History redux
As we move through this Easter weekend (a tale of history in its own right) the top news story took place ninety years ago. If I’d been around then, I would not have been privy to much detail, because a policy of disinformation made sure that those “at home” were shielded from the horror. Now, we can reflect in serenity over past battles, and perhaps learn.
Our own directory of history redux, Brian McKenna, has created another masterpiece, and CBC is offering it up over two nights as a counterpoint to the official daytime ceremony now underway, with the Queen, the Prime Minister and a host of others remembering publicly. Mr. McKenna chose to gather a cast of fourteen and produce an epic recreation. None will die in the process, unlike the carnage that served as inspiration.
My own moment of epiphany came at the hands of a young lady from Newfoundland who explained that the loss of so many men in the Great War shaped the economy; those at home left in poverty, eventually accepting citizenship in another country. Not the Smallwood version.
I’m a child of the Prudential television era, where war was part of the Sunday afternoon entertainment. When Mr. McKenna pointed out that the footage we “know” as WW One actually was recreated by the propaganda department in the weeks following each battle, I realized how gullible I am. Tell us whatever you want; in the end, we believe what we think we’ve seen.
I will be watching the second part tomorrow, even though I think I know how the story turns out.
