Rent Shenandoah (1965)

Splendid - Shenandoah review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Andrew Mclagen’s American Civil War epic set in rural Virginia towards the end of the War. Stewart plays Charlie Anderson who after his wife passed away these 15 winters gone has raised 6 sons and a daughter. The war is coming over closer but he refuses to get involved - we built this land and have worked on it on our own - we never needed no slaves and i ain’t looking to buy any. Some of his sons feel it’s their duty to Virginia but he refuses. His daughter gets married off to handsome Confederate captain but he is called away as soon the wedding is over. Charlie is particularly doting on his younger son Boy even though his birth killed his mother and then due to a misunderstanding Boy gets taken by some Union soldiers as a prisoner. This finally goades Charlie and his boys into action to rescue him and they find themselves plunged into a war none of them wanted. An excellent large cast including McLure, Ross and Wayne Jr but it’s Stewart who is just superb. A firm but fair man who sticks to his principles but with a self deprecating humour and when you realise just what his actions will cost it becomes a much darker film - very good indeed 4/5

Flawed Western (spoiler). - Shenandoah review by Steve

Handsome, decently acted but feebleminded Civil War western. The film is unmistakably indebted to John Ford, with its knockabout comedy, broad support characterisations and lengthy punch-up which all eventually gives way to some sentimental drama.

James Stewart is a Virginian farmer with so many boys it is only possible to count them when they are sitting down to dinner together, saying grace. He refuses to send his men to fight, arguing that they are needed on the farm and it isn't his problem anyway. Of course he eventually discovers if they don't go to war, the war will come to them, and he has to get involved.

While there is impressive technical work, the film gets tied up in thematic contortions and idiotic plot lurches. Stewart was a pro-Vietnam voice, and would have seen a parallel with his family of refuseniks being forced to go and fight in an unpopular war. But in taking the side of the pro-slavers he actually makes his intervention hard to admire. So it doesn't work as propaganda.

It's not just that the story is relentlessly absurd, it is also badly constructed. Scenes are so disconnected, they grind against each other. New episodes start that have forgotten how the last one finished. The finale when the youngest son, lost in the war, turns up at Sunday mass propped up on a crutch is the last straw. Too many plainly ridiculous things have happened.