Alicia I love this movie so much

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

bkoganbing To this day Andersonville will connote unspeakable barbarism and suffering in a prisoner of war camp. Yet one has to note that part of the problem was the lack of resources the Confederacy had to maintain prison facilities like Andersonville or Libby.Before Ulysses S. Grant took command of the overall Union Army the Union and Confederacy had regular prisoner exchanges. It was shown however that prisoners never obeyed the terms of their parole, but got back into the fight. Grant changed all that when he stopped prisoner exchanges. With the north having so much more population it was only a matter of attrition before the south had to give up. The south had not the resources to maintain prison facilities, civilian or military. The south could barely feed its own population. Note the adolescent prison guards on the stockade wall. Kids that young were in the Confederate Army in the end and not just drummer boys.However the German emigrant colonel played by Jan Triska employed some barbarism of his own. He encouraged 'The Raiders' a group of some of the lowest low lives you'll ever see to form among the prisoners, to rob them, to terrorize them, to inform on them when necessary. That was a particular Andersonville touch in penal discipline. No big names are in Andersonville, but that added to the realism. John Frankenheimer got an ensemble performance second to none and an Emmy to boot. Standing out are Frederic Forrest as the Massachusetts sergeant who sees his men the best he could, William Coffin as the head of the 'Raiders', and his second in command William Sanderson the last word in bottom feeders and young Blake Heron as a drummer boy prisoner.One thing that producer Ted Turner did not do was get too explicit as to just what young Heron might have had to deal with among a bunch of isolated and starving men. Then again this was a made for TV movie, on the big screen prison rape might have been dealt with.Andersonville is an excellent production, a must see film for anyone even mildly interested in the American Civil War.

Venge Having looked forward to seeing this film for quite a while, I was quite let down when I finally managed to view it. Andersonville is a story that needed to be told, but this telling of the tale rattles and rambles trying to find its sense of direction. The production suffers from a rather poorly written script and mediocre acting. There were some decent scenes, and a few good performances, but by and large this was a rather jumbled, boring, over-long, predictable mess. It could have been, and deserved to be, so much more.So unless you really have to see a movie about this notorious prisoner of war camp, I'd give this one a miss.

panties5000 If you ever find yourself with a long afternoon and nothing to do, head down to the video store and pick this one up. For drama-lovers, this is about the most dramatic movie around. Andersonville reveals so much about human nature as clans of prisoners form and battle each other for limited resources, some become delusional and die in the throngs of madness, and others starve from sheer despair. The complex characters in the film are its most compelling element, and their realism will convince the viewer that he is watching these scenes unfold from the guard tower. I was glued to the screen for the whole (very long) movie. It gets even better when you realize that 15,000 prisoners actually died in this camp in the Civil War.

Tilla-2 As a Civil War buff, this is one of my favorite films. If you enjoy romantic war stories, don't rent this. There are no romantic plot lines or even women in the movie. The closest thing to a romantic plot line would be when Martin speaks of his wife and asks Josiah to send her his wedding ring.If you enjoy war films that are not cluttered with cliche romantic plots and are more like buddy films this one is for you. The acting is amazing, and the story if fresh look at a little known part of Civil War history. The only problem with the film is time spent watching the men weaken and starve. Those scenes could have been cut a bit, but overall they are needed in order to feel the despair of the men.The story and characters are completely enthralling and I recommend this film to everyone. Just be prepared to cry.