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Andersonville (TV) More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 16 reviews in total |
22 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
Best Civil War Film Ever!, 18 February 2004
Author:
historynut from Ashland, Ohio
My opinion is that Andersonville is the best Civil War movie ever made,
period. As a former Civil War reenactor, I'm not going to sit here and
nitpick at all the "mistakes." Were there mistakes? Sure. The timeline
was a little fuzzy for one. But that does not detract from the power of
this movie. The guards were not well fed regulars either, but so what?
You
don't have to take a test after watching this movie!
I think the REAL factor in Andersonville being such a great production was
the fact that you had no real "name" people involved. Fredric Forrest may
have been the biggest name in the film and is a career role actor - but
WHAT
an actor! These guys busted their balls for this film and it really
shows.
I heard one reenactor complain that the characters seemed "cartoonish,"
and
I don't buy it. I bet he was refering to Jan Triska who played Wirz.
Well,
read up on Wirz. I think they got it pretty close.
Forgive me, my reenacting brethern, but alhough Gettysburg was a tolerable
film (I got to be an extra in that) and Gods and Generals was a disaster,
the problem with these productions was the fact that they relied way too
heavily on reenactors. Reenactors are NOT actors! They were used most
effectively in Glory, not so well in Gettysburg, and Gods and Generals?
Don't want to even go there. Andersonville followed Glory's success
formula
in using reenactors as background with small parts filled in by them (my
buddy Martin Leibschner playing the banjo in the Raider camp was a good
use
of the talent reenactors can bring to film).
Frankenheimer must be given a lot of credit, as should the writer. The
script did get a little cheesy here and there, but not enough again to
trash
the overall production. Jarrod Emick (sp?) as Josiah Day did a nice job,
but until that point he had been a stage actor mostly, and his voice
inflections projected that. Still, he did a great job. Peter Murnik as
Limber Jim added that "mystery character" to the film well (as the real
Limber Jim who was at Andersonville is a mystery to history). Again, I
can't think of one lame performance by any of the key actors here. They
put
110% into the job and I commend them for it. And whoever was involved in
the
set design was on the ball too. To try and recreate that place was no
small
task.
I remember a reenactor bitching because for the "filling" of the stockade
for the wide shots, they had to use women and even cardboard figures. Big
frekin deal! When they are dots on the screen, did it REALLY
matter?
I can't see this movie being topped in terms of a Civil War period piece.
Hollywierd is always bent on turning just about every period piece into
some
type of romance for the younger target audience. Andersonville is
certainly
a refreshing change of pace to that drill.
15 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Finally, the Civil War, down and dirty, 31 May 1999
Author:
PMFan from Arizona, USA
The movie Andersonville was one of intense drama. The historical subject
matter made the film all the more pertinent to society today. Man against
Man, Brother against Brother. That is what the Civil War was, and
Andersonville was its worst. Men treating other men like animals and game
for sport. The utter despair. The terrible suffering.
Andersonville is set during the Civil War, in the south, in a Prisoner Of
War camp run by the Confederate Army. The story depicts the conditions of
suffering that the Union soldiers endured while held captive. The best
and
the worst of humanity is shown in this film as the viewer is shown all
ends
of the spectrum of pain and suffering.
Peter Murnik's character, Limber Jim, was the voice of conscience in this
film. Jim was the one who finally stood up to the injustice that other
Union soldiers were enacting against their fellows. It was Jim who
rallied
the troops to a riot to stop the "Raiders" from continuing their carnage.
Not a single 'Peter' scene went by without the viewer sensing the
intensity.
He portrayed it in his face, in his demeanor and most of all, in his
eyes.
In this film, Peter said so much without uttering a word. The look he
gave
in his eyes told the viewer the intensity of his feelings. His
determination. His desire to see the wrongs righted. In a sense, Limber
Jim was one of the saviours of this film. His standing up to the
injustice
he witnessed and lived through, enabled his fellow prisoners to also rise
up
and change the world around them, as small as it was.
In spite of the fact that this was a film and an artistic production, the
real Andersonville shone through. The viewer came away knowing the
despair
that the Union soldiers felt and lived. There was no question that
humanity, as a whole, had been wronged by the cruelty that took place at
Andersonville. The human race came away from Andersonville worse off for
having realized that we could fall so far from the very civilization we
pride ourselves on creating to treat other fellow human beings the way the
Union soldiers were treated.
Andersonville actually existed, and does so today as a Federal Park and
tourist attraction. This movie is a very good link in telling the tale
that
so many never got to tell. The actors, staff and crew of Andersonville
did
such a magnificent job that anyone seeing this movie will know what it was
like to have been there. They will know the suffering, the pain, the
disease, the despair. The cast and crew are to be applauded for their
efforts.
