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Does anyone remember seeing the film, "Chickamauga" in school?

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woo me with science Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-15-10 08:30 PM
Original message
Does anyone remember seeing the film, "Chickamauga" in school?
and do you remember how it affected you?

Someone reminded me of this film today, and I had forgotten how disturbing it was when I saw it in elementary school in the 70's. We were shown the film when we read the short story by Ambrose Bierce in class. It gave me nightmares and made me terrified of and horrified by what was happening in Vietnam.

A deaf-mute child wanders into the woods and comes across a company of dead and dying/maimed/mutilated soldiers from the Civil War Battle of Chickamauga. In surreal, dreamlike sequences, the child completely misunderstands the situation around him and plays with the staggering, dying men--even climbing onto a crawling soldier's back to ride him like a pony.

At the end, he finds his way home, and his mother has been slaughtered.

Did anyone else see this in elementary school? Looking back, it was extremely powerful for how young we were, but it was a lesson in both literature and life that I never forgot. I am curious what other people remember about it, how old you were, and how it affected you.
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Swede Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-15-10 09:23 PM
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1. I'd not heard of it.
Sounds intense.
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woo me with science Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-16-10 07:42 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. Extremely intense.
Edited on Sat Jan-16-10 07:43 AM by woo me with science
The written story was disturbing, but this filming of it was particularly surreal and horrifying. Weird, slow motion shots through the trees, and silence because the child was deaf and mute.

These days I doubt they would show it in an elementary school.
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CBGLuthier Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-16-10 12:37 PM
Response to Original message
3. No, but imdb has an entry
Edited on Sat Jan-16-10 12:38 PM by CBGLuthier
and the same director did An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge which Rod Serling bought and ran on The Twilight Zone.

He also did some other Bierce works I am not familiar with.

Guess he had a thing for Ambrose Bierce.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0257992/
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woo me with science Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-16-10 01:39 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. Thank you for that link.
I never saw the other one, but this one definitely could have been a particularly dark "Twilight Zone." Someone at the website reported seeing "Chickamauga" in high school, so I'm not crazy remembering that it was played in schools. I was in fifth or sixth grade when we saw it.
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