#frances gibson

[lyledebeast]

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Kinds of Evil in The Patriot

My least controversial take on The Patriot, at least on Tumblr, is that Colonel Tavington is the best thing about the film. But what I find most interesting about Tavingtont is revealed by his juxtaposition with Benjamin Martin. This is why I do not share the view held by many that Tavington is the only good thing about the film. As I've argued elsewhere, I think it would be possible to make a very watchable film focused on Martin's internal conflict . . . if he actually had one. The Martin we do have, though, is interesting because despite Tavington obviously being a villain, and an excellent one at that, Martin's characterization is even more evil. I don't mean that his actions in the film are worse or even that his past actions are necessarily worse than Tavington's present ones. Rather, the role of Martin's actions in the tension between fiction and history that permeates the film is evil. This discussion of evil is heavily indebted to Simone Weil's famous line: "Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring" (Gravity and Grace, 1947) As concerns The Patriot, I would say fictional evil is spectacular; historical evil is mundane.

One of the most memorable moments in the film is the Green Dragoons burning Pembroke Church with its congregation locked inside. From Jason Isaacs' gleefully sinister performance as he addresses the congregation from the nave on the back of his horse to the women trapped inside crying and screaming to the flames rising against the backdrop of the dusky sky, it is a feat of theatricality. Director Roland Emmerich had the church frame rebuilt after burning it down during the first day of shooting this scene to bet better lighting, and it is stunning. It is also a complete historical fabrication, which numerous historians have pointed out. While British officers in the South Carolina campaign were notorious for their destruction of private property, there is no record of any British officer burning civilians in a church there or in any other colony. What I think a lot of people overlook, though, is that the implausibility of this action is actually referenced in this scene.

When Tavington orders Captain Wilkins to burn the church, Wilkins' response is stunned silence during which his eyes scan Tavington's face for signs that he does not mean what he says. Then he tries to argue with him: "There's no honor is this." That Wilkins knows some of the people in the church may account in part for this hesitation, but he has been serving under Tavington since before the militia was formed, and he does not seem apprehensive when he tells the civilians they have been "requested" to gather in the church. We know the Green Dragoons have burned eight militiamen's homes, killing any who resisted, but John Billings' wife and child are shot outside their house, the boy with the wooden pistol his father had given him inches from his hand (I always wonder what the Patriotic Americans who defend cops for shooting Black boys who turn out to have been armed only with cell phones make of this scene). It's possible Wilkins thought the townspeople would be safe in the church because it would prevent them from offering similar resistance. Whatever the reasons for Wilkins' hesitation, "Burn the church" is the only order Tavington ever has to repeat. Later, he assures Wilkins that "The honor is found in the ends, not the means. This'll be forgotten." Chilling words, but he is not angry that Wilkins did not obey him right away. Even he understands that this order is a significant departure from those he's given before.

Now, let's compare this scene to an earlier and much less dramatic one. While Martin is recruiting at a tavern, one of his potential militiamen, a man he clearly already knows from prior experience, asks a question: "Any bounty?" The statement is so vague the audience would not know what he is referring to were it not for Martin's reply: "No scalp bounty this time, Rollins, but I'll pay for the gear of any British soldiers you kill." The exchange is so casual you could almost miss that they are talking about trafficking in human remains. There is no sense of horror, shame, or regret on the part of either; this practice is simply part of their shared experience. No one can describe the plot of the film without mentioning the burning of Pembroke Church, but I have never seen anyone address these lines. This scene may be unimportant to the story, but I would argue it is very important to the kind of man Martin is. He did not engage in this practice once to the shock of his men; they engaged in it together often enough that it holds no more significance to them than trading rabbit pelts.

This dehumanization of Martin's enemies is also on display in his Fort Wilderness confession, and again it is glossed over by the narrative. Martin gives Gabriel a laundry list of the things he and his men did to the French and Cherokees they captured, but it took numerous viewings for me to realize how differently they treated the two groups. The French fort received a pallet of heads along with two survivors to tell the tale; the Cherokee settlement received baskets of eyes, tongues, and fingers. Both are gruesome offerings from any perspective, but it is easier to identify an acquaintance by their head, by their face that is always visible, than by a single eye or finger or a tongue. The Cherokees--including women and children, on whose behalf we are invited to be so shocked and sickened when they are White--would have faced the torture of uncertainty on top of so much evidence of torture done to others. If they cannot recognize whose parts they have, they cannot recognize whose are missing either. Shoot that scene for your film, Roland, and then tell us how bad Ben Martin feels about it after the fact.

