Love, Courage and the Battle of Bushy Run

Love,-Courage-and-the-Battle-of-Bushy-Run
Love, Courage and the Battle of Bushy Run

It’s the year 1763 and the scene is Western Pennsylvania. America was getting very unstable for the colonies and tensions were rising. Britain has just won the Seven Years’ War, otherwise known as the French and Indian War, thus the French can no longer stand in America.

The Hauson tribe was hard-pressed in the battle against Sir William Johnson’s provincial troops. The Native peoples who collaborated with the French during the war were left behind. Since they feared British retaliation, they decided to do the attacking this time around, thanks to the counsel of Ottawa Chief Pontiac. While their primary objective is Fort Pitt, they attack other forts as well, destroying them, and murdering the British soldiers and settlers who happened to be there.

With what seems like impossible odds, Colonel Henry Bouquet is assigned the task of defending Fort Pitt. He and a mistakenly put-together team of British Troops, Scottish highlanders, and American volunteers head out to rescue the embattled fort, a journey that takes them to Bushy Run where the battle bearing the same name is fought. However, at what cost do they emerge victorious after the gruesome fight with the tribesmen? For those who are unaware of this particular history, there is added motivation to watch the film to witness how their struggle comes to an end.

The movie is adapted from C.M. Bomberger’s book The Battle of Bushy Run and features Tom Connolly (Stars Fell Again) as Bouquet Henry, the gentleman and courageous man who led a fight with Chief Pontiac and his warriors who were ferocious in nature.

The cast is rounded up by Adam Baldwin (Serenity) who plays General Jeffrey Amherst, the British Army officer who assisted Great Britain in conquering New France during the seven years of war.

Other cast members include Rachele Shank (Legion) playing the role of Anne Willing who is an American socialite and Bouqet’s lover, and Chris Mayers (Ozark) as a traitorous Lt. Francis Gordon who hopes to save his skin by trading with Indian people.

The acting is brilliant, particularly Connolly who brilliantly portrays the unwavering determination and toughness of Bouquet. Furthermore, in the film portrayal of the character, Bouquet is shown as a modest, loyal fighter who does not seek to start a new protracted conflict but rather wishes to reconcile the British with the tribesmen.

The film restores key figures like Bouquet and approaches the history of confrontation between the compartmentalized two factions in a manner that seems to be more or less correct. On the other hand, the fight is clearly depicted as very fierce and bloody where troops with tomahawks engage those soldiers who act under Bouquet’s orders to defeat their enemies on the battlefield.

The stereotypical version of the battle is very well worked out as every single strike delivered by one side to the other has been captured in the detail which is necessary. The implementation of slow motion ensures that we do not miss even a single inch of that action as the camera pans into almost the extremes to capture the combat.

If there’s a criticism to be made it’s that the actual battle of Bushy Run’s actual fighting is over almost as soon as it’s begun. To all this, however, the filmmakers could be truthful in how things might have indeed happened. Nevertheless, for a film that has such a battle as its focal point from the title, such scenes are too short. Still, I must admit that the buildup of the battle is also well done, especially the scenes where Bouquet is preparing for the battle and raising more forces to assist him on his way to Fort Pitt.

The positives, however, do not alter the fact that this was a poorly made ‘reconstruction’, so we can recommend the appropriate screening of The Battle of Bushy Run. Even so, the film does contain shortcomings, the most glaring of which is the depiction of the tribesmen. Although the film tends to be slightly partial towards the British, it refrains from glorifying their presence over the natives.

Thus, this would fall under the category of unifocal films, which then raises questions regarding its credibility for the facts that it presents. However, it is fair to say that the movie does not illustrate the simple-minded view where the pale skins are heroic cowboys and the natives are brutish savages.

Such Angels Fly is the first film to depict the events that took place during the battle of Bushy Run. The movie would not be labeled as one that puts the viewer through an irrationally enjoyable experience, but it does have its fair share of moments that are deep and motivator-filled.

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