User reviews

"Journey to Shiloh" (1968) details the story of seven youths from Concho County in near-West Texas who travel across the Mississippi to join the Confederate Army and kick some Yankee arse. While they intend to ride to Richmond, Virginia, they end up hooking up with Braxton Bragg's Gulf Coast outfit and fighting in Shiloh, Tennessee. The male ingénues learn a lot on their long journey and their introduction to soldiering and war. Who lives and who dies?

James Caan plays the main protagonist, "Captain" Buck Burnett, while the other six "teens" (all well into their 20s) are Michael Sarrazin, Don Stroud, Jan-Michael Vincent, Michael Burns, Paul Petersen and, believe it or not Harrison Ford, a full nine years before his breakthrough with Star Wars, but don't get too excited as he gets the least screen time of the bunch.

On the downside, Universal was huge on TV movies at the time and so "Journey to Shiloh" looks like a TV movie; in fact, it was directed by one of their TV movie directors. So don't expect the cinematic scope of contemporaneous Westerns, like "Duel at Diablo," "Bandolero!," "Hang 'Em High" and "Shalako." It looks serviceable, but also phony and stale. A big part of the phoniness is due to the fake Southern countryside, as the movie was shot in Agoura and Thousand Oaks, California, but takes place in East Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and adjoining regions. No matter how you slice it, California doesn't look like the deep South, not to mention the studio sets. Another issue is the movie's cartoony vibe. Things that would ordinarily take much longer occur with the quickness of a comic book.

Despite these glaring flaws, I found myself ignoring them in favor of the story, particularly as it moved along. You feel like you get to know most of the gang by the end of the movie, Harrison's character being the biggest exception. The "boys" grow from wide eyed youngsters to hardened men over the course of the movie, the biggest rude awakening of course being their baptism into soldiering and war.

Speaking of which, I really enjoyed the last third of the film that involves the youths joining up with Bragg's brigade, the ensuing warfare, deaths, injuries, possible desertion and aftermath. Although decidedly comic booky the movie offers a unique glimpse of being a Confederate soldier.

The film features no less than four beauties, albeit all relatively short roles: Tisha Sterling as Airybelle Sumner; the un-credited Susanne Benton as the blond saloon girl, Lucy; Brenda Scott as the brunette saloon girl who falls for Buck; and a nurse (Eileen Wesson).

FINAL WORD: Someone criticized "Journey to Shiloh" for its obvious low-budgeted faults by pointing out that it's no "Magnificent Seven" or "The Wild Bunch." While this may be technically true I found myself enjoying "Journey to Shiloh" more than these heralded Westerns. Yes, the movie has the unmistakable gloss of one of Universal's factory-made television movies, but it's strong in characters and story, cartoony or not. This is likely because the movie's based on Henry Wilson Allen's excellent novel (aka Will Henry). Some call it an "anti-war movie," but this isn't really true; it's simply a "showing-soldiering-and-war-the-way-it-really-was" movie.

The film runs 101 minutes.

GRADE: B

Journey to Shiloh is directed by William Hale and adapted to screenplay by Gene L. Coon from the novel written by Will Henry. It stars James Caan, Michael Sarrazin, Brenda Scott, Albert Popwell, Harrison Ford, Jan-Michael Vincent, Robert Pine and Noah Beery Junior. Music is by David Gates (supervision Joseph Gershenson) and Technicolor cinematography by Enzo Martinelli.

Seven young Texans journey east to fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War. Full of ideas of noble glory for the war effort, the group have their eyes rudely opened by the prejudice and snobbery they encounter along the way.

Rock of Ages.

Film is bookended by a cheesy song that first tells of the young men setting off for the journey, then latterly of what became of them upon their final destinations. Throw in some pretty wooden acting away from the lead player and mix in a score that sounds like it belongs in the Pink Panther cartoon show, well you would naturally expect the film to be something of a disaster? Yet there is much to recommend here for the discerning fan of Civil War yarns.

The Pensacola Light Blues.

