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By
FRANK BEHRENS
Unless one is good at
American history, it is very likely that one's
knowledge of the War of 1812 takes in the two
Hollywood versions of the Battle of New Orleans in
"The Buccaneer" and little else. A most enjoyable
set of two DVDs that is now available from A&E is
a sure cure for that information gap. The main
feature (90 min.) is the History Channel's
presentation of "The War of 1812" and it does an
excellent job in giving the viewer a clear and
very nicely acted out account of the reasons for
the war, its course and its effects on our
standing as a world power.
But that is only the beginning. The first disc
also includes a special about preserving our
"Star-Spangled Banner," and the inevitable
"behind-the-scenes" feature about how the show was
produced.
The second disc begins with "The Battle of New
Orleans," which repeats a lot of the information
already given but also gives a lot of additional
facts to make it certainly worth seeing. There is
a really good history of ironclad battleships that
were more or less invented during the War of 1812
and then proved their value in our Civil War. From
A&E's Biography series, there is an excellent hour
account of the life of Andrew Jackson. Finally,
there is an episode from a series called "Extreme
History" in which Roger Daltrey shows us what life
was like aboard an actual 1812 battleship, the one
that held Perry before he reported that "we have
met the enemy and they are ours." The language of
this episode is considerably salty (unfit for
classroom use) but we do learn that the use of
square dishes on those ships gave us the
expression "a square meal."
The reconstruction of the events with live action
and computer images is extremely well done. As one
can see, this set is loaded with outstanding
features and all but the Daltrey section is
perfect for American history classes from (say)
6th grade and up. Teachers, take note. |
