Christopher Forbes would, in a more civilized world of more reason and knowledge, be called a renaissance man: He does it all, including writing, acting, even scoring.
As a director, he gets some great shots, with impressive framing and angles, but, alas, too many of his actors really aren't.
His leading lady here, Heather Clark, is an exception. She has some talent, probably some training, and looks believable on camera.
Some carp that she is not a believable boy, but in those circumstances she could have been accepted as a young boy. Other than her very pretty face, her female attributes are hidden by her clothes.
Writer Forbes, about whom I can find no information, seems to know his history. But I have one carp about the reference to that horrible prisoner of war camp, Andersonville.
There is a somewhat vague reference to an attempted raid that would have freed the Yankee prisoners from that obscenely over-crowded prison. "General Sherman" tells his subordinate general he expects that some of the freed prisoners would be able to re-enter the fighting units.
The commander of that camp was hanged by the vengeful Yankees after the war but, in fact, the Confederate government had tried and tried to effect a prisoner exchange, and the federals kept saying no. They wanted their own people to suffer, to be kept penned up, hungry and without medical care. If they had agreed to the exchange, it would have saved a lot of lives of their own soldiers but it would have eased some of the strain on the Confederacy -- caused by both Sherman's and Sheridan's hordes rampaging through Southern farms and destroying homes and crops.
Naturally those facts are not widely taught in government schools, so it would be nice to see them spelled out in movies about that conflict. (Federal treatment of Confederate prisoners was often nearly as bad, with very shortened rations and missing or poor medial care. Also, prisoners were outright murdered, especially after the assassination of Lincoln. Also not widely taught in government schools.)
Still, I give writer Forbes a lot of credit and I hope to be able to see the other films he has created.
And I hope he gets the recognition he deserves so he can also get the budgets he deserves.
