Edited sentence: Both Confederates and Unionists committed atrocities there, and even today the Civil War is a controversial subject.In Missouri, where the film begins, the CSA has a mixed legacy.Perhaps the greatest appeal of the film is that it takes a sympathetic view of the Confederacy.The idea that Eastwood would defy the politically correct notion that Confederates were the American equivalent of Nazis is (to borrow a leftwing term) deeply transgressive.This is probably why the film has become an American icon, though one that (in today's politcally correct climate)dare not speak its name