Band of Angels
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Movie Reviews of Band of Angels
Movie Review: band of angels
Summary: 5 Stars
as far as i know one of the lesser known starred by y.de carlo and c.gable
i would rate it as an interesting film
above all colors are worth mentioned
Movie Review: drama
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one I fondly remember from my mispent youth. It is still just as good now as it was then. Clark Gable is at his best. What ever you do see this one.Movie Review: Band of Angels
Summary: 5 Stars
I received the product in a timely fashion. It was in great condition and I'm very pleased with the sevice.
Movie Review: Band of Angels
Summary: 5 Stars
The delivery of this item was timely and it came in good shape, we have not, however, viewed this movie as yet.Movie Review: Another Gable Civil War epic
Summary: 4 Stars
At last, available on DVD! We have quite a range of reactions to this film, from the greatest film ever to the worst film ever seen. I like to see it every now and then. In fact, I prefer it to the more polished "Gone with the Wind". Yes, Clark Gable is no longer the swaggering brawler, man of action and lady killer of the '30s. Here, we have a more mature and weathered Gable who has settled down to the genteel life of a southern plantation owner, after a financially successful life as a rough and tumble Yankee slave trader. Yet, he is still something of a rebel. He has a guilty conscience about his former life as a ruthless slave trader and wants to make partial amends by treating his large group of slaves decently. In fact, he plans to leave his estate to one. He tends to see the born southern aristocracy as decadently effete, as exemplified by his neighbor, who takes a liking to his recent light-skinned mulatto acquisition(Yvonne de Carlo,as Amantha). Clearly, Gable, as Hamish Bond, has no interest in supporting the recent unsettling changes on the political scene and impending Civil War. He recognizes that these events will probably end his idyllic life and that the lives of most of his slaves will likely be changed for the worse if they are liberated by Yankee troops. Perhaps he recognized that secession failed to solve the looming problem of a lack of new territories for the expansion of plantation slavery, thus depressing the value of young surplus slaves. Perhaps he also recognized that a separate South impeded the legal demands slave owners could make in recapturing slaves who escaped the Confederacy. On the other hand, Hamish refuses to support the cause of the Yankee troops who want to sell his soon-to-be harvested cotton. He risks execution in burning his crop and much of his equipment.
Hamish rescues, in dramatic fashion, a beautiful cultivated mulatto(Yvonne de Carlo, as Amantha) from a fate she could not bear, although she initially shows no gratitude. He doesn't require than she become his mistress and in fact gives her a chance to escape his world, but she has a last minute change of heart and remains with him. Amantha has experienced two benevolent slave owners: her father and Hamish. This is in marked contrast to her treatment as a slave on the auction block.The dialogue makes it clear that Hamish and her father were rather exceptional in this regard. Thus, I don't buy the criticism that this film provides an unrealistically rosy picture of the typical lives of slaves. The film makes the viewer feel deeply the horror of a sudden change in status from a southern belle to a life-long slave. If you want a much more extreme example, read the book "Skeletons in the Zaraha", in which shipwrecked Yankee sailors are transformed into barely living slaves of fearsome tribes or Arabs near the coast of northwest Africa.
The relationship between Hamish and his slave and appointed successor Rau-Ru(Sidney Poitier) is another key element of this story. Rau-Ru hates the institution of slavery and Hamish even more for his rather successful attempt to make slavery agreeable to his slaves. The fact that Hamish has willed him as his successor does not change Rau-Ru's attitude. The last portion of the film deals mainly with the back and forth relationships between Rau-Ru, as a now Union soldier, and Hamish and between Amantha and Hamish and a certain Caucasian Union soldier. See the film to find out how this rapidly changing complex of relationships turns out.