...for a change is the movie A New Birth of Freedom being shown in the new Gettysburg Visitor's Center. It's narrated by Morgan Freeman, has Sam Waterston doing the Gettysburg Address and it's worth seeing.
In typical new-VC fashion, it is a bit on the side of being politically correct. You start out with the issue of slavery, the causes of the war, etc. When the armies get to Gettysburg, the movie gets good. I do have a question about it, though; it ends with a segment on Martin Luther King. Why? I understand the tie-in to the new birth of freedom, reconstruction, and the civil rights movement, but MLK in a Gettysburg museum? I don't know. It's still worth a look-see, though.
The only two complaints I have about it are that at 22 minutes, it's not quite long enough (I understand for the average visitor, too much longer would have turned them away, though), and the $8 price of admission. That also is undestandable. You do have to help pay for the 'free museum' somehow!
If you go to the center, take the time, spend the money, and enjoy it. You'll not be disappointed!
1 comment:
Came across your blog from the Battlefield Wanderings blog. As a historian and reenactor myself, I've been encountering this phenomenon more and more. At the Chickamauga battlefield's visitors center there is a mural dedicated to slavery and its instruction. I can only guess the NPS is doing this everywhere to enhance its "educaitonal value". But, I find it very misleading.
I think this only heightens the idea that slavery is the cause of the war and not a catalyst.
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