Picture gets its strength from the interest garnered by the source story and the lead performance by a youthful, wig wearing, Caan. Story is potent as an anti-war piece, the parallels with the then current Vietnam War, and the feelings running high at that time, are hard to ignore. Here the lads have their ideals punctured by events that happen out on the trail. Firstly some in fighting upsets the equilibrium and this sets the tone for the rest of the picture. An encounter with a runaway slave, and the aftermath of said encounter, really puts a serrated edge on the plotting. Young men off to be brave and fight the good fight, do they know what for? They then are surprised by public resistance to their bravado, you see not everyone wants a war, lads.

Cos we're fixin to shove that there General Grant and them blue bellied soldiers of his-plum into Lake Erie.

A pointless romantic interlude threatens to derail the picture, but the makers overcome it by dropping in some good action. A bar room brawl at Munroe is most enjoyable, and then once the guys find themselves enlisted into the Pensacola Light Blues, with Beery Junior arriving and putting his mark on the picture, we move onto the horrors of war. Here we lurch onto The Battle of Shiloh (AKA: Battle of Pittsburgh Landing) which is resplendent with artillery galore and much flinging around of stunt men. It's well constructed but sadly too short in length. Filmed out of Agoura in California, the scenery is an extra bonus and an enjoyable character accompaniment as story unfolds.

All told it's a mixed bag of a viewing, but the good far outweighs the bad to make this a sleeper of an Oater worth seeking out. While future stars of film and TV taking tentative steps in the acting world also holds a high interest factor here. 7/10

This movie leaves a lot to be desired by history buffs. As it does not exactly follow the true story of the Battle of Shiloh, Pittsburgh Landing to you real Yankees. But, inspite of that it is an interesting film. It is well worth watching if you enjoy any of the other westerns from this era. It is also worth it to see the actors that are in it before they became big stars. The first time I saw it, I missed the beginning and didn't know who anyone was until the end!

James Caan is the star of this interesting but far from great movie. Off his role in El Dorado with the Duke & Mitchum I suppose he earned the role as chief Buck. It's a film about the loss of youth and growth into manhood. It's unclear just how experienced Caan is, particularly with the ladies, but clearly he is capable of Caaning his way into the best bed in Shreveport. The love scenes are handled with more romanticism and yes love, than you'd expect in a near B film.

The film does seem to reflect the unhappiness and questioning of the then ongoing Viet Nam war, yet our band of 7 from Texas for the main, soldier on until death accomplishing nothing but filling their duty and being honorable men. They come to question slavery and therefore the basis of the war but aren't able to do anything about it. In that sense the film is believable. I like Caan's performance although not his haircut. He is the strong, silent type but with plenty of charm.

It's his movie and he does alright. A great cast of actors not yet at their peak.

I haven't seen this movie for years. However, I remember it was a good flick. I think the first time i ever saw it was in a Drive in (yeah, todays Multiplex theaters are nice, but drive ins were great. One night I stayed up till 2 am to watch it when it was on TV. Entertaining, James Caan and Harrison Ford. Nice little plot and a wonderful story about brotherhood and friendship. I wish it were on DVD or video. It is more of a western than a Civil War movie, but still good. It may have been one of Noah Berry's last movies. If you haven;t seen it, figure out when it will be on TV again and watch it. You will be surprised. It has some good, but quick gunfights and some nice action.

Journey To Shiloh is a good TV movie for when you're home sick from work; or, can't sleep in the middle of the night. It's a good story and moves quickly (too quickly, really, for it loses a lot of possibilities in character development). Still, the dialogue isn't that cheesy - and you don't feel worse for having watched it.

Right, well I had actually never heard about the 1968 Western movie "Journey to Shiloh" from writer Gene L. Coon, nor had I heard about the book. And that is simply because I never really cared much about the Western genre, before just recently.

And stumbling upon this 1968 movie and seeing that the movie had the likes of James Caan, Don Stroud, Jan-Michael Vincent and Harrison Ford on the cast list, I have to say that I needed no persuasion to sit down and give it a go.

I made it halfway through the movie, then I just gave up. The narrative of the storyline told in "Journey to Shiloh", as written by Gene L. Coon, was just so insanely slow paced and uneventful that I wasn't even the least bit entertained. Sure, it was nice to see the young stars in the movie, but come on. Talk about a swing and a miss of a boring storyline.