Of course, what is most horrifying about Martin's treatment of his enemies is that it is based on historical fact. There was no fortress called Fort Wilderness in South Carolina during the French and Indian War, and there is no record as far as I'm aware of Francis Marion--or Nathaniel Greene or other figures on whom Martin is based--sending baskets of body parts to the Cherokees. However, there is ample evidence that Patriot forces carried out what we would today call a genocide against Cherokee people during the American Revolution: killing civilians, destroying crops and towns, and selling survivors into slavery. We do not see any of this in The Patriot, but the sparse details we do get in Martin and his peers' accounts of their past is enough to evoke it. Whether a given genocide happens in America, Poland, or Rwanda, dehumanization is one of the first steps.

There is a considerable amount of historical leniency in the portrayals of both Banastre Tarleton and Francis Marion in this movie. Marion did create problems for Cornwallis's army, and Tarleton's American Legion was unable to stop him. From there, though, the portrayals develop in wildly different ways. If anything about Tavington is less historically accurate than the church burning, it is how much he is despised by his fellow Redcoats owing to his actions. As I've said before, this has the unintended effect of making the British seem more ethical than the Americans, and this is doubly recognizable when the film has to invent atrocities to make Tavington sufficiently evil compared to Martin. Still, the church burning is one of my favorite scenes, the climax of Tavington's theatre queen arc. I could end the film there and be nearly completely satisfied, and sometimes I have. Nothing about Martin's evil offers this kind of spectacle, barring the scene in the woods where he takes a literal blood-bath, and that is what is so chilling about it. It's not just that Martin and his brothers in arms see genocide as being no big deal; the narrative encourages the audience to think of it that way, if indeed the audience thinks of it at all. What's important, surely, is that Colonial Americans overcame the evils of imperialism, not that they enthusiastically engaged in those evils themselves.

[norashelley]

Not a wave in sight - but Frances Dee and Wynne Gibson are being very nautical! Both wear the white gob trousers that are so popular this summer. Each with a different idea about the top part of her costume however. Frances chooses a short-sleeved, striped sweater like that of a Basque fisherman. Wynne gets striking color contrast by bright colored lacings on her white shirt.

[tinyreviews]

Such a violent story, made all the beautiful by its romantic roots.

Braveheart is a 1995 American epic historical drama film directed by, produced by, and starring Mel Gibson, with Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan and Catherine McCormack.

[banjofilia]

Gibson Tenor Banjo, used by Frances Chenoweth source: Smithsonian, National Museum of American History

This banjo was made by the Gibson, Inc. in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1927. It is a Four-String Tenor Banjo, Mastertone TB-5 Model, serial number 8693-2, with black walnut shell, black walnut neck, rosewood fingerboard with iridescent ivoroid and marquetry strippings, inlay of white pearl designs, similar ornamentation applied to peghead, 4:1 geared pegs with pearl buttons, gold-tone metal parts, and a laminated and arched flange resonator with marquetry and ivoroid inlays.

This banjo was custom made for vaudevillian performer Frances Chenoweth Coan with jeweled accents on the peghead and inscribed with “Frances.”

Frances Chenoweth toured with her sister Vivian Hayes and Vivian’s husband Ed Hayes as "Ed Hayes and His Banjo Girls" from 1927-1930.

As indicated in a 1926 Gibson Banjo Catalog testimonial: “The new Gibson Mastertone Tenor-banjo is assuredly a marvel instrument. Its snappy tone, coupled with the rich tonal qualities and its ease of playing, make it an instrument which can be used for all purposes – dance, radio and concert.”

[leviabeat]

I Only Wanna Be With You

[stuff-diary]

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Movies watched in 2023

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017, USA/UK)

Director & Writer: Martin McDonagh

Mini-review:

I liked this much more than The Banshees of Inisherin, but it still left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the acting is simply phenomenal and the script has some biting social commentary. The story also packs a few twists that took me by surprise, which I always appreciate. However, some of its dark humor didn't really work. I feel like it was trying to criticize or parody certain types of people, but sometimes it ended up doing the exact same things it seems to criticize. In this regard, the comedic parts of the movie were somewhat confusing. At this point, I'm starting to think that Martin McDonagh's movies are just not my thing. They're obviosly well-made and he can direct the hell out of his actors, but his sense of humor and his choice of dramatic beats are too hit or miss for me.

