Customer Reviews

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All [VHS]

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Those are among the first lines we hear from Cicely Tyson in this wonderful movie.

I freely admit that I'm a sap for old movies and old things and old times. And perhaps that's why I love this movie so much. It opens at the beginning of the 20th Century, the early 1900s. As someone who's written a couple architecture books about this period of time, I'm happy to say that the historical aspects of the movie all looked good, so I was able to just relax and enjoy the flick.

We all think that the early 1900s were a simpler time and place but this movie presents a more honest view of history, particularly as it relates to women's issues. One of the minor plot lines presents the story of a woman who has lost her children forever because she sought a divorce. Another poignant scene is where Lucy (lead character) gives up on life after a tragedy in the family.

Laying in bed, she chews on crayons and tells her husband (Donald Southerland) that she's only "fuzz on a pillow." (BTW, crayons in those days contained lead, giving them a taste not unlike sweet tarts and said to be highly addictive. That's what I loved about this movie; it got the details right.)

I've watched this movie about 20 times and even though I've memorized many of the lines, I still cry and laugh and feel touched, stirred and inspired. I love the acting, the setting, the story, the beauty, the love affair between the old "Cap'n" and his beautiful young wife. It's believable, endearing and captivating.

The acting is first rate, too. I recommend this movie 100%.

Rose
author, The Houses That Sears Built

This was better than what I expected. I had read the book, and with a few very minor exceptions I think this rendition is just about as close to the original story (the *complete* original story) as any book based movie I've seen.

This movie falls in the catagory with some of the great ones like "Driving Miss Daisy", "Fried Green Tomatoes" and "Steel Magnolias".
It's not just a Civil War experience but a life experience and will keep you glued to the screen! I love this kind of movie and rate it as one of the my all time favorites.

I saw this movie years ago, when it first appeared as a TV movie. It amazed me then, and it amazes me now. There are so many great parts in this movie, so many poignant moments. And what a cast -- Diane Lane as Lucy Marsden and Donald Sutherland as "Captain" Willie Marsden, who she calls only "Cap'n."

The story is told through flashbacks as an elderly Lucy reflects upon her life as she now lives at a retirement facility. She remembers back to her childhood, starting with the year 1899 when she was 15 years old. A school assignment takes her to the Marsden home, where she is to interview Mrs. Marsden (Willie's mother) about Civil War life. During this visit, she runs into the family's maid, Castalia (Cicely Tyson) a freed slave who chose to remain with the family as a servant, and a 50-year-old Captain Marsden, who's been a good friend to Lucy's family. Captain Marsden courts Lucy (who's always been more of a tomboy than a young Southern lady, to her mother's constant frustration) and proposes to her. As is the way during that time, age isn't a factor and her parents approve the match.

Sutherland does an excellent job as William Marsden, a man who has never forgotten just what the Civil War has cost him ... and how it's changed him. He was a young soldier at 13, given a uniform in the South's desperation to get as many men onto the field as possible. At 13, he watched men die around him, endured terror in a field hospital, and lost his best friend,Ned, another young boy, in battle. He carries the Civil War with him daily.

One thing I like about this movie is the chemistry between Lane and Sutherland. It is easy to see that Lucy and Captain Marsden DO love each other and have a mostly happy marriage, with a house full of children ... the boys named by Cap'n Marsden after comrades he'd known and lost during various battles. Both are stubborn people, and they have many battles of will ... but they do love each other. The Captain relies upon his wife to help him forget the war, and Lucy tries ... but as PTSD wasn't diagnosed back then, she is powerless. After a hunting accident injurs her oldest child and yellow fever claims her youngest, Lucy struggles to maintain her own equilibrium. At one point, she leaves her home but encounters a childhood friend (who actually betrayed her back then) who lost her family by running away ... and finally returns home with a new sense of where she belongs.

This is a great drama with fascinating insight about just what those boys who returned home from the nation's most bloody war may have felt ... the demons that chased them into their adult lives, and how those demons affected their own families. It also shows how strong Lucy was for putting up with those demons he brought in, and enduring her own.

Lucy Marsden (Diane Lane/Anne Bancroft) was the child-bride of an aging former boy-soldier of the Confederacy ("Captain" Marsden - Donald Sutherland.) Because of the relative youth of these two at their defining moment, the confluence results in Lucy, through sheer attrition, becoming the Oldest Living Confederate Widow.

Allan Gurganus's epic book is one of my all-time favorites. I only recently discovered that a movie had been made of it. By the transitional scene cuts, I'm guessing that this was a "made-for TV" mini-series? As is usually the case, the book is much better than the movie. Even at epic length, (180 minutes) the movie cuts out major panoramic threads of the book: Castalia (Cicely Tyson) and her family, the workers at Lucy's Nursing Home, the adult lives of Captain & Lucy's children. It does not have the lush, vivid technicolours of Gone With the Wind. Still and yet it is a good movie - spanning as it does two centuries of US History: racial, gender, and ageist prejudice are exposed in a sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous fashion. Well worth purchasing for repeat viewing.

First of all, the oldest living confederate widow married a civil war vet 40 years after the war, so her story really has little to do with the war and the south during the war, which is why I wanted to watch this movie in the first place. Second, this widow married a 50 year old at 14 years old, which means you have to watch a child get wedlock-raped while benign music plays in the background for half of the movie. Stranger still is when she supposedly falls in love with the old sheep.

You see a number of other events in her life, the death of an infant, the blinding of her son, intermixed with clips of her life as an old person. It's interesting and funny at times, and is well-acted. It ends with an ode to parenthood, which I found pretty dull. That's all a 100 year old woman could come up with? It's ok, but if you're looking for something inspiring or historically rich, look elsewhere.

Diane Lane performs at her best in the movie with stunning supporting actors such as Donald Sutherland. It is a must see for any Diane Lane fan, or anyone interested in a woman's viewpoint of the civil war.

From a young girl in her teens marrying a solider to her later years, Diane Lane makes you become involved in the story, letting you feel as you are watching real life. Her happiness, pain, and just trying to get through life reflects what all of us struggle with every day. It is amazing and a nice break from our everyday problems. A MUST-SEE movie!!

This is an excellent (fictional) story. Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland are awesome!! I would recommend this video to anyone interested in the Civil War. Great story!!

This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. I didn't care for Donald Sutherland until I saw this movie. Now I am a fan! Diane Lane was wonderful also. I recommend that anyone who has seen Gone with the Wind, see this movie. It was the best!

The film shows the social and political scene from the Civil War to the 1950s in a personal account that is wonderful to watch. While it may not be a story that happened to only one person, the events in the film are real, they happened to thousands of American women. Diane Lane is great and Sutherland plays the part of Captain Marsden to perfection. I don't know why this movie is not on school library shelves everywhere. Buy it if you can find it!