, is entirely sane and healthy. (04/23/2013)
“The Silent Twins” - The true story of June and Jennifer Gibbons, from the silent inseparability of their youth to their incarceration and Jennifer’s decision to die to release them from their psychotic bond—and the unbelievable fact that it worked. (04/23/2013)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this.“Wade Watts vs Johnny Lee Clary” - The black preacher who killed a leader of the KKK with kindness. (08/30/2013)
“Game of the Century“ - A dramatic recreation of the infamous 2006 football game between rivals Michigan and Ohio State, ranking #2 and #1 respectively. Ohio State won 42-39. The Ohio Lottery that night, coincidentally, had the winning numbers 4-2-3-9. Includes mid-game flashbacks to previous rivalry games and their coaches. (08/27/2013)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this.West Virginia Coal Wars film. The whole, true story of the miniature war between union coal miners and the American military, during the beginning of the Prohibition era. Paint Creek, Cabin Creek, Blair Mountain—the United Mine Workers vs Pinkerton detectives and army/veteran strikebreakers. (03/23/2013)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this.The Roanoke Colony story as a horror film. - John White, and his assistant Roger Bailie, land in Roanoke on July 22, 1587, and build their settlement near the previously-built garrison under the request of Sir Walter Raleigh, the leader of the first party to land and in charge of building the settlement. The first thing they find is an empty garrison and one skeleton—probably of a soldier, but they say it was a Native to keep the people at ease. White and Bailie build the settlement over time. They don’t have good relations with the Native Americans, who are turned away when they come to the garrison to ask why they are building on Native land. Strange things occur around the settlement; a few people disappear. People suspect the natives but White tries to cover it up with more excuses, while he searches for answers with Bailie and his other cronies. White goes back to England in December of 1587 to get more supplies. He takes two ships back to Roanoke, but the captains get greedy and decide to hijack some Spanish ships (this all takes place during the Anglo-Spanish War—that’s a main reason why they had to settle Roanoke); this backfires, their ships are attacked, and the one White is on retreats back for England… So three years later, he hitches a ride on a private vessel heading for the Caribbean and has it take a detour to Roanoke. On the way there, they see an empty boat a few miles away, floating, lost in the ocean... So finally he gets back to Roanoke, and he doesn’t find anybody; it’s 1590 and everyone is missing; no bodies or anything. So he is left there, alone… until White sees a shadowy figure in the forest, and he runs off after it, to see if it’s one of his fellow settlers (which is something that Bailie later told the settlers specifically not to do, but White was not there to get the warning).
Now, see, after White left, Bailie was in charge. More weird things kept happening, more people disappeared, and the Natives attacked at least two more times—once at night and the other a while later in the middle of the day. (I’m not sure how everyone disappeared yet, but the forest is crucial to avoid; either it’s because the Eno lurk there or because they summoned some kind of spirit to protect them further from the expansion of the settlers.) The Chowanoke Indians were friendly but only visited once, to warn of the Eno, who are the Native tribe that attacks. The Eno actually captured some settlers and forced them to do labor for them, and were most likely integrated into their society and became tribe members (by force/assimilation). The Chowanoke Indians tell Bailie about the Shadow People that the Eno summon to attack when they are wronged. Bailie and the others begin seeing these Shadow People, but he just tells the citizens that they are seeing hallucinations and are tired and afraid and malnourished. (There was a drought for the duration they were there, which they all think was caused by the Eno.) Bailie, after two years of dying slowly and more and more people being taken in the night [by Shadow People] goes to the Eno tribe to beg for relief. The Eno Chief says that they will not do that. Bailie, after almost being killed for an angry rebuttal, leaves the camp. On his way out, he passes a hut in which he sees a familiar face—a friend of his. Bailie is startled, runs back to the settlement, and tells the women and children to load the reserve boat with their stuff and be ready to leave. He tells the men to arm themselves, and that they’re going to the Eno camp to rescue their friends. Bailie and his men sneak into the camp’s surrounding area, kill a few guards, and launch an attack. BUT the very moment they enter the clearing of the camp, the Shadow People come out of the ground and huts and trees and they attack. The men are defenseless and, try as they might, they cannot harm the Shadow People, and the Shadow People kill them by absorbing them; they fly over/through the person and that person just disappears. Bailie is absorbed close to last, as he was hidden most of the time, attempting to sneak to the hut he saw his friend in, to rescue him (but what he saw then was a Shadow Person mimicking) and he walks up to his friend who has his back turned, and asks where the others are, but doesn’t get a response—and the friend turns around, revealed to actually be a Shadow Person… The battle is over extremely quickly and all becomes silent at the camp, as the shadows race into the forest, toward the settlement. There, bursting through the treeline and besieging the coast, the shadows hunt-down every woman and child left. All of the settlers are vanished by the Shadow People. Lastly, after all is quiet, the supply-laden boat—briefly and futilely boarded—drifts slowly out to sea…Flash-forward to White arriving, again, as he spots the drifting boat in the middle of the ocean; and, landing at Roanoke, discovers it empty… He sees a shadowy figure in the forest and, thinking it’s one of his settlers, he chases off after it, into the forest… and there’s nothing but silence, and the wind blowing in the treetops. (11/09/2012)