The acting performances in the movie were good, despite the fact that the actors and actresses had so precious little to work with in terms of a proper script and storyline.

For a Western from 1968, then I found that "Journey to Shiloh" just didn't rise to the occasion in comparison to say the movies that Clint Eastwood was churning out.

My rating of "Journey to Shiloh" lands on a three out of ten stars. I just simply wasn't entertained by the lack of a properly paced storyline from director William Hale.

1968's "Journey to Shiloh" was made a couple years too early to be classified as a "counterculture antiwar" film, it was about the same time as John Wayne's "Green Berets", while most of the country was still solidly behind the war and only barely beginning to waiver.

The story and the theme are virtually identical to a 1959 German film "Die Brucken", in which seven just inducted teenage boys watch as cynical Wehrmacht soldiers evacuate their town ahead of approaching American troops. Full of enthusiasm for the "blood and honor" of patriotic ideology, the seven boys stay to defend a useless bridge. Both films are somewhat unusual anti-war pictures because the enemy is essentially faceless and the theme derives more from the tragedy of easily influenced and manipulated young people.

Aside from the obvious California scenery (which cannot even remotely pass for Texas or Mississippi), the absurd physical miscasting of John Doucette as General Braxton Bragg, and a rather weak battlefield sequence; "Journey to Shiloh" is reasonably accurate historically. I'm from Tom Green County, Texas (just west of Concho and Menard Counties- where the characters are from) and the boys' journey to get into the far away war was not uncommon for West Texas; where young men went to war seeking adventure without much clue what the fight was really about.

Calling these actors "boys" requires considerable suspension of disbelief as most of them were in their mid to late 20's. James Caan is the leader, the story is told from his point of view and he gets the vast majority of the screen time. Other sixties notables in the group are Michael Sarrazin, Paul Petersen, Jan-Michael Vincent, and Harrison Ford (who gets the least screen time-yet would become the most famous).

Interestingly, even the remaining two had their claims to fame. Michael Burns played Benjie "Blue Boy" Carter in the all-time camp classic "Dragnet" episode about the evils of LSD; the drug caused him to paint his face blue (years before Mel Gibson). And Don Stroud's portrayal of Lamarr in "Joe Kidd" might be the finest piece of overacting in cinema history.

Other notables in the cast are Rockford's dad and Ann Sothern's daughter Tisha Sterling. Sterling was an extremely promising actress in the late sixties (and my personal favorite) who in an ideal world would have had a lot more good roles. Here she plays a patriotic southern belle named Airybelle Sumner, who in the film's best scene inspires the boys (men) to fight for the noble honor of the south. They soon learn that her view of the south is somewhat at odds with reality.

"Journey to Shiloh" does not deserve its obscurity. It has its faults but is gripping entertainment with an important message. Considerably better than most films from the time period.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Journey To Shiloh has several young players in its cast who were either big names on TV already or would attain greatness on the big screen. Playing the seven who are young west Texans who are eager to join up and fight for the Confederacy are James Caan, Michael Sarrazin, Harrison Ford, Jan-Michael Vincent, Don Stroud, and Paul Petersen. A budget would be busted if you tried to get all of them in the same film a decade.

Caan leads the group of them who are bound for Virginia to join General Hood's Texas brigade. But they manage to get as far as Vicksburg where they find the war they're looking for. On the way these kids and they are really kids learn some life lessons. Most don't make it back from the Battle of Shiloh, some don't even get that far.

For one thing they're all from West Texas where the cowboys are and know nothing from slavery. Had they been raised in East Texas they would have been thoroughly familiar with the cotton culture of the Confederacy. They run into slaves trying to be free and slave catchers trying to catch them. Albert Popwell stands out here as a runaway slave.

Paul Petersen is a revelation. He plays a young fast gun with a hair trigger temper. Totally unlike all American Jeff Stone on the Donna Reed Show.

John Doucette plays General Braxton Bragg whose performance does not ring true in terms of what I know of Bragg. In fact the whole ending does not ring true because of the character of Bragg for the film.

Still this is a pretty good film and timely in terms of the Vietnam War and people being disillusioned with war and what it brings.

I remember seeing this as a 16 year old back in 1968 and really enjoyed it.

