Sherman's March

Sherman's March (2007)

*** (out of 4)

Good, well-detailed documentary taking a look at the controversial move by Gen. William T. Sherman to take 60,000 Union troops through the heart of Georgia and all the way to the sea. SHERMAN'S MARCH is certainly an extremely well-made movie that goes into great detail in regards to just about everything that was going on during this period. We get a brief history of what Sherman had been doing with his life up to the Civil War and then we get to hear how he was able to rise during the war. Once it comes time for the march we hear about the original plans, the fact that both Grant and Lincoln thought it would fail and we also hear about the changes in plans as things moved along. I think history buffs will be very happy with the way everything is shown here as we get some pretty good re-enactments as well as several history experts talking about the legendary march. There's a pretty good talk about Sherman's own thoughts on slavery and how his views were often quite different when he would actually meet slaves. While this thing isn't anywhere near the brilliance of Ken Burns' THE CIVIL WAR, it's still a good documentary that film and history buffs should enjoy.

So, documentaries are a very tricky game. After an awesome Civil War series, all other subsequent efforts are to be compared, measured and considered in the light of that awesome Ken Scott's work. Here, they tried well, and History Channel did their best to promote this footage with not so bad budget, actors, large number of Civil War buffs in mass scenes. The thing is, this film is still very much on the mediocre level and does a fairly sour job, especially when it comes down to main heroes dialog and portrayal. Not bad, must say, but nothing new or exciting or revelatory