The drama bounces from Texas to Mississippi on the cusp of the civil war, effects a shotgun wedding of 60s spaghetti western with 70s "slavesploitation" and douses the magnolia in arterial blood.
The set piece is the enormous "Vietnam II" (1973), Mr. Golub's largest painting, whose cinematic-scale canvas, 40 feet wide, has pieces torn out of the bottom to enhance the heat-of-war effect.
Just as the environment is simultaneously ideal and unstable – prone to forest fires, droughts and earthquakes, yet with perfect clear sunshine – it has a tug-of-war effect on people's affections.
Industry sources partly attributed the soft opening to the "Star Wars" effect.
Essentially this is sort of the Star Wars effect, when you engage to go faster than light and the star field collapses to a point in front of you.
As Star Wars effects maestro Dennis Muren put it recently, "special-effects aren't special any more".
One of the details the team added are post-war effects that continue on the battlefield throughout the game, where dust and smoke continue to roll through the streets, clouding up vision, and junk and debris scattered everywhere.
In the current Angolan war, the effect is more insidious.
But the war's effect has not been entirely positive.
