Amazon.com
Originally titled
The Killing Box, George Hickenlooper's surreal Civil War movie recounts a gruesome (and fictitious) episode in American history in which a phantom army of Confederate and Union soldiers attacked and crucified armies on both sides. Adrian Pasdar plays Captain John Harling, a Union soldier assigned to investigate the Alabama 51st, a Confederate regiment his superiors believe survived a deadly battle and have made strange bedfellows with a group of Union soldiers. Harling enlists the help of former mentor and current POW Colonel Nehemiah Strayn (Corbin Bernsen), the only member of the 51st to have actually survived the attack, in helping him find and deal with his former soldiers. Assisted as well by an African clairvoyant (Cynda Williams) who escaped one of the massacres, Harling and his men search for the ghost brigade, and when they find them, they learn their terrible secret. Lushly photographed and well acted, Hickenlooper's film sustains a spooky atmosphere even though it never provides any truly scary moments. But what makes the film engaging is the mystery behind the murdered soldiers, the underlying issue of racism, and scenes of injured soldiers suffering in a time before anesthetics. While Pasdar's somber narration has more than a passing resemblance to
Apocalypse Now (ironically Martin Sheen makes a brief appearance),
Brigade has its own merits and is worthwhile entertainment. Fun trivia game: try and spot soon-to-be-famous Billy Bob Thornton, David Arquette, and Matt LeBlanc.
--Bryan Reesman
