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I purchase CW movies when I find them, especially the older ones like Column South with Audie Murphy and Drums of the Deep South with Guy
Madison(?), James Craig(?) and Barbara Payton(?). Both are fairly good movies.
Red Badge of Courage is excellent, especially with Audie Murphy.
Andersonville is a great film and I could only watch it one time--I did not have the heart or stomach to view it again...it is up close and graphic in it's historical correctness.
In regards to silent films, I enjoyed Buster Keaton's The General. I don't know what to say about Birth of a Nation. It says alot, and alot of it you would not want to show to the public today. People either like it or they hate it. No middle ground with this one.
Gettysburg was great at the theatre, and on VHS. I was so disappointed when the DVD came out. I understand having to cut minutes from a film here and there to fit the format, and most films have a little bit that can be trimmed, but it went too far on this one, especially in the scene where Lee is asked if he would like to join the officers in a big meal with all the "trimmings"---originally the film had Lee kindly refuse the offer and say he would have what the men are having, which put the officer in an awkward position. When the DVD came out, you see the officer asking Lee to join him and his men for a meal with all the trimmings then you see Lee walk away saying nothing and the officer has this awkward look on his face. You don't get to experience the wisdom of Lee's words, which gives the man and the movie depth.
Gods and Generals is very good, needed more music and less preaching.
There are all kinds of documentaries, some are good some are not.
Each documentary and movie may have something new to show or tell you, so don't pass them by just because the subject is familiar or the film is old.
what is your favorite movie out there and i am looking for civil war movies to watch.
i have a lot of favorite but i love the ride with the deivl about the jaykawkers and redlegs
paul kepper
I just saw ALVAREZ KELLY last night on TCM, and enjoyed it tremendously, especially the parts with the
slaves covering for the plantation family, and the
Union officer asking, "Why do you cover for these people? Don't you know they want to keep you as slaves"?
That, and the stampede which overruns the Union lines!
what is your favorite movie out there and i am looking for civil war movies to watch.
i have a lot of favorite but i love the ride with the deivl about the jaykawkers and redlegs
paul kepper
Glory (the best movie on the war), Red Badgeof Courage (the John Houston, Audie Murphy, Bill Mauldin version), The General (forget Chaplin, Buster Keaton was the true genius of silent film comedy), Gettysburg (as long as you remember that Joshua Chamberlain did not really win the Civil War on his own), and The Outlaw Josey Wales (way over the top sympathetic to the pro-Confederate Missouri bushwhackers but a dxxn fine movie).
Glory (the best movie on the war), Red Badgeof Courage (the John Houston, Audie Murphy, Bill Mauldin version), The General (forget Chaplin, Buster Keaton was the true genius of silent film comedy), Gettysburg (as long as you remember that Joshua Chamberlain did not really win the Civil War on his own), and The Outlaw Josey Wales (way over the top sympathetic to the pro-Confederate Missouri bushwhackers but a dxxn fine movie).
You forgot The Beguiled, where Eastwood plays a wounded yankee who moves into a Southern girls
home and ends up getting more than he bargained for...
Shenandoah with Je-Je-Je Jemmy Stuart was excellent from a stuntman point of view...
I also like Ride With the Devil. It's one of the only movies that I can stand Toby Maguire. As for documentaries, Wide Awake Films have put out some good ones.
Everything you need to know about gunfighting, gunsmithing, personal hygiene, dining etiquette, bridge demolition and why the South lost ("See the guy in the wagon with a white beard? General Sibley... he looks dead.") Besides, it has a good sound track too.
The Horse Soldiers. Even a throw away picture by Ford is far better than most.
You gotta love Willis Bouchey as the politician turned colonel.
Bouchey was a late Ford favorite and got one of the best lines in the history of the pictures "Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance".
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