Home >  Local News

Scenes for new movie about Washington and the battle for Fort Duquesne are staged but hunger was real

Sunday, May 18, 2003

By Marylynne Pitz, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The French and Indians had just finished annihilating British Maj. James Grant and his men. Now, they were really hungry.

Actors portraying Eastern Woodland Indians pause during filming of a scene from the movie, "George Washington's First War: The Battle for Fort Duquesne." The French-allied American Indians helped to defeat the British forces led by Maj. James Grant before the walls of Fort Duquesne on Sept. 14, 1758. The engagement they are about to film is the Battle of Grant's Hill, on eof the bloodiest and most costly for British forces in the French and Indian War. (Thomas M. Weprich, Paladin Communications)

But the cold cuts and cheese ran out too quickly, and that became a problem for Robert and Mary Matzen, who were trying to feed scores of re-enactors after a long morning of filming last May in Beaver County's Raccoon Creek State Park.

At the large barn where lunch was served, Robert Matzen recalled that the re-enactors "looked tired and annoyed. I didn't know why until I found out we had run out of food. I was nervous. We still had five hours of shooting. They could have turned on me. They could have gone to McDonald's and not come back."

So went the first day of filming for Matzen's new movie, "George Washington's First War: The Battle For Fort Duquesne."

The film shows how the military character of 23-year-old Col. George Washington was forged during battles fought here in the French and Indian War. Washington learned from some of the best, including British Brig. Gen. John Forbes and his deputy, Col. Henry Bouquet.

The 83-minute movie, which uses narration, re-enactments and commentary by historians, premieres at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Oakland's Soldiers & Sailors National Military Museum & Memorial. At the premiere, copies of the film will be for sale on DVD and video, along with a teaching guide for students from grades six through 12.

The doors will open at 5:30 and there will be musicians, exhibits by six local artists and a booth operated by the National Park Service and local historical organizations. Military drills also will begin on the lawn at 5:30.

Matzen knows the period well. His first historical film, released in 2001 and titled "When the Forest Ran Red," focused on the disastrous defeat of Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock at the Battle of Monongahela in 1755.

Making his second film, Matzen said, was slightly easier because he had built rapport with re-enactors and historians.

On that May weekend last year, Matzen and his wife, Mary, hoped 40 to 60 re-enactors would show and were delighted when 110 appeared. Spring heralds the re-enactment season, so after a winter of inactivity, the men were ready.

"They were completely juiced for this experience. We had enough regulars from both empires and enough Native Americans," Matzen said.

The state park's pristine fields, hills and creek provided a perfect setting. Matzen filmed several sequences before lunchtime, including Grant's defeat at Fort Duquesne on Sept. 14, 1758.

Matzen enjoys working with re-enactors because they are passionate about their avocation and devoted to historical accuracy.

"They're so into it. When you want them to play dead, they play dead. When you want them to shoot, they shoot. They're totally engrossed in it. We went from 7 :30 a.m. to 1 p.m. before we broke for lunch."

By that time, all those tired, hot men brandishing either Brown Besses or smooth-bore black powder muskets were famished and bore down on the cold cuts like a band of crazed teenagers.

"They just lined up in swarms around this food and in 30 seconds it was gone. They had worked so hard and for so long. Never underestimate hungry men!" said Valerie Jenness, Mary Matzen's daughter.

Jenness maneuvered through the hungry horde to set out more cheese.

"It looked like a Marx Brothers movie with everybody jumping around and food flying everywhere," she added.

Then, Jenness took off in her 10-year-old car down a bumpy road on a desperate search for reinforcements in the form of hamburger buns, snacks and cold drinks.

But by the time she returned 45 minutes later, filming had resumed. And Bryan Cunning, 31, of Taylorstown, Washington County, had landed a starring role.

Cunning, who stands 6 feet tall and has red hair, is a member of the First Virginia Regiment. He auditioned to be George Washington by interrogating a French prisoner.

"I'm screaming in this guy's face and waving my hands around saying, 'Where are the French?' " Cunning said.

The director, pleased and amused by Cunning's efforts, cracked wise.

"OK, I think the guy's going to spill his guts now," Matzen told Cunning.

By day, Cunning is an archeologist with Michael Baker Corp. and is supervising a dig at the Fort Pitt Blockhouse in Point State Park.

Playing a key role in Matzen's film, Cunning said, had made him see Washington as a man who learned to control his temper and focus his ambition.

"He knew what he wanted, and he went after it. There's this whole formative time. That's what makes him who he was during the Revolutionary War. I think the neatest thing about being in it was just being able to get that across," Cunning said.

For the film, Cunning dressed in officers' boots, a tricorn hat and a blue, full length jacket trimmed with red facing and silver braid. Beneath the jacket, he wore a red waistcoat.

"Once you put everything on, it's heavy and it's hot," Cunning said.

But Matzen encouraged him, saying, "You almost kind of look like him in the right light."

Directing re-enactors is key, said Mary Matzen, who co-produced the film.

"They are very cooperative but they are not professional actors, either. You have to be very clear about what you're trying to get out of the scene. We went after very specific shots. We knew what we wanted to shoot on a given day," Mary Matzen said.

The film covers July 1755 through November 1758, when the French, who were out of supplies and overwhelmed by British forces, burned Fort Duquesne and fled. The British took control of the Point and built Fort Pitt.

Tom Vecchio of Shaler belongs to the Edge Hill Society, a group that portrays American Indians in re-enactments at Bushy Run Battlefield in Westmoreland County.

Vecchio, a re-enactor for eight years, portrays a Shawnee Indian. He enjoyed being in Matzen's movie because: "He showed casualties, which we don't do in re-enactments. He tried to make it as realistic as he could."

Vecchio, who is not an American Indian, likes re-enacting for several reasons.

"It can make you a better person. It breaks down the walls of prejudice. It takes you away from the hustle and bustle, the stress of 21st-century life."

For his part, Vecchio wore moccasins, navy blue wool leggings, a white linen trade shirt, a roach made of turkey feathers, which is worn on the head, and a head rag, which is like a scarf. He carried a war club and a knife in a sheath around his neck.

Vecchio liked the hand-to-hand combat in the defeat of Maj. James Grant.

"We had a skirmish. We actually rushed the troops. We used our war clubs and tomahawks," he said.

During the filming of the battle with Grant, Matzen asked the American Indians to run through the woods in a traditional military line.

But Vecchio knew that "when the natives went into battle, they ran single file through the woods. They had a commander. They had tactics, and they stuck to them."

Vecchio was glad that Matzen listened.

"He did use the single file footage. So he does take advice. He treats you with respect. If Robert asks me again, I'd do it again," Vecchio said.