As I'm typing this, I'm watching it again on the history network and it's interesting to see the people in it and think about their careers over the last 36 year.

A young James Caan wearing a silly looking "wig" - a very fresh faced Jan Michael Vincent before he descended into the bottle and is now just a shadow of himself - Don Stroud, a great bad guy in a couple of Clint Eastwood and a fellow named Michael Burns who was a big star back then but just seemed to drop off the face of the earth shortly after

It was a good story about 7 young guys heading off to fight in the Civil War. A great song and good story - maybe not a classic but very watchable..!!

Are you kidding me!? Harrison Ford and James Caan before they became famous and in a forgotten movie. A story about a bunch of friends and their journey to join the Confederate army. The friends start off with an idealized view of the war but as the journey progresses they see how slaves are treated and what the war really is. This story has really nothing to do about history but about how good people can get caught up in something they know nothing about. James Caan is a kind and good person which is something that differs from his role (Sonny in Godfather) that makes him famous. Harrison Ford has a smaller role and you never get the feeling that he will ever be a mega-star.

At the beginning of the Civil War, a group of seven friends (Michael Sarrazin, Don Stroud, Paul Petersen, Michael Burns, Jan-Michael Vincent, Harrison Ford) led by Buck Burnett (James Caan) embark on a cross-country journey in order to join the Confederate army. The Texans will occasionally get into trouble with the townsfolk from various towns. During their long horseback voyage from Texas to Virginia suffer a number of distresses, so their trek eastward results to be dangerous, eventful and risked with exception for some happy moments as the romance Burnett to a prostitute (Brenda Scott) . Although they do eventually join the Confederate forces, it will happen in Shiloh, Tennessee not in Richmond, Virginia as planned. As they advance, the destiny of each one will be marked, distancing each other in fateful happenings. After becoming soldiers, things go wrong, and the battle of Shiloh -under the command ruthless General Braxton Bragg (John Doucette-Ernest Borgnine lookalike)- is the epitaph of this story. The Unstoppable Seven! They came to fight in tattered buckskins... and left in blazing glory!.

A nice movie made in television style in which it is enhanced and it highlights the friendship, camaraderie, loyalty among some young people who go to Shiloh, Tennessee, to recruit themselves the confederate forces. It is set at the onset of the Civil War, seven young Texans decide to join General Hood's Texas regiment in Richmond, developing an enjoyable character studio in which the youngsters filled with dreams of war glory, they will nevertheless push ahead toward their destination. The seven young men will witness first-hand the Southern prejudice, snobbery, the lynching of runaway black slaves, the brutal discipline of war; eventually, they realize that war is not what they expected or dreamed about and the army isn't at all compatible with the core human values of ordinary Texans. This is the second joint adventure of director William Hale and producer Howard Christie who had worked a year earlier on 'Gunfight in Abilene' . In the cast it is worth highlighting the very young James Caan and Harrison Ford. Along with other young actors to be continued prolific, decent or notable careers such as: Don Stroud, Michael Sarrazin, Michael Burns and Jan Michael Vincent.

Journey to Shiloh(1968) packs sensitive musical score by David Gates and catching songs: ¨The Yellow Rose of Texas¨arranged by David Gates and Gene L. Coon tune heard as a theme throughout the film and also used as the music for the song heard at the start and end of the film; ¨Rock of Ages¨ sung by Albert Popwell (Samuel) in the stagecoach; ¨Dixie¨written by Daniel Decatur Emmett Heard as a theme towards the end; ¨Party Polka¨ music by Joseph Gershenson; ¨Rough Night in Jericho¨, music by Don Costa; ¨The King's Pirate¨ Music by Ralph Ferraro. Colorful and shimmering cinematography by director of photography Enzo Martinelli, Universal International Picture's ordinary . The motion picture was directed in sure visual eye by William Hale , though it has flaws and gaps, being entertaining enough. He realized a variety films of all kind of genres, such as: One shoe makes it murder , Stalk the wild child, Gunfight in Abilene, Journey to Shiloh , Murder in Texas , though especially made TV episodes from famous series , such as : The time tunnel , The invaders , The streets of San Francisco, Kojak , Cannon , Fugitive , Judd for the Defense , Lancer , The Virginian , FBI , Night Gallery . Rating . 5.5/10 , acceptable and passable.