In his bio, Peter lists Andersonville as one of the projects he is most
proud of. And, well he should be. He did an excellent performance and is
to be commended. It will go down as one of the favorites with his fans.
Once again, Peter's genius comes shining through.
10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Another name for Hell, 30 March 2008
Author:
TrevorAclea from London, England
In the wake of the critical and commercial success of A Man For All
Seasons, Fred Zinnemann unsuccessfully attempted to use his post-Oscar
clout to make a film about the atrocities at the infamous Confederate
Civil War prison camp where 12,912 Union prisoners of war died of
starvation and disease, but as many others had found out before him,
studio chiefs didn't think it was the sort of thing to reverse
declining cinema attendance and pulled the plug before a frame was
shot. There had been a small-scale early TV play about the post-war
trial of the officer in charge but it wasn't until Ted Turner's success
with Gettysburg that a full-scale dramatisation of life inside the
stockade made it to the screen, and then only on the small one. The
biggest name on the credits of Andersonville is director John
Frankenheimer, then going through something of a critical comeback
returning to the medium that first brought him to prominence: the cast
is good, but it's more a case of a few familiar faces rather than big
stars – Frederic Forrest, Cliff de Young, William Sanderson, William H.
Macey – among a cast largely made up of little-known actors. Yet it's
very clear that a lot of money has been spent, and that it's been made
on a truly epic scale. Rarely has the old copywriters' pitch 'a cast of
thousands' seemed more appropriate as almost every scene boasts swathes
of re-enactors to fill out the overcrowded prison.
Despite being made for television it never looks threadbare and it
never feels like its playing down the ugliness of the situation in the
name of taste or network censorship even if it doesn't dwell on the
details as much as it could. Built for 8000 but ending up housing
45,000, Andersonville itself was little more than a cattle pen: no
barracks, a fetid stream, a lot of mud and far too many inmates
surrounded by a wall and watchtowers, it didn't take much to turn it
into a festering hellhole, with rations often withheld by the
commander, water so rancid that inmates had to wring rainwater from
their clothes to avoid fever, child guards daring prisoners to cross
the 'dead line' so they could kill them for a bounty and prisoners
forming gangs to prey on and often kill each other. Even Confederate
officials regarded it as 'a disgrace to civilisation.' In a war as ugly
as the one between the States, it's some measure of how bad things were
that the only man convicted and executed for war crimes in the entire
Civil War was the commander of Andersonville.
As drama it's fairly straightforward, following a group of new arrivals
through their first days in the camp to the time those few who survive
leave, taking in many of the expected conventions of the prison movie
en route – escape attempts, futile deaths, dashed hopes and a
near-riot. At times it does threaten to turn into a Civil War version
of a WW2 P.O.W. movie, but it's held back from the pitfalls of great
escapism by the fact that where many of those films often naively
showed German prison camps as virtual holiday camps where the inmates
tried to escape almost as a game, Andersonville makes it clear that
here attempting to escape is seen as the only alternative to dying in
squalor and pain. While there are few surprises, it's executed with
real conviction, Frankenheimer's superb direction complemented by
excellent photography from Ric Waite and production design by Michael
Z. Hanan. That said, it is annoying that Warners' DVD has been
needlessly cropped from fullframe into 1.85:1 widescreen, a reverse
cropping that is just as bad as panning-and-scanning widescreen films
into fullframe. While most of the 167 minutes it's not too damaging,
there are some close-ups that become way too tight at times, although
it's generally only a momentary distraction.
12 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Brutal misgivings among comrades in arms., 8 February 2003
Author:
Michael O'Keefe from Muskogee OK
John Frankenheimer pain stakingly chronicles prisoners of war struggling to survive in an ill run Confederate prison camp during the Civil War. New prisoners are savagely introduced to the pecking order in this small pit of hell. Strong images support the story line for this well written and produced epic. Featured cast members in this trial of humanity are:Frederic Forrest, William Sanderson, Jarrod Emick, Jayce Bartok, Cliff De Young, Justin Henry and William H. Macy. It is hard to find fault in this glimpse of the notorious place called Andersonville.
10 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Without bias., 7 March 2001
Author:
Gettysburg2000go from Rutland, Vermont
As a practicing Civil War re-enactor, I have found myself drawn into viewing
this movie several times. I considered the movie to be the result of a very
thorough and extensive research done by its creators. Everything was
completely in accordance with what we in the re-enacting community call "of
the period". I am speaking of authenticity. I have studied the true-life
accounts left to us in the words of both Union and Confederate soldiers
found in exerpts from the pages of their personal diaries, and in so doing,
I have been able to combine this newly acquired knowledge with other
experiences and studies related to this time period in our nation's history.
After doing this, I was then able to formulate unbiased opinions about the
movie.
