Monday, May 30, 2011

Gettysburg: History for Modern Audiences

I didn't realize Civil War week started this year. Heck, when I read a friend's Facebook status update, I assumed it was something that went on every year but I didn't know about. I'm not very good with keeping up with television shows.

The History Channel starts off Civil War Week with a movie called Gettysburg about the famous battle. From what I've read up on it, it seems it's a combination of graphic live action and documentary style film.

I don't really like documentaries. Some are interesting, but it's not really my thing. Ken Burns' documentary of the Civil War I couldn't get through. It was very informative (from what I read about it and heard) but the way of a normal documentary is too dry.

Nowadays films that are documentaries have live action bits to keep audiences interested and watching. Because, really, what's the point of something if no one watches/sees/hears it? Having pictures of what you're talking about is interesting, but it doesn't match the power of live action video.

With this Gettysburg documentary having 'graphic' imagery it'll have more of a chance to draw audiences. While some people don't like to see violence, the good majority of people like to see violence. Hopefully the violence will have some good information backing it up making it a good documentary.

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