[allthingsgeorgian]

The Complexities of the Duff Family - from enslavement to aristocracy

1722 saw the demise of a John Augier, a Jamaica planter, who had had a relationship with an enslaved woman in Jamaica (consensual or otherwise).  When John Augier died, his 5 daughters were freed from enslavement. One of the children from this liaison was Susannah Augier. We are going to take a look at the life of one of Susannah’s daughters,  Frances, who, despite her parents not being married,…

[ohfiddlefrancesdee]

Frances Dee , Jean Hersholt and Wynne Gibson in The Crime of the Century (1933)

[americanahighways]

Music & Film Reviews: The Rolling Stones’ ‘Grrr Live!,’ plus Marshall Crenshaw, Savoy Brown, and More

Music & Film Reviews: The Rolling Stones’ ‘Grrr Live!,’ plus Marshall Crenshaw, Savoy Brown, and More @rollingstones @savoy_brown @mcrenshaw @jaimeeharris #americanahighways #americanamusic #newmusic2023

Grrr Live! is at least the 10th archival audio/video concert package that the Rolling Stones have issued since 2017, so some fans may be running low on spending money or shelf space or may simply have had enough of recordings that feature overlapping setlists. That said, this latest album may be the best of the bunch, thanks largely to pristine sound quality, a relatively long and star-studded…

[ajtofficial]

😈 @slash @hellfestopenair, Clisson, France. Rocking Living The Dream Skull Ring ☠️😈 📸: Credits to the owner @slash_army_arg #gnr22 #gunsnroses #slash #gnr #gnfnr #rnfnr🎩🎸 #gibson #gnr2022 #gnrtour2022 #slashinfrance #hellfest #hellfest2022 #clisson #france #werefnback #ajtjewellery #skullring #livingthedream (at France) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnsVXTTBERo/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[femsolid]

Male celebrities who've attacked women.

an endless list

Shia Labeouf (Actor)

Has sexually assaulted, verbally abused and harassed several women. Strangled his ex. Shot a dog to "get in character for a movie". Has cheated on every girlfriend he's ever had and knowingly given them STDs.

Elvis Presley (Singer)

Has sexually assaulted several underage girls (as young as 14) and married one of them. A woman his own age was deemed "too old for him". He only wanted to have sex with virgin girls. When his young wife told him she didn't love him anymore and wanted separation, he became violent and raped her.

Dustin Hoffman (actor)

Has sexually harassed and assaulted mutliple women including a minor.

There's always more...

Cuba Jr Gooding (actor)

Has raped multiple women and no less than 30 women have come forward accusing him of sexual asssault.

Mel Gibson (actor, director)

Beat his wife.

Jared Leto (Singer,actor)

Has sexually harassed and raped several uderage girls.

Roman Polanski (Director, actor)

Has raped multiple women and children. Has admitted to drugging and raping a 13 years old then fled to France to escape justice. People still work with him and he's still receiving awards.

Armie Hammer (Actor)

Ben Affleck (actor, director)

Has raped multiple women and violently assaulted them. Sent a series of texts to his ex saying he was masturbating while picturing himself breaking her bones. Actor Robert Downey Jr has paid for his "rehab" and offered him to live in one of his houses.

Has sexually assaulted several women.

Casey Affleck (actor)

Has sexually harassed and assaulted several women.

Gerard Depardieu (Actor)

Has sexually harassed, abused or raped at least 13 women and is currently being investigated for it. Was shown, in a documentary, sexually harassing every woman he would come across. In the same documentary, he also made repeated sexual remarks about a little girl.

Snoop Dogg (Rapper)

Used to be a human trafficker driving around with a van full of girls he would sell to men, sometimes to a whole athlete team. He claimed he could have sex with any of the prostituted women he owned anytime he wanted. He was married at the time. He wrote multiple rap songs about beating up women to make sure we're kept under control, calling us sexist slurs. He was recently accused of sexual assault by multiple back up dancers.

Charlie Chaplin (actor)

Raped a child and got her pregnant. Later at the age of 48 he married a 18 years old girl.

There's always more...

David Bowie (singer)

Raped a 15 years old girl when he was 25 and committed statutory rape on a 14 years old when he was 17. He's been well known for preying on minors well into his 40s, including two 16 years old girls he took home one night. According to one of the victims, to groom them into a threesome he put his song "let's dance" on, got naked and danced, then told the girls to get naked and dance with him. They did, and he raped one of them. The other refused to participate as she was a virgin and didn't want her first time to be meaningless.