On the cashing-in-on-the-youth-market front, there's William Hale's ridiculous Journey to Shiloh. A band of suspiciously late-20s looking 18 year olds leave Texas to go off to find the Civil War. If one can forgive the leaden performances, the Quick-Draw McGraw accents, the idiot-level plotting and action, the obvious Southern California locations, the 1870s armaments, and those gawd-awful wigs, one might find a movie that could have been a wee bit interesting.

But it sucks on every level, thereby rendering whatever chance there was for not nodding off as dead as the Confederacy.

Which, for the modern-day youth market, may come as a surprise. The Civil War was between the Germans and the Japanese, right?

When this movie begins, you see that seven young friends from the desolate portion of Texas are heading east to join up with the Texan Army of the Confederacy. Along the way, they have all sorts of problems and adventures and eventually they realize two things: war is NOT fun and the Southern way of life isn't always great...especially if you are a black person. While all this sounds VERY naive, I suppose a few of the Confederate troops MIGHT have been this naive...though sure not many!

The main idea of this film isn't bad, though the execution, at times, is. I particularly hated the opening and closing songs. While they did set the stage for the film and explained each character, they also seemed dated and silly. Paul Petersen seemed miscast and odd as 'the tough guy'! At other times, the film just seemed like it was done without much regard to real history. For example, a bit of research at the time would have let the filmmakers know that the song "The Blue Danube" was written a year AFTER the war ended AND the first belly dancers came to America in the 1890s...but both are present in the film. Most probably won't notice these problems...but it's still a bit sloppy.

As to what I liked about the film, there are three things. First, the story is unique and, at times, interesting. Second, it was a nice chance to see a few familiar faces when they were unknowns...such as Harrison Ford and Michael Sarrazin. Third, it reinforces the sane notion that war sucks and people die...something omitted from too many war films.

Overall, it's a mixed bag. Worth seeing but far from a must-see.

This is one of those films that works because of the cast. It's fun to watch actors not well-suited to western films give it their best shot, and do well, despite that fact.

Old timers like Noah Beery, Jr and John Doucette were used to the genre, and add to the film greatly.

Newcomers (at the time), like James Caan, Michael Sarrazin, Jan-Michael Vincent, Harrison Ford, and Robert Pine would all go on to better things, but they do well here, too. Added to the mix is a TV leftover, Paul Peterson, who's part is small, but well-done.

It was obvious that the film was cast and made like it was because of the growing youth market (Wild In The Streets, Psych-Out, Savage Seven, and Chubasco, among others).

I love this film very much, and wait patiently for a widescreen DVD to be released. I can only hope I live long enough to see it happen.

There are quite a lot of young budding stars in the cast of this film which fails to impress but I gave it an extra point for having Brenda Scott who set my heart a flutter when I was 19 in the late 60's. James Caan's awful wig was enough to make anyone fall off their chair with laughter.

I had the impression that Universal pushed this out in Australia before anywhere else. They had no printing on it and I hadn't heard of the film when it hit the city grind house. The people I saw it with were gobsmacked.

As JOURNEY TO SHILOH rolled on, we kept on seeing things that we hadn't encountered in the thousands of westerns we'd seen run through this system - the gamblers with identical pistols under the table, pointed at the kid, the Southern blacks urging the Confederate troops on and the way the plot gets stuck into fatuity of gung ho youngsters rushing into the military. It took a long while to get from here to BORN ON THE 4TH OF JULY.

It also ran to some nice pieces of dialogue - the saloon hoons telling the kids they should have scraped the meat off their leather jackets.

I thought William Hale was going to be a major player, saw his shorts GRAND CENTRAL MARKET and THE TOWERS and contacted him, learning that the dodgy stock footage was forced on the production by the producer, who Hale thought wanted to impose bogus scale on it.

The bonus is that all those faceless juveniles turned into movie stars and one of them stayed one.

This one surfaced the same time as Wadja's POPIOLI/ ASHES, which also deals with young men going to war. Hale's film was not outclassed.