“Journey to Shiloh” is a small
unit movie set in the American Civil War.
It may be about the war, but it looks a lot like a Western. A crappy Western. You know you are in trouble early when a
cheesy ballad introduces each of the seven young Texans who are going to trek
to Rchmond to enlist in the Confederate army.
Gee, they sure hope the fun isn’t over before they get there! It is one of the stupidest openings in any
movie I have seen. A saloon fight one
minute in confirms we are not going to be seeing anything special. It is obvious this will be one of those “who
will survive?” films. I guessed three.
The cast is filled with faces
that will become familiar. It’s nice to
see they will all improve and hopefully they were able to erase this movie from
their memories and their resumes. James
Caan plays the leader of the septet. He
is a hot head and a quick draw named Buck.
The boys have a series of encounters on their journey. They attend a dance where they meet a slave
family. “We just folks, suh. Only difference is we born to Col.
Claiborne.” Hopes we Southerners whup
dem Yankees. At least Buck seems
uncomfortable with this dialogue. They
get kicked out of the dance for being “savages”.
When J.C. deserts, Buck insists
on going get him because he took an oath.
He finds him in a crooked card game that results in the first of the
seven to go. Buck does nothing about the
killing of his friend. Next they run
into an escaped slave and turn him over to the local sheriff. Later they see him lynched outside town. Hey, it’s the South, what are you going to
do? Keep going to fight for it.
Our heroes get tricked into enlisting in the Pensacola Greys led by the
mean and strict Braxton Bragg (the only accurate thing in the movie). They are off to Shiloh, but arrive one less
as Lil Bit (Jan Michael Vincent) dies from sickness, but with his perfect hair
unmussed. Five left. The Battle of Shiloh has been better
reenacted with Lego figures than in this movie.
The tactics are ridiculous and the battle is flamingly inaccurate. Todo (Don Stroud) dies of a chest wound. Willie Bell (Harrison Ford!) and Eubie
(Michael Burns) are killed off screen.
No great death scenes for them.
Now we’re two.
Buck wakes up with his arm
amputated. Meanwhile, Miller (Michael
Sarrazin) is holed up in a barn mortally wounded and charged with
desertion. Buck arrives so Miller can
talk himself to death. Then along comes
Gen. Bragg who is impressed with Buck’s story of the Concho County Comanches
and does not want them to go 0 for 7 so he let’s Buck go. (Scratch that comment about Bragg being
accurately portrayed.) OMG another
cheesy ballad reprises their deaths!
This is a terrible movie. It is one of the worst war movies I have seen
since I started this blog. What is it
about the Civil War that there are so few quality movies? “Journey to Shiloh” looks like a made for TV
movie – a very bad made for TV movie.
James Caan is good, but the rest of the cast are bad. The film is corny, trite, and cheesy. Not to
beat a dead horse, but the Springfield Trapdoor models used in the film were
not available until 1879. Also, none of
the actors have facial hair. Good
research, Mr. Director.
grade
= F
I saw it a few years ago, it is genuinely horrible. I am dreading having to review it when I do the American Civil War. Easily one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
ReplyDeleteIn a lot of Westerns, the good guys are unrealistically clean-shaven (although the villains sometimes have mustaches). According to legend, Gregory Peck's authentic 1880's appearance, including a mustache, hurt ticket sales for "The Gunfighter" in 1950. And anachronisms involving guns are common, too. You can often see 1873 Colt revolvers, 1879 Springfield rifles, and/or 1892 Winchester rifles in movies set in the 1860's or earlier (including "Red River" and "The Searchers"). The producers probably figured that 90% of the audience would not know the difference. Not to excuse "Journey to Shiloh," though. It's hard to watch some of the scenes (especially the slave stereotypes) without cringing.
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