Tells the story of the Confederacy's last great invasion of the north, in July 1864, and the subsequent attack on Washington, D.C. that almost brought the northern war effort to its knees. F... Read allTells the story of the Confederacy's last great invasion of the north, in July 1864, and the subsequent attack on Washington, D.C. that almost brought the northern war effort to its knees. Follows the campaign from Richmond to Petersburg, then to battles at Lynchburg and General ... Read allTells the story of the Confederacy's last great invasion of the north, in July 1864, and the subsequent attack on Washington, D.C. that almost brought the northern war effort to its knees. Follows the campaign from Richmond to Petersburg, then to battles at Lynchburg and General Jubal Early's fight down the Shenandoah Valley - defeating two Union Armies in the process... Read all
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Although Alfred also fought at Cold Harbor, Cedar Creek, the Peterburg Breakthrough and Saylor's Creek, his actions at the Battle of Monocacy and personal role in the strategic burning of the covered bridge were the highlight of his military service and the experience that he recounted most often to his family and friends during his long life.
~Fred Rohrer
For those who haven't already, I would purchase the 2-disc DVD in order to gain a great insight into the making of the film and some of the best reenactment footage around!! Director Kevin Hershberger and writer/historian John Pagano also provide a feature-length commentary which, in my opinion, acts as an invaluable tool for aspiring indie filmmakers of this genre. Truly inspiring!! Fans of history...be on the look out for more stuff from these guys!
The Music is great and hits the mark each time. I liked the emotional center with the woman's P.O.V. Voice Over telling us the story as if she already knew the outcome, but never let on, let us discover the story with her. Nice.
The actors did a great job on a tough Indie film budget, and they looked striking like the Generals and politicians they were supposed to portray. No other Civil War film has so accurately brought to life real characters from the 1860s. The combat was stunning and shocking, up-there with much bigger budget Hollywood productions. Overall, worth checking out.
That being said, I will say of the production values that they seemed pretty good for the most part. The video starts off with a woman obviously from the south speaking very poetically. That same voice and type of speaking appears a few more times but that's it. This video was included in the "Lincoln: Trial by Fire" DVD collection.
To be painfully honest, the video came off more of a bunch of Civil War re-enactors wanting to document what they do rather than be about some battle that saves the citry of our nations capital. (At least that's what the Summary says it's about.) There is no voice-over explaining to us what what was happening nor why troops were being moved into certain positions nor what happened that would spur them to take the action either side was taken. At certain parts there is a subtitle at the bottom with the name of the location and, at time, the name of the person in the frame which is fine but I kept asking myself "Why?". Granted, there is some dialogue like, for instance, you see a bunch of Confederate soldiers walking along a rode next to a fence where some women were hanging about only to have one of the soldiers run over to one of them who begins to almost plead him to just forget everything and come on home while he's saying he can't. Then, I think it involved the same two people, while he's back with those walking he runs back and gives her some kind of red fabric but not sure because he didn't have it on him just a few seconds earlier.
There were spots where the voice of the person talking was muffled but instead of hearing words, you heard whatever it was around the mic being rustled as if it was inside a saddlebag...you can see someone's mouth moving...just couldn't hear them. For the most part, you have men moving from place to place firing their rifles or a cannon or two but nothing to explain what was going on.
In places where a location was indicated in a subtitle on the bottom of the screen, never was a map ever shown showing us the bigger picture...only local maps thay may (or may not) have existed at the time. There may have been a year indicated in those subtitles but to be honest, I don't remember seeing them so I don't know how close to the end of the war these activities occurred (other than one of the re-enactiors stating that this was the 3rd attempt on Washington D.C. by the Confederacy).
My advice to future film-makers: if you want to tell us a story than do that...tell us the story. Don't just show us a bunch of people running around shooting guns at each other in different color uniforms. In a sense I was feeling much like the Confederate soldiers must have felt...confused and questioning what was the point. In all, this video had the promise of being different since it seemed to be telling it from the point of the Confederacy, it's just a shame it didn't live up that promise...nor any other.
Did you know
- TriviaTwo Union soldiers featured would earn the Medal of Honor for their actions at the Battle of Monocacy, and both were from the 10th Vermont Regiment. 1st Lt. George E. Davis for defending two bridges against repeated Confederate assaults until he set fire and retreated, thereby delaying the Confederate advance. Corporal Alexander Scott for braving enemy fire and rescuing his regiment's flag from capture.
- ConnectionsEdited from Wicked Spring (2002)
Details
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- Budget
- $400,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 47 minutes
- Color
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- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1