Hell on Wheels: the Series
Posted 06-18-2014 at 12:38 PM by Fortoggie
Been using Netflix to watch the AMC, Hell on Wheels, episodes. In building a railroad through Nebraska in 1886 one sees the beast and vengeance left in men after the civil war.
Like so many modern soldiers the war has warped their minds and their spirit. Now trying to work together to build the railroad one cannot find one good decent person in the whole group. There is no trust, bonds of friendship try to develop but more often than not are broke up with a fist fight.
Two things stand out, liquor and guns and both are used in many different ways but always to reach a quick conclusion to a complicated problem. Problems that at best would require more time and patience than any of them have.
What one observes is a high level of ignorance in both their conversation and in their actions. If we take the writers view of our forefathers who lived 128 years ago then it would not be hard to imagine that we were cave men only a few years before that.
Why do the movie people depict us as being so brutal and inhuman? Do they know that deep down we crave blood and pain? Does this evil cast serve to make us look saintly by comparison? Do they have some hidden agenda to corrupt our morals?
The jist of the series turns our value system upside down, on one hand the gun slingers seem to be put at the head of the pack in preferred behavior. Next were the whores who were there to give pleasure. Next were the three religious characters, one was confused, one pure and the other fallen, himself destroyed by the war.
About the only thing clear was how they got the name; HELL ON WHEELS.
Like so many modern soldiers the war has warped their minds and their spirit. Now trying to work together to build the railroad one cannot find one good decent person in the whole group. There is no trust, bonds of friendship try to develop but more often than not are broke up with a fist fight.
Two things stand out, liquor and guns and both are used in many different ways but always to reach a quick conclusion to a complicated problem. Problems that at best would require more time and patience than any of them have.
What one observes is a high level of ignorance in both their conversation and in their actions. If we take the writers view of our forefathers who lived 128 years ago then it would not be hard to imagine that we were cave men only a few years before that.
Why do the movie people depict us as being so brutal and inhuman? Do they know that deep down we crave blood and pain? Does this evil cast serve to make us look saintly by comparison? Do they have some hidden agenda to corrupt our morals?
The jist of the series turns our value system upside down, on one hand the gun slingers seem to be put at the head of the pack in preferred behavior. Next were the whores who were there to give pleasure. Next were the three religious characters, one was confused, one pure and the other fallen, himself destroyed by the war.
About the only thing clear was how they got the name; HELL ON WHEELS.
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The work gang assembled to build the railroad consisted of Rebels from the southern army and yankees from the northern army, into this mix were some German and Irish immigrants plus a good number of blacks who were testing the recent 13 th amendment to see if they were really free.
The only common denominator was the saloon and of course the common objective of getting the railroad built. The church tent could have added much needed salt and leaven to this odd mix of humans but it would have taken a super wise man, with integrity to have gained their willingness to listen and reason together. Instead they got a man on the edge of dementia.
Now add in Indians, uncooperative weather and you have the perfect storm for disaster. Disaster was what they got mile after mile and day after day. Yet I must say the directing and acting was very good.Posted 06-20-2014 at 12:30 PM by Fortoggie
