"The 10 Best Civil War Films" Topic

Which is missed…? (smile)

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Amicalement
Armand

Glory is my favorite.

Gods & Generals.

Nahh, I'm kidding. That's one of worst films ever made.

"The Horse Soldiers" with John Wayne and William Holden remains one of my favorites, after "Glory."

Ken Burn's Civil War is the best movie(documentary) on the subject. Other great movies include Gettysburg, God's and Generals, and Glory.

Cold Mountain is an excellent movie, but it is not a Civil War movie. It takes place during the Civil War, but it is not about the Civil War; it is a love story. Lincoln is just an Ok movie and once again it is not primarily about the Civil War; it is a character study.

If you are going to put "The Civil War" in the list in the first place, since it is not a "film" then put it at #1.

Shenandoah.

On that list Glory and Ride with the Devil are my favorites.

The General

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Major Dundee ?

The Red Badge of Courage isn't bad.

I liked a small film called The Colt and Errol Flynn in Rocky Mountain – both sentimental but then I am a sucker for horses and dogs.

"Wicked Spring" was pretty good imho and perhaps deserves to be in that list.

I did not dislike "the Hunley", and wuld watch it happily again.

"Men go to battle" is like Cold Harbor. A movie that is set in the period of the Civil War, but not about the Civil War (very much in the tradition of The Duelists)

All good tittles!.

Amicalement
Armand

As a serious dramatic work, my money is on John Ford's "Red Badge of Courage," starring Audy Murphy. For spectacle, I would go with Ted Turner's "Gettysburg," even if it has some problems. "Ride with the Devil," deserves to be more widely known and appreciated. I also like the movie ("Ironclads"?) about the Monitor and the Merrimac, but it may have been made for TV, rather than theatrical release.

From the article I see that Red Badge of Courage was chopped down from how it was shot. I REALLY noticed that when watching it and it took what might have been a great movie and made it meh…

Anyone know if the original footage has ever been restored in a director's cut?

Got to agree "ride with the devil" is definitely a overlooked film. I thought because it didn't cover the mainstream image of blue against grey it wouldn't be worth watching! Luckily I was very wrong and it's got to be in the top 10 civil war films.

Gone with the Wind. Not much in the way of combat scenes but heartbreaking when the Yankees burn Atlanta.

Gone with the wind is no more a Civil War movie than Cold Mountain. It's just a love story in ACW costume. Best WAR movie is without a doubt Glory.

The list is not about the ten best civil war battle films, simply the ten best civil war films.

Easy The Civil War. I've lost count of how many hours I spent painting while listening and watching it. Then would come Glory and Gettysburg.

Christopher

1. Gettysburg
2. Glory

Not to downplay Ken Burns' "The Civil War" in any way, but I do not consider it to be a movie. It is a television documentary. "Cold Mountain" is about the Civil War, it is just mot a war movie in the conventional sense. I am pretty sure that it took a lot of inspiration from Homer's "The Oddysey."

Not a fan of Glory. I don't think it is a bad movie. I just don't think it is that good either. I suppose it is as good a dramatization as we can hope for from Hollywood.

@Ostrowski-The movie Gone With The Wind does not depict the destruction of Atlanta by Sherman. It depicts the destruction of the Confederate supplies by Hood's retreating forces.

The book Cold Mountain (which I loved) was heavily based on the mountain volume of Dan Trotter's Civil War in North Carolina trilogy. The torture of the farm wife, the scene with the fiddler and more came straight from Trotter's book. I liked all three of his books, divided up by state region: "Ironclads and Columbiads" (coastal), "Silk Flags and Cold Steel" (piedmont), and "Bushwhackers" (mountains).

I liked the film. I think it certainly is a Civil War film.

My three favorite films all have flaws but good battle scenes:
Red Badge (Houston)
Glory
Gettsyburg

Civil War films that don't show the actual Civil War are not on my list. The rest use the ACW as a backdrop. Might as well put "Mercy Street" on the list.

When does media become a "film"? The "Civil War Journal" was pretty good but does that count as a "film". Its defiantly a documentary film but so is Burns' Civil War.

imdb.com/title/tt0294032

I think we should not be holding documentaries and movies to the same standard. One is to inform the other to entertain. The best doc is still "The Civil War", the best movie is IMO "Gettysburg."

Easy The Civil War. I've lost count of how many hours I spent painting while listening and watching it. Then would come Glory and Gettysburg.

I'm with Axebreaker there.

I've lose count of the number of times my wife has come in, heard David McCullough's or Sam Waterston's voice on TV and said "Painting Civil War again?"

I understand what you are saying, but where do you draw the line? Would a movie about Lincoln which showed only incidental clips of the fighting qualify as a Civil War movie? How about a movie on John Ericcson's construction of the Monitor? Or a movie about one of the Civil War's spies? If so then how would you exclude one of my old favorites, Pharoah's Army, which involves only a small number of Union soldiers and some Confederate civilian sympathizers, but which has the war thoroughly entwined in it? Or an Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge?

Would be great to see a film documenting the fall of Richmond. These stories need to be told.
God bless Robert E Lee.