I first watched the movie when it aired on A&E and really enjoyed it. I even bought the DVD to use as part of my research for my Trenton game. However, it hasn't aged well.
The first thing that stood out was the lack of snow. The actual battle was fought in near-blizzard conditions, but in the movie, there's none at all. It reminded me of the old Battle of the Bulge movie with Henry Fonda, which also got the weather wrong.
The next thing that caught my eye was the church with the onion dome. There were no such structures at Trenton. It turns out the movie was filmed near Toronto, not New Jersey. Jeff Daniels even joked on a recent late-night talk show about the irony of filming a New Jersey battle in Canada.
Overall, the movie feels like a low-budget, made-for-TV production. Still, given the limited number of films about the American Revolution, I appreciated the attempt at historical accuracy, even if it wasn't perfect. Unfortunately, for my research purposes, it didn't provide much useful information.
There were also some inaccuracies with the uniforms and flags, but Jeff Daniels' performance as Washington was excellent—probably one of the best portrayals I've seen.
TMP link
