The Letters of Barna Upton

Barna Upton was born in 1820.  He grew up on a farm in Massachusetts.  In 1845, he joined the US Army.  Though not a diarist, he wrote regularly to his family.  The collected letters were reviewed by William Goetzmann in 1966 and he published selected ones in American Heritage.

Barna's correspondence began in February 1845 while he was enrolled in basic training on Governor's Island, NY.  He was there at the same time as George Ballantine.  Where George was sent to Rhode Island, Upton found himself in Louisianna at Fort Jessup.  The annexation of Texas was underway and Fort Jessup had served to maintain the Texas (Mexico) & Louisianna (United States) border since 1822.  The new president, James K Polk, had ordered a buildup of troops in case of trouble and Private Upton of the Third Infantry was among them.  General Zachary Taylor was in command.

In July, the army was ordered into Texas.  The annexation was complete and work on statehood had begun.  As such, the US Army moved to Corpus Christi.  In March 1846, Barna marched south to the Rio Grande.  There, he took part in both the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.  In the first, he mostly watched the artillery pound the Mexican lines and the calvary maneuver to no effect.  At Resaca, he charged into the fray and shot a man.  He related these details while in Matamoros and hoped it was the last fight he would have.  No such luck.  He took part in the toughest fighting at Monterrey, avoiding serious injury thanks to his leather cartridge bag absorbing a bullet.

General Winfield Scott confiscated most of the regular troops from General Taylor and landed them south of Vera Cruz.  Barna's part in the Siege of Vera Cruz was mostly as an observer.  The tone of his letters has changed.  Where his early letters indicated that he was content with his life as a soldier, his later ones show that he is eager to go back to the farm.  He had seen enough death, but he had more to go.  He charged up the hill at Cerro Gordo, and fought extensively during the taking of Mexico City.  At the very last battle where the US Army breached the city gates, Barna Upton suffered a mortal wound.  He died on October 15, 1847.

His last letter - or the last one that Goetzmann provides - was from Puebla in August 1847.  In it, he announce that the army was marching to Mexico City and states "...if my life is spared, I will write to you..."

One odd thing that Barna added to many of his letters was that the climate was healthful wherever he was.  This is an unusual claim, since disease was the top killer of US troops throughout the war.  One supposes that he was trying to assure his family that he was well despite what new reports might say.  Then again, disease was far more rampant among the volunteer regiments than the regulars; regulars maintained better hygiene and thus suffered less from diseases.

Like Ballantine, this is an account of an enlisted man.  It is a brief read and recommended.

Night Train to Lisbon (2013)

One rainy morning in Bern, Switzerland, Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons) was rushing to work when he spotted a young woman about to jump off a bridge.  He tackled her, preventing her from suicide, and then escorted her to his classroom.  She sat in the room briefly before fleeing.  Raimund saw that she had left her coat.  He grabbed it and went to find her; she was gone.  He checked the bridge but did not see her body in the river below.  He found a book in her coat and began reading it.  There was a train ticket enclosed.  On the spur of the moment, he went to the train station and took that train to Lisbon.

In Lisbon, Raimund sought the author of the book, a man named Amadeu Prado.  It turned out that he had died in 1974.  Raimund set about interviewing those who knew him and, in the process, discovering Amadeu's role in fighting the Salazar Regime.

This is a story told out of order.  Each person offers a part of the story that may come before, after, or coincident with parts already revealed.  All of this is in flashback.  As such, each part is played by two actors, the young one and the old one.  No aging makeup here.  He chatted with Amadeu's sister (Charlotte Rampling), his priest (Christopher Lee), Joao from the Resistance, his best friend Jorge, and the mystery woman, Estefania (Lena Olin).  If he took notes, he could write a biography.  Would it have been easier to just tell the story of Amadeu without this framing of Raimund's awkward investigation?  Maybe.  Then again, by framing it this way, we see the contrast between their fiery youth and their sunset years, providing an opportunity to explore the long-term impact of their actions.

I had started the book in 2019.  I was traveling to Portugal that summer.  The book did not hold me.  I put it down after 100 pages or so and never picked it up again.  Seeing the movie, I'm not suddenly interested in finishing the book.

The movie is just okay.

You Can't Win 'Em All (1970)

In 1922, Adam Dyer (Tony Curtis) futilely bailed water from his sinking ship.  The Achilles was a small vessel, hardly more than a rowboat with a mast.  Luckily, he spotted a passing ship and climbed aboard.  Josh Corey (Charles Bronson) demanded payment for the rescue at the point of a revolver.  Looking back at the Achilles as it vanished into the Aegean Sea, Adam had no choice.  He paid 500 in gold to be allowed aboard the Cybele.  Exhausted, he fell asleep in the wheelhouse.  When he awoke sometime later, there was no one at that wheel.  The crew - two Greeks - were sneaking up on Josh with weapons!  Adam intervened and saved Josh's life.  However, he reclaimed his gold and set Josh adrift in a rowboat.  This would not be the last encounter between the two.

