Good CW movies

[havi]

Is there made good CW movies? i own gettysburg and that movie of stonewall but what else is there? Except buster keaton general?

[tripax]

I don't watch many movies, but my favorites (as movies more than as civil war movies) are "Gangs of New York", "Lincoln", and "Glory" (in that order). I haven't seen "Cold Harbor". I'd really like to see the major older movies like "The General", "Friendly Persuasion", "Horse Soldiers", "Uncivil Warriors", and "Birth of a Nation".

People say that Veep better represents politics in DC than West Wing or House of Cards. I wonder if the 3 Stooges Civil War movie, "Uncivil Warriors" better represents the war than more action-drama films. Also, I'd be interested if anyone knew of an article or book that compares the portrayal of the civil war in films and tv across the decades.

Also, there is a list on wikipedia which has a lot of suggestions.

If you count movies about slavery in the US before the war (which I kind of do, but others don't), the list gets much longer.

[havi]

oh and tv-series there isnt any better than north&south and the manor family is it? greatly done. The General just showed at finish tv and it was good even it was silent movie it made me laugh Mr.Keaton is great and that train in the river scene was really awesome.

[dinsdale]

Not a movie, but something you can listen to while playing:

White Mansions

A country concept album about the civil war written by an englishman is about the most absurd idea to explain, but this story is fantastic. Tells the experiences from a number of different characters from start to post war. I blame my parents getting this when I was a kid for my interest in history. The record came with a full sized booklet with dozens of pictures from the period.

It's a really really hard thing to explain or 'sell' as being good, but give it a try.

[video=youtube;2qaTtpGRXHk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qaTtpGRXHk[/video]

From the list, I would recommend Shendandoa, The Horse Soldiers, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, and The Outlaw Jose Wales for good old fashioned hollywood western treatment and of course Gone With The Wind

Until looking through the list, I didn't realize how Confederate-focussed early Hollywood or the buyers at BBC/ITV were. I don't think I saw a Union-based civil war film until Glory

[Keeler]

In terms of commerical flims There aren't that many good ones. The essentials are obvious (Glory, Gettysburg, Roots, Birth of a Nation [which is hard to watch for many reasons, but is important to see at least once], the Red Badge of Courage, North and South, Gone with the Wind). Lincoln was good, but I wouldn't consider it essential. Gods and Generals has always been a strange movie for me. Even the extended version jumps around too much. and while I own and enjoy it is too choppy to be an essential. As Dinsdale pointed out there are a couple classic Eastwood westerns that are set during or shortly after the war.

Documentary wise, there is of course the Ken Burns series (which somehow got the date of Chickamagua wrong, but is otherwise solid). There are several available on Amazon, some of which stream free with Prime. One I recommend is Gettysburg: Stories of Valor. Most Civil War battlefields are either run by the National Park Service or by private museums and their associated bookstores have a wide variety of documentary amd historical drama for sale. One I own is War So Terrible. The production values (such as the quality of acting and script writing) aren't what you get from Hollywood of course, but they tend to be more grounded in history and look at specific battles or issues of the war.

For example:

"War So Terrible” follows the wartime careers of two privates, Benjamin Franklin Meyers of the Union army and Andrew Jackson Stewart of the Confederacy as their attitudes toward battle evolve with their experience in war. Opponents in an 1861 engagement, Meyers and Stewart meet again in a dramatic late-war assault, which provides the occasion thirty-one years later for a ceremony in Stewart’s hometown. Through a series of flashbacks, “War So Terrible” graphically depicts the realities of combat and explores how those realities differed from the way subsequent generations portrayed and remembered the Civil War.

Even if you aren't interested in buying DVDs, I recommend checking out these bookstores' websites as you will probably discover a ton of documentaries you never knew existed. Some of these, such as Lincoln and Lee at Antietam: Crossroads of Freedom, are on YouTube.

And finally, some of the official National Park Service orientation videos (the ones you would watch at the park's Visitor Center) are available online. Here's Shiloh's. There are also some park ranger talks available as well.

Thes

[richfed]

"Ride With the Devil" is pretty interesting ... about Missouri bushwackers. "Gettysburg" is the best, for buffs. As for more drama, "Glory," Lincoln," and "Cold Mountain" are my favorites. I would include "Gods & Generals" and, for good measure, "Gone With the Wind".

[1stvermont]

Gods and generals, especially if you like the confederacy. Done by same people who made Gettysburg.

http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Generals-Jeff-Daniels/dp/B00009OOFA

[GraniteStater]

If you've never seen it, The Horse Soldiers. Great? Dunno. Good solid film, though. Wayne liked it the best of all his work and he does a great job as the commander. William Holden is great as the acerbic MD who clashes with Wayne.

GWTW is not a Civil War film. It is a film about a person named Scarlett O'Hara, which happens to take place during the war and Reconstruction. There are cogent observations about both these events, but, as I see it, after around a dozen full viewings or more in my life (first seen by me on the big screen in 1969), the film is the tragedy of Scarlett, a vivacious, gorgeous, intelligent woman who could have found true happiness, but lost it all because she is too headstrong.

Cold Mountain is not a Civil War film (I read the book first), for similar reasons. It is a story of tragedy and noble sacrifice, the particulars of which are illuminated by the time period.

Glory and Gettysburg are spot on, excellent films and excellent stories. I read The Killer Angels (source for G-burg) in the '70s.

I've never seen G&G, but, as my longtime girlfriend said after she saw it, "It helps to like Stonewall Jackson - a lot."

Fess Parker, IIRC, starred in a film about the Union train-nappers who almost got away with it. Can't recall the title. Not bad.

Van Heflin in The Raid, about some Rebs robbing St. Albans, VT. They had to throw in the female lead/love interest, but otherwise, enjoyable.

The more often I see Shenandoah, the more I appreciate the depth of its moral complexities, which are not that readily apparent at first viewing. Worth re-watching, more than a few times. While we're here, I heartily recommend Stewart's post-WW2 work, especially his Westerns. Stewart is far, far, far from an 'aw-shucks good ole Jimmy Stewart' actor. Far, far, far. His characters are morally conflicted, not necessarily good or even likeable (his work in The Naked Spur is fantastic, Jimmy Stewart as borderline obsessed Crazy Guy).

For comedy, Glenn Ford in Advance to the Rear. Ford was a vastly underrated comic actor; very subtle, really; excelled as the straight man befuddled by the daffiness around him.

There's a couple of Civil War Out West films, very similar, about CSA PoWs being dragooned into the US service; one has Glenn Ford, I believe, and George Hamilton; the other has Joseph Cotten and Somebody Well Known whom I cannot recall.

[GraniteStater]

Raintree County, with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. A publishing phenomenon in the late '40s. Possibly a great movie; certainly a good one.

[Le Ricain]

Fess Parker starred in two Civil War films, The Great Locomotive Chase (1956) and Springfield Rifle (1952). He also starred in a film set in 1859, Jayhawker (1959) and one set in 1869, Thunder Over the Plains (1953).

[pgr]

Well what do we mean by "Good?" If I was going for accuracy of equipment, uniforms etc. I'd go with Gettysburg or Gods and Generals, although the acting in both is a bit over done. (And G&G gets a bit too Lost Causey for me.) If I'm going for cinematic quality... I'd probably vote for Lincoln ( a really good look at the politics at the end, with a few combat sequences thrown in.)

I did just read that Lionsgate is going to do a Grant bio film based on Ron Chernow's biography....which could be great.