Washington County officials say they are considering suing "Gods and Generals" director Ronald F. Maxwell to force repayment of $300,000 the county lent him for work on another Civil War film that wasn’t made.
Maxwell has fallen about $56,000 behind on loan payments, The (Hagerstown) Herald-Mail reported Friday. County Attorney John Martirano said that unless Maxwell responds soon, the county might file a lawsuit to recover the money.
What will the Civil War enthusiasts do without another installment (The Last Full Measure) of overweight reenactors, sappy scriptwriting, unrealistic battle scenes, and Lost Cause nonsense? Click here for an earlier post on Maxwell’s financial problems and here for one of his incoherent rants about immigration.
On a similar note, Dimitri reports that Gingrich and Forstchen are getting out of the Civil War fiction business and moving ahead to WWI. No more silly movies or books from these three. Good news all around.
I am guessing we will see some historical fiction comimg up in five years about the War of 1812.
Although I quite agree that the Maxwell movies are trite representations of the Civil War I personally find them entertaining with just enough grains of truth to hopefully excite further research. In fact my own in depth academic interest in the ACW stems from the birthday that a friend gave me the Gettysburg DVD. I was smart enough to know that Hollywood does not give the truth in historical sense (where you been? they never really have) yet open-minded enough to desire to search out where the truth might be. It is now very interesting and enjoyable to watch G and G&G and look for the errors while enjoying the “story.” In all our myths, in all our stories, in all our legends there will always be a grain of truth worth searching out and worth wrapping in gossamer leaves.
Perhaps it is a good time to take the words of Anthony de Mello to heart — ‘You have yet to understand that the shortest distance between a human being and Truth is a story’
P.S. to Dimitri, there are lessons hear [sic] for you too.
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy (or history).”
–From Hamlet (I, v, 166-167)