In contrast to some more recent wars, the American Civil War, despite its prominence in historical literature and television documentaries, has not prompted a slew of high profile films. The war was a popular film subject in the silent era, understandable since it was in literal living memory at the dawn of the 20th Century. Afterwards, however, full-fledged Civil War films grew quite rare. The reason is that an accurate portrayal of events like the Battle of Antietam would require a lot of money and effort put into costuming, battle scenes, etc. This would not be an issue if there was a guaranteed audience. Many moviegoers have strong views on the war or little interest in historical dramas to start with, so spending tens of millions of dollars on a battle epic is a risky venture.
I make this a list of Civil War “Era” rather than Civil War films as my pool of selections is somewhat shallow. Numerous films tie into the war. Many, however, are home front dramas (adaptations of Little Women provide many examples). Still more are westerns, and these are either based on or inspired by Quantrill’s Raiders or use the war as a background for more typical genre staples like fighting Apaches or tales of personal vengeance. As with my list of ten World War II films to watch, I made my selections to cover various aspects of the Civil War Era rather than the actual top ten best movies. I will not include the two mini-series The Blue and the Gray and North and South. My super-quick summary is that the former has some cheesy production values but more relatable characters while the latter has much higher quality in costumes and battle scenes but much more over-the-top drama. I also will not list “relevant recommendations” but instead have a brief list of other films to check out with a quick summary/opinion.
#1:
12 Years a Slave (2013)
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Director Steve McQueen’s 2013 Oscar winner (for three categories including best picture) is based on the 1853 slave memoir of Solomon Northup. Northup was a free black carpenter and violinist in the state of New York. He was lured towards a temporary high-paying violinist gig with a circus. Instead he found himself drugged and then awakened in a slave pen in Washington D.C. He was transported and sold further south, where he passed from master to master and experienced the various horrors of slavery. Finally his family and an attorney friend were able to locate and free him, though his abductors faced no justice.
There
are few movies that directly show slavery, understandable as audiences would be
turned off by seeing such an uncomfortable subject on screen. 12 Years a Slave is the best and most
accurate one that I know of. It sports an all-star cast that includes Chiwetel
Ejiofor in the main role, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Lupita
Nyong’o. All the horrors of slavery are present, from the mundane aspects to
the outright beatings and sadism from more unpredictable masters. The actual
moment where Northup earns his slavery is shockingly simple and anti-climatic,
but the moment he returns to his family, years after his abduction, is sure to
garner some strong emotions. This film should counteract any rose-tinted views
of slavery in older films.
#2: Red Badge of Courage (1951)
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In the early 50s director John Huston,
who helmed many iconic Hollywood films, sought to bring Stephen Crane’s famed
Civil War novel to the big screen. Legitimate World War II hero Audie Murphy
played the lead. The end result is frustrating, as MGM studios forced Huston to
cut a two hour film down to 69 minutes. To make matters worse, the missing
footage was lost. Still, it’s a fine film that focuses on the experience of a
Union soldier, shorn of any wider political or social messages. There is no
firm setting as to which battle its set in. There are major similarities to the
Battle of Chancellorsville, but the movie isn’t about a major event or turning
point, but the personal experience of a man. It’s a universal tale about
courage, manhood, and the common struggles of the soldier.
Audie Murphy’s character gets to his
first battle and, unknown to his comrades, flees the front line. He receives a
wound, the titular badge of courage, but it comes from another panicked Union
soldier. By the end he finds his courage and helps lead a final charge. While
it’s unfortunate that Huston’s film, which by the director’s admission was
among his best work, was butchered by the studio, its brisk runtime and Hays
Code restrictions on violent depictions can make it an easy introduction to the
Civil War for children.
#3: Ride with the Devil (1999)
It seems that the two most filmed Civil War subjects are President Abraham Lincoln and Missouri Bushwhackers. Ang Lee’s Ride with the Devil covers the latter. The war in Missouri mostly started along the same issues that divided the rest of the nation. However, the fighting in and around this state devolved into a cycle of violence where vengeance and blood feuds took precedence. This film follows Jake Roedel (Tobey Maguire), a German immigrant. Though viewed with suspicion by native-born pro-Confederates, he joins a Bushwhacker band after Kansas Jayhawkers burn his home and kill his father. Throughout the rest of the war he sees the complexities of Missouri’s guerilla war. Some of the Bushwhackers hold potentially violent grudges with each other, while freed slave Daniel Holt (Jeffrey Wright) actually joins them due to his long-running friendship with his former master’s son. Jakes gradually grows discomforted, moreso after he participates in William Quantrill’s brutal sacking of Lawrence, Kansas, and looks for a way out of the violence.
