|
|
I watched just a portion of the 1942 movie Tennessee Johnson
yesterday on AMC. Nominally about the life of President Andrew
Johnson, it was this scene, a speech by Jefferson Davis (Morris
Ankrum) announcing that Mississippi has seceded, then leaving the Senate with the other
southern Senators (Tennessean Johnson stays and is called a traitor,
because Tennessee seceded), that caused me to crank up the moviola. What struck me was the tone and tenor
that Hollywood used to handle this event. The caption photo
aside, how do you think it would be handled today? The
late-great historian Shelby Foote addressed the problem I refer to.
By the bye, I suppose this is an example of what the supercilious Arizona cactus plant John McCain wants to jail me for.
|
|
