Watched 'American Confederate'. Terrible movie. It tries to focus on a rebel captain of Hampton's Legion and a Union officer-Captain Falstaff of the 2nd Indiana Cavalry. The rebel captain is shown to be aggressive yet caring while Falstaff is painted as a butcher by shooting rebel wounded and prisoners. This would make for a simple plot, these two officers finding and clashing with one another on various battlefields that could turn into a vendetta. Except the two characters don't really cross paths in the movie other than Falstaff shooting two prisoners of Hampton's Legion at the beginning. It largely drops Falstaff from the movie. When he does it is random. In fact, the two officers don't confront each other at the end for a final duel.
From there the film just meanders from character to character doing something, but not driving a coherent plot. There's mention of a captured wagon train, but its quickly forgotten. The capture of Atlanta and its burning, but we don't see it other than a glow on the horizon.
The major problem with this movie was its lack of a coherent plot. Instead it just feels like a series of vignettes poorly tied together as many of these scenes don't compliment the next scene. Perhaps a major rewrite to the script is in order. You could have Falstaff and the rebel captain, I don't remember his name-that's how bad it was, set during the Siege of Atlanta. Falstaff is sent to intercept a Confederate train loaded with supplies bound for Atlanta. The rebel captain is tasked to guard it. You can have these two officers challenging each others wits and discipline in many encounters. Since Falstaff is shown to be a butcher, you can have him threaten or even execute prisoners if the rebels don't surrender, which they would refuse. And the movie can end with the train approaching the outskirts of Atlanta and one final attempt is made to destroy it. The train can make it into the city and helps the defenders hold out for four more months or it can be destroyed necessitating the decision to evacuate Atlanta. Either scenario would work. It would be a simple plot but a coherent plot.
Other production problems:
The battle of "Gettysburg" is shown with Falstaff ordering the evacuation of a hospital filled with Union wounded-except there are no wounded shown and the 2nd Indiana Cavalry, Falstaff says he's with, wasn't at Gettysburg. They were in the west for the Tullahoma Campaign. Also, the hospital is shown to be in the same position for Atlanta and the end of the war. In 2 years, it never moved!
The movie states that just after the battle of Resaca, Atlanta was captured and burned. It wasn't. It held for 4 more months.
The last is General Sherman. He is shown on the cover. With the name 'American Confederate' and his image, one can be confused as to its meaning. Perhaps they mean General Sherman is a rebel by breaking the normal conventions of warfare of the time by going to the heart of the South. But the movie is not about him, really at all. In fact, he only appears in the movie for, perhaps, two scenes totaling five minutes. So it's misleading as to whom the 'American Confederate' is.
