Let's Start It Out With a Bang (Pt.1)

I love movies. I think that if a movie is done well, it can give you not only a view of some good mind-wrenching ideas and philosophies, but can make you challenge your own ideas about the way life works. I especially enjoy movies heavy on character development. When this is done well, the viewer gains insight into the mind of another, albeit fictional, being. The beauty of character is that oftentimes the fictional character adopts the mantras or beliefs of the director, so actually one is receiving a set of real values held by a real person.

Recently a particular scene has been haunting me. If you have not seen Gettysburg I would readily endorse it, along with the book it is based on; The Killer Angels. To sum the plot of the movie up without doing it significant justice, it is based upon the decisive three-day battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. The movie centers around the major players in this battle, and the ideals that drove them to their battleground. Along the way, we are introduced to the character of Col. Joshua Chamberlain of the 20th Maine, who is destined to become the hero in the engagement at Little Round Top. (If you are rusty on your history, I encourage you to look this particular man up) Chamberlain is a battle-hardened veteran of the Federal Army, but he has managed not to lose his idealism. A former professor, he is enamoured with the idea that the reason the North, and consequently he, is fighting the war is for the emancipation of black slaves. On the flip side is his stout and rugged Irish emigrant Sergeant named Buster Kilrain. Kilrain has been through many wars, both in American and Ireland, and his ideas are much different.

The two of them become engaged in a dialogue that begins on the subject of racism. Chamberlain is of the assumption that racism is ignorance. Talking of the blacks he says, "You see to me there was never any difference (between whites and blacks)... You look in the eye, there was a man. There was a "divine spark," as my mother used to call it. That is all there is to it. Races are men. What a piece of work is man. How infinite in faculties and form, and movement... How express and admirable. In action how like an angel.'"

As Chamberlain speaks his eyes get a distant look, he reflects on this beauty of man that he has just observed. He is enraptured with the "spark", as he calls it. He is utterly fallen for this idea, this "angel".

And then Kilrain, as he chews on a blade of grass, looks up. In his rough Irish brogue, he says, "Well, if he's an angel, all right then... But he damn well must be a killer angel."

Let the haunting begin.

Continues Kilrain, "...The truth is, Colonel... There is no "divine spark". There's many a man alive no more of value than a dead dog. Believe me. When you've seen them hang each other the way I have back in the Old Country. Equality? What I'm fighting for is to prove I'm a better man than many of them. Where have you seen this "divine spark" in operation, Colonel? Where have you noted this magnificent equality? No two things on Earth are equal or have an equal chance. Not a leaf, not a tree. There's many a man worse than me, and some better... But I don't think race or country matters a damn. What matters, Colonel... Is justice. Which is why I'm here. I'll be treated as I deserve, not as my father deserved..."

His eyes look at Chamberlain, penetrating.. hard and strong.., "...I'm Kilrain... And I damn all gentlemen. There is only one aristocracy... And that is right here.."

He points to his own head.

The chills creep up my spine.

And as I walk through the crowds, the school classrooms, I am haunted. I am haunted by Killer Angels..

To be continued..