Wicked Spring

This film might be described as a non-existent drama. First, we are subject to a long non verbal montage of the soldiers and their wife's/lovers before the war. Without the benefit of completely developed scenes in this prologue, we do not really get a chance to "feel" for the women and the men that must soon leave them. The lack of feeling for the characters leaves their interactions flat and lifeless. The war part of the movie makes up a majority of this film. Throughout most of it we witness the Battle of the Wilderness with a non existent story line. Soldiers from both sides attempt to slaughter each other and we are supposed to "feel" something for them. Unfortunately, because we did not get to know and understand them in the beginning, and now war scenes have taken the place of character development, their is little compassion that we can have for such two dimensional characters. Throughout we never manage to have a "stake" in the character's lives. We never care for them, because we never really get to know them. So, by the end of the movie whatever happens to them becomes meaningless and inconsequential. This could have been a good film. But, like most of what Hollywood is offering as of late, this independent tries to cover up an incredibly weak story with visuals that they hope will both impress and camouflage. It doesn't work. This film was doomed from the start because of a lack of a good script.

"Wicked Spring" is a very ordinary low budget indie which plays out like a slice of Civil War life as men from both sides spend time together during a respite in the Battle of the Wilderness. This plotless film is put together with relatively unknown actors delivering mediocre performances; lots of reenactment battle scenes which give no sense of generaling and strategy; and a big dose of visuals to make up for the absence of content and story arc; etc. I'm a Civil War buff of sorts and have seen just about everything from Ken Burns CW to Glory to the Gettysburgs to the Civil War Journal, Red Badge of Courage, North vs South, etc., etc. and, though I think I understand what Hershberger was trying to do with this movie, it just didn't work for me. Keep expectations real and make this the last CW movie you watch. (C)

I see that a lot of people feel the same way about this flick. And it's all because NOTHING HAPPENS! Hard to believe that a war flick could be boring, but this one is. In the entire course of this film we watch as soldiers from both sides go off to war, fight in a pitched battle, face each other in an oft repeated truce, and then succumb to an all to predictable end. That's it. Dialog is very minimal, characterization is non existent, and the battle scenes are tepid at best. Horribly uninspired and weak.

I saw this one in the video store just the other day. Being a huge Civil War buff I just had to pick it up. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a big disappointment. I see, by many of the other comments written here, that I am not alone in seeing the primary (huge!) fault in this movie. It doesn't have a plot or a story! Are we supposed to "ooooh!" and "aaaaah" over beautiful scenes of actors and reenactors dressed up in authentic uniforms? Are we supposed to look at the pretty packaging and not notice that this film doesn't really have any depth? The whole story (and I use that term loosely!) can be distilled into one sentence. Soldiers in the war were once civilians with lives all their own, and soldiers in that war die. I've seen more depth to the subject in a children's book. All in all, not very good

In a word...slow. It was so painfully boring and slow that my wife and I digitally sped the movie up and it was still way too slow. Some of the story line could have been interesting, but they didn't do anything with the story really and the acting was really not very good at all. We both were left wondering if and when anything was going to happen. And nothing did!

I would recommend to anyone that you do not ever rent this movie, as it is definitely not worth the money of a rental fee. And I would definitely feel sorry for you if you actually spent money to buy this thing!

Avoid this super boring and slow movie, unless you want something to fall asleep to!