Class of '61

The "Class of '61" looks at the splitting apart of the Union through the lives of three West Point graduates and their ramifications of families and friends imparting a sense of the times; sentiments, circumstances, and political climate. From Sumter to First Manassas, this didactic presentation is an even blend of drama and history with enough of each to entertain and inform though it does spread itself to a necessary thinness. Not sufficient as a stand alone drama, "Class of '61" is worth a look for anyone interested in Civil War history. C+

Great premise and cast. Really disappointed it didn't make it to series, think it had tons of potential.

Needed more time to breathe, I think we needed more bonding scenes of the cadets in West Point. Probably needed a mini series where chapter 1 ends with the class breaking up for war.

Given they only had 90 minutes, I think it needed to be focused on 1 character, But you could see they were setting up plotlines for the series with underground railroad etc.

As noted in other reviews, very soft on the Confederacy and Southern slave owners. If you don't have the time to be "warts and all" don't just show the good side.

As an Irishman, I appreciated the scene where 'Da' spoke to one of the sons in Irish and he hadn't a notion. Good way to show the disconnect between the generations. Although I am not sure about some of the Oirish accents from some of the British cast (Clive Owen, Sophie Ward) - though they were great in every other respect.

I just saw the last two-thirds of this movie on TV, and was very impressed by it. I'm not fond of Civil War movies in general, because they are bound to be very sad. This movie fulfills that promise, but nonetheless I found myself liking it a lot. The Class of '61 succeeds in humanizing both sides of that terrible war, by giving you characters on both sides to root for. Rather than rooting for the North or the South, you instead find yourself rooting desperately for peace so the lives of the men and women involved will not be destroyed. Though many important issues are involved in the plot, the movie is about the characters, not about the issues. The acting is superb, especially for a TV movie. The relationship between Shelby, a southern gentleman, and Lucius, his friend and slave, is particularly compelling. This movie, on the whole, is very worth watching despite its inevitably depressing end.

I likes the first and last 20 minutes, when there is dramatic action. But between the two, there was much too much banal personal stuff.

None of it done well enough to be interesting. I found myself uninterested in their personal concern

I also found it offensive in the way it showed a lot of misbehavior on the Union side but not similar stuff among the Confederates.

Both sides were intolerant and the Confederates were first with conscription. The Confederate government was so corrupt that the front line troops were hungry even thought the Confederacy had plenty of food. (Enough for General Sherman to live off later.)

The battle scenes were realistic, but at the end of the day it was unclear what had happened. An explanation afterward would have improved the film for me.

Class of 61 tells the story of a group of friends who are cadets at West Point at the outbreak of the civil war. While the story starts slow and lets us get to know about these folks as people and as friends, it ends abruptly at the Battle of Manassas.

Not surprising really in that it was meant as the pilot for a TV series dealing with the civil war.

As a movie it really doesn't stand alone all that well. Just as you get to know and care about the characters the film is over.