Charlie Anderson, a farmer in Shenandoah, Virginia, finds himself and his family in the middle of the Civil War he wants nothing to do with. When his youngest boy is taken prisoner by the North, the Civil War is forced upon him.
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CinemaSerf
7
By CinemaSerf
The “Anderson” family are farmers hoping to sit out the American Civil War in Confederate Virginia by basically minding their own business. Dad “Charlie” (James Stewart) regularly has conversations with his six sons and one daughter over dinner as to what axes to grind they might have to cause them to participate. They have no slaves, nor want them; neither do they see any purpose in risking their lives or their livelihood by joining a conflict that doesn’t appear to be going very well. Then serendipity takes an hand as the youngest son (Philip Alford) is apprehended by a passing troop of Yankee soldiers and imprisoned. What now ensues sees “Charlie” and his family set off to find the missing boy whilst that youngster finds himself uncomfortably close to the dregs of the war as he manages to escape captivity and tries to make his own way home. Stewart’s characterisation works on multiple fronts here as he plays a loving father, a determined farmer and also a decent individual who knows the brutality of war yet refuses to sacrifice his integrity to it - even when it impacts tragically on his own family. Alford also delivers quite well as the sixteen year old, as much as because he engagingly epitomises so many of the real soldiers who fought here who were that age and no more equipped for battle than they were to fly. In many ways it depicts a more fearsome lawlessness than was largely missing from this genre by 1965, but it does it in a thoughtful fashion leaving us with something to think on, too.
