1 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_howards_of_virginia_1940.jpg]] |
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3 | ->'''Patrick Henry''': Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third — ["Treason!" cried the Speaker] — may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it. |
4 | ->'''Jane Howard''': Go show them what we have built in the wilderness. |
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6 | A 1940 historical drama directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Creator/CaryGrant, based on the novel ''The Tree of Liberty'' by Elizabeth Page. |
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8 | Matthew Howard is a young boy growing up on [[UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies the colonial Virginian frontier]] in the 1750s. Strapping and energetic, he protests his schoolmaster's attempts to prod his study of [[SmartPeopleKnowLatin Latin]] by declaring that he doesn't want to learn noun declensions, he wants "to go to Ohio". Then a military messenger arrives with the news that young Mattie's father, a colonial militiaman, has died in [[UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar Gen. Braddock's expedition]]. The young boy is urged to continue his studies to live up to his father's hopes. |
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10 | Fast forward ten years, past the end of the war. Matt (Grant), now a young man, sits in the colonial legislature, having successfully proven his worth to his new wife, [[SouthernBelle Jane]] (Creator/MarthaScott), and her Tidewater family. The newlyweds have purchased land in Albamarle County's Shenandoah Valley, where Mattie has built them a house and purchased slaves to grow tobacco. Then, in 1765, the British Parliament passes the Stamp Act, for the first time directly taxing the colonies without their legislatures' consent. [[BadassBoast Protests ensue]], and the act is repealed, but [[RisingEmpire the repeal isn't clean]]. [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution Conflict builds]] [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized into open warfare]]. |
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13 | !!This Film provides examples of: |
14 | * BadassBoast: On the part of Patrick Henry. |
15 | * DarkestHour: The Valley Forge scene. |
16 | * DeterminedHomesteader: The Howards. |
17 | * HistoricalDomainCharacter: Gen. Washington, we presume? |
18 | * RagtagBandofMisfits: the colonial militias, once war breaks out. |
19 | * RoseTintedNarrative: Arguably, as the British are off stage actors whose perspective does not complicate the story. |
20 | * TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified: Although to its credit the film sets out the origins of the conflict clearly, there is little raising of any alternatives to a slide into armed conflict. |
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