Adam was headed to Turkey to recover a ship that belonged to his family; it had been seized during the Great War.  Josh was rendezvousing with his band of mercenaries to earn some quick cash from the Sultan.  The pair were roped into escorting an Ottoman train to Smyrna under the watchful eye of Colonel Elci (Fikret Hakan).  The train is full of precious cargo: three of Osman Bey's daughters, several crates of gold, a suitcase full of jewels, and the scheming yet beautiful Aila (Michele Mercier).  With Greeks and rebels between them and Adam's ship, could they get through?

I would never have thought to put Curtis and Bronson together, but they have good chemistry.  Curtis' smart aleck charm contrasts nicely with Bronson's sharp edges and serious demeanor.  The problem is the script.  It is too busy.  Among the characters who set out, there is a constant back and forth on who is going to betray whom and what new alliances form as the situation changes.  Then there are the external threats from rebel soldiers who repeatedly attack.  Then there is the constantly shifting MacGuffin: is it the Bey's daughters, the crates of gold, the case of jewels, or something else entirely?  Though most of the mercenaries and Ottomans die along the way, the movie wraps up like a screwball comedy.  Huh?

As far as history, there was indeed a civil war in Turkey in 1922.  There you go, that is about all the history this imparts.  The Turkish government was unimpressed by the final product and banned it from distribution in Turkey.

Just okay.

Back to Middle-Earth

New films in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth are in production.

The Hunt for Gollum is being directed by Gollum himself, Andy Serkis.  After Bilbo had left the Shire but before Frodo went on his quest to destroy the One Ring, Gandalf gave Aragorn the task of finding Gollum, the previous owner of the One Ring, lest he inform Sauron that it was in the Shire.  A fan film was made in 2009.  The basis for the story can be found in the appendix of Return of the King, putting it on more solid ground than other recent Middle-earth movies and series.

Shadow of the Past will lift 6 unused chapters from The Fellowship of the Ring and create a stand-alone story from it.  The chapters in question are Three is Company, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, A Company Unmasked, The Old Forest, In the House of Tom Bombadil, and Fog on the Barrow-Downs.  These chapters detail Frodo's initial travels to Bree, which the movies abbreviated with a surprise meeting of Pippin and Merry and a hair-raising encounter with the Ring Wraiths.

Stephen Colbert, a Tolkien fanboy, has been recruited to write the screenplay.  In a presentation with Peter Jackson, he explained how he wanted to revive those 6 chapters but also respect the movies.  Therefore, fourteen years after the passing of Frodo, Sam Gamgee, his daughter Elanor, Merry, and Pippin retrace their route to Bree and have the adventures that were missed.  Elanor?  The feminization of Middle-earth continues.  The Rings of Power is all Galadriel, The War of the Rohirrim is more interested in Helm Hammerhand's daughter, Hera, and now we have Sam's daughter, Elanor.

Jackson should have called it quits on adapting Tolkien after Lord of the Rings.  His Hobbit Trilogy was over-stuffed with scenes not in the book.  Really, The Hobbit was the shortest book and somehow got stretched into three movies?  Now he's picking lines out of the appendices to expand into movies or using an insert character for Frodo to tell a tale he nixed from the LOTR trilogy as it was basically a side quest.  I can hardly wait for the Cow jumped over the Moon song from the Prancing Pony to get an animated short movie.  Grasping?

Not excited to see.

Alabama Regiment missed the Fighting

No sooner was the war declared than Alabama raised a regiment.  By June 1846, approximately 900 volunteers gathered in Mobile.  There was not enough room on the steamship for all of them, so only 8 of the 10 companies set out, the other two waiting for another transport.  The 1st Regiment of Alabama Volunteers arrived at Brazos Santiago on July 4th and were soon encamped on the beach.  After a few days, they relocated to Camp Belknap, a mile or so inland.  A few weeks passed where men became sick with dysentery before the regiment was sent to Camargo.  Camargo proved to be less hospitable still, a dusty, sweltering region that didn't benefit from a sea breeze.  At long last, General Taylor set the army to marching to Monterrey, but the Alabama Regiment was left behind as a garrison.  The Alabama men were disappointed.  Many of the wilder soldiers ravaged the locals, triggering reprisals that left some Alabama volunteers dead.

In November, the US Navy captured Tampico and wanted the army to garrison it.  Taylor dispatched the Alabama Regiment, among others.  The regiment was posted there until February, when General Scott included them among his forces for a landing at Vera Cruz.  Thus, in March, the Alabama Regiment landed on the beaches south of Vera Cruz and took part in the siege of that city.  Mostly, the regiment sat on its thumbs while US Artillery pummeled the city into submission.

While General Scott directed the majority of the army inland toward Mexico City, the Alabama Regiment was part of an expedition to Alvarado.  General Quitman was to coordinate with Commodore Perry in the capture of the port city.  However, upon arrival, it was discovered that the city had already surrendered to the USS Scourge and there was no battle to be had.  General Quitman led his forces back to Vera Cruz and then followed Scott inland.  They arrived at the Battlefield of Cerro Gordo several days after the battle.  Soon after, the regiment arrived in Jalapa.

As their 1-year terms were about to expire, General Scott asked the volunteers to extend their enlistments.  Few, if any, did.  The Alabama Regiment was sent back to Vera Cruz where it found passage to New Orleans.  Of the 900 men who set out from Alabama, only 550 made this return journey from Vera Cruz.  Many had been discharged for illness throughout the year and 150 had died.

