jacksonthughes This movie was a good depiction of the events of the civil war, but I personally didn't agree with the tendencies of the directors during the movie. I somewhat liked the fact that love is expressed even in the middle of the bloodiest war in American history. It reminds us that we are all human; we are allowed to feel emotions of love, joy and happiness even during times of despair, death, and loss. Yes, people did have loved ones and families that they thought about when they went off to war, so it was an interesting movie to watch next to loved ones because it springs that thought of "what would I think if i were in that situation" into your head.

tbenz-60561 A great part of the movie was it's historical accuracy. Showing confederate soldiers without shoes and low on supplies, with the facts about the tributes to the group of cadets by the Virginia Military Institute today in the beginning and the end. It tells stories of perseverance, love, and sacrifice all at once. Right when it felt like it was starting to drag in the middle it threw a twist to keep things interesting. This movie is underrated, and a great showing of the side that isn't shown as often.

dcimmino Who directed this movie? Grapeshot after grapeshot were exploding inches from the attacking Confederates yet no one was falling. It's clear that this is an obvious attempt to glorify elitist Confederates. It also seems very low budget, as the battle scenes are what I'd expect from a pre-CGI time period. Tom Skerrit is the best part of the movie.

laurenstevens-35305 Overall, I enjoyed this movie. What I specifically enjoyed was how the producers made the movie about more than just battles, the President, or the government in general. I liked how they introduced the movie with character development, which further developed into friendship- another aspect I liked. Another enjoyable aspect was that the watcher received the viewpoint of slaves, generals, the President, soldiers, people outside of the war, everybody. This movie brought in a lot about slavery. The slaves involved in the movie were intelligent, eloquent-speaking, kind-hearted people that didn't seem to have any resentment towards whites. I found this odd because in this time period, many of these slaves weren't educated- which these people seemed to be. In addition, there were no "pro- slavery" people, which I found odd because the movie took place in the Confederacy. The teenagers in the movie seemed overly compassionate towards slaves, especially ones that weren't their own. One last odd thing about the slaves was how Old Judge stood over the dead bodies of people fighting for slavery while crying at the end of the movie. I was fond of the fact that they developed the Confederate soldier characters as they did- that they were more than just slavery-protecting people that were in the wrong. This movie revealed the sides of some of these people, especially when the soldiers took the blame for the food mishap with Old Judge, a slave, and helped an apparent slave woman when she had a structure fall on her leg- while marching to combat Union forces. They also showed how other things in life, such as religion, were important to them. I liked this because it showed that these soldiers were more than soldiers- they were people. It was eye-opening. I like how the movie exposed "relationships" as a soldier- that they were nice, yet fleeting. Oftentimes, I don't see many war movies that show true friendship, or the beginnings of flirtation- this movie provoked feelings, something that even people that aren't history-buffs can relate to. This movie definitely pulled heartstrings as the main characters throughout the whole movie were teenagers and even a young boy, yet it was pretty predictable towards the end of the movie when the battle was occurring. Another setback of this movie is how unrealistic it seems, the special effects aren't the best, and the settings aren't what one would expect from a tip-top Civil War movie. In addition, for the movie's description declaring that the movie was about this one battle, it took an awful long time to get to the battle. The battle part however though, was a good one. The friendship theme continues throughout and lasts. This movie exposed the emotions during and after a battle, and continued to last afterwards despite revealed religious differences. This movie brought in a community aspect, how after the battle the community gathered and worked to help nurse the wounded back to health. However, the one "relationship" in the movie was kind of cheesy and seemed as if it was built and destroyed just for the purpose of tearing people up. Overall, I thought this movie was relatively good and I would watch it for my own enjoyment and not for a US History assignment.