Teddy Roosevelt is a hard character to handle much less make a movie about. Leo DiCaprio has been trying for some time to get a movie made about Teddy. The problem with Roosevelt is the same as all historical figures. What part of your life do you pick? Most people go with the charge up San Juan Hill and call it a day. Some will take on Roosevelt the trust buster and the man who took on JP Morgan. Others go with Roosevelt the outdoors man or the pugnacious politician who sunk the Republican party in 1912 by splitting the ticket and letting Woodrow Wilson win.
But if you are to make a film about Roosevelt I would say there is only one part of his life that lends itself to the redemption story that Hollywood loves. It is no surprise DiCaprio and Scorsese have been having trouble getting TR onto the big screen. Movies can only handle a slice of a persons life that has to be emblematic of the whole. Take Lincoln and the struggle to get the amendment freeing the slaves passed. It was a small part of a an amazing life but it told us so much about Lincoln.
The real story with Teddy Roosevelt is overcoming what happened to him in 1883. On the same day his wife and mother died and left him with a baby girl. Roosevelt who had been a sickly asthmatic his whole life then left for the Badlands and was gone for three years. It was in the hell of the \Badlands he transmuted his grief into something bigger than himself and emerged as the barrel chested Roosevelt we know today. He would remarry and then ten years later become President. The amazing story of course is what happened to him out West. It would have killed anyone else.
Now all I have to do is a get a book to Leo.
Forging A President How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt
But if you are to make a film about Roosevelt I would say there is only one part of his life that lends itself to the redemption story that Hollywood loves. It is no surprise DiCaprio and Scorsese have been having trouble getting TR onto the big screen. Movies can only handle a slice of a persons life that has to be emblematic of the whole. Take Lincoln and the struggle to get the amendment freeing the slaves passed. It was a small part of a an amazing life but it told us so much about Lincoln.
The real story with Teddy Roosevelt is overcoming what happened to him in 1883. On the same day his wife and mother died and left him with a baby girl. Roosevelt who had been a sickly asthmatic his whole life then left for the Badlands and was gone for three years. It was in the hell of the \Badlands he transmuted his grief into something bigger than himself and emerged as the barrel chested Roosevelt we know today. He would remarry and then ten years later become President. The amazing story of course is what happened to him out West. It would have killed anyone else.
Now all I have to do is a get a book to Leo.
Forging A President How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt
