Movie Reviews
Film and television reviewed the way I’d want to read them — with a rating that means something, an honest accounting of what works and what doesn’t, and craft notes for writers who want to understand how the machinery operates.
Each review includes a craft notes section for writers — specific observations about structure, character, world-building, and what the film does that you can actually use. Not theory. Technique you can steal.
Civil War (10)
May 15, 2026Gettysburg (1993)
Gettysburg is four hours and fourteen minutes of Civil War battle filmmaking and it earns every minute. Ronald F. Maxwell directed it. Tom Berenger plays...
May 15, 2026Glory (1989)
Glory is the best American Civil War film and one of the great American war films of any era. Edward Zwick directed it. Matthew Broderick plays Colonel...
May 15, 2026Ironclads (1991)
Ironclads is a TNT made-for-television movie from 1991 about the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862. Delbert Mann directed it. Virginia Madsen plays...
May 15, 2026Lincoln (2012)
Lincoln is a political procedural about the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in January 1865. Steven Spielberg directed it. Tony Kushner wrote the...
May 15, 2026Ride with the Devil (1999)
Ride with the Devil is Ang Lee's overlooked Civil War film. James Schamus wrote the screenplay, adapted from Daniel Woodrell's novel Woe to Live On. Tobey...
May 15, 2026The Blue and the Gray (1982)
The Blue and the Gray is a CBS miniseries from 1982 that tried to do for the Civil War what Roots had done for slavery a few years earlier. Andrew V...
May 15, 2026The General (1926)
The General is one of the greatest films ever made. Buster Keaton directed it with Clyde Bruckman. Keaton stars as Johnnie Gray, a Western and Atlantic...
May 15, 2026The Horse Soldiers (1959)
The Horse Soldiers is John Ford's only Civil War film and one of his weaker collaborations with John Wayne. Wayne plays Colonel John Marlowe, a Union...
May 15, 2026The Raid (1954)
The Raid is a small Twentieth Century Fox production about a Civil War incident most Americans have never heard of. Hugo Fregonese directed it. Van Heflin...
May 15, 2026The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
The Red Badge of Courage exists in two versions, neither of them quite the film John Huston intended to make. Huston directed it. The studio, MGM, cut...