The Crossing (2000 US) This historical drama depicts the events surrounding General Washington’s crossing of the Delaware river on Christmas day 1776. This is a made for TV movie with not a huge budget which kind of shows. The production value isn’t as high as we are used to. 2000 soldiers were at most probably around 30. Those costumes aren’t cheap. Speaking of which some of the costumes you can tell were foam. The stunts were something out of the A-Team. Kinda cringey. But here is what I loved about it. Jeff Daniels made a fine George Washington. Washington was the kind of guy who was always thinking, “how do I make this shitty situation work?”. He hated excuses. He insisted on solutions from his people. “I want to cross the Delaware.” But we don’t have boats.” “Find boats, I want to cross the Delaware.” Those personality traits really came across in the depiction and I’m am here for it. Washington also played 3D chess when the British, the biggest baddest army in the world at the time, played in 2D. It was a tough time in our history. US troops had been devastated by elite German troops called Hessians. 2000 troops remained. It was almost game over but Washington had a plan. I really enjoyed this film. The director, Robert Harmon, chose a lot of shots that mimicked the oil paintings we see a lot. I loved that. He didn’t have much money but still made it work. How appropriate. The screenplay was written by the author of the book the film is based on, Gary Chang. So the characters are very well formed. There were a few complaints about the historical accuracy but they were pretty minor. The only place I could find this film is on Youtube and the print is a bit iffy but it’s still manageable.
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