Cuban Missile Crisis film; a recreation of all events from beginning to end, covering the views and decisions of the USA, USSR, Turkey, Cuba, and NATO commanders as well as the people of the US and USSR and the relevant US News Correspondents. (08/28/2013)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this.A recreation of the “Hanoi Hilton” and Operation Ivory Coast—the infamous North Vietnamese POW camp, Hòa Lò, and the operation intended to rescue American POWs from a camp in Son Tay. This story would follow a long-tenured prisoner in Son Tay in parallel to a new prisoner entering Hòa Lò, and would emphasize the role of the Alcatraz Gang (the “leaders” of the POWs, who had to be moved to a different prison for instigated resistance; highlight James Stockdale, Jeremiah Denton, and George Thomas Coker especially). Use the Tap Code. Introduce John McCain, even if briefly. Include the prison at Con Son Island somehow. — Begin with the new prisoner, plummeting from the sky in his burning plane; he ejects, floats down, and is picked up by the VC. The VC shuttle him across the country and dumps him into a cell in Hòa Lò Prison. Another inmate there, in the cell adjacent, introduces himself, nonchalantly adding “Welcome to Hanoi Hilton.” (11/19/2012)
“Challenger” - The story of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, from the selection of teacher Christa McAuliffe as the first civilian astronaut to the preparations of the crew, the discovery and “fixing” of the O-ring problem, the day of launch—prep, lengthy launch, the engineers’ “they made it!” comment at home, the infamous “uh oh”, the O-ring failure and explosion, the crew’s descent (alive, struggling) and the impact of body and ship into the ocean; the debris recovery, a nation in tears, the world’s reaction, and the last-minute penning of that masterful speech for Pres. Reagan to read instead of his scheduled address. At the end are the funerals, flag returning, announcement of investigation (and engineers from earlier knowing exactly what happened), and announcement of the grounding of the Space Shuttle program.
The focus is on the astronauts and the few engineers who fixed the O-rings and were at that house party during the explosion. The focus, though, is clearly on the event, more-so than the characters—the story of people as opposed to persons. How we endeavor to face great risks for the pursuit of inhuman achievements; how we compartmentalize and rationalize away major problems; how we convince ourselves we’re okay; how we react to the incomprehensible and the inversion of our emotions; what we experience during freefall toward certain death; how we deal with shock, grief, and trauma, personally and nationally; and how we move on, in ways both healthy and unhealthy.
The explosion scene uses real footage for distant shots and cinematic recreations for close shots (looking at different angles—ex: down). The crews’ descent would show the jolt from the explosion, with a few astronauts dying/going unconscious from the jolt (hitting their heads resulting in death) while the living crew struggles/turns on PEAPs; pilot tries to regain control unsuccessfully (head bleeding, meanwhile) and, as the crew capsule starts breaking apart, one astronaut gets claustrophobic and undoes seatbelt, floats out of cabin, falls through air helplessly.
Emphasis applied on the flag and medallions shown in the loading of the craft. In debris recovery, they are found—the flag safe and medallions fused. The flag is later returned to the Boy Scout Troop that originally gave it up. Reagan’s speech is real footage, with real and recreation footage as a montage overlay, cutting back to Reagan often. (04/06/2013)
Note: Do expect a podcast episode on this.Boston Bombing film—the explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, the recuperation, the discovery of suspects, and the complex series of action and events that happened on Thursday night, regarding multiple connected and unconnected manhunts and episodes, in which nobody knew what exactly was happening; also the conversations with their extended family reveal the brothers to have been good students, athletes, and part of ten-man terror cell; their uncle calls them losers; after White Hat escapes capture again, he is found in a boat in a backyard, and captured; he goes to the hospital to be treated for his injuries, then he goes to jail for interrogation... (08/28/2013)
Note: Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg reunited to do this film, on the correct belief that “if they didn’t do it, some studio would and they’d screw it up”; the end product is perfect and is exactly how I would’ve wanted to do it, except better. 10/10. Seen it three times; made me cry all three times. Beautiful. Praise be the Berg Bros. - Nevertheless, expect a podcast episode on this event; the pending series title is “United States of America v. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev“.“The Siege of Boston”, a film-turned-miniseries on The Boston Campaign.
