When American filmmakers look at wars fought in their own country, they tend to be more interested in reconciliation than in victory. Their reasons are primarily commercial; they don't want to offend part of their potential audience by making them the enemy, as foreigners so often are. But historical distance plays a part, too, and relatively few films have been made about the Revolution. T…
1960 John Wayne John Wayne's first turn in the director's chair is not his finest moment. For a novice filmmaker—even for a 53-year-old novice—it's not a bad debut, but the director-producer-star lacks sensitivity to the more realistic, human moments on which true epics are based. The large-scale battle scenes work well enough, but the characters never rise abov…
Love and Sacrifice 1924 D.W. Griffith In many ways, D.W. Griffith's attempt to use the American Revolution the same way he had used the Civil War in Birth of a Nation is a better film. It lacks the blatant racism, excessive sentimentality, and religiosity; the important scenes are neatly built and suspenseful. But America also lacks the scope and the energy of the earlier film, and, most i…
The Clansman 1915 D.W. Griffith Long, involving, and poisonously racist, D.W. Griffith's tale of war and reconstruction is the archetypal “flawed masterpiece.” As a landmark of world film, its importance cannot be overstated. It's the first American epic, and it was such a smashing commercial success that it essentially created the film industry as we know it now. That…
1964 Stanley Kubrick Seen from the perspective that only time can give, Dr. Strangelove now seems almost inevitable. During the coldest days of the Cold War, someone simply had to satirize the paranoia that drove it. But Stanley Kubrick and writers Terry Southern and Peter George did it so brilliantly that their work has improved with repeated viewings over the years. The ultra-deadpan humor and …
1926 Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton Buster Keaton is the forgotten genius of American silent films and this Civil War comedy is his masterpiece. In terms of plot, execution, pace, humor, and philosophy, it is as relevant and enjoyable now as it was when it was made in 1927. Viewed simply as a war film, it is the polar opposite of Birth of a Nation. Where Griffith's picture is long, sentimen…
1993 Ronald F. Maxwell This overachieving mini-series turned theatrical release may be the most historically accurate depiction of a Civil War battle ever put on film. It's also long and deeply flawed, but still worth watching. Based on Michael Shaara's Pulitizer Prize—winning novel The Killer Angels, it tells the story of the three-day battle from the point of view of the ke…
1989 Edward Zwick Writers Kevin Jarre and Marshall Herskovitz and director Edward Zwick cleverly disguise a basic formula of the American war movie, apply it to real events and produce the finest depiction of the Civil War ever to appear on the big screen. They leave themselves open to charges of historic revisionism, and their work is unbalanced, with many of the strongest moments held back unti…
1939 Victor Fleming, George Cukor Hollywood's most lavish and popular epic is really overrated. As escapism based on the Civil War, its romanticism is thick, sticky and unashamed. The on-screen crawl states as much before the film begins: There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be…
Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo 1967 Sergio Leone Unlike the other two films in his “Man with No Name” trilogy, Sergio Leone's Civil War tale is a full-blown epic. Using some of the same cast members, narrative ideas, and musical and visual themes, he mythologizes both the war and the West. Like all of Leone's work, the film should not be seen as realism. It's no…
1959 John Ford This is the only feature-length film John Ford made about the Civil War, and it's far from his best work. Even so, it has some worthwhile moments and is based, however loosely, on two historical incidents, Grierson's Raid and the Battle of New Market. As the story begins, Gen. Grant (Stan Jones) is unable to take Vicksburg because the Confederates have it so well defe…
1992 Michael Mann “Their kids would have such great hair!” That's what a publicist spontaneously said of stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe after a preview screening of this historical romance. The remark explains to a large degree the film's huge boxoffice success, and it remains as much a love story as a war story. So is Casablanca. But the movie is also an e…
1939 Henry Hathaway Director Henry Hathaway and star Gary Cooper don't really remake their hit Lives of a Bengal Lancer with this overlooked sleeper. It's more accurate to note that Hathaway cheerfully pillages his favorite plot elements, gives them a few twists, and relocates them in the Philippines. Cooper plays another soldier who's less flamboyant, more intelligent, and j…
1951 John Huston John Huston's adaptation of Stephen Crane's novel is one of Hollywood's most famous cases of studio interference in a film that might have been great, or at least very good. As it is, the story of fear and bravery has some striking moments that remain mired in a story that lacks focus and clarity. It's difficult to say exactly where blame should be pla…
1966 Robert Wise Robert Wise's anti-imperialist epic is a sort of blue-collar Lawrence of Arabia. When it was made in 1966, its implicit criticism of American participation in the Vietnam war was more significant than it is today, but the film remains entertaining, complex, and notably lacking in propaganda. At one point, the film seems to finger communists as the villains, but before it&#x…
1949 John Ford Despite a nearly non-existent plot, the second installment of John Ford's “cavalry trilogy” is the strongest part. It is the only one of the three films made in color and Ford gets superb work from two of his favorite collaborators, John Wayne and Monument Valley. A voice-over prologue sets the scene: “Custer is dead and around the bloody garden of the i…
1965 Andrew V. McLaglen In many important ways, this is one of Hollywood's more accurate attempts to show what the Civil War was like, both on the battlefield and at home. But director Andrew McLaglen and writer James Lee Barrett never let strict adherence to accuracy get in the way of their historical soap opera, and that's why the film has been such an enduringly popular hit. It i…
1941 Raoul Walsh Raoul Walsh's sprawling and hugely inaccurate biopic is also contradictory. On one hand, star Errol Flynn makes Gen. George Armstrong Custer a dashing, attractive hero. But behind the glamour, the character is a vainglorious, publicity-hungry idiot whose success comes from dumb luck and a wife whose family is well connected politically. In short, this Custer is a 19th cent…
1975 John Milius John Milius's rousing adventure is a direct cinematic descendant of Gunga Din and Charge of the Light Brigade, refracting history through a severely distorted cinematic prism. Think of it as a Republican historical fantasy inspired by real events. As such, it is escapism, not American History 101, and it is particularly well-crafted escapism. In 1904, the reigning superpow…