Blue and Grey

[Albert Sailhorst]

This weekend, the Ovation Channel has been showing the mini-series "Blue and Grey"....I remember buying and reading Bruce Catton's book by the same name ( a GREAT, basic, book, by the way!)......As a youth, I watched the mini-series when it was originally aired and thought it was also GREAT!!....Of course, I was only 18 at the time!! ....
Now that I am older and better educated, when watching the current telecast, I am astounded at how simple the plot was, how "hokey" the battle scenes were, how terrible the actors were......Just because Gregory Peck, Lloyd Bridges, Stacey Keach, et al were cast does not make it a quality film!!.....I do not mean to be so critical, as much as I mean to suggest that, based on what I have learned/experienced 30 years after it originally aired, it could have really been a better movie......Thirty years from now, what Civil War movies will we sit back and scoff, that we thought were really great when the came out??
Thanks!!

 

[major bill]

Yes we will. Watch the 1993 epic "Gettysburg" and you can see at 20 years old it is starting to show its age. In another 20 years it will be out of date.

 

[Frederick14Va]

This weekend, the Ovation Channel has been showing the mini-series "Blue and Grey"....I remember buying and reading Bruce Catton's book by the same name ( a GREAT, basic, book, by the way!)......As a youth, I watched the mini-series when it was originally aired and thought it was also GREAT!!....Of course, I was only 18 at the time!! ....
Now that I am older and better educated, when watching the current telecast, I am astounded at how simple the plot was, how "hokey" the battle scenes were, how terrible the actors were......Just because Gregory Peck, Lloyd Bridges, Stacey Keach, et al were cast does not make it a quality film!!.....I do not mean to be so critical, as much as I mean to suggest that, based on what I have learned/experienced 30 years after it originally aired, it could have really been a better movie......Thirty years from now, what Civil War movies will we sit back and scoff, that we thought were really great when the came out??
Thanks!!

It was also one of the first films that utilized Civil War Reenactors in mass as a viable resource for film productions.... rather than hiring generic hoards of "extras" off the street and dressing them up..... The story line was simplistic... but it worked for the time..... Other period era films that followed later continued the trend... North & South Books I & II..... Ironclads.... The Love Letter... just to name a few.... and each slowly progressed better than the last... as far as using reenactors..... Till Gettysburg came around which significantly set the forte back more than a decade.... it took awhile to recover after that one....

 

[kholland]

And Cooper Huckabee, who plays one of the Geyser brothers, played "the scout" Harrison in "Gettysburg"

 

[GELongstreet]

And Cooper Huckabee, who plays one of the Geyser brothers, played "the scout" Harrison in "Gettysburg"

He is not the only colaboration actor; Royce D. Applegate (Kemper) also had a small role, like Alex Harvey (Maj. Hawkins).

 

[nitrofd]

There was one scene that really made me laugh and that is when Stacy Keachis in the hospital just having his arm amputated and the doctor tells the nurse to clean his stump and change the bandage and she pulls out a brand new pair of stainless chrome polished scissors.bad prop manager.

 

[Pat Young]

This weekend, the Ovation Channel has been showing the mini-series "Blue and Grey"....I remember buying and reading Bruce Catton's book by the same name ( a GREAT, basic, book, by the way!)......As a youth, I watched the mini-series when it was originally aired and thought it was also GREAT!!....Of course, I was only 18 at the time!! ....
Now that I am older and better educated, when watching the current telecast, I am astounded at how simple the plot was, how "hokey" the battle scenes were, how terrible the actors were......Just because Gregory Peck, Lloyd Bridges, Stacey Keach, et al were cast does not make it a quality film!!.....I do not mean to be so critical, as much as I mean to suggest that, based on what I have learned/experienced 30 years after it originally aired, it could have really been a better movie......Thirty years from now, what Civil War movies will we sit back and scoff, that we thought were really great when the came out??
Thanks!!

