But with Day-Lewis’ performance and Spielberg’s heartstring pulling, it makes him all the more monumental. These films show the problem of slavery in America and how humanity was at stake that time. Day-Lewis gives another tour de force performance—in ironically a historic personage his Gangs of New York character despised—as a folksy and elaborately researched rendering of the president that preserved the Union and ended the institution that threatened it so greatly. Glory: 1861-1863. Another 19 wins & 101 nominations The Worst! Lincoln correctly points out that as the war was winding down, the president recognized this and used his political clout, and some less than honest sausage making, to end slavery once and for all. Thus, he claimed to understand the American Civil War, but scoffed at the concept that only the “losers” of the conflict committed such mistreatment to prisoners of war. Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood | Stars: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil. A dense drama, it deserves more recognition than it has known. The American Civil War (1861-65) was a catastrophic moment in US history. It could even be argued that Civil War-based classics like “Glory” or “Gettysburg” are outliers. Expand . Don’t worry Rhett, you still got the last word. Not exactly John Ford’s best film, Horse Soldiers is one of the few times the legendary director ever directly dealt with the Civil War. Turning Lincoln’s life and the Civil War into a monster hunting story, it uses vampirism as a metaphor for … As the literal center stage for rising tensions during the Antebellum period before the war, including with the Bleeding of Kansas and the famed Missouri Compromise, these areas were too removed from the armies fighting along the east coast to significantly matter. But for its era, Gone with the Wind featured major progress from Hollywood and even earned Hattie McDaniel an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, the first time an African-American was ever recognized (though she was not allowed to attend the film’s earlier Atlanta premiere due to segregation laws). This is also the basis of Edward Zwick’s wistful Glory, a film about this heroically doomed charge. The Civil War is a central focus of American history and American historical scholarship, and yet our image of the time is of Scarlett O’Hara as much as it is of Abraham Lincoln, and the pictures in our heads of Abraham Lincoln come from movies more than history books. However, war finally comes to town when Confederate Bushwhackers and Johnny “Rebs” slaughter a nearby community, incentivizing the family’s oldest son, a pre-Psycho Anthony Perkins, to pick up a gun and fight back. Movies about The American Civil War: 8 movies, sorted by rating. It was mainly fought on grounds of the fact whether it was okay to boycott slavery. A manipulative woman and a roguish man conduct a turbulent romance during the American Civil War and Reconstruction periods. The second is when Shaw looks out at the South Carolina coast toward the sea, and then back again towards the oblivion of war and hellfire above Fort Wagner. Share movies about the american civil war. Washington won the Oscar, but all bring an A-game that swells with James Horner’s career best score, heightened even further by the ethereal voices of the Boys Choir of Harlem. Ride with the Devil makes time for the randomness of life, continuing long after the war ended for its central characters, forcing them to move on, but it also strikes at a chord about the cultural differences between those in Lawrence who built a school that required the community to be educated, and those that think “freedom” means no social responsibility. 1. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012) is no such film. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. The Civil War is arguably the most trying time in American history: 600,000 men lost their lives during the five-year engagement, our country was almost divided, and a president assassinated. The Civil War is the central event in Americas historical consciousness. The conflict informed characters from many of his classics, including Stagecoach (1939), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and The Searchers (1956), but Horse Soldiers is the rare instance he addressed the war head-on for a full feature length film. Gangs of New York was the masterpiece that Martin Scorsese never got to make. Eventually, the banality of violence is brought to a tipping when William Quantrill leads all of the above on his infamous ride to Lawrence, Kansas where stationed Union soldiers, free black citizens, and just about any male old enough to pick up a rifle is executed. While maintaining Spielberg’s patented sentimentality to mostly successful effect, Lincoln more importantly attempts to simultaneously demythologize the sixteenth U.S. president while deifying him as the patron saint for executive action. But it takes on a horrific, bloody visage when the protests turn to violence, and African-Americans are lynched in the street by a community meant to be on the side of Our Better Angels. Slavery was the biggest problem of America, and after the civil war, so