ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[southendmd]

Documentary focusing on the contributions to the American war effort of African-American soldiers.  It apparently includes Civil War Veterans.

[MaineWriter]

Another interesting movie with an interesting history that I never ever heard of! From Wikipedia:

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (French: La Rivière du hibou) is a 1962 French short film based on the short story of the same name by Ambrose Bierce first published in the 1891 collection Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. It was directed by Robert Enrico and produced by Marcel Ichac and Paul de Roubaix with music by Henri Lanoe. It won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Awards. It was also screened on American television as an episode of The Twilight Zone.



Synopsis

A Civil War civilian prisoner is about to be hanged from Owl Creek Bridge. As he is dropped, the rope breaks, and he swims away, the soldier's bullets missing him. After avoiding capture, the man arrives at his home. He sees his wife and child. He runs toward his wife, she runs toward him. Just as they are about to fall into each other's arm's, his head and neck suddenly jerks back, and we see him hanging from the bridge. His escape was only in his imagination.

Other Stuff

Two years after its production, the film was screened on American TV as part of the science fiction show The Twilight Zone. Producer William Froug saw the film and decided to buy the rights to syndicate it on American television. The transaction cost The Twilight Zone $10,000 — significantly less than the average of $65,000 they expended on producing their own episodes. However, Froug’s purchase allowed for the film to be aired only twice (the first airing was on February 28, 1964). Consequently, it is not included on The Twilight Zone’s syndication package, although it is included on Image Entertainment's DVD box set of the original series. The episode's introduction is notable for Rod Serling breaking the fourth wall even more than usual, as he explains how the film was shot overseas and later picked up to air as part of The Twilight Zone.

Opening narration
“    Tonight a presentation so special and unique that, for the first time in the five years we've been presenting The Twilight Zone, we're offering a film shot in France by others. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival of 1962, as well as other international awards, here is a haunting study of the incredible, from the past master of the incredible, Ambrose Bierce. Here is the French production of An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge.    ”

Closing narration
“    An occurence at Owl Creek Bridge—in two forms, as it was dreamed, and as it was lived and died. This is the stuff of fantasy, the thread of imagination...the ingredients of the Twilight Zone.    ”

Awards

    * Won first prize for Best Short Subject at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.
    * Won the 1963 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film

[louisev]

you want to know something very interesting about this shirt film: I was once a teacher - yes, a college teacher, while I was in graduate school, and wrote a curriculum for adults in general writing.  And I used 'Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge' as a trigger for the students to write.  The film is about 15 minutes or so long, and I stopped the film at a 'critical juncture' which anyone who has seen it will know!  and had the students finish the story.  This was the part of the course they all liked best!

Or maybe it was the movie!

[oilgun]

IMDb SYNOPSIS:  This documentary details the case that the 1989 invasion of Panama by the US was motivated not by the need to protect American soldiers, restore democracy or even capture Noriega. It was to force Panama to submit the will of the United States after Noriega had exhausted his usefulness.

Narrated by Elizabeth Montgomery  (I've always loved her!)
You can watch the film in its entirety here:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-446387292666223710




IMDb Comment:  What's surprising about Panama Deception is not the facts that it delivers, but that a film that reveals so much about US policy was allowed to win the Academy Award. The film's analysis of media bias is dead on, and its seamless corroboration of the true events of the Panama invasion are irrefutable. In addition to the in-depth analysis of the history of US intervention, the film accurately predicts the current US quagmire in Colombia. This film is a classic treatise on US foreign policy, and a great example of the necessity of true independent media.

[Fran]

'Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge' was part of my junior high school curriculum.  I never forgot it!

It was part of my high school curriculum, and, yes, I still remember it.  I also remember "The Lottery," another film that's hard to forget.

[MaineWriter]

post-Civil War, slaves and so on...a little bit of a stretch but hey! It's a Q!

[Fran]

A user comment from IMDb:

This western is about the dying Confederacy's last-ditch attempt to carve out its own territory in the western United States. Hoping to form an alliance with various Plains Indian nations, General Quantrell's rebel cavalry and renegade Utes are poised to battle Union soldiers in Colorado. Southerner Brett Sherwood, a rebel sympathizer and point man for Quantrell, later realizes that Quantrell has abandoned the South's cause and is plundering and murdering for his own purposes. Other plot angles include claim-jumping, murder and Sherwood's entanglement with a woman and a wounded man who wants to turn him in for a killing an assayer. The film has plenty of action, including chases, fights, Indian attacks, and a large, noisy clash at the finale between the Union and the Confederates and their Indian allies. Alan Ladd and Lizabeth Scott star in the film and get a great assist from John Ireland as Quantrell in one of his best roles. A great cast of veteran western actors was assembled for this colorful, exciting western. Franz Waxman's music score is very dramatic but with a dark, somber quality.

[southendmd]

IMDb:  Charlie Anderson (James Stewart) is a farmer in Shenandoah, Virginia and finds himself (and his family) in the middle of the Civil War. He decides not to get involved in the war because he believes that this is not "his" war. But he eventually has to get involved when his youngest boy is taken prisoner by the North.

[oilgun]

post-Civil War, slaves and so on...a little bit of a stretch but hey! It's a Q!

I had a good "Q" but got tired of waiting and took a "P" instead 

15 février 1839 (Fifteen in French is Quinze)
This is the warm and touching story of the last day of two men, on February 15th 1839. The two were part of the patriotic rebellion of Canadians (most of them French Canadians) against the British. If the film make politics and historical points, the principal idea deals with the feelings of two men about to die by hanging. There's also big feelings about friendship, solidarity and, of course, patriotism.

[Meryl]

The film follows the life of George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn) from attending West Point, wooing of Elizabeth Bacon (Olivia de Havilland), the American Civil War, and the Battle of Little Big Horn. In the film, the battle is blamed on unscrupulous corporations and politicians craving the land of Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn) and his people.

Custer is portrayed as a fun-loving but almost saintly figure who tirelessly works for Indians and sacrifices himself for their benefit. His last stand is treated as far more significant than it was. In the movie's version of the story, a few corrupt white politicians goad the Western tribes into war, threatening the survival of all white settlers in the West. Custer and his men give their lives at the Little Bighorn to delay the Indians and prevent this slaughter. A letter left behind by Custer absolves the Indians of all responsibility.