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.

Michael O'Keefe John Frankenheimer pain stakingly chronicles prisoners of war struggling to survive in an ill run Confederate prison camp during the Civil War. New prisoners are savagely introduced to the pecking order in this small pit of hell. Strong images support the story line for this well written and produced epic. Featured cast members in this trial of humanity are:Frederic Forrest, William Sanderson, Jarrod Emick, Jayce Bartok, Cliff De Young, Justin Henry and William H. Macy. It is hard to find fault in this glimpse of the notorious place called Andersonville.

nz man This film won three awards and was nominated for several others. The directing, acting, editing, script and cinematography are all of a high standard. It seemed quite authentic, and this is confirmed by the comment below. Even if you do not normally like 'films of this type', this film is worth watching or even studying, because of the overall excellence. An admiration of the quality of this film is probably the reason that the brutal story that it portrays did not place a heavy or negative feeling upon me. Lesser films would contaminate the story with adding romance, light comedy or bright flashbacks. This film powerfully gives the viewer a strong sense of realism.

Gettysburg2000go As a practicing Civil War re-enactor, I have found myself drawn into viewing this movie several times. I considered the movie to be the result of a very thorough and extensive research done by its creators. Everything was completely in accordance with what we in the re-enacting community call "of the period". I am speaking of authenticity. I have studied the true-life accounts left to us in the words of both Union and Confederate soldiers found in exerpts from the pages of their personal diaries, and in so doing, I have been able to combine this newly acquired knowledge with other experiences and studies related to this time period in our nation's history. After doing this, I was then able to formulate unbiased opinions about the movie.We have to remember that the people of the middle nineteenth century were men and women just like us. There was nothing "mysterious" about their ways, their words, their fears and all their other emotions. I felt that these natural human reactions and outlooks were well portrayed by the actors of the movie, "Andersonville".