“The Red Badge of Courage” Project Discussion with Screenwriter Justin Dombrowski

Screenwriter Justin Dombrowski on the set of “American Museum”, a TV show currently having its pilot episode worked on.

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane is one of those timeless classics that most people were forced to read in school when they were children. Hopefully, they had a pleasurable experience with the book like I had, when I read it when I was younger. It is also a book that given its high status amongst literature, that a well-known film adaptation would have been made of it by now. Unfortunately, only two have been made and both were anything but memorable. The first, back in 1951 directed by John Huston and starring Audie Murphy, showed all the promise of an epic, but due to heavy disagreements between the director and the studio (prompting film historians to actually refer to it as a “war”), saw his two-hour version hacked down in the editing room to a mere 69 minutes. According to reports, test screenings were a disaster and it then underwent more edits, including adding narration, which the subject of this interview below indicates was a big mistake, before it found itself becoming just another mediocre movie. The complete tale was not told, and audiences expressed their disapproval of the fragmented storyline.

Announcement: Remake of “The Red Badge of Courage” in the Works

After months of waiting with excitement over a little secret I was not allowed to divulge, I am now able to break the news to everyone and tell you that a film project blogged about last year titled 1863 is actually a remake of Stephen Crane’s classic and timeless Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage. This is a story that was put to celluloid in 1951 with legendary director John Huston at the helm, but as one war was being filmed for the movie, another was being fought in the studio, and Huston was forced to severely cut his final vision, the footage of which has never been found. This new version will be a more faithful and complete telling. The screenplay, which I had the pleasure of reading, was written by Justin Dombrowski of Erie, Pennsylvania. Investors are currently being sought, and as soon as that is all settled, casting and production will begin. That is all for now—I will be following up this announcement with an interview with Justin a few days from now, where he will elaborate on where this currently sits and what we can expect.

Interview with Prospective Filmmaker Justin Dombrowski

Lincoln, To Appomattox, and Copperhead are just a few names of Civil War film or television projects being thrown around this winter, with filming either scheduled to begin or end somewhere around this coming spring and summer. However, there is another one that is flying under the radar, titled, 1863, which is something that we will be following very closely on this blog, along with Ron Maxwell’s Copperhead. Because the only information of this new project has come from this blog, I thought it would be best to actually conduct an interview with the screenwriter and producer, Justin Dombrowski, an enthusiastic and energetic Civil War buff who has been so busy lately that the “clutches of hell” would not allow for this interview to have taken place any sooner.

There may be people wondering why they should get excited about this venture, because there are no major names surrounding it as of yet, and they might not have heard of the writer. All I can say is, have faith. This project has legs and will be hitting pre-production before you know it. The very experienced actor and historian, Ed Mantell, who helped me to identify several World War II uniforms a few weeks ago, is also on hand as a co-producer. I have read the powerful script, and I will speak for most when I say it is going to come as a pleasant surprise when all is said and done. I speak to Justin on an almost daily basis, as he has filled me in on the goings-on behind trying to get a film off the ground. This has been very enlightening for me personally, because I have seen the tremendous amount of work that goes into making even a lower budget, independent film, much less a $50-million Hollywood epic. For this interview, I had the pleasure of asking Justin a multitude of questions concerning what goes into writing a screenplay, what his inspiration is, and much more in our conversation below:

Civil War Journal: “War is Kind”

I was never much into poetry, but only recently, I have found myself scouring the internet for poems about the American Civil War. Though a popular poem, I had never read “War is Kind”, by Stephen Crane, author of the famous novel, The Red Badge of Courage, a book that I read when I was in middle school. This is not a very long poem, but it drew me to it, and I wanted to share it with you all in case you have never read it. Please enjoy:

Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind,

Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky

And the affrighted steed ran on alone,

Do not weep.

War is kind.

 

Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment,

Little souls who thirst for fight,

These men were born to drill and die.

The unexplained glory flies above them.

Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom–

A field where a thousand corpses lie.

 

Do not weep, babe, for war is kind.

Because your father tumbles in the yellow trenches,

Raged at his breast, gulped and died,

Do not weep.

War is kind.

 

Swift blazing flag of the regiment,

Eagle with crest of red and gold,

These men were born to drill and die.

Point for them the virtue of slaughter,

Make plain to them the excellence of killing

And a field where a thousand corpses lie.

 

Mother whose heart hung humble as a button

On the bright splendid shroud of your son,

Do not weep.

War is kind!

It’s such a powerful piece, with what I guess you can refer to the title as consisting of good old 1800′s sarcasm, which is more of an oxymoron that anything else, to suggest that there is kindness is war. Stanza by stanza, you can picture in your mind, the fields of Fredericksburg or Gettysburg, after one of the armies made their ill-fated charges, seeing thousands upon thousands of dead and dying soldiers strewn over the fields, each some mother’s son, some sister’s brother, reduced to nothing but a casualty figure. You can hear the triumphant drums of the regimental band playing, as the soldiers run towards their deaths, and then lastly, see a mother who just receives word that her son has been killed in battle. It is poems like this that remind us what war is all about—there is no glory or honor, but death and destruction. How humanity has not learned over the years to avoid such conflict is a mystery of life, that maybe one day, people will solve.