Military Historian Reviews 250 Years of Warfare in Movies | Part One

fighting in long lines so that everyone's musket can be brought to bear you see that even by the 1860s men are still advancing into battle shoulder to shoulder just as their forbears have done in in the Revolutionary War it's interesting use of Weaponry here we have modern rifles and pistols probably supplied by the British but you get edged weapons as well you get their swords and more traditional weapons used by the Arab tribes I'm Dan snow and I'm going to be checking out some of the best war movies ever to chart how the battlefield has been trans formed over the last 250 years the Patriot shoulder arms first of all notice lines of men everyone nearly everyone on both sides armed with the good old brown B musket a smooth ball musket capable of hitting a Target at 100 m even 300 M but you try to use them at just 50 m of range moving towards each other firing each other at close range and then you see those steel bayonets those Steel knives on top of the muskets once you f a couple of volleys you get into the enemy and fight hand to hand with cold steel the British are wearing their famous red coat actually at the Battle of Cowpens much of the many of the soldiers wearing green coats because they were from a unit raised in America but that doesn't matter here come the red coated and they are they're in Red Coats because that was the cheapest cloth available cheapest die available and also perhaps you couldn't see the blood less disturbing for your [Music] comrades [Applause] the you see Mel Gibson playing the Insurgent he's called Benjamin Martin he's he's about three or four different characters molded into one he's the regular he's someone who ambushes strikes where the British are weak partly based on a character called Francis Marian who was known by the British of the Swamp Fox MCR this is a great 18th century battle scene you've got artillery you've got infantry carrying smooth ball muskets with bayonets on the top marching into battle they're going to fight at Close Quarters that musket you could hit someone at 200 yards but mostly you want to close to within 100 maybe 50 yards and then give him a volley right in the teeth right when he can see the whites of their [Applause] eyes fighting in long lines so that everyone's musket can be brought to bear those musket volleys would be a powerful area weapon great image there of that Cannonball bouncing skimming along the ground you would try and bounce cannonballs off the surface and they could take down whole files of men this British officer is portrayed as total evil he's called tavington he's we think he's based on Talton now Talton certainly was a brutal British officer there's absolutely no question about it at all he's commanding a group of men who are actually raised they're actually Americans they're raised in America trained and they enter the British army as an American raised [Music] [Applause] unit Bandit charge we we'll see who takes the glory from this field at the Battle of Camden in 1780 the militia gave way they ran but at this battle the US Commander had cleverly said to the militia I want you to stand long enough to fire two volleys then you can withdraw suck the British into a trap and I'll hit them with my [Music] [Music] regular fire fire [Applause] D Mel Gibson obvious doing some major league showing off here but it is true the colors the ensen was so important uh in these battles the battlefield would be obscured by smoke it would be chaotic you can see bodies of men moving around lots of people packed into a small area and the colors allowed men to Rally to work out where they should be there would be a there could be a national colors in this case the US flag but there was also a regimental colors that told you where your unit was and you could rejoin your unit and maintain some cohesion so it is true that flags were [Music] important interestingly you can see some um African-Americans people of color portrayed the American ranks there were a few there were both enslaved and formerly enslaved people fighting for the Americans but actually there were more people of color fighting on the British side the British had issued a proclamation the governor of Virginia issued a proclamation saying any formerly enslaved or Escape slaves or enslaved people who signed up to fight for the king would receive their freedom to turn their flank you dream General by early 1781 the main action in the American Revolutionary War was actually in the southern colonies it was a in North and South Carolina the British thought there were lots of loyal Patriots their Tories they call them people who would would retain their loyalty to King George they were Rich colonies and if they could establish control of them it would break the back of the American independence movement so really there's two types of warfare going on there's the irregular warfare fighting in neighborhoods and farms and rivers and Forest there's also the Warfare of the two you armies fighting each other in a regular way so you get a mixture of fullscale pitch battles and then Savage Savage skirmishes and meles and ambushes right across these colonies I want accuracy and precision make ready and this shows irregular warfare a Warfare of militia men a Warfare of insurgents seeking out where the British were weak coming out of the Bush and attacking hit and run and then retreating fire [Music] these isolated British garrisons in the Carolinas needed Supply they needed gunpowder lots of gunpowder judging by the way that cart that exploded they needed messages carrying to and fro uh they needed food and all those supplies had to be protected by companies of red coated infantrymen and they all represented vulnerable little units [Music] look at this swampy terrain a nightmare for the British and these local militias these local groups of insurgents would know that landscape so well they know how to operate in the swamps know the way through know where the the firm soil was those detachments didn't stand a chance in the American Revolutionary War this style of gorilla fighting was devastating for the British it was it was one thing to March a British Army from A to B and occupy that place but as soon as they left an area insurgents would move back in the Rebels the Patriots would move back in and take control on behalf of those who sought Independence so right across the American colonies various period of the war you get this low-level fighting this slow