Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

beorhouse Big fan of American Civil War era films here, and this one is close to perfect. It's brutal, riveting, horrifying, and enlightening all at the same time. That it's actual history instead of speculative makes it that much more shocking to watch, and is only topped by the story of Nat Turner as told in Birth Of A Nation (not the original version which supported the Ku Klux Klan and was responsible for their revival). This is the "Nazi concentration camp" story of the American Civil War. Be ready for lots of sadness at the utter inhumanity displayed.

Spike Neil I'm laughing a lot. Not because the film is funny in any way but at the lack of acting in this film. I'm not an actor, I am a musician...But quite honestly, if I played my guitar as badly as these actors play their roles then I would expect to starve to death!! I think the director must have been working in the porn industry at some point as the level of direction is strangely similar!! I will persevere to the end though.....Cos I like a laugh

zeeboe82 "Andersonville" is a TV film which premiered on Turner Network Television in 1996. It stars William H. Macy, (Fargo) Thomas F. Wilson, (Back to the Future) Cliff De Young, (The Craft) William Sanderson, (Blade Runner) and Fredrick Forest. (Apocalypse Now) It is produced by Ted Turner, (Gods and Generals) directed by John Frankenheimer (Ronin) and written by David W. Rintels. (Not Without My Daughter)It is about a small group of United States soldiers who get captured by rebels during The War of the Rebellion in 1864 at the Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia. The kidnapped U.S. troops are taken via train to an enemy prison called "Camp Sumter", but nicknamed "Andersonville" by the inhabitants because it is located by a small railroad depot called "Anderson".Located in rural Georgia, thousands of members of the Federal Military suffer and die daily due to an acute absence of bread, vegetables, fruit, blankets, hammers, nails, wood, medicine, personal security, the attention of decent doctors and surgical instruments. There is also an overwhelming amount of disapproving overpopulated areas, meagerly clean environments and a great need of palatable water.The facility is run by Henry Wirz - A doctor-turned-secesh caption originally from Switzerland who migrated to the States in his early adult years after college (Specifically, Kentucky and later Louisiana) where he had his own medical practice. He joined up with the traitors in 1861 and was later injured in his right arm at the battle of Seven Pines. After the affliction, he was put in charge of the affairs at Andersonville. Perhaps due to his supposed previous pharmaceutical training he acquired in his native country.While Wirz's staff of guards are certainly dangerous individuals (who are always looking for a legal excuse to shoot Unionists so they can win a thirty-day furlough, which is the prize for killing a Lincolnite as long as it's within the guidelines of the law) the primary villains of the movie are a vicious, unmerciful, armed and violent gang of New York inmates called "Raiders".They were bounty jumpers before their imprisonment. (A bounty jumper was someone who joined the Nationals, collected payment while still in basic training, deserted, rejoined the Army of the Potomac in another region, got more money, abandoned their post again, only to volunteer once more and repeat the process until caught either by Uncle Sam or the rivals, if their misbehaving ways are discovered at all.)After establishing themselves at Camp Sumter, this pack of wild bullies eagerly and physically attack groups of new arrivals in an attempt to steal what belongings they have with them so they can increase their own survival in the desolate penitentiary. The authorities make no effort to stop this band of cutthroats, having no care for the well being of the Billy Yank's. The Johnny Reb's will even trade with the posse of infamous bandits.Despite what some audience members might think, this is not a pro-Union/anti- Confederate motion picture. While I do think there were a lot of things Wirz could have done, some things were beyond his control. The intense suffering that went on at Andersonville was not done on purpose by the Confederacy. It was a lack of resources that caused the hardships. There is a scene that shows Henry Wirz in a sympathetic light, a line that points out Northern prison camps are no better then Camp Sumter, and there are also two good Southerner characters and a lot of bad Yankees presented in the flick.I believe the reason why Andersonville gets the attention it does is because more people died there then any other institution during the United States Civil War, and this photo play is just telling their story. The mini-series is very honest, and no one group or person really gets blamed for the mistreatment of the convicts. It is sadly all apart of the hades that is war."Andersonville" is an anti-war film and certainly worth screening.

sddavis63 This is a sobering, if perhaps a bit too long, recreation of life in the notorious Confederate Camp Sumter (better known as Andersonville after the neighbouring community) which housed almost 50000 Union prisoners of war during the last year and a half of the Civil War. I found it difficult to determine from what perspective the story was being told - which perhaps makes it a fairly balanced movie. There's no doubt that the Confederate guards were portrayed as ruthless, and that Captain Henry Wirtz, the Camp's commander, was portrayed as both ruthless and perhaps a bit insane, but the bulk of the movie really deals with the problem of factionalism between the Union prisoners, as a group known as the "Raiders" establish their own ruthless control over the other prisoners, stealing from them, withholding supplies from them and sometimes murdering them. The first half of the movie dealt largely with this internal conflict, and was very interesting. The point at which the rest of the prisoners rebelled against them and finally, with Wirtz's approval, put them on trial, seemed to mark a transition in the movie. After their trial and the execution of the ringleaders, the movie took on more of an air of hopelessness (and perhaps became a bit less interesting), as the prisoners await a liberation that, in the movie at least, never comes, as the movie ends with the prisoners being transferred to other prisons.The movie begins somewhat abruptly with Union soldiers captured in battle being sent into the hellhole that was Andersonville, but there was no real historical context given. It might have been more interesting to see the camp from the beginning, and to trace the descent of the camp into what it became. The whole Andersonville issue is historically controversial, and the movie alludes to the controversy, with Wirtz pleading with a Confederate colonel sent to inspect the camp for more supplies, and many today think Wirtz was unfairly condemned after the war for a situation that was largely out of his control. I thought his portrayal in the movie was fair. Others complain that conditions in Union camps were also harsh, but that's neither here nor there for the purposes of evaluating this movie, which certainly presented a sobering enough look at the conditions in this particular camp - which was, after all, its purpose.The movie features not a stellar cast (there are some fairly well known faces, but no mega-stars) but a solid cast that did a pretty good job with their roles. 7/10