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41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Civil War 101, June 10, 2004
Once upon a time in a place far, far away, I was a Civil War buff. I couldn't read enough books about the massive war between the North and the South from 1861 to 1865. I paged through texts about ironclads, reveled in the descriptions of Shiloh, Bull Run, and Cold Harbor. I studied pictures of the movements of troops led by George McClellan and Ulysses S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. I thrilled to the drama of Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. And I mourned as Abraham Lincoln fell to a southern assassin's bullet at Ford's Theater. I would read books by Bruce Catton, a sort of everyman's historian of the war who churned out books by the boatload twenty or thirty years ago. Moreover, and probably most importantly, I yearned to watch shows and movies based on events during the war. I remember being presently surprised at the time to learn that a huge mini-series, called "The Blue and the Gray," would soon air on television. Finally, I would see the events, people, and places I had only read about before. Yep, I vividly remember watching this series when it first premiered on television over twenty years ago. And I liked it, at the time. When I saw it coming out on DVD, I decided to watch it all over again.The passing of years can definitely modify prior assumptions. While I found parts of "The Blue and the Gray" intriguing, far too often the film descended into the deepest depths of sentimentality of the sappiest sort. The star of the picture is John Geyser (John Hammond), a young man with a knack for drawing who lives on his parents' farm in Virginia. He's got a bunch of brothers, a sister preparing to marry a successful businessman from Vicksburg, and several slaves. He yearns to head north, to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where his Uncle Jacob runs a newspaper. John figures his relative will hire him on the spot once he shows the man his drawings. Geyser gets the job when his uncle assigns him to cover the John Brown trial and the abolitionist's subsequent execution. At the proceedings, John meets Jonas Steele (Stacy Keach), a shady character with ties to the Pinkerton Agency and to the White House. A fast friendship forms between the two, with an even faster bond emerging between Steele and John's cousin Mary Hale (Julia Duffy). John heads back to his Virginia farm just in time to witness a bunch of bounty hunters commit a heinous crime against Jonathan Henry (Paul Winfield) for harboring a fugitive slave. At one point, young Geyser even meets the newly elected Abraham Lincoln (Gregory Peck). By the time the war breaks out, John Geyser's artwork covering the Brown trial lands him a job at Harper's as a war correspondent. It's just as well since John refuses to fight for the Union or the Confederacy, a position that alienates him from his pro-southern family. His anti-war views do not stop him from facing danger as he rescues the daughter of Senator Reynolds (Robert Vaughn), a girl named Kathy (Kathleen Beller), at the Battle of Bull Run. Predictably, John and Kathy become an item. So do Jonas Steele and Mary Hale when they tie the knot after Jonas joins the Union Army. We also learn Steele possesses an annoying psychic power that allows him to foresee disastrous events. Meanwhile, as Vicksburg falls to the North, John's sister loses her husband and nearly loses her child in the siege of that city. As the war grinds on and on with no end in sight, members of both branches of the family, Hale and Geyser, fall on the battlefield from bullet, disease, or both. This rather slipshod summary will have to suffice for a series that runs nearly six hours. The filmmakers did a good job covering many of the important issues of the day. John's internal conflict over whether he should fight or not, and for what side, is one many Americans faced during that conflict. Battle sequences inevitably rely on budgetary restrictions, so the only lengthy combat sequence is the Battle of Bull Run. It seems the filmmakers wished to focus on things not widely known about the Civil War, such as the use of hot air balloons for aerial surveillance, a repeating carbine, and the horrible conditions of prisoner of war camps. The movie keeps violence to a minimum, as per television standards, but a viewer does get the sense that the Civil War was no walk in the park for both soldiers and civilians. What do not work as well are the inaccuracy of the uniforms, the occasional digressions into comedy and romance, and the tendency of characters to teleport themselves across the country. I realize the whole idea of the movie is to show the war through the eyes of one man, but it gets ridiculous after a time when you see John Geyser popping up everywhere from Vicksburg to Bull Run. The cast roster is enormous. In addition to the actors listed above, you will see Sterling Hayden, Lloyd Bridges, Colleen Dewhurst, Rip Torn, Rory Calhoun, Warren Oates, and Geraldine Page filling roles both major and minor. Mr. Bentley from "The Jeffersons" even shows up for a minute or two! I think I can safely recommend this film to movie buffs. It's not perfect, not even close, but it would give a viewer a general idea of the issues that led to the war. You can't really hope to adequately inform through the medium of television, but what you can hope to do is get someone interested in reading more about a topic. "The Blue and the Gray" will do that, with a little luck.
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