An excellent account of the Alabama Regiment is available here.  Recommended.

Jake Speed (1986)

Maureen Winston was traveling Europe.  She was partying in Paris when a pair of goons broke in and absconded with her and another girl.  Back in the United States, her family consulted with government officials, but it looked hopeless.  Mr. Winston (Monte Markham) blamed his other daughter, Margaret (Karen Kopins) for convincing him to let Maureen travel.  Grandpa Winston argued that it was a waste of time to talk to government authorities.  This was a job for Mac Bolan, Remo Williams, or Jake Speed.  Everyone shook their heads at the crazy old man and his heroes from pulp fiction.

Soon after, Margaret found a note instructing her to go to a dive bar at midnight if she wanted to find her sister.  Desperate, she and her roommate, Wendy (Donna Pescow), went.  There they met Jake Speed (Wayne Crawford) and his sidekick/chronicler, Desmond Floyd (Dennis Christopher).  In order to rescue Maureen, they needed Margaret to meet them in Africa.  Though strongly advised against it, Margaret flew to an African nation in the midst of a civil war.  No sooner does she join them than she begins to have doubts.  Why was she sharing a room with Speed?  Why did he want her in a cocktail dress for an outing?  Why are two men bidding for her as if she was for sale?!

The movie supposes that the pulp fiction heroes are real and the novels are exaggerated accounts of their adventures.  Jake proves to be a seat-of-his-pants kind of guy who finds that all of his plans disintegrate and usually leave him worse off.  In addition to playing the lead, Crawford was a writer and producer.  He took the lead because they couldn't get anyone else to take the role.  Dennis Christopher was not suited for an action film.  He looks out of place throughout the movie.  Karen Kopins has a few moments, but the script is quite unfriendly.  She is stuck being panicked, anxious, or terrified for most of the film.  John Hurt proves to be the villain - a white slaver named Sid, though he shows up rather late in the film.  Sid and Speed are familiar with one another, bantering like old chums who now hate each other.

The pacing is slow.  There is entirely too much time of Speed and Margaret sitting here and sitting there with her being suspicious and him being indifferent.  To show Speed just how dangerous he is, Sid kept killing his own men.  The various soldiers fighting the civil war prove to be terrible shots, unable to hit any of the important characters.  Overall, the movie doesn't know what it wants to be.  Sometimes it's a comedy, sometimes it's an action adventure, sometimes it's a parody of pulp fiction novels, but it never settles into a groove.  Choppy.

Intended to be the first in a series of Jake Speed adventures, this bombed and killed future installments.  Mediocre.  Skip.

Happy 95th Birthday!

Today, William Shatner turns 95 years old and he's still working.  In fact, Shatner is a workaholic.  In his 70+ year career, he has been a headliner in a dozen TV series, some successful (Star Trek, TJ Hooker, Boston Legal), some not so successful (For the People, Barbary Coast, $#*! My Dad Says) and some that didn't get beyond the pilot (Nero Wolfe, Alexander the Great).  He starred in one of the most memorable episodes of The Twilight Zone: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.  In addition to acting, he has hosted many shows such as Shatner's Raw Nerve, Rescue 911, Full Moon Fright Night, and Weird of What?  Then there are the books.  He has written almost a dozen biographical books that, of course, mostly focus on his time with Star Trek.  He's written a dozen Star Trek novels.  Then there is the TekWar series from the late 80s and into the 90s that spawned a TV series.  Yes, he starred in that TV series too.  When not acting or writing, he is a noted equestrian; yes, he wrote a book about horses too.  Oh, and he's been to space.  His credits on IMDb are vast and diversified: actor, director, writer, producer.

Shatner will forever be most identified as Captain Kirk, much as Sean Connery is always remembered as James Bond.  However, Denny Crane is a close second.

Happy Birthday!

Lone Wolf McQuade (1983)

In the deserts of Texas near El Paso, a band of thieves drive a herd of horses into a corral.  Nearby, several state police officers prepare to arrest the rustlers.  It goes badly when the rustlers outmaneuver the police and quickly surround them.  Before the lead rustler can kill the police, Ranger J.J. McQuade (Chuck Norris) entered the fray.  In short order, he dispatched the rustlers and rescued the police officers.  One officer, Arcadio Ramos (Robert Beltran), is particularly grateful.  Upon returning to the office in El Paso, his captain (R.G. Armstrong) upbraided him for his slovenly appearance and Lone Wolf antics.  He was assigned a partner, none other than Arcadio "Kayo" Ramos.

Happenstance at a horse racetrack led to a meeting with Lola Richardson (Barbara Carrera) and her business partner, Rawley Wilkes (David Carradine).  Wilkes was a former Karate champion and McQuade was widely known for his hand-to-hand prowess.  Though tempers flared and both displayed their martial arts skills, Lola prevented them from fighting one another; that must wait for the finale.  It was now clear that Wilkes is the bad guy and Lola the love interest.