We have to remember that the people of the middle nineteenth century were
men and women just like us. There was nothing "mysterious" about their ways,
their words, their fears and all their other emotions. I felt that these
natural human reactions and outlooks were well portrayed by the actors of
the movie, "Andersonville".
11 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
One of the best Civil War films Ever, 25 November 2002
Author:
Tilla-2 from US
As a Civil War buff, this is one of my favorite films.
If you enjoy romantic war stories, don't rent this. There are no romantic
plot lines or even women in the movie. The closest thing to a romantic
plot
line would be when Martin speaks of his wife and asks Josiah to send her
his
wedding ring.
If you enjoy war films that are not cluttered with cliche romantic plots
and
are more like buddy films this one is for you. The acting is amazing, and
the story if fresh look at a little known part of Civil War history.
The only problem with the film is time spent watching the men weaken and
starve. Those scenes could have been cut a bit, but overall they are
needed
in order to feel the despair of the men.
The story and characters are completely enthralling and I recommend this
film to everyone. Just be prepared to cry.
8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
An excellent, serious film exhibiting high standards., 7 July 2001
Author:
nz man from New Zealand
This film won three awards and was nominated for several others. The
directing, acting, editing, script and cinematography are all of a high
standard. It seemed quite authentic, and this is confirmed by the comment
below. Even if you do not normally like 'films of this type', this film is
worth watching or even studying, because of the overall excellence.
An admiration of the quality of this film is probably the reason that the
brutal story that it portrays did not place a heavy or negative feeling upon
me. Lesser films would contaminate the story with adding romance, light
comedy or bright flashbacks. This film powerfully gives the viewer a strong
sense of realism.
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
One of the best movies I have ever seen, 5 June 2006
Author:
panties5000 from Wilmington, United States
If you ever find yourself with a long afternoon and nothing to do, head down to the video store and pick this one up. For drama-lovers, this is about the most dramatic movie around. Andersonville reveals so much about human nature as clans of prisoners form and battle each other for limited resources, some become delusional and die in the throngs of madness, and others starve from sheer despair. The complex characters in the film are its most compelling element, and their realism will convince the viewer that he is watching these scenes unfold from the guard tower. I was glued to the screen for the whole (very long) movie. It gets even better when you realize that 15,000 prisoners actually died in this camp in the Civil War.
7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Perhaps the best of the TNT films., 8 December 1999
Author:
yenlo from Auburn, Me
Generally these TNT original productions are nothing what one could call spectacular. This film from John Frankenheimer however is one of the better ones. A tale of imprisonment and survival inside the notorious Confederate POW camp known as Andersonville. Civil War historians would probably with certainty find various historical inaccuracies but it is worth viewing although a tad on the long side. Good performances from many of the cast but it seems Frederick Coffin and William Sanderson do the best job as two of the ring leaders of the camps vicious "Raiders" gang. A must see for any Civil War fan.
8 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
A Civil War Morality Tale..., 10 December 1998
Author:
Quinn-5 from Brooklyn, NY
"Andersonville" is John Frankenheimer's most pivotal step in his quest to regain a perch on Hollywood's "A" list of directors, and he is in true Frankenheimer form in this latest of TNT, Civil War-oriented mini-series. Quite simply, it's about a group of Union soldiers and their span of a year doing hard time in the most infamous of Southern prison camps, and one of the most infamous of prison camps in recorded history, Andersonville, Georgia. Andersonville the prison is literally a fenced-in cesspool of humanity: it's grossly overcrowded, there's not enough food to go around, there's no shelter from the heat or cold, the creek used for drinking water is the same used as a latrine by the camp's entire population, and, on top of all this, there's a vicious gang of marauding prisoner's that prey on their weaker counterparts, taking their clothing and what little food they may have for themselves. I began watching this film expecting a smaller, tamer, less original version of "The Shawshank Redemption", and at several points you'll think likewise: we witness acts of both harsh brutality and stirring compassion, and follow our hero's as they decline physically and struggle to succeed morally. But the period setting and the freshness of the subject make it appealing more often than not. What's interesting about this big-budget, well-hyped production, though, is that the entire cast are relative unknowns, the lead role being held by a young Broadway actor named Jarrod Emick, who's acting demonstrates he is just that: a Broadway actor. He projects his voice and over-emphasizes words as though onstage, and when a dramatic monologue is in order, his facial contortions rival the worst case of constipation one can imagine. The length of "Andersonville" is a problem, as after awhile it just runs out of stuff to say, and appears to be chipping away at the minutes until the conclusion. After all, how many scenes can one sit through of watching deteriorating men rot away in sheets of rain or stifling holes in the ground . . . look for a deliciously vicious role by Frederick Coffin as the evil prison gang's leader, and William Sanderson as his cowardly right hand man. There's also a small role by William H. Macy as a Confederate prison inspector who discovers the camp's horrors and condemns it . . . great score by Gary Chang.
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