Jack Nicholson

After raping 2 prostituted women he refused to pay them. He beat them up and tried to kill one who ended up at the hospital. She pressed charges.

Donald Trump (US president)

Has sexually harassed and assaulted multiple women.

Vincent Van Gogh (painter)

Has harassed and assaulted multiple women, even following them home. A petition was therefore created by the locals to have him removed from the community and put in a hospital.

Sylvester Stallone (actor)

Raped a 16 years old girl.

James Franco (actor)

Has sexually harassed and assaulted multiple women and a minor. He would use his "acting lessons" and classes to manipulate his female students into doing sexual things.

Chris Brown (singer)

Beat his partner and raped another woman.

Freud (psychoanalyst)

Has facillitated the sexual abuse and rape of his female patients, some were children, protected rapists and participated in the disfigurment of a female patient in particular. He claimed his reluctant female patients were hysterical, lesbians and witches.

Marlon Brando (actor) and Bernardo Bertolucci (director)

Both raped an actress on set.

There's always more...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn (politician, formally head of the monetary fund)

Has sexually harassed multiple women and raped a roomkeeper at the hotel he was staying in.

Johnny Depp (actor)

Has been arrested multiple times for violence. Has raped and beaten his ex wife and called her a whore (among other things), notably commenting on the "fishy" smell of her vulva and writing about how he wants to kill and rape her to death.

Emile Hirsche (actor)

Assaulted a female collegue. She was a film executive and he strangled her before throwing her to the ground.

Woody Allen (director)

Has assaulted and raped multiple women, including his adoptive daughter who was 7. People still work with him and he's still receiving awards.

Cee Lo Green (singer)

Has raped a woman and explained on twitter that it wasn't rape, because "if the woman is unconscious it implies consent".

Nicholas Cage (actor)

Beat his wife.

Terrence Howard (actor)

Beat his wife and threatened to kill another woman.

Tupac (rapper)

Raped a woman.

Luc Besson (director)

Married a 16 years old girl and beat her. Raped another woman and sexually harassed several others. Despite this, many famous actors still work for him.

There's always more...

Ike Turner (musician)

Beat his wife.

Mike Tyson (boxer)

Beat his wife and raped a woman (was even convicted for it, yet he remains beloved celebrity.)

Sean Penn (actor)

Beat his wife.

Tariq Ramadan (theologist)

Has raped and sexually harassed multiple women.

Morgan Freeman (actor)

Has sexually harassed at least 15 women.

Charlie Sheen (actor)

Beat his wife.

Nelly (singer)

Has raped and sexually assaulted several women.

Steven Seagal (actor)

Beat his wife. Sexually assaulted several female collegues.

Mickey Rourke (actor)

Beat his wife.

There's always more...

Slash (musician)

Beat his wife.

Louis C.K (comedian)

Has sexually harassed multiple women.

Christian Slater (actor)

Beat his wife.

Victor Hugo (poet)

Raped prostituted women on the regular and was abusing his wife.

Quentin Tarantino (director)

Has sexually harassed multiple women and protected several rapists.

When discussing what Roman Polanski did (drugging and sodomizing a 13 years old girl) Tarantino said it wasn't rape, that the child wanted it, that the child was Polanski's girlfriend, that an actual rape is violent and that this one wasn't. When the radio hosts told him that the girl was clear about not wanting any of what happened, Tarantino responded that her interfering mother had coached her to say that.

Yanni (musician)

Beat his wife.

Michael Douglas (actor)

Sexually harassed a woman.

Josh Brolin (actor)

Beat his wife.

Cristiano Ronaldo (footballer)

Raped a woman and admitted doing it. No one cares.

There's always more...

R Kelly (singer)

Raped and tortured many, many girls.

Franck Ribéry, Karim Benzema et Sidney Govou (footballers)

Acted as pimps and sexually exploited a minor.

Joe Biden (USA president)

Has sexually harassed several women and girls.

Seal (singer)

Has sexually assaulted a woman.

Julian Assange (whistleblower)

Has raped multiple women. Assange has written about his obsession with impregnating virgin women and he has alread impregnated several women (who are now single mothers). The rapes he's accused of all involved him trying to impregnate the women without their kowing. He is a fervant anti-feminist and racist. He's still supported by most of the left and celebrated as a hero.

