movies about the American civil war

[PhoenixAsh]

Hi,

I saw a book thread. And I did a quick search to this...but I couldn't find a topic....nor did I find one on the first three pages. So if it has been asked, and I am sure it has, my apologies because I must have glanced over it and I hope you will indulge me:

I am looking for some movie advice about the american civil war. Is there any you can recommend. I would also like to know how it rates on historical bias.

If you like you can also recommend good documentaries.

Thanks people!

[manic expression]

I'd recommend Glory. Gettysburg is also definitely one to see (bring some snacks, it's over 4 hours).

[graymouser]

My dad is a pretty big civil war buff. Over the course of a year or two I probably saw the massive Ken Burns documentary The Civil War about five or six times. My dad had taped it off of PBS and liked to watch it when there wasn't much else on. I haven't seen it in almost 20 years, but what I remember is quite positive. I'd be interested in a political response to it if anyone has one.

[S.Artesian]

See Glory. About the 54th [Colored] Massachusetts Infantry. Stars Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Mathew Broderick.

[x359594]

The best movie bar none about the US Civil War is John Ford's 18 minute vignette in How the West Was Won (1963.) Ford's The Horse Soldiers (1959) is also magnificent.

Other recommendations:
The Red Badge of Courage (1951) dir. John Huston from Stephen Crane's novel.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1962) dir. Robert Enrico, from Ambrose Bierce's story (I vividly remember it from when it aired on The Twilight Zone TV series; it was a wordless French production.)

So Red the Rose (1935) dir. King Vidor.

Buster Keaton's The General (1926)

Friendly Persuasion (1957) dir. William Wyler and Shenandoah (1965) dir. Andrew V. McLaglen (probably his best film) are about civilians caught in the conflict, the former about a Quaker family trying to remain neutral.

[S.Artesian]

^^^^ Ever seen Glory comrade? Beats the hell out Ford and Huston and all IMO.

[x359594]

^^^^ Ever seen Glory comrade? Beats the hell out Ford and Huston and all IMO.

I've seen Glory. It gives Huston a run, doesn't come close to Ford. As the great Marxist film making team of Straub-Huillet put it, "In six shots [from How the West Was Won] Ford lays out the background of the Civil War."

Glory is a fine movie, but as a film poet and stylist Ford can't be bettered.

[PhoenixAsh]

I have seen that a long time ago. It was one of my favorite movies. I even read it was historically accurate up till a point. With Mathew Broderick right?

[S.Artesian]

Right. And when Shaw was killed during the battle, the Confederate officers ordered that he be buried "with his n----ers."

Shaw's father stated that he could think of no finer men to share the final resting place of his son than the black soldiers surrounding him in that grave.

[Os Cangaceiros]

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

(It's a civil war-themed film, anyway.)

[PhoenixAsh]

Right. And when Shaw was killed during the battle, the Confederate officers ordered that he be buried "with his n----ers."

Shaw's father stated that he could think of no finer men to share the final resting place of his son than the black soldiers surrounding him in that grave.

I found this on Gould Shaw's wiki page about it:



The victorious Confederates buried him in a mass grave with many of his men, an act they intended as an insult.[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gould_Shaw#cite_note-0) Following the battle, commanding Confederate General Johnson Hagood (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Hagood_%28governor%29) returned the bodies of the other Union officers who had died, but left Shaw's where it was. Hagood informed a captured Union surgeon that "had he been in command of white troops, I should have given him an honorable burial; as it is, I shall bury him in the common trench with the negroes that fell with him."[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gould_Shaw#cite_note-1) Although efforts were made to recover Shaw's body (which had been stripped and robbed prior to burial), Shaw's father publicly proclaimed that he was proud to know that his son was interred with his troops, befitting his role as a soldier and a crusader for social justice. In a letter to the regimental surgeon, Lincoln Stone, Frank Shaw wrote:

We would not have his body removed from where it lies surrounded by his brave and devoted soldiers....We can imagine no holier place than that in which he lies, among his brave and devoted followers, nor wish for him better company – what a body-guard he has![3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gould_Shaw#cite_note-2)
After Robert Shaw's death, his young wife, Annie, moved to Europe to live with her sister. She never remarried.

[S.Artesian]

See, now that's what I'm talking about. There's somebody, the father and the son, who understood what the struggle was all about.

[PhoenixAsh]

yes...and it underlines beautifully what the Confederacy really thought about race and the freedom of black people.

In essence that littele story about his burrial sums up an entire conflict.