Ruggles of Red Gap - Gettysburg Address

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)
Charles Laughton's recitation of the Gettysburg Address.
An English valet brought to the American west assimilates into the American way of life.

• Category

  Education

[godvad]

Hypocritical crap. Totally US stereotype stuff trying to teach the rest of us about values.

[MediaMayhem]

Lincoln's Address is "Hypocritical crap"?

It is one of the most transcending speeches from a political leader with enduring meaning for all to learn from. And from a critical time in U.S. history. But with your stereotypical thinking, your PC and your techy skills maybe you're all the wiser. Now get back to your menial tasks, plebeian.

[godvad]

My issue is not with Lincoln or Gettysburg Address but with the portrayal here and your post. The English valet is accepted because he embraces American values (or rather what Americans would like to think are American values). England abolished slavery before US. The movie is 20 years ahead of Rosa Parks. Just read your own dam description.

[MediaMayhem]

Your self-righteousness has overcome you.

It is about what one aspires to... that essence. not some sort of perfection which is unattainable.

Seems that the issue you're having with this portrayal resides not so much within the context of this great movie and its meaning but rather within yourself.

[MediaMayhem]

It's as if when everything doesn't fall into place, currently or historically, in a politically-correct fashion, nothing can be right and the hyper-critical knee-jerk reactionary types jump up and down. Leave the utopian mindset wherever you left your iPod, because the world does not function neatly and programmatically.

[meshachre]

This movie was an EXCELLENT movie with superior acting -- quite refreshing from the so-called acting today. The comedy had me laughing til the end. I understand that attempts to remake this movie proved extremely difficult (due to lack of talent). Your candor can take you only so far before you begin to sound like a miserable disgruntled foreigner who may have been deported. The Rosa Parks era is not over in the USA, even with the election of our esteemed President.

[troyswoodside]

Are you sure about Slim Pickens? He would have been about 16 years old in 1935...

[Bud Lehn]

One of my very favorite films. This particular scene is brilliantly acted. I read that Laughton did it in one continuous take and was so exhausted that he was off for a bit.

[TobiasBoon1980]

Why are they asking around? Why don't they just look it up on the internet?

[Mike Daviot]

A 'light' but multilayered satirical comedy containing three minutes of very great truthful acting - anyone failing to realise that needs to remove their blinkers.

[ITILII]

A film which isn't all that well known, but ought to be,,,,if only for the magnificent rendition by a man with the talent of Charles Laughton, in reciting the greatest speech of one of the greatest men of all time

[Bud Lehn]

i bough this film after seeing it and loving it.

[culturewithnocontent]

Brilliant film

[culturewithnocontent]

You've entirely missed the point of the film, admittedly the user who post this misses the point also!.

The film satirizes the US's hypocritical attitudes to class and race. Ruggles is only accepted because he is white and can "cook ham and eggs" unlike the murdered Chinese restaurant owner. The purpose of Ruggles drawing attention to the black and Chinese servants is very telling, if Ruggles can gain equality in this supposed "land of opportunity" why can't they?

[Telstar62a]

Loved this film; I had no idea that Laughton could do comedy so well, but thinking about some of his others (Private Life of Henry VIII, Witness for the Prosecution) I shouldn't've been surprised. Here he goes from the most English of valets to being treated as an equal in the US West, and eventually grows to kind of like the idea. Charlie Ruggles and Zasu Pitts are great in it too. As many an American has learned, "leave it to a foreigner to teach you about your own country".

[JRobbySh]

: I have never heard a better reading of the speech. Lincoln himself could not have done it that well, but as a prose poem its beauty is unsurpassed.