Strike the Tent

The Last Confederate is a film conceived and brought to the screen by its star Robert Adams. Apparently with considerable help from the South Carolina Film Commission and state government. It certainly presents the Confederate cause in the best possible light, something of particular interest to South Carolina since it was those folks who were the first to secede and get the drums beating out a fast tempo.

After saying that it's also a good romantic film showing the love of star Adams's great great grandfather Julian Adams and his Yankee sweetheart from Pennsylvania played by Gwendolyn Edwards. With flashbacks to the Ante Bellum period we see Adams in the last days of the war knowing full well the cause was lost, but as he says it they're now fighting for a way of life. Of course the question of slavery is kind of glossed over as you would expect.

As romance however the film is first rate. After being taken prisoner and spending time in Elmira, the Union's Andersonville Adams and two friends escape and go to Pennsylvania because that's not what his captors would think he would do and because Edwards has fled there to be with her grandfather, an aged Mickey Rooney. Rooney his scenes mostly in bed delivers a fine performance, a man you can watch live almost his entire almost century life on the big and small screen.

The romance has some real poignancy to it. The film was shot on a lot of actual locations for the story. As history many will find it suspect.

OK, first and foremost i like good "realistic" war films, secondly i like films even better if they are based on fact. This was both, and a bonus to both of those critical points is the lead role, who is a descendant of the "historical" character who is the main focus of the film. My wife enjoyed the film too, hard to find a film both of you can watch knowing there's going to be some bloodshed mixed in with a love story, but it works and it works well. Its hard to tell at times this is not a big budget film, but reading about it elsewhere you know its not and you can appreciate it even more. You can see there's a lot of personal effort gone into getting this film made. You see so many people on here saying "well thats 90 minutes of my life wasted" well this is just the opposite, i wish it had been longer, you get a great insight into some real peoples lives during the civil war, and the authentic backdrops and locations just add to its quality.

Because of my sympathy for the Cause, and a glowing review I had read elsewhere, I was prepared to love this movie, but I can't. I can recommend it, but with the following qualifications: It is a good story, but not well told. The principal problem is the story is chopped up into numerous flashbacks, to the point where the "unity of time" is lost. Not only is this mildly confusing at times, but it prevents the full power of the story from developing.

The acting is average at best. The script, surprisingly, does not seem to have much room for a wide range of emotions, but rather most scenes are executed with the same solemn sincerity. I wasn't yawning, but I was surprised by the lack of vitality in some scenes that really called for it.

The cinematography was very fine. The story was not greatly partisan; it could have made much more of Union Army atrocities against Southern civilians, but took the high road and chose to illustrate, but not dwell on them. It leaves me with a strong sense of the tragedy that was the War, and I think and hope that was one of the makers' main intentions. So it is successful on some levels.

Very well done, especially considering the budget. I liked the independent, realistic feel to it, vs manufactured or contrived Hollywoodism.

I read somewhere a reviewer saying that this was "revisionist history" wrt this movie's depiction of how the slave owners treated their slaves so nicely. Absolutely untrue... there really wasn't that much depiction of slave owners with slaves to begin with, and to see one white gentleman actually talk nicely to a few slaves was totally believable.

That same reviewer also said this movie was about "nostalgia" for the pre-war south. But I think it was more about southerners protecting their tradition, and then finally knowing when to surrender (hence the title "Strike the Tent"). Otoh, the extra featurette on the DVD about how the film was conceived did show that Julian's intention was to proudly depict his much beloved, land-owning family history.

The film depicts pre-war southern life favorably, yet doesn't demonize the north (much), even after it's clear that the south had lost the war and had to free their slaves. It was a good depiction of one side "protecting their own", but pretty much intentionally blind to the issue of slavery itself. An interesting "real life" depiction of real history--at least from a southern, white-man's point of view.

The story is based on a true person (although only a corporal in real life portrayed as a captain). The family connection of the writer and actors was appreciated. The movie had unnecessary cursing and a sex scene, all of which could have been omitted and the story would have been enhanced. These "modern" devices insult the imagination and taste of viewers like me. My Christian family could have enjoyed it without these elements. The story and action stalled about three quarters of the way through, kind of like a sermon gone too long.

Appreciated the inclusion of a "Copperhead" character, a Northerner who had sentiment for the Southern society and cause. There were a multitude of these "Southern sympathizers" throughout the North, but one would be hard-pressed to find such facts in history books. Good movie except for the elements already mentioned.