Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

emilybrockmancc This movie gave an interesting perspective to the civil war, allowing the viewer to see it from a cadets view. Each cadet had a different reason to be fighting, not all pro slavery even though they were on the confederate side. They fought for something that they personally believed in, they were fighting for what was right. Views on slavery were changing, especially during the civil war (Lincoln's presidency). I think that the cadets were beginning to see that people are people and on some level are similar. The movie allowed for you to almost experience the war with them and show the journey and ideals relevant to the time. Overall it was a good movie containing key elements of the civil war.

anthonycalamitacc As far as a movie goes, it was fairly entertaining. Many times the script seemed cliche at best and cheesy at worst. The romantic element of the movie seemed rather overplayed, and as far as a war movie goes, the plot should have relied more heavily on the war and the politics and less on the romance. Frankly, a movie about a bloody battle in the bloodiest war in American history was no place for a romeo and juliet story. The reenactors did an excellent job, the uniforms, weapons, and battlefield effects were very accurate, and the battle itself did a good job of showcasing American military tactics at the time (specifically, the way the tactics resulted in a high death count, something the US learned from very quickly after the war.) Overall, worth the watch.

svenjergensen This movie's narrative is split between two stories: a handful of boys at a military academy who are learning to become men; and a handful of military commanders planning their fate. Unfortunately, one of these stories is far more interesting than the other. The boys at the school prank one another, get into trouble, hit on the local girls, and dream of becoming war heroes. We see the same "brother in arms" narrative that has pervaded most movies, except here is seems forced and unnatural. The actors do their part and do it pretty well, but I feel at times the writing is pretty clunky. Occasionally we cut from the boys to various military leaders (and President Lincoln) and hear their perspectives, ideas, opinions, and watch as they try to out-fox one another. I was far more interested in this b-story than I was seeing young boys awkwardly dance and talk to girls. The film really picks up in the third act when we FINALLY get to see some of the war. The production is great and could stand beside any Civil War in terms of quality. By this point in the story, however, I had lost patience with the characters and just kind of zoned out. Strong ending, but the first half of the movie is pretty rough.

christoplewiscc For the most part the movie was historically accurate but there are a few nit picky things that you could pick out. For instance the Confederate army had wide brim hats not kepi hats, and the Union should have kepi hats not wide brim. There was no cavalry during the battle in the movie, and the Confederate general Breckinridge was suppose to advance with all his troops when a key battery went to reload, not just the corps cadets as shown in the movie. After the battle Sam Atwell died the same day after his injury instead of what really happened where he died 66 days after his injury. More likely than not Confederate soldiers wouldn't break rank to help a black woman. They also wouldn't tell anyone that they were against slavery because that was the main reason people were fighting for the south. But when the kids did advance they did indeed lose their shoes in the mud thus "Field of Lost Shoes". The confederates were suppose to win the battle, General Breckinridge did make the very hard decision to send the kids into battle. Every year they have an annual memorial service for the people that died in the battle where they name all the people who died fighting.