The Last Confederate

I'm not sure how I missed this movie, which is supposedly based on the true story of Robert Adams.  Why does Hollywood have to make it so difficult for me to admit in public circles that I teach and write about the American Civil War?  Here is the dramatic overview from the official website:

Just as they met, The Civil War
was upon them. All he knew was tied into the conflict
and the one thing that he held to was his love for
this northern woman. He knew that he might sacrifice
all he had if he entered into this conflict. He believed
in protecting the life he had, and the life he wanted,
but he knew the price would be great. His quest for
survival grew as the war worsened. He was captured
and sent to prison; he lost his best friend; his town
was burned and the war was all but lost. Robert’s
connection to Eveline weakened and he lost the path
he believed he was on. Her love for him would be the
one thing that could carry him through.

and here is a review from Variety.

Any number of reasons exist not to believe anything happening here,
in alleged 1864: modern haircuts, modern dentistry and clothing that
looks like it came off the rack at an antebellum JC Penney.  Race
relations, however, are the first tipoff that we're in a revisionist
wonderland: Establishing shots display well-dressed children, black and
white, frolicking together on plantation lawns; besuited black men play
chess with their supposed oppressors. Why, we wonder, did we fight a
dang war anyhoo? "To make a better life," someone tells transplanted
Yankee Eveline McCord Adams (Gwendolyn Edwards), for whom Robert Adams
runs a "Cold Mountain"-esque gauntlet after he's captured and abused by psychopathic Northern soldiers….Unless everyone from Harriet Beecher Stowe to Shelby Foote has been lying to us, the pic's attempt to portray the slave economy of
the Old South as some kind of day camp isn't just inept, but offensive.


I thought Mickey Rooney was dead!

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4 comments… add one
  • Mannie Gentile May 29, 2008 @ 21:34

    “In a time when reenactors are almost as torpid as Mickey Rooney…”

  • Kevin Levin May 29, 2008 @ 14:15

    Chris, — It’s almost like watching Pearl Harbor where you end up hoping that they all die.

    D, — Mickey Rooney lives!

  • d May 29, 2008 @ 14:00

    Gads. Even the trailer was a waste of time. But it’s good to know that Rooney is, in fact, still among us.

  • chris May 29, 2008 @ 10:46

    Oh, man, I got that on Netflix and I had to fast forward through most of it. It’s unwatchable. You know it’s bad when Variety magazine calls you out on points of authenticity.

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