Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All

I first saw this great film about 6 years ago, and have seen it twice since then; and have only two weeks ago gotten it on DVD (At Wast, as Elmer Fudd would say!) Diane Lane (as usual) excels in this story of a young girl age 14, who marries a 40's Confederate veteran and it basically tells the story of (literally) the rest of their lives. Very touching,moving at times, and VERY well acted. Also turning in a stellar performance is Donald Sutherland as the veteran, and a Cecily Tyson, also in her case AS USUAL! It's simply an excellent film from start to finish - even the supporting cast does that; support the film with exceptional acting. I recommend it highly!!!

I gave this movie a '10' primarily because of the acting skills and filmography. Being a Southerner, at times some movies about the South are a little hard to swallow. I found this movie very interesting as it gave insight not only into situation but the feelings and thoughts of the characters. I especially enjoyed seeing Mr. Ed Grady in the roll of Robert E. Lee. It sometimes amazes me that he is so versatile and yet has not shown up in more movies. I believe we should have more movies in which the actors are so well suited to their parts, rather than just using some of the more established names in the movie industry as 'draws', whether they have the ability to 'become' the character they are portraying or not.

I recently watched the Netflix version (does anyone know if it was edited a lot...curious...never saw full mini series on TV)and really enjoyed it. This is a must see. I found this to be one of the most romantic and endearing stories about respect, love, loyalty and the sanctity of marriage. These days portrayed in the story are long gone and they will never return. The cast did an incredible job: Donald Sutherland and Diane Lane were amazing together! Sutherland plays a Southern gentleman/heal/charmer and after reading the book there is no one that I can imagine in that role but he. Diane Lane, Cicely Tyson, Anne Bancroft, lets not forget Blythe Danner who in my opinion stole every scene she was in! Incredible cast, amazing storyline it was a joy to watch and made me want to read the book. I read the book to get some detail and to see if there were any signifigant differences and there is so much detail and some differences but the mini series really took the basics and created a visual masterpiece from an incredible story. I recommend seeing it twice because there are some scenes where it is hard to understand due to the Southern Drawl accents and what-not. Now that I think about it why a 9 instead of a 10? I may have decided that there were some scenes that could have been left out but for the most part I was really enjoying myself.

I found the show lengthy but interesting. The story is told in flashback sequence...a style I find particularly annoying. It also does not contain subtitles which add to viewing. Diane Lane is magnificent and Southerland does well also. One foible is that the boy Marsden shown in many of the Civil War battleground sequences has dark brown eyes while the adult Marsden (Southerland) clearly has light blue eyes. Tyson does a great job in her role as the housekeeper/former slave girl. The character of Marsden shows little or no love or care for his wife and children just doing whatever he pleases whenever he wants to...pretty accurate and indicative of a husband from the South at this time in history....

Along the lines of Miss Jane Pittman, even has Cicily, I stayed involved all the way through, enjoyed it enough to buy a copy so that I could view it without commercials. Donald is a brute, the widow deserves all the bonuses that she got, in the end. a good tale. easier to stay with that the book.