Jeffrey Wright’s black Confederate character
was so controversial that thousands of theatres refused to promote or even run
the film. The result was a massive box office bomb, which is a shame because
Lee really tried to delve into the complexities of war’s participants. Also to
his credit he did not create a massive action film. There is violence, but it’s
sporadic and more along the lines of hit-and-run shootouts or massacres. This
is a great film for looking at the guerilla warfare that occurred at the
fringes of the American Civil War.
#4: Friendly Persuasion (1956)
There are many films that cover the home front. Several also look at the response of pacifists. Shenandoah (with Jimmy Stewart) is an engaging film with some action scenes while Ron Maxwell’s Copperhead leans towards Confederate propaganda. I pick Friendly Persuasion because not only is it a fun film, it shows how difficult it is to be a pacifist when wider society constantly demands that you join the fight. Gary Cooper plays Jess Birdwell, the father of a Quaker family in rural Indiana. So far the Quakers have been able to avoid the fighting, but John Hunt Morgan’s Confederate cavalry is now raiding the North (an actual event that occurred in 1863). With war coming to their doorstep, the Birdwells’ neighbors and as well as Federal officers try to pressure them into defending their homes in the militia. To make matters worse for Jess and his wife Eliza, their daughter is in love with a Union officer while their son (played by none other than Anthony Perkins, a.k.a. Psycho’s Norman Bates) caves in and joins the militia and Federals to fight the raiders.
Friendly
Persuasion
is actually a light-hearted film, with much of the story shifting away from the
war to focus on other Quaker issues. Most of the Northern states did not feel
the heavy hand of war as the South did. However it reveals some of the moral challenges
and consequences of war and the one battle scene doesn’t shy away from showing
the psychological effect of killing a man. This is a good film for the family
to watch.
#5:
Glory (1989)
Glory tells the tale
of the 54th Massachusetts, one of the first black Union regiments.
Black soldiers in the Civil War not only had to deal with harsh Confederate war
policies, but prejudice from fellow white troops. The 54th went to
the southern Atlantic coast and engaged in some unsavory raids before finally
proving itself in battles around Charleston Harbor, the most famous its charge
on Fort Wagner. It’s here that Glory
climaxes.
Director
Edward Zwick chose to encapsulate the overall experience of black regiments
rather than just the 54th Massachusetts. As a result the film is
both accurate and inaccurate at the same time. The actual regiment from the
film was mostly made up of free and better educated northern blacks. The movie
has some of those, but also includes a lot of ex-slaves from the south. This
allows Zwick to show the whole gamut of black soldiers’ experiences while
providing a wide range of characters. It does mean that he does not include some
fascinating real-life members like Medal of Honor winner William Carney and
Frederick Douglass’ sons.
Glory also sports the
best cinematic Civil War battle scenes. The Soldiers look like soldiers and the
violence is more realistic. The climatic charge on Fort Wagner is suitably
glorious, especially after having shared the struggles of the various
characters. The cast is great too, with the standout being Denzel Washington as
an embittered ex-slave who learns to bond with the other soldiers and commit to
the cause. He won an Oscar and began to receive more high profile roles. James
Horner’s wonderful score is the icing on the cake. Overall Glory not only tells a very compelling and emotional story, it’s
still the most realistic depiction of Civil War combat. It also happens to be
my favorite Civil War film.
#6: Gettysburg (1993)
Gettysburg
is the bloodiest battle within the United States’ borders. In the summer of
1863 General Robert E. Lee led his Army of Northern Virginia on its second
invasion of the North. From July 1 to 3 he clashed with the Union army at the
Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg. By the end, the Union had scored a major
victory. Though the war would continue for two more years, Lee’s army never
recovered its full offensive capabilities. In 1993 Ted Turner pushed for a
mini-series based on Killer Angels,
Michael Shaara’s novel which tells the battle from the perspective of a few of
its major participants. It was soon decided that this mini-series, directed by
Ron Maxwell, could make a four hour theatrical film. It didn’t do as great as
it could have since the length meant fewer screenings, but was still a smash
success due to its subsequent mini-series release on TNT. The mini-series
version is available as the Director’s Cut, which fleshes out more details.
In
terms of action the film only shows what Shaara deemed the most critical
moments for his novel: the initial delaying actions at McPherson’s Ridge, the
defense of the Union left flank at Little Round Top, and Pickett’s Charge. The
length has more to do with the many dialogue and monologue scenes where the
various characters explain what they’re fighting for or why they’re making
certain strategic decisions. Some people might be turned off by these scenes
but history and civil war buffs should enjoy them for their historical value.
There are some issues with the film to be sure, as this is really a TV
miniseries whittled down, but it’s still a great watch and the only movie to
really zero in on one single Civil War battle.