The movie plays like a Spaghetti Western and has a soundtrack that feels like it came from a Sergio Leone film.  There are several characters who follow standard tropes.  Dakota (LQ Jones) is the old veteran who is a reliable ally and doomed to die.  Kayo is the greenhorn youth who follows the hero and matures into a hero himself.  Snow (William Sanderson) is the sniveling snitch who reveals the plans of the villain and provides for some initial action in the investigation.  Sally is McQuade's daughter who is repeatedly entangled in the story and needs rescuing.  Of course, there are training montages and travel montages, accompanied by a powerful musical score.

The same year this appeared in theaters, Barbara Carrera was also opposite Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again.  In that, she was an over-the-top femme fatale.  In both movies, she dies.  Tough year for her characters but a high point in her career.

As David Carradine was best remembered for his role as Kwai Chang Caine in Kung Fu, there was much excitement over his match with Karate World Champion Norris.  Norris commented that Carradine's martial arts was about as good as Norris's acting.  Nice.

Great popcorn fun and recommended.

Damnation Alley

Hell Tanner rode his Harley toward the Mexican border, but there was soon police pursuit.  The Harley was fast, but the roadblock ahead stopped him.  The police handled him with kid gloves, needing him intact and healthy.  Returning to LA in a bizarre storm that saw rocks plunging from the sky, they arrived in time to take cover.  Denton was disappointed.  Tanner had agreed to drive to Boston in exchange for being released from prison.

It is the post-apocalypse, and the world is drastically changed.  The skies are purple or black with wild weather that prevents flight and most radio communication.  There are only pockets of humanity remaining, notably Los Angeles and Boston.  However, it is almost impossible to travel from one to the other.  The irradiated middle has come to be called Damnation Alley.  A man from Boston recently made that trip and then died from radiation poisoning.  Boston is suffering a plague and needs a serum that LA has.

Tanner drives one of three cars headed to Boston.  Car is a misnomer.  It is more like a tank with missile racks, flamethrowers, machine guns, and heavy armor plating.  The vehicles set out with a planned first stop in Salt Lake City.  They are assailed by lines of tornadoes, huge bats, snakes that are gargantuan, volcanos spewing radioactivity, near impenetrable hedges, and bandits.  On top of that, Denton gave orders to burn Tanner if he tried to run away again.

The book is very different from the movie.  Where the movie has Denton and Tanner traveling to Albany, NY with some notion of joining a surviving community, this has Tanner on a mission of mercy.  Where the book Tanner is a criminal on a journey of redemption, movie Tanner is just some guy who happened to survive the apocalypse and rides a motorcycle.

Several chapters of the book detail the deteriorating situation in Boston as the plague wipes out the population.  Each chapter follows someone else, giving it no connection.  Here is the story of how this character died.  Here is a preacher offering a sermon while a bell in the background rings with each death.  Who would set up such a bell?  When Tanner finally gets there, he meets none of the characters detailed in these Boston chapters.  Annoying.

The bike gangs were also an oddity.  Tanner encountered a bike gang, which operates as road bandits like in Mad Max, but that doesn't make much sense.  With the lethal weather, motorcycles look to be the worst road option.  During an encounter with a bike gang, Tanner absolutely mauled them with missiles, machine guns, flamethrowers, and grenades.  Despite 90% casualties, the bikers kept coming!  Really?  Yes, at that point, the willing suspension of disbelief snapped for me.

I was reminded of scenes from Steven King's The Talisman and The Black Tower series.  His alternate universe also had characters traversing an irradiated wasteland between California and New England.  Was this book an inspiration for him?

Just okay.

Good Guys Wear Black (1978)

It is 1973 and the Paris Peace Talks are underway between the United States and Vietnam.  The Vietnamese legation has requested that lead negotiator, Conrad Morgan (James Franciscus), approve the death of CIA operatives currently in captivity.  Instead, he had a meeting with CIA Agent Murray Saunders (Lloyd Haynes) and suggested a rescue operation in the next 48 hours.

In Vietnam, Major John T Booker (Chuck Norris) and his elite commando squad known as the Black Tigers climb into a Huey.  The team arrived at the site and quickly infiltrated.  No sooner had they determined that no POWs were present than Viet Kong attacked.  Not only were many of the Black Tigers killed, but the pickup helicopters never arrived.  Abandoned, the remaining Black Tigers had to trek through the jungles to escape.

In 1978, Margaret (Anne Archer) approached Booker and asked him about that last mission.  Of course, it was classified yet she somehow knew more about it than he did.  Moreover, Agent Saunders contacted Booker and revealed that someone is killing the surviving Black Tigers.  With the mysterious Margaret at his side, Booker set out to warn the remaining Tigers and uncover whoever was killing them.

This was the first Chuck Norris film I saw.  Of course, it was absolutely awesome; I was 11.  Watching it today, it is still a lot of fun, but it is short on martial arts.  After this film, I was a fan of his and saw a string of his movies over the next several years.  Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) was by far my favorite Chuck Norris film.  Walker, Texas Ranger was an outgrowth of that movie.  I was a consistent watcher of that show for the first couple seasons.  His last noteworthy movie appearance was in The Expendables 2 (2012) where he played a legendary mercenary, Booker the Lone Wolf.  That was one of the all-time great cameos. 