many things changed in America. Long before the sleep-inducing, Stonewall Jackson-worshipping Gods & Generals, Ronald F. Maxwell had much better success at recreating a Civil War saga with Gettysburg, an epic version of the battle that turned the tides of the Civil War. Named after its central hero’s greatest desire, Red Badge follows a young private in the Union army that wishes to wash away his shame with a crimson gush after fleeing the field of battle in an act of cowardice. Forget Sherman, the biggest scorched earth left in this Technicolor wonder is Scarlett’s pleas for “Ashley Wilkes” behind a misty-eyed, backward-looking Max Steiner score. In what I consider to be the most underrated film on this list, and certainly its director’s most overlooked picture, Ang Lee studied an American conflict from an outsider’s perspective for Ride with the Devil. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan. A multitude of experiences led to that fateful day outside of Fort Wagner, both for escaped slaves and free men, and all are explored and viscerally felt here. But for a film that attempts to narrate the entire 19th century American experience, it could not skip the Civil War, which appears as a segment directed by John Ford, and features Harry Morgan as Ulysses S. Grant and, of all people, John Wayne as William Tecumseh Sherman. The Girl Spy: An Incident of the Civil War; Glory (1989 film) Gods and Generals (film) Gone with the Wind (film) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Grand Canyonscope; Grandma's Boy (1922 film) Great Day in the Morning; The Great Locomotive Chase; The Guerrilla Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) . The result is a fascinating, frustrated mess. Granted, much of it had to do with the dwindling supplies and resources in the southern states as the war dragged on than it did with any sort of pure malevolence, but Leone (with heavy revisionism) imagined that the better-funded Union was just as cruel to prisoners out of spite. But it was one gallant rush that has been eulogized and memorialized for generations. Also, I actually think despite its more cynical elements, it is still a wonderfully harrowing tale that, much like Frazier’s novel, recounts another side of the Civil War. The film succeeds on both fronts thanks to two secrets, Daniel Day-Lewis and Doris Kearns Goodwin. David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. Pic credit: TriStar/Paramount. Cold Mountain: (2003) IMDb score: 7.2 Winner of 1 Oscar. Divided over three days between three points-of-view, (primarily John Buford, Joshua Chamberlain, and James Longstreet respectively), Gettysburg is either the most faithful rendering of a battle onscreen or the greatest effort at a reenactment ever assembled. Like so much in life, petty squabbles and small-minded racisms are laid bare for their pointlessness when history and political realities are confronted, as seen in the film’s closing moments when the riots and reacting Union army obliterates petty gang rivalries. Other Union soldiers are depicted better when feuding over a bridge with a Confederate army commanded by Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley—who incidentally really did engineer a failed campaign from Texas into the American Southwest in 1862 in an attempt to take Santa Fe, gold resources along the Rockies, and cut off California—but all parties are ultimately presented as moronic, fighting over a bridge that neither side truly needs. Share movies about the american civil war? Netflix:-Dances With Wolves (1990) Genre: Adventure, Drama, Western About: The American Civil war, Indians. by Stephen Dalton As Matthew McConaughey starrer 'Free State of Jones' hits theaters, THR's film critic ranks the top movies about the bloodiest battle in U.S. history. More than in the scenes of Kidman and Zellweger, this is embodied by Jude Law’s moody performance as W.P. Still, William Holden is terrific in the film, and it shines a light on the Vicksburg campaign where a Union cavalry unit led by Wayne and Holden disrupt Confederate supply lines. IMDB: 8.2/10. As they try to outdo each other, the violence of the American Civil War proves to be a major obstacle. Lincoln (2012): A bio-picture of the life of Abraham Lincoln during the closing stages of the Civil War focusing on his efforts to secure Congressional approval of adopting the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery.There is some profanity and racially charged language in the film. 97 Metascore. “What are the best movies about the American Civil War?” We looked at 236 of the top Civil War films, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question! And one of the most fascinating wars to explore on film is the American Civil War. Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. RELATED: 15 Best War Movies … Based upon Daniel Woodrell’s Woe to Live On, Lee and screenwriter James Schamus turned the camera on the oft-forgotten about border wars of Missouri and Kansas. Set in the South during the Civil War, the sweeping historical film is widely regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made. But it makes for a powerful backdrop in one of the best Westerns ever made. Ray Winstone also wonderfully embodies the viciousness of the Confederate Home Guard in the picture, an organization not known for its mercy toward deserters or their families. These are the Best Movies on American Slavery, Hollywood Films on American Slavery is … It also allowed Scorsese to showcase a major incident during the Civil War that is often overlooked due to its ugliness: the Draft Riots of 1863. After it got the axe mid-production at ABC, Ted Turner picked it up initially for TNT, but eventually persuaded a distribution deal out of New Line. Here are a few movies based on American slavery that … It is a nuanced account of the war where the “heroes” are shown early to slaughter unarmed family men, but the opposing Union antagonists will also murder Jake’s pro-Lincoln German father simply because he was Jake’s father. Nonetheless, it represents an interesting reason as to why there are so few true blue Civil War movies in the latter half of the 20th century: a genuine distaste for the subject. Despite taking place during the Civil War, Spielberg is content with rarely visiting the battlefield here, and instead focuses on Lincoln’s genius in a Capitol submerged in discontent and disdain. The movies I’ve listed contain all or most of the issues listed above, and are in no particular order. The term became more eminent when the Americans started to slave the black people during the American Civil war. Robert Gould Shaw commanded the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry into only one full-fledged battle before he lost his life (and the 54th lost over half their numbers). Most films about the Civil War try to appear realistic, however much they bend the truth to dramatic effect. The film is led by a competent Matthew Broderick as Shaw, but the real power comes from its cast of volunteers that includes Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Andre Braugher, and Jihmi Kennedy. Hence, this relatively low ranking on a Civil War list. Set in a New York that was only beginning to fall into the clutches of Boss Tweed, most of the film takes place during the height of the Civil War in 1863. The film’s central hero of Jake Rodel (Tobey Maguire) isn’t even an American; he’s a German immigrant who traveled with his father as a boy to Missouri. Enjoy, for an excellent Civil War oriented binge watch (or re-watch) over your favorite American holidays. War movies released during wartime rarely have time to reflect. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…, Watch The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly on Amazon, Kenny Omega and Cody Rhodes Will One Day Cross Paths in AEW, Goldberg's Return on Raw Highlights WWE's Legends Problem, The Jane Doe Murders Review: Compassionate True Crime Doc Provides Closure, Captain America: Civil War Blu-ray Special Features Reveal Where Thor Was, Marvel's Civil War: 12 Versions of the Story, Introducing A Brand New FREE Quarterly Magazine From Den of Geek, How EVE Online Is Changing Players' Lives for the Better. Until now my top Civil War series was the ubiquitous Ken burns production but I think this series it better if you actually want to understand the war rather than just look at old photos. Despite its light-hearted title and often even lighter frivolity, Friendly Persuasion is in many respects about how persuasive the call to violence and war tends to be. He knows where his fate lies. As a North Carolinian myself, it is admirable to see a Southern Civil War experience far from the plantation life that is reminisced or mocked in so many other narratives. However, his best friend is Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich), a man from a family with gentry pretensions, albeit only George Clyde’s (Simon Baker) family is rich enough to own slaves—including Daniel Holt (Jeffrey Wright). After the film tested poorly with early screenings, MGM cut the film down to a barebones running time of 69 minutes, stitched together only by voiceover narration lifted straight from Crane’s prose. Director Sergio Leone fancied himself as something of a history buff and had studied with great enthusiasm the horrors of the Andersonville camp years before the third part of his “Dollars Trilogy” came about. A British-made film about the War of Independence was never likely to succeed with American audiences, but the box-office failure of this expensive, high-profile film did not necessarily stem from nationalistic prejudice. Image: Amazon. Over 150 years after the end of America's bloodiest conflict, we count down the 12 best Civil War films that have been released. Such Southern revisionism is ironically why Hollywood shied away from the subject years later, but it served as a monument to it here. Yes, like the much more abhorrent Birth of a Nation (1915) before it, Gone with the Wind rewrites the history of the Civil War to be one of Southern aggrievement, whitewashing the horrors of slavery along the way. This African American unit fought bravely in an effort to win freedom for themselves and all slaves. Hence why this 1951 film is considered a mutilated classic in some circles. It was guerrilla warfare between Americans. 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