Michael Fassbender (actor)

Assaulted his ex multiple times. One time he threw her and dragged her alongside their car. Her injuries included a swollen ankle, a burst ovarian cyst, a broken nose, and a blown out kneecap.

Oscar Pistorius (athlete)

While his wife had taken refuge in the bathroom he shot 4 times through the door with a gun, effectively killing her. He'll be out of prison next year after spending 10 years behind bars.

Morgan Ciprès (figure skater)

Sexually harassed a 13 years old via messaging.

Has sexually harassed multiple women.

Joaquin Phoenix (actor)

Kurt Cobain (singer)

Tried to rape a mentally disabled girl, a "retard" as he'd say, but gave up because her "vagina" smelled too bad. Later the girl's father came to find him and screamed that he had taken advantage of his daughter. Cobain was therefore nicknamed the "retard fucker" by his classmates.

There's always more...

But I'm tired.

[allthingseurope]

Mont-Saint-Michel, France (by Alec Gibson)

[mendingbone]

i keep seeing people in their late teens/early twenties having a "[X] content intended for younger audiences does not feel satisfying to me anymore but i don't know where to start to branch out into adult fiction" moment and i thought i would give some recommendations for adult fiction for my fellow creepy crawly queer people. all or at least a LOT of it will be on the darker and more fucked up side bc i primarily engage with horror and thriller media personally but feel free to add on with more or recommendations from other genres :)

edit: i am continuing to add to this list so there might be new recs (highlighted in pink) in here every once in a while! also want to add that there's a variety of POC, queer, and disabled authors in here as well, i am also all of the above (asian, aro lesbian, poly, disabled) and tried to incorporate as many wickedly talented, compelling narratives as possible. that's all, happy reading!

A Certain Hunger, Chelsea G. Summers

A Darker Shade of Magic, V. E Schwab*

A Dowry of Blood, S.G Gibson

Animal, Lisa Taddeo*

A Ripple of Power and Promise, Jordan A. Day*

Bunny, Mona Awad*

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi*

Cursed Bread, Sophie Mackintosh*

Dark Places, Gillian Flynn

Dead Girls Don't Say Sorry, Alex Ritany

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk*

Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh*

Fruiting Bodies, Kathryn Harlan*

Goddess of Filth, V. Castro*

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski

If I Had Your Face, Frances Cha*

Into the Drowning Deep, Mira Grant

Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao

Jackal, Erin E. Adams*

Juniper and Thorn, Ava Reid*

Kindred, Octavia Butler*

Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin*

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee*

Rabbits, Terry Miles*

Scorched Grace, Margot Douaihy*

Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn

She is a Haunting, Trang Thahn Tran

Slewfoot, Brom

Sorrowland, Rivers Soloman

Summer Sons, Lee Mandelo

Supper Club, Lara Williams*

The Centre, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi*

The Change, Kirsten Miller

The Death of Jane Lawrence, Caitlin Starling*

The Dreamer Trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater

The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher*

The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter, Soraya Palmer*

The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri

The Locked Tomb, Tamsyn Muir

The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling*

The Red Tree, Caitlin Kiernan*

The Unfamiliar Garden, Benjamin Percy*

Vicious, V. E Shwab

Wake, Siren, Nina MacLaughlin*

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson

What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher*

[sas-soulwriter]

Books based on your MBTI

INFJ (The Advocate):

"The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

"The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

INTJ (The Architect):

"Dune" by Frank Herbert

"Neuromancer" by William Gibson

INFP (The Mediator):

"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

"The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman

INTP (The Logician):

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

"The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

ENFJ (The Protagonist):

"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

ENTJ (The Commander):

"Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

"American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis

ENFP (The Campaigner):

"Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens

"The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd

ENTP (The Debater):

"Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk

"The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger

ISTJ (The Inspector):

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson

"The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown

ESTJ (The Supervisor):

"The Firm" by John Grisham

"The Pelican Brief" by John Grisham

ISFJ (The Protector):

"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

"Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

ESFJ (The Provider):

"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

"Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" by Fannie Flagg

ISTP (The Craftsman):

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

"No Country for Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy

ESTP (The Dynamo):

"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman

"The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins

ISFP (The Composer):

"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

"The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett

ESFP (The Performer):

"Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert

"Brida" by Paulo Coelho

[leviabeat]

Shotgun Blues

[kvetchlandia]

Ralph Gibson Silk Stockings, France 1986