Chuck Norris died this morning at the age of 86.  RIP

Fackham Hall (2025)

It is 1931 and Humphrey Davenport (Damien Lewis) has a problem.  All his sons - John, Paul, George, and Ringo - died in various tragic accidents, leaving no direct heir to the family estate, Fackham Hall.  His nephew, Archibald Davenport (Tom Felton), will inherit, leaving his wife and two daughters homeless. He will resolve this quandary by having his younger daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), marry Archibald.  Meanwhile, wily Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) is something of an Artful Dodger in London.  He has grown up in an orphanage, where he still resides.  Upon returning from his antics in the city, a lawyer offered him the princely sum of one pound to deliver a letter to Lord Davenport at Fackham Hall.  En route, he ran into - literally - Rose Davenport (Thomasin McKenzie), Poppy's elder sister and presumed spinster.  Meet cute, followed by slapstick comedy.  Upon arriving at Fackham Hall, Eric is mistaken for a job applicant, which he accepts, and completely forgets the letter he was to deliver.  I'm sure it was nothing important.

This is Downton Abbey as slapstick, goofball comedy.  One of the wedding guests is none other than JRR Tolkien "the Writer!" who finds plenty of inspiration for his writing.  Jimmy Carr plays the town vicar who must have forgotten all the punctuation in his sermons: "You may kiss the choir boys...  You may kiss.  The choir boys will now sing."  The Bechdel sisters who do nothing but talk about men and a desire to marry was a funny gag.  Of particular note, I did not recognize Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton); he looks quite different and Archibald is entirely unlike Draco.  At one point, it is mentioned that Archibald's older brother, Nathaniel, was presumed killed in the Great War; a flashback shows a grinning toddler in a British uniform standing in the trenches.  Yes, they were so young in the war.

Silly popcorn fun.  Recommended.

Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez was a labor organizer for farm workers who morphed into a civil rights leader for Chicanos.  He died in 1993.  As a union leader and civil rights activist, he was held in high esteem among Democrats.  Unsurprisingly, over the last 33 years, many streets, parks, schools, and libraries have been named in his honor.  His birthday, March 31st, is a holiday in California, Denver (CO), and Texas.  Now, more than 30 years after his death, it has suddenly been revealed that he sexually abused young women and girls.  One of his prime allies during his life - Dolores Huerta - has stated that she was raped by him 60 years ago.

No sooner has this been announced than marches and holidays in his honor are canceled and talk runs to changing the names of streets, parks, schools, etc.  The speed at which he went from hero to monster is breathtaking.  It is as if everyone knew all along and, now that it is out in the open, honors must be stripped.  There is no one on the other side arguing on his behalf.  Well, he has been dead for 30 years.  Why now?  Dolores is 96 years old and never thought to say anything in the last 33 years?

One reason why Chavez's fall from grace is unopposed is because it is the left that is tearing him down.  He was never a hero to Republicans or the right.  The Democrats are tearing down one of their heroes and the Republicans will just shrug.  Again, why now?

Cesar Chavez was adamantly opposed to illegal immigration.  Illegal immigrants were a thorn in the side of his labor efforts.  Farms were only too eager to hire low-wage illegals rather than unionized Americans.  In those days, it was possible to be anti-immigration and a Democrat.  That combination is no longer valid.  Chavez held views that are antithetical to the modern Democratic Party and some on the right have brought up Chavez to argue against illegal immigration.  That is surely vexing.

Next year will be Cesar Chavez's 100th birthday.  Would it be a day to denounce illegal immigration?  Better to take that birthday off the calendar than risk having a famous Hispanic Democrat as a symbol for the opposition.  Yes, it was time to cancel Chavez.

My Confession: The Recollections of a Rogue

Samuel Chamberlain was a boy from Boston with a grand sense of adventure.  He viewed himself as a romantic hero right out of the pages of a novel.  He wooed the ladies, clobbered the bullies, and traveled to his next adventure.  Is his autobiography just so much nonsense and self-promotion?  Oddly, a lot of it proved to be true.

Sam was an artistic lad whose father died when Sam was 14.  His wild streak began shortly thereafter.  Being more trouble than not, he went west to live with his uncle in Illinois.  Before long, he was fighting with his cousin, which caused his uncle to come at him with an axe!  Sam fled to Louisianna, where he became an accountant.  An affair with another man's wife sent him flying back to Illinois.  He had hardly arrived when there was a call for volunteers to go to war in Mexico.  Though only 16 years-old, Sam joined immediately.  He traveled to Texas with an Illinois Volunteer Regiment, but he didn't get along well with the command structure.  In San Antonio, he joined the Dragoons and found himself marching with General Wool to Monclova.  Being something of a hellion (his horse's name was Lucifer!), he found himself in several scrapes, sometimes with other troops, sometimes with Mexican guerrillas, and frequently on account of senioritas.

In December 1846, General Wool marched to support General Taylor at Saltillo.  There was a rumor that a grand army was marching north.  The army arrived in February and General Santa Anna attacked.  Samuel Chamberlain joined his first battle, the most epic one of the war: The Battle of Buena Vista.  The Dragoons didn't see a lot of action, but they were posted as sentinels during the breaks.  As action began on the 21st, expanded on the 22nd, and concluded on the 23rd, there was a need for lookouts during the nights.  Thus, Sam was posted between the two armies to be aware of night attacks.  Needless to say, he didn't get a lot of sleep.  It is a very different view of the battle where he spent much of it idle.

