I guess I’d like to see Dana’s Two Years before the Mast. I read it not long ago and he relates that the ship had to sit 3 miles out in the bay/ocean and they damn near got killed rowing their dories into the beach. This is the very same beach that I occasionally damn near kill myself trying to go out in a kayak or a catamaran, so I can relate. Sometimes there’s a motherfuck of a beach break. It’d be hard to film since trying to find areas to mimic Santa Barbara or San Francisco in 1835 would be difficult. At that time there were two buildings in San Francisco, the mission and a shack. I think Santa Barbara was bigger at the time.
There’s not much action going on so you’d have to take some artistic license and show some skin at the Californios wedding and throw some prostitutes in during a road trip to El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula (LA).
I suppose The Mutiny has already detailed how much of a bitch it is to go around Cape Horn, but they’d have to do it again as it’s an integral part of the story.
Another one I’d like to see is some epic disaster movie about the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928 which killed 600 people. Daniel Day Lewis would star as William Mulholland.
Also I’d like to see a porno with Father Serra (Ron Jeremy with a tonsure) and some hot Chumash babe (Jessica Alba).
There are plenty.
I’d like to see a proper movie about the Salem Witchcraft Trials. The Crucible doesn’t count – Miller was trying to say something about “witchuunts” in general, and was influenced by HUAC and McCarthy hearings. The only one I’ve seen is Three Sovereigns for Sarah, but that leaves out an awful lot.
I’ve never seen one about The Battle of Bunker/Breed’s Hill. Some TV movies captured parts of the events on 1776 in Boston – the George Washington series and the HBO John Adams, but nobody really covered the whole shebang from Washington taking command, through the battle, the siege of Boston, Knox’s foray to Ticonderoga, and the British evacuation.
And a movie about the amazing Thomas Morton of Merrymount would be a real hoot
I would like to see a serious film about Air America that was not the Mel Gibson travesty. The author of the book the movie was based on wrote a serious non-fiction narrative and publicly distanced himself from the film when it came out. No matter what one personally thinks of the Vietnam War and all of the goings-on at the time, there were some extraordinary tales that came from the Air America crew, some of whom still live in Bangkok or make frequent visits here. (The real-life inspiration for Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now was one of them; he died some years ago.)
Christopher Robbins wrote Air America and The Ravens (Ravens was the name pegged to the secret fliers in Laos), both non-fiction, and either book could inspire endless stories.
I can think of several potential movies that could highlight Ohio’s history:
Christopher Gist - Gist was a badass scout, explorer and soldier who twice saved George Washington’s life around the time of the French and Indian War. Could be the subject of a great biopic. Christopher Gist - Wikipedia
The Battle of Lake Erie - A fascinating David v. Goliath naval battle, with a stirring patriotic scene of Perry transferring his flag from one ship to another in the midst of the fight. His quarrels with his second-in-command, and their personality conflict, would be an interesting subplot. Battle of Lake Erie - Wikipedia
Morgan’s Raid - This long Confederate cavalry raid of 1863 was equal parts comedy, adventure and terror. Could make a great movie. Morgan's Raid - Wikipedia
Grant, Sherman & Sheridan - The Union’s three top generals of the Civil War were smart, talented, colorful… and were all Ohioans. An interesting threeway biopic could be made about their friendship and partnership.
The Wright Brothers - Their struggles to design and build a working airplane, despite widespread skepticism and ridicule, were epic. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a big-budget movie about them in recent memory - it could really celebrate the American can-do ethic and optimistic spirit. The final climactic scene of the 1903 Kitty Hawk flight would be awesome. Wright brothers - Wikipedia
The Hough Riots - These 1966 riots in a poor part of Cleveland aren’t as well known as those in Watts and elsewhere, but their legacy is with us still. Hough riots - Wikipedia
Guy came back to Wapiti, Wyoming after a tour of duty in Vietnam and built this weird-ass pagoda house. While he was building it he fell off and died (and of course now the thing has got to be haunted).
I’d go see the movie, but I’d much rather read the ghost story.
The First Seminole War: Andrew Jackson conquered Florida, partly to stop Seminole raids into Georgia, but mainly to stop it from being used as a haven for runaway slaves. All the free blacks in St. Augustine had to flee to Cuba (where there was slavery, but not necessarily for them). An underappreciated part of our history (you won’t see it mentioned in the state-published Florida Handbook), and plenty of potential for a movie.
I wish more people here understood that this used to be Mexico, and was taken by force. Not all mestizos here are immigrants, and in fact many were here long before Anglos, and long before this land belonged to the United States.
Complete with exploding molasses and a pointless love affair amongst the flaming goo. Watch as our buff but cynical hero learns compassion and heartbreak while his True Love is slowly swallowed by the black ooze.
Tell me about it. Some of my family on my father’s side came from Tuscon and Bisbee. They were “Mexican”, but here before the place was even an U.S. territory, much less a state.
And how do you think Spanish Mexico obtained it, by winning it in a poker game?
Back on topic, I’d like to see a good movie about the Kent State Ohio National Guard shootings.
Massachusetts is my current home. You could make a really good movie about the move from England to the Mayflower. They were not supposed to land here but they had to and founded the Plymouth colony. Something like that has probably already been done but I am imaging something like the movie Titanic even though the ship didn’t sink. There is more than enough material.
My ancestral home is Virgina and something similar could be done with the Jamestown colony.
My home state of Louisiana has a very interesting history and the development of the New Orleans French Quarter would make a great movie with pirates, slaves, rich people, the French etc.
I would love to see that movie. Everyone knows about them but most people do not know that they simply didn’t get lucky. They were some of the most accomplished inventor/scientists of their time. The history of their work and the way that they went about it was fascinating. I am a life-long aviation buff and I didn’t understand it for a very long time. They were the Thomas Edison of aviation and they did not reveal their full accomplishments until 1906 when they were forced to. Other people had invented primitive airplanes by then and they literally flew rings around their competition in demonstrations in their planes that were several generations ahead of Flyer I.
I’d like to see a rollicking historical saga about the Gooderham and Worts company: its founding and growth and decline, and the subsequent rise of the Distillery District.
I’d like to see a movie version of at least one of the schemes described in Unbuilt Toronto: what was the dream and why was it never built?
From my old home town, the Paxton Boys. It will not have a happy ending but there’s a lot to explore there, and I think the Conestogas’ story deserves to be told.