The story of the beginning of the Revolutionary War, in Boston, told through multiple persons and events, interwoven and sufficiently thorough…
Seizure of the HMS Liberty (?), the Boston Massacre, the Sons of Liberty vs repression, the Boston Tea Party, General Thomas Gage's Intolerable Acts and actions, NY & NJ & Philly & Halifax & Newfoundland garrisons redirected to Boston (sept 1774) and the Powder Alarm (sept 1, 1774), patriots capture Fort William and Mary (dec 14, 1774), Patrick Henry’s encouraging speech (mar 20, 1775), (Warren dispatches on word of Gage’s wife) Paul Revere's Ride ((and Hancock and Sam Adams hide) April 18, 1775) followed by the Battles of Lexington & Concord and the shot heard 'round the world at the Old North Bridge (April 19, 1775), minutemen digging in and supplying at the onset of the Siege of Boston, the relocation of rebel militiamen from Loyalist New Hampshire to Boston, the seizure of Fort Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, the formation of the Continental Army, the naval Battle of Machias, Sir John Wentworth's expulsion from New Hampshire, the Battles of Bunker & Breed Hills and Thomas Warren, General William Howe's taking of Command from Gage, George Washington's dispatch of men to Quebec, the Burning of Falmouth, smallpox & supply shortage, the Battle of Quebec, Henry Knox & the Noble Train of Artillery and the Fortification of Dorchester Heights, the withdrawal of British forces from Boston and the redirection of revolutionary forces. — Finale consists of montage glimpses of: the militia occupation of Peddocks Island, the Battle of the Cedars, the Continental Congress declares independence, the Battle of Sullivan's Island, the arrival of the Hessians to Long Island, the naval battle at Valcour Island, Battle of White Plains, British siege of NYC, Washington's surprise attack at Trenton, Forage War, patriot POWs in British prison ships, British secure of NYC under General Howe, Marquis de Lafayette commanding at Brandywine followed by Howe's seizure of Philadelphia, patriots’ failed attempt at allying with natives, Battle of Germantown, Battle of Bemis Heights, Valley Forge and Baron von Steuben, Britain tries to make peace with the Taxation of Colonies Act 1778 and Carlisle Peace Commission but both are rejected by the patriots, Siege of Savannah, Benedict Arnold's plot exposed followed by his defection, Arnold's Virginia campaign opposed by Lafayette, Battle of the Chesapeake, the Siege of Yorktown and Cornwallis' lame surrender, Gnadenhutten Massacre, Battle of Blue Licks, Siege of Fort Henry, the Treaty of Versailles, the Congress of the Confederation ratified the Treaty of Paris, the last British troops leave NYC by boat, and Americans in Boston raise the flag of the United States of America.
Occurrences to include: Thomas Young is singled out by redcoats on the street for having been recognized as a participant in the Tea Party (for staying in plain clothes), Thomas Chase (plain clothed) is seen by Samuel Adams and accosted for not knowing how to swim, Thomas Young is burned by a fire, Liberty Tree burned (winter 1775), First Continental Congress (sept 5, 1774), Patriots asking suspected turncoat Benjamin Church what the weathervane atop Faneuil Hall depicted (held in Henry Vassall House, carves initials) (July 1775 trial, verdict: “That Doctor Church be close confined in some secure jail in the Colony of Connecticut, without use of pen, ink and paper, and that no person be allowed to converse with him except in the presence and hearing of a magistrate of the town or the sheriff of the county where he is confined, and in the English language, until further orders from this or a future Congress.”), tar and feathering of John Malcolm (Jan 25, 1774), meeting at the Green Dragon Tavern, patriots sing Yankee Doodle, patriots break formation rules and execute guerilla warfare, Culper Ring (formed in summer of 1778 during British occupation of NYC), John Jay diplomat and BENJAMIN FRANKLIN in Paris together (from June 23, 1782, to the Treaty in 1783), intelligence operations and people (Nathan Hale sneaks into NYC and is hanged 1776, invisible ink aka sympathetic stain), BEFORE Margaret Kemble Gage leaves she sends a note to Joseph Warren asking him to look out for the establishment that he attends on Sunday because the supports are old and rotted and not to be trusted, Thomas Gage arrives home in England after being relieved and wordlessly greets his wife with an embrace, the Sons want Joseph Warren and his smart mind in a commanding position but he declines to be a soldier with his brethren, … (cont.) (05/13/2014)
Note: I actually wrote a significant amount of this—like, a huge plot summary for the first few episodes, and the script for the first episode—but it’s rather sophomoric. Someday I’d like to get back to it and fully write the historical epic that this totally could be, but I don’t have the time right now… Maybe when I’m in my eighties and retired (lol) I’ll have time for massive projects like this. Regardless, expect a podcast episode on this—it’s the least I can do, and I really want to.
Original documents created on the dates parenthesized following each item.