For the remainder of the war, he fought guerrillas and wooed the ladies.  When the war ended, he stayed in the service to head to California.  Halfway through the march, he deserted and joined a notorious band of scalp hunters.  Scalp hunters killed Apache and sold the scalps to Mexican authorities; it was a method of curbing the depredations that the Apache committed against the Mexicans.  Sam's tale of adventure ends in the California deserts between Yuma and the Salton Sea.

Like a good James Bond movie, Chamberlain had a new love interest in each adventure.  There was his true love in Boston, the woman met on the coach heading to Illinois, the girls at an all-girl school in Illinois, the married woman in Louisianna, and on and on.  Each is more beautiful than the last, but dreams of happily-ever-after are always foiled by circumstances.  Though the autobiography is built on actual incidents, his love life is almost certainly wishful thinking.

Chamberlain went on to become a general in the Civil War and lived until 1908.  Of note, his book and the many sketches and watercolors that accompanied it, was not published until 1956.  Doubtless, this book was an inspiration for George MacDonald Frazer's Flashman Papers.

Here is a great read with plenty of action, adventure, and romance.  Highly recommended.

Charley Varrick (1973)

A yellow car with an older man and a younger woman pulled up to the bank.  It has hardly stopped than a cop arrived and announced that it was a no parking zone.  The gray-haired man declared that he had a broken ankle.  The officer nodded and let it slide.  The old man went into the bank and, no sooner did the bank manager come to look at the check than the old man drew a gun.  Two other patrons - wearing masks - also drew guns.  Outside, the cop returned and the woman shot him.  A gunbattle erupted both inside and outside the bank.  Only two of the three robbers got out of the bank and the getaway driver rammed an arriving cop car off the road and floored it as they left town.

Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau) pulled off his old man disguise and Harman Sullivan (Andrew Robinson) removed his mask.  They had hardly arrived at the secondary escape car when Nadine (Jacqueline Scott) died from a bullet wound.  She really was Charley's wife.  The remaining robbers drove away in a van, arriving at Charley's mobile home.  When they counted the money, they knew something was wrong.  They had expected no more than $30,000; they had three-quarters of a million!  While Harman was elated, Charley knew that it must be mafia money and that they were dead men.

Maynard Boyle (John Vernon) received the call from the bank manager.  Unless he recovered that money, he was a dead man.  He knew just who to put on the case: Molly.  Molly (Joe Don Baker) was a man who could not be stopped.  He made his way to the little bank in New Mexico and began to track down the robbers.

How could Charley get away with the money while also guaranteeing that the mafia wouldn't forever be a threat?  He'd need to stay ahead of Molly, keep Harman from exposing them, and convince everyone that he was a dead man.

The story is terrific, but Walter Matthau is too likable to be as coldblooded as Charley.  He is over his wife's death before the day is out.  Once we learn about her background, it looks out of character for her to start shooting cops with wild abandon.  Wasn't this their first bank robbery?  Joe Don Baker is great as a grinning hitman, a villain who easily terrifies by his mere size and presence.

Recommended.

Dragged Across Concrete (2018)

Detective Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) crouched on a fire escape outside a window when he heard someone coming up the metal steps.  It proved to be his partner, Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn).  They briefly bantered and noticed a nearby neighbor watching them.  Soon, they heard a knock, and the third cop was there to flush out the perp.  Sure enough, Vasquez crawled out the window only to find himself handcuffed and interrogated.  All seemed great but the neighbor filmed it and sent it to the news.  It didn't look good.  A six-week suspension followed.

Henry Johns (Tory Kittles) was fresh out of prison and found his mother turning tricks to pay the rent while his younger brother played computer games.  His pal, Biscuit (Michael Jai White), had a job.  Henry was willing but made sure to have some guns wrapped in cellophane.  "Why's that?" Biscuit wanted to know.  Sometimes, you don't have time to put on gloves.

Ridgeman lived in a bad neighborhood and his daughter was frequently harassed.  It was only a matter of time before she was of an age to get raped.  His wife was disabled.  He needed to score some money to get them out of the neighborhood.  He got a tip about a heist from a man who owed him.  Roping Lurasetti into the caper, the pair spent several days watching for Lorentz Vogelmann (Thomas Kretschmann).  Eventually, a pair of black men picked him up and drove off.  Brett and Tony followed.

The movie proves to be quite violent at times.  Vogelmann's goons, masked men in black who are differentiated only by the color of their gloves, proved to be killing machines.  When each is introduced, a couple of corpses are left in their wake.  At no point do they take off their masks.  Henry and Biscuit are brought into the crew as driver and spotter.  Of course, the suspended cops and the bank robbers will have a confrontation.

By the same man who wrote and directed Bone Tomahawk, the menace of the gloved men reminds one of the mysterious cannibal Indians from that movie.  Though Henry and Brett are the main characters, neither is particularly likable.  Brett is a cop who has gotten more jaded with each passing year, inured to inflicting violence on criminals.  Henry is a criminal, but he has a code of ethics.  He proves to be the best at seeing all the moving parts despite being relegated to a minor role.

