"What movie would you like to see made on the Civil War?" Topic

To start off, I would love to watch a movie adaptation of Shelby Foote's 'Shiloh'!

The voyage of the Shenandoah could be interesting.

follow the valley right through the war? nice!

The hunt for John Wilkes Booth.

Kearsarge and Alabama.

The Iron Brigade from Brawner's Farm to Antietam.

The same for the Stonewall Brigade.

Jim Mundy

Yes a Band of Brothers type film following a famous unit would be great.

Shiloh is excellent. Kersarge vs Alabama would be excellent. Chattanooga would be good – especially battle above the clouds. Chickamauga is good. The Battle of Atlanta would be really excellent. The battle of Franklin TN if only to show the futility of war. I think the Batle of Nashville would be too difficult to make. The real prize of them all would be the Vicksburg campaign. Vicksburg is my choice.

Do you guys want a feature film or a documentary?

A feature film around Fredericksburg (a la Gettysburg) could be great. No, the Gods and Generals Fredericksburg scenes don't cut it!

Vicksburg is full of possibilities, as well.

Antietam would be a good choice

Chickamauga

William B. Cushing sneaking up and detonating a mine under the Albemarle. Start it off with some action shots of the Albemarle fighting its way through some Union wooden ships (that ship that fired through its own bow to hit the Albemarle beneath the ship? Brilliant!).

Heck, Cushing looks like a younger Kevin Costner.

The Iron Brigade would be nice.

I vote for the biography of CPT Sam Grant (MAW) through to LTG Ulysses S. Grant (ACW). It would have to be a 12-part-2-hour-per-episode-mini-series. Think of the terrific computer generated battle scenes and all of the blue screen movie sets that can be generated digitally! WOW!!

Best, Lowell

I think the story of Wilson's Creek would be quite stirring. It took place early in the war in a border state, both sides fought hard, and the personalities of the commanders on both sides were interesting. I'd like to see Nathaniel Lyon portrayed on the big screen.

A movie about Perryville would be interesting to us ACW buffs, but might be more frustrating for the general public.

Marston moor?

A feature film. See, with the Iron Brigade you have an elite unit with a unique uniform (everybody wants to be different). You can do a build up of training and anecdotes like having the main character be responsible for the incident where somebody put gaiters on Gen. Gibbons horse. Then their introduction to combat at Brawner's Farm. The fight at South Mountain and then the climax at Antietam. Fighting it out in the cornfield. Frantic, hysteric fighting at the turnpike fence with the rebs only yards away. The US Sharpshooters featured nearby in their green uniforms (hey look, another uniquely uniformed unit!) Hoods sweeping counterattack. Falling back through the cornfield. The main character could then help man Battery B and witness Gibbon manning a cannon and running up the screw. Then the aftermath of the battle with the Cornfield flattened and full of bodies.

Would you pay to see that?

1863 NYC Draft Riots.

Street gangs and thugs, Police armed with "Locust" sticks/clubs, IC's then regulars (called up north days after they fought in Gettysburg), newspaper publisher with a Gatling gun… lynching and arson, cowardice and bravery…

Makes the goriest "super hero"/action yarn seem pale in comparison.

Battles of Franklin and Nashville.. last gamble.

Anything out west.

Battle of Franklin where the tooters and shooters went into battle together. Kind of bias as my Ggggrandfather was killed in that battle. He was in a Confederate Alabama Regiment and is buried somewhere around Franklin.

battles along the Mississippi lots of good untold action and gun boat battles.

I would like to see one that follows Jackson through the Valley Campaign, although Gods and Generals sort of does that.

Another vote for Kearsarge v Alabama.

Rob

Something about the blockade runners or the West Point class of 1846. The latter smacks of the WW2 reference to the 1915 West Point class as the "class the stars fell on," but for the ACW.

Anything where Jeb Stuart's beard doesnt look like a brillo pad glued to his chin.

Something about Confederate blockade runners; the story of the Alabama, as noted above; and my wife thinks Jefferson Davis' wife Varina had an "interesting and tragic" life and submits this as a subject, "from the woman's point of view."

The battle of Chancellorsville! The battle of Antietam!

Shiloh of course!

1863 NYC Draft Riots.

Gangs of New York did that. Crappy movie otherwise.

Just as long as there aren't any girls in it.

How about a movie about Alonzo Cushing and Gettysburg

I'd like to see "Corporal Si Klegg and His Pard" made into a movie. This book is an excellent fictionalized account of the author's experiences during the ACW. Check it out!

Honey Springs? I think as a subject the war in the Indian Territories would be full of drama possibilities, the divisons amongst the tribes and families caught between the Union and Confederacy and having to take sides. Throw in Quantrill's Confederate guerillas lurking around and the 1st Kansas Coloured Volunteer Infantry and you have a rich canvas!

Missionary Ridge--spectacular scenery and a win for the underdogs from the Army of the Cumberland.

Perhaps something on the riverine fleets--they could be quite good as CGI.

Grelber

One with troops under the age of40

One on William T Sherman.

Shiloh Fiery Trail is actually pretty good. I would say Antietam needs a good film. Otherwise something focused on the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, Duryee's Zouaves.

David Farragut the U.S Navy's first Admiral.

Running the Forts at New Orleans, on to Vicksburg and the battle of Mobile Bay.

What's not to like ?

Antietam.

Not one!

Any movie they make will be screwed up, presentist, modernist, anti-historical with obligatory stereotypes. I find the modern stereotype of all blacks as a wise, educated, and morally transcendent saint as revolting as the Sambo, Steppin-Fetchitt stereotypes of a latter age. Much the same with Southern whites portrayed as honor graduates from the Reinhard-Heydrich school of civil-military relations, and the Northern White as a corrupt diseased war profiteer waging the war on the backs of the noble, downtrodden, wise, and canny Irish Immigrant whose degree of moral sainthood is just below that of the blacks.
Oh yes, also the snapper plots of strong, determined, modern thinking, femminazi women, who are also Rambettes who secretly go into action and win the war.

All that is needed to complete this is a Jeff Goldblum type character who infiltrates Robert E Lee's headquarters to put a virus into the computers of the Army of Northern Virginia and bring it down at Appomattox.

Please Spare me! No, spare history! To a historian movies like the above are like movies of child abuse and snuff films. Hasn't the war suffered enough?

Aren't we a ray of sunshine.

I think if you wanted to do a movie it couldn't just be about battle X. It would have to based off of a book either fiction or non-fiction. More likely fiction. Jim Mundy would make a good movie.

To be successful, it would absolutely have to be fiction. Probably with some romance thrown in, and a few historical liberties thrown in. If it were well made with a reasonable attempt at accuracy I don't care. It doesn't have to be 100% accurate to be good. I don't care that the Tigers in Saving Private Ryan were T34s and have obvious T34 road wheels. Its still one of my favorite movies.

I think a mini-series like Band of Brothers based on Sam Watkins' Company Aytch would be good

I'd like to see "Corporal Si Klegg and His Pard" made into a movie

Of course! I smacked my forehead for not thinking of that first. It has action, it has a buddy theme, it has comic relief and a bit of romance thrown in.

Kickstarter anyone?

One where the Confederates win?