Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

[WoodenNutmeg]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

There is an old PBS short based on the Mart Twain short story called "A Private History Of A Campaign That Failed." It is pre-war. It is about young Samuel Clemmens (Twain) and his brother joining up with other young men in Missouri and forming a Confederate militia. I think it was done in '79 or something thereabouts. Anyhoo, it is my favorite civil war era film. I know nothing about the production of this film, but the costuming is great, the dialogue is WONDERFUL and its Twain, so of course sometimes hilarious. I am willing to bet you could find it on Amazon. If you see this film, I promise you will not regret it. Hope everyone is gearing up to have a great holiday season.

The Private History of a Campaign That Failed (1981) (TV)

Plot Outline: Mark Twain tale of cowardly Confederate soldiers.

One word in regards to this recommendation: amazing.

I was lucky enough to find a new and sealed copy of this on VHS (its only format) and I picked it up right quick; I remembered that someone here on the AC had thrown the title out as a good pick.

Man, were you right, Lars!

Not only has this instantly become my favorite Civil War-era film, but it has managed to find itself atrophied on my shelf as one of my all-time favorite movies, period.

When the film first began, I'd say for about the first five minutes, I'll admit I was getting ready to roll my eyes into the back of my head to take a nice long nap (needless to say, I was skeptical). Then, out of nowhere, like a house light being flicked on, right around the time the boys head out to, "Get them some Yankees," the film starts to establish itself as a monumental work (if not just for the simple fact that it's a made for TV movie).

The acting is superb (I mean really superb; better than anything you will see by young actors in film today) and the dialogue is so mesmerizing, it'll make you laugh out loud and even go so far as to make you say, "Wow, that's awfully good," again and again in the back of your head. The wardrobe, especially for 1981, is really, really, excellent and I would dare anyone to compare it to a Hollywood attempt, past or present.

All-in-all, I cannot recommend this movie enough!

It captures so much about the war, the true feelings of those who went off to fight in it, that if you don't rush out and get the film now or in the near future, then it will surely be your loss. Look around and treat yourself to a hidden gem, folks!

P.S. There is an epilogue at the end of the film that encompasses the feature...mind blowing.

[tsgalloway]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

Yeah for Tristan!
1. Are you going to Oakley?
2. Why are we on this thread on a Saturday night?

1. Oakley is in the plans.
2. I guess I have no life, though I did drive through Hollywood earlier tonight.

[Horace]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

Yeah for Tristan!
1. Are you going to Oakley?
2. Why are we on this thread on a Saturday night?

[tsgalloway]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

I haven't seen 'Wicked Spring' or the Wide Awake stuff. Is it possible to rent any of them? Netflix doesn't carry any Wide Awake documentaries.

Todd,
You can borrow my copy if you'd like. We're not too far from eachother.

-Tristan

[Horace]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

Farb movies are so depressing. I like when 'Gettysburg' shows us how close range artillery fire in the Civil War produced the effect on massed troops of one guy flying backward on a big rubber band.
At the end of 'Gangs of New York' the troops brought in to quell the riot are give the order "Present Arms" at which point they fire into a crowd. They should, of couse, have saluted them. This made my eyes roll when I saw it and I wasn't even doing the living history thing yet. Oh, I forgot. It's an opera.
I haven't seen 'Wicked Spring' or the Wide Awake stuff. Is it possible to rent any of them? Netflix doesn't carry any Wide Awake documentaries.
On the growing sub-topic of books here: ''The Gangs of New York' was published in the 1920s as part of a titilating series about underworld/gang stuff. It takes as its main research source the tabloid papers of the Civil War period. 'Lowlife' by Luc Sante is interesting, but it draws from 'Gangs of New York'. Karin Timour mentioned 'The Devil's Own Work' about the riots. It looks very good. I was waiting for it to come out in paperback.
'Five Points' by Tyler Anbinder, which came out in 2001, blows the doors off 'Gangs of New York'. The research is super-solid and gets deep into why and how immigrants came here, what their points of view were, and how they labored to get by in Manhattan and unite in the face of bigotry and exploitation. There's even a series of charts of the buildings on Mulberry Street which shows room by room what the ethnic -and in the case of the Irish -county affiliations were. 'Gangs' would have you believe that everyone was a drunk prostitute or an inhuman career crimial, and that there were 5 murders a day on every street. Finding out how they really managed to survive turned out to be more interesting than the tawdry stuff.
Oh yeah, and flogging in the US Army was banned in 1861. They just wanted to get Denzel with his shirt off.