Slow and plodding with moments of intense violence.  Meh.  Just okay.

Fargo (Season 1)

It was winter in Minnesota and a car sped down an empty highway in the middle of the night.  Suddenly, a deer was in the road.  The collision left the deer mortally wounded and the car in a ditch on the side of the road.  Then, the trunk popped open and a man dressed in boxers fled through a snowy field and into the nearby woods.  The driver, Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton), awoke to find a bloody wound on his forehead.

Lester Nygard (Martin Freeman) was a mousy insurance salesman in Bemidji, Minnesota.  While walking down the street, he encountered Sam Hess.  Hess used to bully him in school and decided to relive the good old days.  Shortly thereafter, Lester was in the emergency room for his injuries.  He happened be next to a man with a head wound, none other than Lorne Malvo.  Upon hearing Lester's story, Lorne claimed that he would have killed the man.  In fact, would Lester like Malvo to kill Hess?  Lester dithered but called 'Yes' to the nurse when she summoned him.  It was a fateful yes.

Sheriff Thurman was called away from the frozen naked man in the forest to the corpse of Sam Hess at a strip club.  Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) had some keen insights and Thurman viewed her as his natural successor when he retired.  Molly linked the frozen man to the man with the head wound to Lester Nygard to Sam Hess.  It was all connected.  Though she wanted to interview Lester, the Sheriff went.  He arrived at the Nygard house to find that Lester had murdered his wife.  Before he could take action, Malvo arrived and killed him with a shotgun!

Now Lester must convince the police that he was a victim.  Malvo was only passing through Bemidgi on his way to Duluth. His car wrecked earlier, he took Lester's.  A tangled web is thus woven; it is up to Bemidji Deputy Solverson and Duluth Officer Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks) to unwind the threads and find the solution to the murders.  However, it gets much worse, as Sam was connected to a criminal organization who sent some fixers to find and kill his murderer.

An outstanding series with lots of interlinking storylines and interesting characters.  Billy Bob Thornton is outstanding as an agent of chaos, a man who causes trouble for the sake of causing trouble.  His Duluth job was to solve a blackmail scheme, but he instead took over when he uncovered the culprit.  Though a slight fellow, Thornton imbued Malvo with an astonishing level of menace and danger.  Really terrific villain.  By contrast, Martin Freeman begins as the most wimpy of characters but evolves into a conniving rat who sells out anyone to protect himself.  Allison Tolman felt like a retread of Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), going so far as to be pregnant for the climax.  Key & Peele star as a pair of FBI agents out of Fargo who are on the trail of Lorne Malvo.  They proved to be quite funny, more because it is them than any of their actions and dialogue.  Bob Odenkirk plays the new sheriff who is in way over his head and won't listen to Molly's theories. Keith Carradine plays Molly's father, a former cop who now runs a diner; he has a limp that ended his career.  Oliver Platt plays the blackmail victim and is also a man who, back in 1996, discovered a bag of a million dollars on the side of the road (see Fargo movie).  A terrific cast for an excellent ten episodes of dark comedy and crime thriller.

Throughout the series, there are several references to a dark event that led to Molly's father's injury, among other things.  This proved to be foreshadowing for season 2.

Highly recommended.

An English Soldier in the United States Army

In the summer of 1845, George Ballantine arrived in New York.  Born in Scotland, skilled as a weaver, and a veteran of the British Army, he sought work.  His best offer was to become a whaler, which did not appeal to him.  Instead, he joined the US Army.  He details his life as a soldier from induction at Governor's Island in New York, to his training at Fort Adams in Rhode Island, his transfer to Fort Pickens at Pensacola, then to Tampa Bay.  The Mexican-American War began less than a year after he joined.

Corporal Ballantine served in the First Artillery Regiment, Company I.  The regiment was sent to Tampico, Mexico, as part of General Winfield Scott's invasion force.  In February 1847, the regiment has shipped south but did not land until March 9.  To George's surprise, the Mexicans did not contest the landing on the beaches south of Vera Cruz.  Assigned to General David "Old Davey" Twiggs Division, he took part in the siege of Vera Cruz, and the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec.

Where most of the memoirs of the war were written by officers (q.v., Lt. Francis Collins, Lt. Henry Benham, Lt. John Hollingsworth, Lt. Harvey Neville, Lt. Albert Brackett), this one was written by a man in the ranks.  As such, it has a very different point of view.  He discusses the discomforts of a soldier's life, the frequent waiting even during the heat of battle, the harsh punishments meted out by officers which contributed to the high desertion rate, the high mortality rate from illness, and the constant quest for alcohol.

Occasionally, he discusses the generals.  He indicates that the men liked Old Davey, but also knew he was not much of a strategist.  Had General Patterson not intervened to prevent it, Twiggs intended to throw his division into a frontal assault at Cerro Gordo.  The men knew it would result in heavy casualties, but Twiggs was raring to go.  When Scott arrived the following day, he sent scouts to find a way around the Mexican strong points.  The men knew that Scott was stingy with their lives, thus his popularity despite his Fuss and Feathers reputation.