One
cost saving measure was the use of reenactors. This resulted in a lot of overweight
and middle-aged extras. The trade-off was that these extras already knew how to
act for the camp and battle scenes. In fact, a few who were particularly
helpful with arranging such scenes were rewarded with small speaking parts. My favorite
sequence is the Battle of Little Round Top, the most exciting battle and one
which leaves the audience exhausted before the intermission. There are also
plenty of wonderful performances with Jeff Daniels as Joshua Chamberlain being
the most widely praised. Gettysburg
can be viewed over two nights and is a great way to introduce others to Civil
War history. In fact it’s what got me into the subject.
#7: The Hunley (1999)
The
naval aspect of the Civil War gets even less screentime than the major battles.
There are a couple films that deal with the duels of the ironclads Monitor and Merrimac (one a TV film),
but the best bet is another entry from TNT, the television film The Hunley. The Hunley was the Confederacy’s attempt at a submarine and the first
in history to successfully sink a ship. It also went down itself and historians
and divers have spent decades trying to unravel what went wrong. The film
necessarily utilizes fiction for the moment of the drowning, as there were no
survivors. One curious aspect of the discovered wreck was that the crew seemed
to be resting peacefully at their stations. Since the movie’s come out it has
been concluded that the blast of the sub’s own torpedo caused such a concussive
shock that they all died instantly. Without this information the director goes
for a more emotional and poignant ending.
The
movie is well put together and covers part of the Siege of Charleston, a piece
of the war that’s particularly fascinated me. One negative is that most of the
crewmen are stock war film characters, from the smirking jerk who’s not as
composed as he makes himself out to be to the man who’s always writing to the wife
back home to the wide-eyed youth who wants to strike a blow for his country.
The highlight is Donald Sutherland as General Pierre G.T. Beauregard. He nails
the general’s mix of intelligence and aristocratic charisma. Unfortunately this
film is hard to track down aside from a cheaply produced DVD (it’s absent of
subtitles and special features).
#8: Andersonville (1996)
Yet
another Ted Turner production, this two part mini-series is available on DVD as
a three hour film. It covers, as the name says, the hellish prison at
Andersonville. Over 30,000 Union POWs were herded into a small stockade.
Crowded, and with contaminated water and scant food, they suffered months of
hell on earth. 13,000 men died there, and the survivors emerged as horrific,
emaciated skeletal figures. The movie doesn’t have much in the way of star
power, but the actors do their job and create a pretty likeable and therefore
sympathetic cast.
Most
of what happens in the movie is accurate, though some events are shuffled
around to create a better narrative thread. In addition to facing horrible
treatment, the prisoners also suffer from the Andersonville Raiders, a gang
that emerged within the camp and terrorized the other inmates to better their
own captivity. There is also a prison escape plot that provides some much
needed excitement. My one quibble is that the prison’s commandant, Colonel
Henry Wirz, is portrayed as an indifferent European tyrant when in reality he
was a victim of a broken down Confederate logistical system. Andersonville is a movie that deserves
more attention.
#9: Gone with the Wind (1939)
Many
Civil War films have been made through the lenses of the Lost Cause. This pro-Confederacy
narrative insists that its adherents fought less for slavery and more for noble
concepts like states’ rights, and also that slavery was far less brutal than
depicted. As it so happens two of cinema’s earlier milestones were made through
this lens. The silent epic Birth of a
Nation is way too abrasive in its racism to be entertaining. Much more
palatable is Gone with the Wind,
which focuses less on racial and political aspects and more on human drama. Scarlett
O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) is a southern belle on the Georgian Tara Plantation. She
wants to marry the noble Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), but he chooses another
woman. The Civil War comes and the aristocratic families find their lives
upended. Going into the Reconstruction era, Scarlett tries to restore her
wealthy way of life through manipulating those around her, with only the
scoundrel Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and personal slave/servant Mammy (Hattie
McDaniel) able to see through her shenanigans.
The
movie isn’t without some inaccurate and racist depictions of black people. The slaves
on the Tara plantation are portrayed as quite cheerful and loyal. Still, the
movie is incredibly well made and sports some dynamic characters, not to
mention a sweeping musical score from Max Steiner. On the Civil War side of
things the action takes place offscreen and only a handful of Union soldiers
appear. The most notable scenes in this regard are the famous hospital bit,
where Taps plays over widening shot of hundreds of wounded Confederates, and
the Burning of Atlanta. Gone with the Wind
can stand on its own as an epic drama, but also presents what was once a widely
accepted view of the South. It also shows how hard things became on the
Southern home front, though it focuses on the downfall of the upper class.