chipping away at British military strength as isolated detachments were hunted down and slaughtered supplies were destroyed and it just meant that the cost of trying to hold down the became far too great for Britain it couldn't keep sending the number of men and troops required to police and pacify this vast landscape it was one thing to defeat the enemy Army in battle it was another to control the countryside Glory there's Matthew brck he is playing Robert Shaw he's a captain you can see by the two Pips on his shoulder there that he's a captain in this scene us are going to be killed for they are collecting such a force here that an attack would be insane the Massachusetts Men passed through here this morning how Grand it is to meet the men from all the states east and west down here ready to fight for their country as the old fellows did in the reevolution this is the training of the army of the ponic the big huge US Army that was recruited and trained to both protect Washington DC and then also defeat uh the rebellion in the South and also defeat the southern Confederate States now the roads are choked with the dispossessed we fight for men and women whose poetry is not yet written but which will presently be as enviable and as renowned as any last night we heard of yet another defeat but we are not disheartened I am honored to be part of such a splendid company they have made me Captain of which I am enormously proud Shaw was from an affluent liberal Progressive family in in Massachusetts they were passionate about the cause of emancipation about freeing their fellow Americans African-Americans from the Yoke of slavery a deep man he says believes that the evil eye can WI that the heart's blessing can heal that leather cartridge box there lovely that would have hung on over the shoulder carrying about 40 cartridges 40 rounds of ammunition my dearest love to Father your son [Music] [Applause] [Music] Robert and now they're marching into battle this is the battle of antium terrible battle still the bloodiest day in American history 23,000 men killed or wounded in one day this shows the US Army marching towards the rebels in their neat lines perfectly turned out fire now this scene is extraordinary you see that even by the 1860s men are still advancing into battle shoulder to shoulder just as their for Bears have done in in the Revolutionary War tactics were changing the weapons were certainly changing but not as quickly as you might think it was still a case of get the men as close as possible to the enemy fire volleys and then go in with the bayonet [Music] charge stay come on the Confederate artillery in this period would have been firing round shots which would have bounced off the ground and caused terrible casualties also case shot canister shot basically uh boxes full of musket bullets effectively that turned into kind of giant shotguns if you like spraying shrapnel but also explosive shells hoers which are indirect fire weapons firing explosive shells so you can start to see some of those explosions that Hollywood directors love so much and they always put far too many of on the battlefield the minority of of shots fired would have been explosive shells but there were some most most would have been solid shot cannon [Music] [Applause] you can see them waving the US flag there the banner trying to Rally troops and I think this this scene could be from the so-called cornfield at the Battle of antium where attack after attack went in and was decimated by Confederate musket volleys and also artillery fire it's such a great depiction I remember seeing this for the first time it's a a terrifying depiction of of a civil Warrior a battlefield the wounds a lot of men would have just gone to ground and just prayed for survival just like Matthew brck in this scene the Battle of antium in September 1862 would have looked quite like battles of previous generations where at the Battle of waloo or the battles of the American Revolutionary War long lines of men moving into action carrying muskets with bayonets on top and and Cannon artillery firing at them what that disguises that technology was changing it was starting to change quite rapidly uh those muskets were now lethal at much longer ranges they had rifled barrels so they were more accurate and you could shoot them further than the muskets of previous generations the artillery too was really developing in its lethality and so the traditional tactics of advancing the line blasting the enemy at close range and then closing to fight with the bayonet was on its way out the problem with the US Civil War it was a transitional moment and it was taking a while for tactics to catch up as technology advanc that's not anus War it happens in the first world war happen second world war it's happening in Ukraine today as technology changes you have to change the way you fight there's only one way of doing that and that's through trial and error so what you're looking at here at the Battle antium Is thousands of men killed or wounded as commanders and theorists came to terms with the new Battlefield this is an astonishing scene it's one of the greatest scenes I think in in Hollywood history this is when the 54th Massachusetts Infantry won of the first units raised with African-American soldiers it's commanded Now by Colonel Shaw they're now assaulting Fort Wagner at night uh in South Carolina come on man [Applause] forward on come on I'm really interested how we see the evolving Battlefield at this point look at this fort you've got Stakes you've got a water obstacle you got trenches this is a low-lying for very different to a a castle in previous era this is a fort designed for powerful big heavy rifled guns that can pour devastating fire over big distances this is the beginnings of a sort of modern Siege Warfare I think that we associate more with the 20th century the American Civil War was a harbinger of things to come and you see that here this could be a scene from the first World War Matthew brck said after making this film he didn't have to act because it was just so SC the set was so scary the bangs on the set but here he is leading a charge it's an officer's job to restore momentum to the battlefield and he does so he leads from the front he's terribly wounded mortally wounded at this point he takes the flag bear with him because the flag is the heart and soul of the unit he thinks people will follow the flag up that hill and there he is killed [Music] [Music] at this point one of the more remarkable