"My Boy Jack" on PBS last night

[rwork]

Should be required watching for anyone who cheer leaded the Iraqi War.
Rudyard Kipling's and his families grief at hearing of the death of their son in WW1.
I have never seen it displayed that way.
My wife and I gave it a ten.The boys father so wanted Jack to serve in spite of being nearly blind.
There seemed to be no strategy, just charge straight up the hill to be machine gunned down. 20,000 died the first day.
The actress who played his mother was interviewed and made the comment that England so wanted the War. Anyone who did'nt volunteer was considerd a coward.
She said similarly to here in the US,In the lead up to the Iraqi WAR if you did'nt fly the American flag then you were unpatiotic.

[navarth]

1. wow, I wish I had more time for TV, this would have been something.

it also tells me that perhaps the owning of the media goes back farther than I realized.

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. I have it recorded

to view later

[monmouth]

3. PBS outdid themselves on this one. Absolutely fantastic, and as my

luck would go, towards the end of the film when Rudyard and his wife (Kim Cattrell) are facing the reality of Jack's death, my G#%$@ DirectTV went out. How I hate DTV. Anyway, I don't think I lost much but really hope this is going to be repeated often. I agree, a "must see" program.

[mcar]

4. It was terrific

We got our 10 YO son interested because of the "Harry Potter" connection (Daniel Radcliffe played Kiplin's son Jack and did a good job at it). We've also read him R Kipling's "Just So" stories - one of which was briefly portrayed in the movie.

I had no idea that England was so woefully unprepared for WWI and sent all those young men off to be slaughtered that way. What a travesty.

[Bigmack]

5. Rudyard Kipling...

was truly a classic chickenhawk and chauvinist.

His prose and poetry about the British Empire and his glorification of the military was never really backed up by putting his ass where his words were.

[raccoon]

6. Second that. It was a real good film.

I think that the French soldiers who mutineed in WWI were smart. So many were killed in the war, charging machine guns, and they just got mowed down.

[rockymountaindem]

7. It was quite good

but I thought PBS only made Jane Austen remakes. This was a nice change for those of us who enjoy history more than literature.