[tsgalloway]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

Has anyone seen "The Andersonville Trial"? This was a TV production directed by George C Scott and starred William Shatner, Richard Basehart as Wirtz and Martin Sheen in his early days is a Federal guard I think. Im not sure if this is available on DVD or not.

Kent Dorr - Ohio
"Devils Own Mess"

I have this movie on DVD. Quite interesting.

[64OVI]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

Has anyone seen "The Andersonville Trial"? This was a TV production directed by George C Scott and starred William Shatner, Richard Basehart as Wirtz and Martin Sheen in his early days is a Federal guard I think. Im not sure if this is available on DVD or not.

Kent Dorr - Ohio
"Devils Own Mess"

[1stOVIGuard]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

Wow, sooo many responses to read through! All of turner's movies could use better acting because scenes are so dramatized IMO. here are my favs for different reasons as each specializes in a certain field.

1.) Blue and the Grey: because I think it shows bravery in battle, some good representation of the battle of the wilderness, civillian strife at the time and family breakups.
2.) North and South: good progression of historic facts and friendship bonds throughout the war. Plus I LOOOOOVE the irish accent from the lass :D
3.) Glory: Good representation of the NORTHERN colored troops, bad representation of Massachussets :p
4.) Gettysburg: awesome battle scenes, flow of battle, and the bravery of the men
5.) Ride with the Devil: Awesome representation and great standards
6.) Hunley: I think I am biased on this one mostly b/c of attending the burial but placing that aside I liked how they presented the facts that they could.
7.) Gods and Generals: I personally appreciated how Stonewall was shown and the acting was better IMO than Gettysburg. I also appreciated the observance of colored participation in the Confederate army. I also personally wish there was more from the angle of a black confederate.
8.) Andersonville: been there recently and now realize how large the prison really was and how small it looked in the movie but I still think it shows the important facts...so long as you look past the bad wardrobe followthrough (ie clean white shirts not mixed with the grungy shirted).
9.) As far as more civillian directed movies I can only think of one and I cannot remember the name of it but Dirty Billy made the beehive hat for the main character. The movie is about a white man helping a slave woman to go up north during the war...? But anywho I think the movie is great showing interacial relationships and the stigma behind it at the time period.
10.) Gangs of New York shows great Irish strife but it was too focused on revenge and it took away from the life/strife of the irish. IMO
11.) Last stand at saber river: I like the acting, showing of bonds mending together at reconstruction.

Bad movies:
Red badge of Courage
The ghost Brigade
birth of a Nation

[davidf]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

This book I found from 1985 lists several civil war films that involved reenactors. Here is what they list:
-The Loyal and the Lost (shot in Georgia with reenactors for entire cast and directed/produced by Dent Myers)
-The Last Stop (Has Troy Donahue in it, Dent Myers involved in 1973)
-The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd (shot in Georgia in 1979, used federal reenactors for fort guards, had Dennis Weaver and Steve Sylvia in it)
-Return to Rapidan (filmed in Orange County, VA, with all of the cast, every "actor" being a reenactors)

[Pious Jeems]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

Yep, I have seen this once and that was only because it was warm in the shop where I was eathing supper. Can you imagine some of Cleburnes saying "here kitty kitty."
Old joke on the Dobbs gang, if you see Gen. Mike Moore ask him about Cleburnes and the Kitty Kitty deal.

[davidf]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

I am not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but I was reading a book about reenacting from 1985, and it mentioned that in teh 1970s Johnny Cash did a Civil War movie called "Riding the Rails" and involved reenactors. Has anyone else heard of this?

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

"4) What's up with that girl that has claws, anyway? ("Huh?!?" part two)"

That was Hell-cat Maggie, who was supposed to be a real person, though a lot of the weapons brandished in the movie were more appropriate for the Two-Chuck section of a Ren Faire.

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

The first WBTS film I ever saw was The Great Locomotive Chase. While being near perfect historically speaking, uniforms & clothing were quite generic.

Ben Fowler

Buster Keaton!!

[44thGa]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

The first WBTS film I ever saw was The Great Locomotive Chase. While being near perfect historically speaking, uniforms & clothing were quite generic.

Ben Fowler

[HistoryGeek]

Re: Best Civil War films (or rather, the lack thereof)...

Has anyone here seen the Lost Battalion? It's about a Battalion that Goes into the Muese-Argonne Forest and are surrounded and try to fight their way out. It's World War One setting. I personally think it's quite good. There's a movie about Vietnam it's called Bat 21. It's about some radio guy's plane gets shot down behind VC lines and he tries to get to a landing zone.

HistoryGeek
Evan Hunsberger