Tonight we watched a movie about Theodore Roosevelt, "Rough Riders." Although we've seen it several times in the past, this time the kids (and I) got more out of it due to our history and literature studies.  Despite a few mistakes I caught, the big picture was well represented of the era and history.  The movie shows them training in San Antonio, which is true. Roosevelt later wrote that the men liked the idea of training in San Antonio..."in the city where the Alamo commemorates the death fight of Crockett, Bowie, and their famous band of frontier heroes."  In fact, the Rough Riders were so well trained, that they were the one volunteer regiment allowed to go in to fight. Today, the area where they trained is Roosevelt Park.

     Accurately portrayed was the diverse group of men who comprised the Rough Riders, from cowboys to a Fifth Avenue contingent.  Due to lack of military experience, Roosevelt did request to serve under Colonel Wood and Roosevelt was Lt. Colonel.   

  There were other great elements in the movie. The kids had studied artists and newspaper reporters at the scene of battles during the Civil War. They were one of the story lines in this movie. Also, Stephen Crane was in the movie and there was a lot of talk about his book, Red Badge of Courage.  Now that my son and I read the junior version of it a few years ago, we understood much more of the movie. 

     One of the main characters of the movie was Nash, who had a similar plot line to the main character of Crane's book. Both wanted to join the war (but for different reasons).  Both deserted their first battlefield experience. While running away, both were shot, yet both were deemed heroes.  For both, the inner conflict that raged afterwards led to significant life changing decisions.  Stephen Crane, himself, goes through a transformation through the movie.

      Our understanding of cavalry versus artillery have been heightened in the last year due to all our trips to Colonial Williamsburg and the Electronic Field Trip, "Yorktown". 

     Even though Rough Riders is a move, there were strong literary elements. My husband wasn't so certain that one of the characters had reformed at the end of the movie. My son quickly pointed out the literary clue during the climax that let us know about the transformation of the character.

     Some historical points that were not brought out where Roosevelt's personal motives for going to fight. His father did not fight in the Civil War, perhaps because Roosevelt's mother was a Southerner. (The fact that she was a Southerner did come out in the movie.)  Although Roosevelt was extremely close to his father, this was the one point of difference between them.  Roosevelt was never able to let that go. When the opportunity to go to war came, Roosevelt was not about to let it pass him by.  This movie seemed to be more of a story about Nash than Theodore Roosevelt, with lots of side stories to strengthen Nash's story.

     I'd say that the theme of this movie is patriotism.  American patriotism soared when citizens across the country read in the newspapers about the tyranny the Cubans (a close American neighbor) faced from the Spanish. As mentioned in the movie, this war was a turning point in American history. As we studied in history this year, the Spanish American War was the beginning of Imperialism, with theoretical foundations in the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny.

     During the climax, I was struck by something the men were taking turns to quote. It has to be a famous portion from a book. My son said they quoted it at the beginning of the movie too. I didn't catch that scene. Does anyone know what this quote is and which book or source it comes from?