Monday, July 19, 2010

ELECTRICITY AND PEDANTRY



I have decided that I am a pedant, and someone who can't enjoy a film or book if even a minor fact is just plain wrong.
We had an electricity power cut last night which seemed strangely appropriate as I had finished watching the film In The Electric Mist earlier in the day.
This film starring Tommy Lee Jones as Dave Robicheaux was based on the book In the Electric Mist With The Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke. I read the book too many years ago to compare it with a film, that I enjoyed up to the point where my pedantic adherence to facts overtook my interest in the story.
What annoyed me was that in the film a ghostly General John Bell Hood appeared to Robicheaux giving fatherly advice. We even at the end of the film get taken and shown Hood's real grave at the Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

Why was John Bell Hood played by a grandfatherly 69 year old actor Levon Helm, when the real John Bell Hood was only 34 when the Civil War ended in 1865?

6 Comments:

Blogger Bernadette said...

I get hung up on pedantic facts too Norman.

For example I'm still annoyed by the fact that the film of TGWTDT had its Australian scene filmed approximately 12,000kms off shore.

2:50 AM  
Blogger Kerrie said...

They aged a lot in those days Norman!

3:07 AM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

Bernadette my DVD of TGWTDT arrived this morning so I will watch it later this week. I had booked a nice trip to see it at Dartington but had my fall.
There was a film [can't remember the name at the moment] that was supposed to be set in a military school in Charleston SC, but in fact was filmed at Wellington College and Kneeler Hall in Twickenham. I half expected a 285 London bus to go past the gates. Lords of Discipline was the film. The old memory is still functioning just.
Only about 4,000 km off course so TGWTDT's 12,000 km is a winner.

3:31 AM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

Yes I agree Kerrie. He had a huge beard and had shattered his left arm at Gettysburg and lost his right leg at Chickamauga so he looked older, and wasn't in exactly tip top condition.

3:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Norman - I know exactly what you mean about liking things to stick to facts. I do, too. Did you know that actor Levon Helm was also the drummer for the rock group, The Band?

4:31 AM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

Margot, I never know who is in these groups.
Last year my son told me he was working "with" Chris Martin????? Coldplay ???? Married to Gwyneth Paltrow, only then did I know who he was.

6:19 AM  

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