Very readable and highly recommended.

A Man Called Horse (1970)

It was 1825 and John Morgan (Richard Harris) was a bored English lord.  Being a noble with a military commission and inherited wealth wasn't for him.  No, he had resigned his commission and left England.  In lieu of wealth and status, he was shooting "prairie chickens" in the wilds of North America with toothless bumpkins who served as his guides.  Even this had become tedious.  No sooner had he declared his intent to return to St. Louis than a band of Sioux warriors fell upon his camp.  The chief, Yellow Hand (Manu Tupou), took his as a slave.  He described him as no different from a horse, and thus he was thereafter called Shunkawakan, which means horse.

Morgan was ill-treated by the tribe, and his every attempt at escape was easily thwarted.  Soon he discovered an ally among the Sioux; Batise (Jean Gascon), another slave who was fluent in English, French, and Sioux.  From Batise, he learned how to survive.  From his own grit, he learned how to thrive.  In time, he was embraced by the tribe, rising to a valued member.  He was initiated by the Vow to the Sun and married Yellow Hand's sister, Running Deer (Corinna Tsopei).  So satisfying had his life become, all thoughts of escape vanished.

Here is a movie that long predates Dances with Wolves, another movie where a white man adopts Sioux ways.  Historically, there are many examples of whites being captured - mostly as children - by various tribes and then being raised among them.  A contemporary movie, Little Big Man (1970), saw comical take on the white man among the Cheyenne.  The big claim to fame is that Sioux participated, offering details on the culture, practices, and rituals.

Why in the world did Joe (Dub Taylor), Morgan's guide, take him so far from civilization to shoot nothing special?  Joe and his cohorts proved to be useless, clearly unsuited to wandering the frontier. It is only a couple of years since the Arikara War (1823), the start of which was shown in The Revenant (2015).  These guys really are reckless, but how else are we going to explain an Englishman captured by Sioux? Richard Harris reprised the role in two sequels.

Iron Eyes Cody, best remembered as the Indian who wept about pollution, has a role as the medicine man.  He made a career of playing Native Americans, claiming such ancestry, despite being of Italian heritage.

Just okay.

Eagle's Wing (1979)

White Bull (Sam Waterston), a Kiowa warrior, was out raiding.  He and his fellow warriors spotted several Comanche.  The Kiowa attacked, overcoming most of the Comanche but the leader, who was mounted on a magnificent white horse - Eagle's Wing, easily outran White Bull's horse.  Though the leader escaped, he died from the arrow wound he suffered.

Henry (Harvey Keitel) and Pike (Martin Sheen) were a pair of American trappers.  Henry was an old hand, having worked as a trapper for several years.  By contrast, Pike was a recent recruit, an Army deserter who sought a new start in the wilds.  Henry and Pike had a contentious relationship because Pike was too fond of drinking and not a diligent enough worker.  Henry expected to rendezvous with Comanche for trade, but the Comanche didn't show.  Instead, White Bull's band of Kiowa attacked, stealing horses, pelts, and most of the gear.

Elsewhere, Judith (Caroline Langrishe) rode in a funeral procession with her brother, a Mexican gentleman, a lady, and her servants.  Her brother was a priest who had sent for her from Ireland.  Judith spoke no Spanish.  The lady wore black as the procession was for her husband.  They were bound for her brother-in-law's hacienda when White Bull's band attacked.  White Bull took everything of value, including Judith.

Two Comanche warriors arrived at a burial ground to find their shaman was dead.  His woman told how a white man stole Eagle's Wing while the shaman was presiding over the chief's funeral.  The pair nod gravely and immediately departed to exact justice.

Judith's brother arrived at the hacienda and raised the alarm about the attack.  Soon, a band of vaqueros rode forth to rescue the widow and exact justice on the Kiowa.

The setting is uncertain.  Trappers were generally searching for beaver, which is not common in the desert.  The market for such furs crashed in the late 1830s, so one supposes this takes place before that.  The Kiowa and the Comanche would most likely clash in Oklahoma and North Texas.  Pike talks about going south to Mexico or north to Canada, implying he is not currently in either.  It was filmed in Durango, Mexico, which stood in for Texas in Texas Rising.

White Bull is inscrutable.  At one point, he has gold, jewelry, wine, a captive, and Eagle's Wing.  His only threat is Pike, whom he repeatedly refused to kill when given the opportunity.  Why?  Of course, he doesn't speak English and rarely utters a word in his own tongue.  When he does, there is no subtitle translation for it.  It becomes clear that he was trying to buy Pike off by leaving each treasure except the horse, but Pike would not settle.

Pike is a directionless man, a wanderer who happened to fall into this story.  When he got his hands on Eagle's Wing, the horse became his identity.  When he lost it to White Bull, recovering the horse became his sole goal.  It did not matter that a fortune in jewels and gold was offered, he would rather risk life and limb for Eagle's Wing.  Why?  What strange power does this horse have over men?

Mostly, this is a contest between White Bull and Pike to see who will ride Eagle's Wing.  The other characters add color and variety to the story.  It is not your usual Western, but still entertaining.