Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

GwydionMW I likes the first and last 20 minutes, when there is dramatic action. But between the two, there was much too much banal personal stuff. None of it done well enough to be interesting. I found myself uninterested in their personal concernI also found it offensive in the way it showed a lot of misbehavior on the Union side but not similar stuff among the Confederates. Both sides were intolerant and the Confederates were first with conscription. The Confederate government was so corrupt that the front line troops were hungry even thought the Confederacy had plenty of food. (Enough for General Sherman to live off later.)The battle scenes were realistic, but at the end of the day it was unclear what had happened. An explanation afterward would have improved the film for me.

Libretio CLASS OF '61 Aspect ratio: 1.33:1Sound format: StereoIn 1861, class members from the West Point Academy are torn apart by the outbreak of the Civil War.Gregory Hoblit's OK historical drama makes an obvious point - virtuous men are rendered blind by conflict - though the production seems a little stilted, despite authentic period detail and a cast of talented newcomers (Clive Owen, Christien Anholt, Josh Lucas, Andre Braugher, Laura Linney, etc.), toplined by Dan Futterman as a conscientious Southerner who takes up arms in defence of slavery, pitting him in direct conflict with his former Northern friends. The movie's emphasis on such a misguided - though sympathetic - character is particularly brave, but the drama is otherwise flat and superficial, and Hoblit's direction is efficient rather than inspired.

Havan_IronOak Class of 61 tells the story of a group of friends who are cadets at West Point at the outbreak of the civil war. While the story starts slow and lets us get to know about these folks as people and as friends, it ends abruptly at the Battle of Manassas.Not surprising really in that it was meant as the pilot for a TV series dealing with the civil war.As a movie it really doesn't stand alone all that well. Just as you get to know and care about the characters the film is over.

Polly_Plummer I just saw the last two-thirds of this movie on TV, and was very impressed by it. I'm not fond of Civil War movies in general, because they are bound to be very sad. This movie fulfills that promise, but nonetheless I found myself liking it a lot. The Class of '61 succeeds in humanizing both sides of that terrible war, by giving you characters on both sides to root for. Rather than rooting for the North or the South, you instead find yourself rooting desperately for peace so the lives of the men and women involved will not be destroyed. Though many important issues are involved in the plot, the movie is about the characters, not about the issues. The acting is superb, especially for a TV movie. The relationship between Shelby, a southern gentleman, and Lucius, his friend and slave, is particularly compelling. This movie, on the whole, is very worth watching despite its inevitably depressing end.