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If you're even mildly interested in the War between the States, this film is worth watching. It is great historical story telling. No flashing sabres, no cavalry charges, no carnage -- just the story of a sorry group of Union soldiers stumbling into the farm of a Confederate woman and her son and taking as much as their captain's conscience allows. This quantity moves up and down as events unfold affecting his sense of humanity in conflict with his sense of duty to his men and his cause. Ultimately, he reaches a compromise that any of us would be hard put to top.

I appreciate the historical treatment of the war in Kentucky, a slave state that tried to stay neutral but eventually opted to remain in the Union under mysterious political circumstances involving the detention of certain legislators. Roughly half the soldiers from Kentucky fought for each side, but there's never been much treatment of what it was like to have lived there through those times. This film makes a great contribution simply in the "look and feel" of the time and place.

It is characteristic that this film is not better known. It obviously lacks most elements that a successful theater film needs: heroes, villains, conflict and resolution, romantic love interest..

Everything is topsy-turvy here, nothing works out as it should, everyone is clumsy, sad, angry, hurt and hungry and nobody has a solution for anything. In short: it is war and it is hell for everybody involved. People try to do best, but interests, allegiances and so called duty interfere. The picture transports us back in time to the Civil War with an intensity seldom seen in today's cinema. Straightforward honest images of an intense beauty. The actors are very well cast for the story and they make the characters come truly alive in front of our eyes.

A silver dollar in a heap of nickels!

Thought provoking, humbling depiction of the human tragedies of war. A small, but altruistic view of one family's interactions with the enemy during the civil war in Kentucky. This movie lessens the "glamor" of war; showing it's effect on not only the soldier but the entire family unit.

A lot of today's movies show war as an opportunity to highlight the "hero's" and other glamorous features of war, but very little attempts to show the true effect war actually takes on a community. This movie attempts this through a retelling of a person's memory of those days. This movie is stated to be loose translation of an actual events, when in reality, this movie is probably a factual reality of hundreds, perhaps thousands of "actual events" during the civil war. I highly recommend those interested in our civil war to watch this movie.

Let's face it, there aren't that many great Civil War films out there. "Glory," "The Horse Soldiers" and "Ride With the Devil" are the only ones I recall off hand; "The Blue and the Gray" and "Cold Mountain" also have numerous good points. "Gettysburg," on the other hand, is a bloated, melodramatic, artificial bore (made exclusively for Civil War buffs, whatever that is); I've never seen its prequel.

The peculiarly-titled "Pharaoh's Army" is a 1995 indie film about a real-life incident that took place in Kentucky during the Civil War. Because Kentucky was a border state the allegiances of its people were split between North & South. I'm sure it was hard to be neutral.

THE PLOT: A Union captain (Chris Cooper) and four soldiers invade a young widow's farm in the Kentucky wilderness (the widow is played by Patricia Clarkson); since her husband fought and died for the Confederacy they supposedly have the right to her livestock, even though she argues that she and her boy will likely starve come winter. One of the soldiers is accidentally wounded and they are forced to stay for a few days. The captain attempts to be a gentleman and even helps out on the small farm, but he fails to win any kind of favor with the widow, who rightly views them as nothing more than invading enemies. Events turn deadly and the captain, even though a good-hearted gentleman, is forced into an intense position.

Although the story is based on real events and takes place during the Civil War, this is not an epic war film with big battle scenes, strategizing generals, etc. The entire film takes place in and around the widow's small farm and focuses solely on the events that take place there. This limited scope may turn some viewers off.

Even though this is a small indie film, the score, cast, acting and writing are all top notch. The story is fairly slow-paced and there are no cataclysmic events to arouse those with ADD. The first time I saw it, I thought it was good, but not great. I viewed it again about a year later (earlier this summer) and liked it even more. Lately images of this picture have popped into my mind and something occurred to me: The way the film plays out and is presented to the viewer is REAL LIFE. What I mean is that it's almost as if someone went back in time and actually filmed the actual events. This is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. I tire of all the silly hollywoodisms common in modern American cinema -- supposedly humorous one-liners, unrealistic action scenes, excessive explosions, melodrama, unconvincing dialogue, etc.

The ending is powerful as the captain, a good man, is thrust into a position of cold-blooded murder in the name of war. It's intense, and so REAL. The insanity of war can easily turn the best of us into heartless killers.

The cover of the DVD prominently features Kris Kristofferson, but his role as a pro-South Kentucky preacher is relatively minor.

FYI: "Pharaoh's Army" was actually filmed in Kentucky, no doubt near where the real events took place.

BOTTOM LINE: This is a small film about a minor peripheral incident during the Civil War. It's not a big league Hollywood picture with the corresponding melodramatic, pretentiousness like, say, "Saving Private Ryan" (although that film has some undeniable positive qualities, like the D-Day invasion, there are way too many forced, artificial moments and dialogue -- remember the moronic dog tag scene?). "Pharaoh's Army" is generally a quiet film and likely won't blow you away or anything. What it has in its favor, however, is unpretentious REALISM. It's refreshing; and it will stay with you.

GRADE: B+

Okay, I kept waiting for the little "Gem" that other reviewers promised was in this video, but I must not be sharp as others because I never caught what that was! Regardless my main reason for viewing this piece is mainly due to my being a fan of Clarkson's work. This film itself is supposedly "inspired by true events", but during the horrors of the civil war, there were probably many stories similar to this one! Also, it's a bit on the slow side if you are looking for lots of gun fighting action, but then you remember (like I did), that this truly happened & that's what makes it worth watching.