Yup. I like Stacey Keach, but it was not one of his best efforts.

 

[Frederick14Va]

There was one scene that really made me laugh and that is when Stacy Keachis in the hospital just having his arm amputated and the doctor tells the nurse to clean his stump and change the bandage and she pulls out a brand new pair of stainless chrome polished scissors.bad prop manager.

Cant say I immediately recall the scene in question.... but to be fair, if it might have come out of a surgeons medical kit... most medical tools were highly polished steel... that could give observation impression that the item appears to be plated with something that makes it very shiny when near new... I have several original surgeons capital kits and a couple pocket kits, that date between 1856-1863, and most of the blades and tools are indeed quite glossy appearing... but are not plated, just highly polished steel... if taken care of they stay looking like that... if abused, get scratched up or use of abrasives on it... it will indeed null up and corrode/rust in quick order...

Highly polished steel resists rusting since there are much less micro grooves and scratches that rust tends to take hold on...

 

[GELongstreet]

Yup. I like Stacey Keach, but it was not one of his best efforts.

Agree on that. Like him best in 1980s Long Riders and, more or less, Cheech and Chong. I fear they don´t make such brilliant things today. Interestingly I then make a near 20 year jump until his roles in American History X and Prison Break.

 

[nitrofd]

Agree on that. Like him best in 1980s Long Riders and, more or less, Cheech and Chong. I fear they don´t make such brilliant things today. Interestingly I then make a near 20 year jump until his roles in American History X and Prison Break.

How about his tv role of mike hammer

 

[James N.]

It was also one of the first films that utilized Civil War Reenactors in mass as a viable resource for film productions.... rather than hiring generic hoards of "extras" off the street and dressing them up...

Only partly true - we traveled to Prairie Grove, Ark., for the ONE weekend they filmed the Battle of Bull Run sequence which was the only time they used a mass of reenactors. The production company loved us but they also had a slightly complicated relationship with the state which I'll try to tell as simply as possible:

The company wanted to film there, since the park also boasted a period village as well as open space for a battlefield; the state wanted to make political capital out of allowing them to do so. Most of the extras were hired in nearby Fayetteville ( many were students from the University of Arkansas ) on a daily basis, so although there may be repeats, officially each day was a new job, often with entirely different people; this was done so the state could ballyhoo about all the new jobs that were created! ( Sound familiar? ) One of our associates was a then well-known reenactor named Cal Kinzer who had just been hired as park historian at Prairie Grove State Park where most of the camp and battle scenes were filmed. He said that daily he had to instruct the busloads of extras on the rudiments of drill and firearms and had far less authority than I later saw Dale Fetzer or Brian Pohanka have on Glory and Gettysburg.

 

[cash]

Most of the extras were hired in nearby Fayetteville ( many were students from the University of Arkansas ) on a daily basis, so although there may be repeats, officially each day was a new job, often with entirely different people; this was done so the state could ballyhoo about all the new jobs that were created! ( Sound familiar? )

Not surprising, knowing who the guv was at the time.

 

[CheathamHill]

No wonder the federals were routed at Bull Run..the Rebs had helicopters!

 

[James N.]

There were several interesting stories concerning this very first occasion "Hollywood" encountered Civil War reenactors; I'll try and find whatever I may have saved from it and create a separate thread.

 

[capt13th]

not that it was ever good, but i think gods and generals will top the list. acting was horrible, ranking right up there with the blue and the gray. the scene with the 2 boys leaving for war, with the mothers speach and everyone posing around her. the constant rebs whining "they started it, we were invaded"... get over it. chamberlain's speach before they cross the river and his scene with his wife lame!!! need i mention the strange minstrel scene??? the little girls horribly fake southern accent. what is camamahhhh??? the scenes with martha and big jim uncle jim somes just calls him jim, trying to give the impression that southerners were friends with their slaves and servants. i could dog more on northern scenes, but this was a very one sided movie and screen time was almost non-existant!!!