ext_1466 ([identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] crack_van2005-09-30 09:49 pm

Vid Rec: Rejoice, by Black Hound -- (disturbing content)

Fandom: HORNBLOWER
Vidder: Black Hound
Musical artist: The Von Trapp Family Singers
Vidder's website: The Scriptorium

Why this vid kicks ass:

I went back and forth about this rec; it uses a lot of non-Hornblower footage. In fact, it is almost all non-Hornblower, but as most Hornblower fans seem to be fans of the era in general, I hope it will be found of value and I may be forgiven.

Besides, it's a vid that to me belongs squarely on any recs list in Hornblower fandom -- because it is a vid about one of the central preoccupations of Hornblower and Hornblower fandom, both book and movie-verse: what does it mean to become a man in the middle of a world at war? A war that lasted so long that many men saw their sons grow up and go to fight in it?

Hornblower vids tend to follow the lead of the series, and concentrate on the personal, the specific, the eyewitness view of the Napoleonic Wars.

Rejoice does not contradict that view, but it balances it out beautifully, by pulling back the focus to show us that there were millions more stories like Hornblowers, most of which will never be told.

Heed the warning -- this vid is hard to watch. But it's worth it.

Make safe the way that leads on high/And close the path to misery...