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 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 keep 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!