Union Bound

Dreadful. Low budget does not per se mean a bad film, so there is no excuse. Turgid dialogue and poor direction. The actors are pretty good to be fair. The music is decent and the actors made a fist of it. But whoever wrote it should maybe find another career. Also the director is culpable.

This film is not about Hollywood Hype but has a quality of production with a story that will impress. While delivering great entertainment this film is based on the true diary of a Union soldier that finds himself imprisoned behind enemy lines.

New friends, new allies and a new purpose to live gives the main character the will to go on. Through many tests and trials he learns that freedom is never free. In order to give freedom to the slaves a price beyond measure is paid by so many.

Union Bound is not washed in the typical movie clichés of filth, language or poor hygiene that most Hollywood films have. Most war films would have us believe that people lived in filth and ate garbage.

War was not pretty but people had pride in their uniform and respect was important to them. Where most script writers cannot finish a sentence without a curse word this film is true to its time.

No it is not a 50 Million dollar tax right off Hollywood production but rather a quality film about real characters played by real people.Certainly a film that history buffs will enjoy....perhaps even learn something they never knew before.

Union Bound immediately immerses you in how it felt to be in the Civil War. It opens with 4,500+ civil war buff extras doing battle along with dramatic visual and sound effects which is extremely moving. The real impact comes from multiple unexpected and unlikely heroes. Throughout the film you can't believe things that actually happened to people during the civil war, who helped who, and why they did it.

The attention to period details such as darkening the teeth was good. Cinematography was well done even though much of it was in swamps and difficult terrain. A few scenes were disturbing (expected for this type of film).

Great film to experience!

I thought it gave us a view of life outside of the battlefield and major troop movements we've seen in other movies/docs/shows of the period. It really focuses on what happens if you're not lucky to survive or be killed in action, but are caught by the enemy. The audio and soundtrack were good and not overdone. The cinematography and directing varies by shot a little but captures views of NC we haven't seen before on the big screen. Good color in most shots. The editing needed to be tightened-up a little and could have dropped 10+ minutes of long hangs on shots after the action/point was made to move the movie along a little faster. The main 3 actors as Joseph Hoover, Thomas J. Ryan, and Jim Young were believable, especially Tank Jones as Jim Young, very emotional performance. Trish Cook as Ms. Macintosh wasn't really all that part could have been, just reciting lines and not becoming. Overall worth the time if the period interests you. Feels like the first chapter of a set (I'd see).

This film has problems; some of them severe. Production values would probably head the list. The film appeared to be made for less than $50,000. Obvious use of re-inactment ceremonies by various Civil War groups who trot out once a year to do fake battle were pretty much what this film used. That didnt cost a thing, except for the cameraman and editing. The B actors worked for scale, I am sure, and the story, although interesting, was not strong enough to overcome some lulls in the action and dialogue. The dialogue, most of the time, was not too bad. Some of the secondary characters were obviously first-time actors (or at least I hope they were). It appeared as if several community play groups may have been involved as well. The two primary buddy actors, Ryan and Young, were not too bad, but at times, the dialogue was stilted. Not a bad story, but could have been better with a few more dollars spent on it.