"John Brown Mini Series" Topic

Anyone seen this seven part Histodrama yet?

The Good Lord Bird

Some good bits here of Ethan Hawke chewing up the scenery!

YouTube link

I will check it out later thanks for the tip

I shy away from programming that makes him out to be a hero, instead of a psychopathic serial killer. I may have the number wrong, but I think he butchered 81 men, women and children, in their own homes. Not my sort of hero.

I agree with PJ.

The series does not make him out to be a hero. It makes him out to be what he was insane and a pathetic zealot. A rather comic figure in some respects. Of course feel free to judge the book by it's cover without watching it.

Good to know, Totenkopf. You'd never know it by the adverts I saw.

I have been watching this – and I agree with Totenkopf, the series certainly does not present him as a hero, but rather a zealous fanatic who, in the words of Onion, one of the main characters, who says of him that "the old man was nuttier than a squirrel's "

The series does suggest he was somewhat "highly strung" and deserved to be so in the end. Still, he "meant well", even if a little over enthusiastic, and probably deserves a statue outside some state capitol (oh sure, for five minutes maybe).

He was one of the first Americans to believe that Black Lives Matter. So I guess that does make him insane and a zealot. Indeed in bleeding Kansas he did kill some people, hardly 81 and any life is precious but he was fighting against proslavery elements who were also killing people. Remember Lawrence Kansas. His integrated group of freedom fighters, terrorists perhaps, we're almost all killed In combat or hanged including John himself. From what I've seen of the show, only one episode, it's good for some laughs but hardly tells the true story. After all isn't that what entertainment is for.

" So I guess that does make him insane and a zealot."

Actually I think what made him insane and a zealot was his willingness to visit the homes of people who opposed him politically, even if they hadn't been involved in any violence themselves, and hack them to death with a sword.

Well finished it at last. Had to wait a while to see it all as I don't have direct access to the TV channel concerned.

Anyway I did enjoy it and historical detail aside I thought it in general pretty well done and well acted.

Brown met who history said he met and did quite a few of the thing he's said to have done. As usual, things were altered or left out altogether some of the alterations seemed to be done for dramatic effect and others appeared to be the writers symbolism.

I make a point of the latter as this was, when all said and done, a drama based on the 2014 novel of the same name. You don't expect perfect history from a novel.

Things I didn't like? Well the whole Harpers Ferry shoot out was overblown (to say the least) and the Butch and Sundance ending was silly. Though it rounded off the previous sequence of the older Black Men getting Onion away as a generational motif.

From a button counters perspective the Federal Infantry uniforms were a good go, as were the Marines, even if they didn't get to storm the Engine House! The Marines may have been Harpers Ferry history people (there is a Group). No idea about the Infantry.

I also didn't care for the portrayal of Frederick Dougglas too much but the fact the last time I saw the guy playing him was in "Hamilton", didn't help.

I don't think it was supposed to change peoples views on Brown or make him a saint but it was a good portrayal of an era with a dose of humour to counter the darker side.

Trajanus, fair assessment. Another product that was impressionistic rather than strictly accurate.

I found it entertaining and fair. Brown is a complete nut, but in that insanity ne had a clear understanding of the needle of history. This nation was going to be drentched in blood because of it's original sin. The only thing crazier than Brown was litterally everyone else who didn'r see what was coming. My only complaint was that it began with Onion joining the band rather than cover his whole life. I would have liked more background on Brown.