Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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47 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Adams family makes a Civil War movie about their ancestors, June 30, 2007
Albert Woolson, the last veteran of the Union army in the Civil War died in Duluth, Minnesota in 1956, and every time I drive by the Depot I see his statue. So when I saw the title, "The Last Confederate: The Story of Robert Adams," I naturally thought that this movie was about Woolson's rebel counterpart (I am sure "The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" was contributing to my interpretation as well). The film is indeed about a real person, but Robert Adams did not live to see the 20th century let alone be in the running for the title of the last Confederate (which turns out to be an extremely disputed title given Confederate war records were largely destroyed at the end of the war). However Adams did serve and fight in the Civil War, whereas Woolson was a drummer boy for an artillery regiment that never saw action. The film was originally entitled "Strike the Tent," which Civil War buffs might recognize as being the last words purportedly spoken by Robert E. Lee, but would leave most people without a clue that this is about the Civil War. So at least "The Last Confederate" is a more obvious clue.
But what you cannot tell from either title is that what makes this independent film rather unique is that it was made because of the efforts of Adams' descendant. Julian Adams, who co-wrote the script, co-produced the film, co-directed it, and plays the title role, is the great-great-grandson of Robert Adams. Julian's father Weston, the family history, gets a story credit, plays the older version of great-grandfather (so Julian co-plays it as well), and does the film's narration. The movie was filmed mostly in South Carolina and the Adams home is the one owned by Robert's brother and has been in the family since before the Civil War. When the character of Robert takes out his watch that is the actual watch of the real Robert, and the piano music that we see Tippi Hedren playing was owned by Robert's wife, Eveline. The story of anyone who went off to fight in the Civil War will have its moments, but Eveline McCord Adams makes this story even more interesting because she was a Yankee, who came to South Carolina to be a governess and teach the piano and who fell in love with a Southerner on the eve of the Civil War.
Such a relationship might be the stuff of melodrama, but one thing "The Last Confederate" has going for it is a sense of dignity. Robert and Eveline are both portrayed as being solid and serious, no more prone to start yelling as they are to engage in copious weeping. They might be in love, but they have no romantic illusions about the coming war. Robert goes off to war to protect his land and the life he knows, but we also get the sense that he a much more realistic idea of what is going to happen to the South. Adams is a planter, but we get no real sense of slavery on the family plantation, and it is the sense of inevitable death and destruction that the war brings that casts a shadow between Robert and Eveline. The story is more like "Cold Mountain" than it is "Gone with the Wind," which is probably the best way of identifying the potential audience for this 2005 independent film.
Gwendolyn Edwards (who wrote some of the songs and music in the film) co-stars as Eveline, with co-screenwriter Joshua Lindsey as her brother Nelson McCord and Amy Redord as his wife Sylvia. In addition to Hedren as Grandmother Adams, the Adams were able to get Mickey Rooney to play grandfather David McCord. Eric Holloway plays Benjamin Young, who is Robert's companion through most of the war, including the time they spent in a Yankee prison in Elmira. The film is co-directed by another first time filmmaker, A. Blaine Miller, and the production is able to take advantage of filming Civil War reenactors at play and incorporating such shots into their narrative (maybe it was stock footage, but I have yet to see a Civil War go wrong just pointing a camera at reenactors). The film won several awards at various festivals and the fact that the Adams family not only got the film made but managed to make one that is pretty good has simply captivated a lot of viewers. The DVD includes a documentary, "Once Upon a Time in the South: Behind 'The Last Confederate'" that fills you in on the family history and ends with shots of the graves of Robert and Eveline Adams, underscoring one final time that this movie is a most unusual family affair.
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22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The human face of war, July 10, 2007
"The Last Confederate" is more than "just another Civil War movie" or biography. Julian Adams plays his ancestor Robert Adams with a depth of emotion and sincerity that no paid professional actor could ever hope to match.
Behind the stories of glorious courage under fire and battle flags bravely flying were very human men and women who lived with hearts aching from the separation, constant fear of death and injury, the grief of loved ones lost. Robert and Eveline's story is that of so many who lived in that dreadful time. The true face of this war has been lost in dry history books and increasing attempts to politicize and narrow the conflict down to "slavery as the sole cause". Thanks to the Adams family for bringing back the human element!
I highly recommend this movie over Hollywoodized tripe like "Cold Mountain." If you want to experience the true feel of war and the suffering on the home front, then you won't want to miss this one. Descendents of war veterans will need a box of tissues. Five stars.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great advance in independent film making, August 5, 2007
Hollywood would love to maintain their monopoly, uh, stanglehold on film-making with multi-million dollar budgets and big name stars. The problem of course is their cultural marxist worldview and moral filth continue to debase everything it touches.
This is an independent film with a different point of view which is skillfully done and beautifully presented. The female love interest is drop-dead gorgeous. Whoever she is she makes the plastic bimbos we are usually forced to see look comical by comparison. The setting is realistic, the costuming exacting and the historical research that went into dialogue is convincing.
The male lead is a devoted Confederate patriot who is an excellent archtype of the men in gray who served with devotion and sacrifice. Certain to raise the hackles of PC nazis everywhere it has managed to fly largely under the radar (just like Ang Lee's Ride with the Devil). Any publicity it gets now will just drive people to see it and HORRORS, they might get enough of the truth to cast doubt on their brainwashing, uh, education.
Give it a try and see for yourself. And to those out there who had the courage to make it, THANK YOU!! I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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