Melodrama

Rating: 1/10 (28 August 2013)

The melodrama that permeates this film approaches comic proportions. Pile on a musical tract that has one theme endlessly replayed for both sides, overacting by most of the cast and, frankly, a lousy script that is rife with numerous clumsy attempts to make historical references and discuss the slavery issue as if it were a current topic still up for discussion makes this film a huge disappointment.
Martin Sheen is miscast as Lee, his subordinates salute so often it becomes an annoyance. There is little discussion in the Union General staff of overall strategy but an over emphasis of Confederate tactics and strategies that ultimately fail.
The film has a decidedly southern point of view and almost implies that the Confederate cause was actually justified.