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Set during the Civil War, it takes place in what came to be known as The Wilderness, near Chancellorsville, Virginia, in the spring of 1864. While the war will rage for another year, for some men, it will end that spring.
Two men, one from the South, one from the North. We meet them first in 1861 as the war begins. Both men have a bittersweet parting from their loved ones as they go off to war. Three years later we meet them again in the Hell that was The Wilderness. They also meet each other...
I don't think I've ever seen a more authentic Civil War film at this level, the human level. No grand armies fighting across sweeping battlefields, this is the story of men caught up in the Hell of war.
Kinda left me speechless.
I highly recommend this film.
A short post for a Sunday, I know, but the film left me at a loss for words.
Brilliant.
A film that leads to a loss of words is one I must see. Thanks for the finding of it. Now to waste a Sunday.
ReplyDeleteLet me know what you think.
DeleteI agree with OldAFSarge completely. This is one of the finest Civil War movies I've ever seen. It is head and shoulders above anything that Hollywood has made in portraying what it was really like to be a simple soldier on either side in 1864. High-budget films like Gettysburg and Gods and Generals pale in comparison. Unless the movie is an inane, action film, with non-stop computer-generated graphics and absurd dialog, it's doomed to failure at the box office. Perhaps it's my age (buck sergeant during Vietnam), my education (PhD), or my years studying the Civil War, but I cringe reading the many poor reviews this movie received on IMDB. It's a sad and shocking reflection on what today's moviegoers truly know and understand about American history. Worse, it shows a lack of intelligence and compassion by a large portion of the American people, created by a failed education system, and the overwhelmingly ignorant parents of today's youth. When "Killer Angels" is used in history classes at West Point to teach the Battle of Gettysburg, is it no wonder what we've become as an undereducated society? Clearly, we're doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
DeleteThanks Sarge, I agree, a superb film.
DeleteA friend of mine was involved in 2 independent movie shoots of Civil War stories. Both got far enough that filming was finished, but then they lost steam and funds in the production and editing stage. Seems the cameras and film, though expensive, were cheap in comparison to the editing and post-production stage, plus shopping the film to a distributor (both films were rather more truthful of the truth than even PBS wanted to show.) Which was a complete bummer. (One of the films actually had the soldiers fighting in 1860's style corn rows, which are very different from the machine planted rows of today. More open, actually, with less height to the furrows, which changes the dynamics of marching through cornfields by a ton.)
ReplyDeleteNow in the days of everyone's phone is an HD camera, and everyone's laptop is a sound and photo editor, a number of indie films of high quality are being made. Amazing how 30 years makes such a difference.
I'll see if I can find it on the internet. I won't go to Netflix for political reasons. Sorry, went there, but I won't go there...
Good thing it's on Amazon Prime. (Sorry, couldn't resist...)
DeleteSorry, oops.
DeleteAmazon is now on the good side, after being attacked by leftists and kicked out of New York City for potentially creating jobs...
Will try to check it out then.
Hahaha!
DeleteI viewed the film on your recommendation and you didn't steer me wrong. The Wilderness Campaign, and perhaps Shilo, which had the same sort of terrain, were among the most bitter of the war, if for no other reason than much of it was small units in heavy cover. The Civil War/War of Northern Aggression was one of those horrible situations where Americans fought each other and the weapons far outstripped the tactics. Thus I always think of these sorts of films as particularly sad. The mechanics of moving from concept to script to shooting script to casting and set development make it interesting because making a movie is a lot of moving parts. But the experiential side of it reminded me of more modern conflicts. Particularly Laos, pulling a downed F-101 crew out of a triple canopy situation on the wrong side of a border that was not clearly defined. Hand to hand with Chinese, Hand to hand with Pathet Lao, because we ran out of ammo and they didn't. No it was not the Civil War, but wars have a way of being uncomfortably similar in many ways, and killing an enemy when he coughs out his last breath in your face (even if it smells like fish shit) is still killing. And years past, it was worth it to get the USAF guys out, but there were a lot of Chinese and Lao who never made it home.
ReplyDeleteBecause making it home is really all that matters.
Thanks LL.
DeleteAnd yes, making it home is all that matters.