Fictional Portrayal
An account of the Lost Battalion was given in a 1919 film, The Lost Battalion, directed by Burton L. King. A&E made a 2001 television movie based on the exploits of the battalion during the Battle of the Argonne in 1918, directed by Russell Mulcahy, also entitled The Lost Battalion. Major Whittlesey was played by Rick Schroder.
Also, the character of Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby appears to have been a member of the "Lost Battalion," based on statements he makes to the narrator, Nick Carraway.
In the pilot episode of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, Al Capone claims that he had been a member of the "Lost Battalion." Later in the series it is suspected that this is not true. The actual Capone did not participate in the war and never served in the U.S. military at all. The only member of the Capone family to serve was Richard Hart (born Vincenzo Capone).
Read more about this topic: Lost Battalion (World War I)
Famous quotes containing the words fictional and/or portrayal:
“One of the proud joys of the man of letters—if that man of letters is an artist—is to feel within himself the power to immortalize at will anything he chooses to immortalize. Insignificant though he may be, he is conscious of possessing a creative divinity. God creates lives; the man of imagination creates fictional lives which may make a profound and as it were more living impression on the world’s memory.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)
“From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)