#10: Lincoln (2012)
Abraham
Lincoln is one of the most cinematically visible presidents. Most movies about
him are more like highlights of his presidency. For his attempt, Steven
Spielberg only zeroed in one small part of his presidency, when he tried to get
Congress to pass the 13th Amendment and thus outlaw slavery. The
result is a tighter story with an actual element of suspense. This is a largely
accurate film that should please history buffs with a well-cast set of
historical characters. Tommy Lee Jones as radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens
is a real riot while Bruce McGill is always what I imagined Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton to be. The highlight, of course, is Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham
Lincoln. Day-Lewis, as usual, completely transforms into the character and
finally gives him his historically accurate voice.
The
film focuses on the politics of the later war. The Union is obviously going to
win at this point, but the future direction of the nation is uncertain. There
are scant military scenes, but the verbal duels in the House of Representatives
and backroom political dealings are exciting in themselves thanks to
Spielberg’s direction. For those who want a triumphal vision of the Civil War,
this movie should be a welcome viewing as it stresses the death of (legalized
at least) slavery.
Ten
other films
The Birth of a
Nation
(1915): This silent epic starts with the Civil War, but spends more time on Reconstruction.
Friends divided by the Civil War eventually come together again to fight the oppressive
policies of a Radical Republican and black occupation troops. The film is
startling to current sensibilities, with all the blacks depicted in a villainous and
lecherous manner and the Ku Klux Klan presented as a heroic order.
The Great
Locomotive Chase
(1956): This Disney film covers the Andrews’ Raid, wherein Union soldiers seized
a train and ran around the south tearing up telegraph poles and railways. Starring
Fess Parker (Disney’s Davy Crockett), it’s a fun flick based on a fascinating
real-life story.
The Horse Soldiers (1959): Though
a Civil War buff and fan of Ulysses S. Grant, famed director John Ford barely touched the Civil
War in his extensive filmography. This rare example is based on Grierson’s Raid, albeit with fictional
characters standing in. John Wayne stars as a Union cavalry colonel who tears
up communications and railways while evading Confederate cavalry. John Ford
also directed the Civil War segment in the Western epic How the West Was Won (1962), which sees Grant and Sherman deal with
the Battle of Shiloh.
Johnny Shiloh (1963): This is
actually two episodes of Wonderful World of Disney merged into a TV movie. It
tells the story of Johnny Clem, a young boy who ran from home to serve as the
drummer boy of a Michigan regiment. This movie can be found on Youtube.
Shenandoah (1965): James
(or Jimmy) Stewart stars as the patriarch of a farming family in the Shenandoah
Valley. He and his many sons refuse to fight for slavery but also won’t pitch
in with the Union invaders. A series of tragedies beset the family as they are
inevitably drawn into the war. Some of the inaccuracies in weaponry and units
are startling, but this is a good film nonetheless.
The Outlaw Josey
Wales
(1976): Clint Eastwood portrays the titular character, a Missouri farmer whose
family is murdered by Jayhawkers. Josey joins a Confederate band of irregulars.
The movie is more about the post-war West, as the war concludes with the opening
credits. Josey Wales heads west and picks up a collection of similarly aimless
characters. By the end they’re able to make a new life, but not before a
showdown with the Federals who massacred Josey’s irregular band.
Gods and
Generals (2003):
This prequel to Gettysburg, which
covers the first two years of the war in the East, should have been a
mini-series. It’s poorly paced and the monologues this time around grow to be
unbearable. It also has a strong neo-Confederate streak. The theatrical cut is
abysmal while the director’s cut, which features more scenes from the Union
perspective and the Battle of Antietam, actually becomes a decent film for a
while. It is one the few films with full-scale battle scenes, with
Fredericksburg providing the most in this regard.
Cold Mountain (2003): This
Odyssey-inspired drama sees Confederate soldier William Inman (Jude Law) desert
after the Battle of the Crater. While he struggles to get home, his love Ada
Monroe (Nicole Kidman) deals with deprivation. This star-studded movie shows
the harsh conditions of the Confederate home front and almost made my list over
the more iconic Gone with the Wind.
Free State of
Jones
(2016): This Matthew McConaughey vehicle tells the real story of an
anti-Confederate uprising in Mississippi. Deserters, Unionists, and runaway
slaves unite in their desire to be free of Confederate domination and engage in
a guerilla war. The film is ripe for an engaging action drama, but is
shockingly low on battle scenes, slowly paced, and makes the unwise decision of
pushing the narrative into the Reconstruction era.
Harriet (2019): This is
a good film that covers Harriet Tubman (Cynthia Ervo). She was a major figure
in the Underground Railroad. The film dramatizes several aspects, even giving
her a couple recurring antagonists. Overall it’s an inspiring tale about one of
the greatest 19th Century heroines.
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