“INSPIRING PATRIOTIC STORIES”
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
SOMETHING TO STAND FOR is a stirring, inspiring, superb documentary. Mike Rowe, who produces and wrote the script, infuses his movie with an energetic style. He celebrates liberty, patriotism, duty, honor, and sacrifice. However, it fudges some historical facts. SOMETHING TO STAND FOR also has some re-enacted war violence, a few light obscenities and a humorous, somewhat off-color biographical story about animal husbandry. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger and older children. That said, SOMETHING TO STAND FOR WITH MIKE ROWE is worth seeing on the big screen.
CONTENT:
Very strong moral, patriotic worldview celebrates American values of liberty equality, civil rights, the Declaration of Independence, duty, honor, serving your country, with strong redemptive elements promoting sacrifice your life to save others, brief images of two politically correct signs during the 1963 Civil Rights march on Washington favoring big government socialist policies of “full employment” and minimum wage laws;
Four light obscenities and two light exclamatory “Good Lord!” profanities, plus jokes about rancher cutting off and roasting and eating the testicles of bulls to make them docile and more manageable;
Re-enacted, sometimes slightly bloody, scenes of war violence with some newsreel footage include American soldiers fire at unseen Japanese soldiers, and man jumps on two grenades, but he survives (one grenade explodes under him, lifting his body up into the air, but the other one didn’t), scenes of American soldiers in a World War I trench with explosions, and soldiers flying, scenes of a fort being bombarded during the War of 1812, and a black and bloodied private mortally wounded falls to the ground during an intense battle war as chaos reigns around him, British general is shot in the chest and falls off his horse, surgeon tries to remove bullet from the general’s bloody chest, British troops forcibly arrest a medical doctor causing trouble;
No sex;
Upper male nudity as a surgeon tries remove a bullet from the bloody chest of a mortally wounded general, plus there are images of chopped-off bull testicles being held up and in a bucket, and rancher roasts two of them for himself and for his daughter’s suitor, both of whom eventually became famous and worked together more than 10 years though they married two other people;
No alcohol use;
Brief cigarette smoking, but no drugs; and,
Nothing else really objectionable.
MORE DETAIL:
SOMETHING TO STAND FOR WITH MIKE ROWE is a lively documentary for July Fourth that tells multiple re-enacted patriotic stories about the Founding Fathers, several America soldiers who took part in various famous battles, two Medal of Honor winners, an American President, two Supreme Court Justices, and some advice that the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave to a young black female singer that impacted her life. Patterned after newsman Paul Harvey’s REST OF THE STORY history program, SOMETHING TO STAND FOR is a stirring, inspiring, superb movie that should spark a renewed spirit of patriotism across America, but it fudges a few historical facts and has some re-enacted war violence, a few light obscenities and a humorous biographical story about animal husbandry that warrant caution for younger and older children.
TV personality, raconteur and motivational speaker Mike Rowe tells the stories in his usual informal, passionate manner. After introducing the movie, Rowe opens with the story behind the battle that forced the ruler of the small Muslim nation of Tripoli, modern-day Libya, to stop waging war on American ships and kidnapping American sailors. In 1805, Lt. Pressley O’Bannon led a small platoon of eight Marines against a port city in Tripoli. What Rowe neglects to say is that O’Bannon and his Marines also had an army of 500 mercenaries. There was also another American, U.S. Army Lt. William Eaton, who was named General over the land campaign against Tripoli and the port city. However, it was O’Bannon, his eight Marines and about 50 Greek mercenaries who took the main artillery battery guarding the city. Also, it was O’Bannon who raised the American flag over the city.
Other stories Rowe tells are the stories of two Medal of Honor recipients who risked their lives, a story about a Major General in the Civil War who faced a future American President in a planned duel 20 years before the war, and a story about three forgotten members of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence. There’s also a segment about the Forgotten Soldier at Arlington Cemetery in Washington, DC, a humorous story about two future Supreme Court Justices, the story behind the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, and a story about some advice that the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., once gave to a black actress before he was assassinated.
Rowe also visits several of the country’s monuments and Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C. He also briefly interviews two veterans and a woman involved in sprucing up the Lincoln Memorial.
SOMETHING TO STAND FOR is a stirring, inspiring, superb documentary. Mike Rowe, who produces and wrote the script, infuses his movie with an energetic style. He celebrates liberty, patriotism, duty, honor, and sacrifice. One of the best stories is the story of two teenage soldiers whose brave actions on the field of battle delays a major British bombardment of a fort protecting Baltimore in the early 1800s. Without their actions, the British may have captured Baltimore, and the United States may have lost the War of 1812.
SOMETHING TO STAND FOR has a strong moral, patriotic worldview with strong redemptive elements of sacrifice and service. However, it fudges a few historical facts. SOMETHING TO STAND FOR also has some re-enacted war violence, a few light obscenities and a humorous, somewhat off-color biographical story about animal husbandry. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger and older children. That said, SOMETHING TO STAND FOR WITH MIKE ROWE is well worth seeing on the big screen.