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The Battle Hymn of the Republic
(1911) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by [?] J. Stuart Blackton and/or Laurence Trimble?
Cast: Maurice Costello [Jesus Christ], Ralph Ince [Abraham Lincoln], Julia Swayne Gordon, Edith Storey, Mary Maurice, Edward Thomas, James Morrison, Anna Stewart (Anita Stewart) [an angel]
The Vitagraph Company of America production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Produced by J. Stuart Blackton. Scenario by Bertha Breuil (Beta Breuil), from a poem by Julia Ward Howe. / Released 30 June 1911. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama: Historical.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? This patriotic and historic picture portrays the writing of the famous national hymn by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. In the early part of the Civil War President Lincoln was very much discouraged at the lack of enthusiasm and the tardiness with which the people answered the call for volunteers to join the army. Mrs. Howe, in talking the matter over with the president, become very much impressed with the need of arousing the people to a fuller appreciation of the cause of the North and the maintenance of the Republic. The matter weighed so much upon her mind she could think of little else; during her slumbers she was so obsessed with her theme that one night in her sleep she arose from her bed and penned these immortal words: “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on. I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps; They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps. His day is marching on. I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel; ‘As you deal with my contemners so with you my grace shall deal; Let the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel, Since God is marching on.’ He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat; Oh! Be swift my soul, so answer Him! Be jubilant my feet! Our God is marching on. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea; With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; As He died to make men holy let us die to make men free, While God is marching on.” This poem was published broadcast throughout the North, immediately the people became enthused with the noble cause of freedom; recruits poured into the stations and enrolled their names as volunteers. President Lincoln expressed his own and the nation’s gratitude to Julia Ward How for sounding the key note of the battle cry of freedom. In addition to showing the reasons for and the conditions under which the poem was written, this film illustrates the meaning of the different stanzas of this poem in the allegorical tableaux and retrospect visions of the world from the earliest ages, making clear and fully interpreting the spirit which breathed patriotic fervor into the hearts of the people throughout the North, leading them to victory and the preservation of the Union.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: History: USA: American Civil War (1861-1865) - People: Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821), Jesus Christ - Presidents : USA: Abraham Lincoln
Listing updated: 10 June 2024.
References: Altman-Sound p. 8; Brownlow-Parade p. 19; Pitts-Hollywood pp. 5, 16; Pohle-Holmes p. 26; Shipman-Cinema p. 46 : Website-IMDb.
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