Shenandoah (1965)
Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, and written by James Lee Barrett, this Civil War film stars James Stewart as the father of six sons and one daughter he'd raised solo for the past 16 years since his wife died giving birth to their youngest son. The war is raging and though Stewart's family lives in Shenandoah, Virginia, he wishes not to get involved. Though not really a pacifist, Stewart's character thinks that his family has worked hard, by themselves without any slaves, to earn what they've got, so why should they fight someone else's battle. As the war gets closer to their farm, they are drawn unavoidable into the conflict when his youngest son is mistaken for a "Johnny Reb" (Southern) soldier and taken prisoner by the Union Army. Though the movie succeeds on some levels, it fails to make the emotional impact it was striving for such that leaves one with a sense of what it could have been, instead of what it is. It was nominated for a Best Sound Oscar and marks the film debut of Katharine Ross (The Graduate (1967)).
Charlie Anderson (Stewart) has six sons including Jacob (Glenn Corbett), James (Patrick Wayne), who is married to Ann (Ross), and one daughter Jennie (Rosemary Forsyth), his eldest who is as good a shot, rider, and just as tough as his sons. His youngest son, whom he calls Boy (Phillip Alford), is sixteen, which marks the number of years since his wife died giving birth to him. Though the Civil War, and particularly the Southern Army, beckons, the self made farmer refuses to get involved. Denver Pyle plays the community pastor. A lieutenant in the army, Sam (Doug McClure), courts and eventually marries Jennie. James & Ann have a daughter, they name Martha after Charlie's long deceased wife. Paul Fix plays the doctor. The Andersons successfully defend their horses from being acquired by the Southerners, but Boy gets mistaken for a soldier in the South's army by an ambushed Union patrol, which then takes him hostage. Anderson then leads the rest of his family on a quest to find his son, leaving James & Ann at home to care for his granddaughter. Tragically, the Andersons suffer casualties much like the rest of the families during the "war between the states". George Kennedy plays a Union colonel he meets on the journey; Strother Martin plays a Union train engineer; James Best plays a rebel soldier who befriends Boy; Harry Carey Jr. plays another rebel soldier; Kevin Hagen plays a rebel deserter.
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