moments in US Civil War history takes place uh a man called Sergeant Carney seizes the flag it's Denzel takes the flag and is immediately killed but Sergeant Carney seizes the flag he carries that flag to the rampants of this Confederate Fort and the men launch a suicidal attack desperately trying to take the for the general commanding them said don't fire your muskets on the way up use your bayonets on them when you get to the guns he wanted to be a shock attack he wanted to run up the beach storm over those ramparts and take the positions with cold steel and you can see the huge odds they face climbing up this Rampart they do close with the Enemy the American flag was present on the parit of those defenses briefly before the 54th were driven [Music] back this scene is a stunning depiction of the Union assault on Fort Wagner which was part of a huge battle to try and capture Charleston South Carolina one of the most important cities one of the most important Harbors in the Confederate States Fort Wagner was just one of several forts protecting this Harbor and each one had to be individually captured Fort Wagner was a fort but not as you might recognize it or think of it from previous generations of fighting it wasn't high with great stockades or battlements it was low lying it was designed as an artillery position so big guns could dominate Charleston Harbor and sweep rain Death Down On Any troops that dared to assault its its fortifications you need to think of it a little bit more like a first world war trench system there were deep ditches there were obstacles in them there was water and there were trenches from which the Confederates had a very very strong defensive position Courage the tenacity the skill demonstrated by the 54th convinced the US Congress to raise more units of African-American troops and something like 180,000 African-Americans volunteered to sign up to fight for the Union against the Confederacy Lawrence of [Music] Arabia this is Lawrence Arabia's Foundation myth this is the attack on akaba it was an important Turkish base um but it main defenses were all pointing out to the Sea and Lawrence attacked it from the desert with his um Arab [Music] tribesmen now this scene looks incredible but it's pretty much made up in fact Lawrence brilliantly shot his own camel in the back of the head in real life in this scene that is not portrayed in the movie interestingly as trench warfare mechanized Warfare industrial Slaughter had taken over in the first world war in many other fronts here in the Middle East there was still Mobility there was still the ability to launch Cavalry char charges camel charges go on Horseback strike where the enemy was weak and that was seen as as quite attractive in a world of Muddy trench line battlefields this is one of the reasons that Lawrence becomes so glamorized in the western media because there is still the ability to to launch these kind of attacks it still looks like Warfare from a previous [Applause] [Music] [Applause] era [Music] [Applause] [Music] you see that machine gun there that's capable of firing hundreds of rounds of minute a Lethal Lethal Weapon had they been expecting the attack as this movie suggests they would have been able to mow down that cavalry charge as many Cavalry Charges been mowed down the Western Front but Lawrence attacking with the benefit of surprise both tactical surprise I they just turned up and attacked but also strategic surprise that no one was expecting an attack to emerge from the desert they were expecting the attack to come from the [Music] sea and this was a huge success akaba could now act as a base through which the British could feed supplies to this Arab revolt and they get one of the heavy guns with armor piercing shells pointed out to sea waiting for a British Naval attack that never came it was a nightmare to shoot it famously took longer to produce than Lawrence spent with the Arabs during the first world war it took years and when the director went location in some parts of the Middle East to shoot there was still he could still see the rusting carcasses of Turkish trains wagons uh supplies left there in the desert or an not this go round Damascus sence Damascus no prisoners Lawrence wrote in his account later by my orders we took no prisoners for the only time in the [Music] war no prisoners no [Music] prisoners they were enraged by the treatments the Turkish treatment of a village just south of Damascus where men women and children have been slaughtered women had been horribly mutilated and Lawrence says he was so enraged they fell upon a Turkish Detachment and and killed [Music] everybody I what I like about this scene is you do see the you see the people on camels and horseback but you see the logistics you see sheep you see wagons the Arab Army was capable of surviving long periods of time in the desert they were experts at surviving in this appalling unforgiving [Music] landscape you see the turkey is trying to mount machine guns but rapidly that Turkish column are surrounded it's interesting use of Weaponry here we have modern rifles and pistols probably supplied by the British but you get edged weapons as well they get their swords and more traditional weapons used by the Arab tribesmen Lawrence Arabia is one of the epics of all time one of the most classic movies ever made I don't think it's particularly accurate it's not particularly historic in terms of the details and the role of Lawrence himself who's celebrated in this movie Above the role for example of his Arab colleagues but I think as a depiction of war in the desert of striking railroads of living and fighting in hostile environment it's fantastically realistic thanks for watching this video on the history Hit YouTube channel you can subscribe right here to make sure you don't miss any of our great films that are coming out or if you are a 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Keywords: history hit, history hit youtube, historian reacts, expert reviews movie scenes, movie reviews, expert review, movie review, historian reviews, best movie battles, best battle scenes, american war of independence, american civil war, battle tactics, battlefield strategy, evolution of war, evolution of warfare, how war has changed over time, how war changes, warfare evolution, timeline of warfare, timeline of war, the patriot, glory film, lawrence of arabia film review

Id: SQtJY9M_zQI

Length: 25min 20sec (1520 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 10 2023