The American Civil War on Film and TV: Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color

by Susan Aronstein (Contribution by), Guerric DeBona (Contribution by), Paul Haspel (Contribution by), Jeanne Holland (Contribution by), Martin Manning (Contribution by)

Overview

Whether on the big screen or small, films featuring the American Civil War are among the most classic and controversial in motion picture history. From D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) to Free State of Jones (2016), the war has provided the setting, ideologies, and character archetypes for cinematic narratives of morality, race, gender, and nation, as well as serving as historical education for a century of Americans.

In The American Civil War on Film and TV: Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color, Douglas Brode, Shea T. Brode, and Cynthia J. Miller bring together nineteen essays by a diverse array of scholars across the disciplines to explore these issues. The essays included here span a wide range of films, from the silent era to the present day, including Buster Keaton’s The General (1926), Red Badge of Courage (1951), Glory (1989), Gettysburg (1993), and Cold Mountain (2003), as well as television mini-series The Blue and The Gray (1982) and John Jakes’ acclaimed North and South trilogy (1985-86).

As an accessible volume to dedicated to a critical conversation about the Civil War on film, The American Civil War on Film and TV will appeal to not only to scholars of film, military history, American history, and cultural history, but to fans of war films and period films, as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498566896
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	10/05/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	294
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Douglas Brode developed and taught courses for several decades at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications until his recent retirement.

Shea T. Brode is an independent scholar who has collaborated with his father as editor on several previous collections.

Cynthia J. Miller is senior faculty at Emerson College's Institute for the Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies.
Sue Matheson is Full Professor of English at the University College of the North in Manitoba, Canada
Rosanne Welch is Executive Director of the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting, USA. She has TV writing credits on Beverly Hills 90210, Picket Fences, Nightline and Touched by an Angel. Her award-winning publications include When Women Wrote Hollywood (2018) and Women in American History (2017). She has additionally written American Women's History on Film (2023) and The Civil War on Film (2021).

Table of Contents

Introduction: “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory . . . ”: The Civil War in the American Popular Imagination
Douglas Brode, Shea T. Brode, and Cynthia J. Miller
1. America’s Civil War: Hollywood vs. History
Earl E. Mulderink III
2. When Silence Was Golden: Civil War Films Before The Birth of a Nation
Kayla McKinney Wiggins&Michael Wiggins
3. Not a Lost Cause: the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Race Relations in The Birth of A Nation (1915) and Free State of Jones (2016)
Sue Matheson
4. Cornering the Last Rebel: The Confederate Soldier in American Film
Paul Haspel
5. Silent Comedy as Social Criticism: A Textual Analysis of The General (1926)
Douglas Brode
6. Screen Historian and American Myth Maker?: The Civil War According to John Ford
Scott Allen Nollen, with Douglas Brode
7. The North, the South; Black Folks, White Folks: Shirley Temple and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson
Kathy Merlock Jackson and Ray Merlock
8. Hidden Behind Hoopskirts: The Many Women of Hollywood’s Civil War
Rosanne Welch
9. The Golden Age of Hollywood’s Belles: Is Tomorrow, After All, Another Day?
Biljana Oklopcic
10. Gender, War and Sisterhood in the Novel and Film Versions of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women
Fran Pheasant-Kelly
11. Literary and Cinematic Canon Fire: John Huston's The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
Guerric DeBona, OSB
12. Adapting The Killer Angels: Historical Accuracy versus Poetic Vision in Gettysburg
Peggy A. Russo
13. Whiteness, Whiteness Everywhere: Walt Disney’s Civil War Productions
Susan Aronstein and Jeanne Holland
14. (Re-)Visionist History in Sergio Leone’s (De-)Mythologized Old West: The Civil War, Vietnam, and The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
David S. Silverman
15. The Civil War as TV Miniseries: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful
Judith Sobré
16. Documentary as an Art Form: Ken Burns’ “Creative” Dramatization of the Civil War
Martin J. Manning, with Douglas Brode
17. Strange Homecomings: Hollywood and the Narrative of the Warrior’s Return
Gregory Perrault
18. Featuring Atrocity&H8ful Heritage: Tarantino’s Revision of Civil War Mythology
Beth Jane Toren
19. Brother Against . . . Monster: Hidden Stories of the Civil War
Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper

Editorial Reviews

A collection's merit hangs on the skill of its editors, whose task it is to commission essays on meaningful topics and then edit those essays to meet the overall needs of the collection. Douglas Brode, Shea Brode, and Cynthia Miller succeed beautifully in this excellent volume. The timeliness of the book is noteworthy: recent events such as Charlottesville and the controversy over Confederate memorials are very much in the public consciousness. Most of the essays are well written and creatively engage media portrayals of the Civil War and its aftermath. Particular standouts are Guerric DeBona's history of John Huston’s adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Susan Aronstein and Jeanne Holland’s overview of Disney Civil War–themed productions of the 1950s and 1960s, and Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper’s take on alternate history and the othering of the Civil War (Kevin Wilmot’s C.S.A would have worked nicely here). Arranged in rough chronological order of the release dates of the films discussed, the essays take readers through US popular culture of the past 120 years as they look at the breadth and impact of the American Civil War. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

Choice Reviews

Douglas Brode, Shea Brode, and Cynthia Miller’s The American Civil War on Film and TV: Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color not only offers a great study of a specific genre of popular film and television, it is also highly informative about the popular culture reception of one of the great, turbulent times in American history. This book is a ‘must have’ for anyone interested in the Civil War or in popular film and television. It is both discerning and entertaining.

Gary Hoppenstand

This excellent collection of essays insightfully analyzes most of the important films about the Civil War. Moreover, it sheds new light on the evolution of American attitudes toward the Civil War and its significance.

John G. Cawelti

A collection's merit hangs on the skill of its editors, whose task it is to commission essays on meaningful topics and then edit those essays to meet the overall needs of the collection. Douglas Brode, Shea Brode, and Cynthia Miller succeed beautifully in this excellent volume. The timeliness of the book is noteworthy: recent events such as Charlottesville and the controversy over Confederate memorials are very much in the public consciousness. Most of the essays are well written and creatively engage media portrayals of the Civil War and its aftermath. Particular standouts are Guerric DeBona's history of John Huston’s adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Susan Aronstein and Jeanne Holland’s overview of Disney Civil War–themed productions of the 1950s and 1960s, and Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper’s take on alternate history and the othering of the Civil War (Kevin Wilmot’s C.S.A would have worked nicely here). Arranged in rough chronological order of the release dates of the films discussed, the essays take readers through US popular culture of the past 120 years as they look at the breadth and impact of the American Civil War. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

Choice

A collection's merit hangs on the skill of its editors, whose task it is to commission essays on meaningful topics and then edit those essays to meet the overall needs of the collection. Douglas Brode, Shea Brode, and Cynthia Miller succeed beautifully in this excellent volume. The timeliness of the book is noteworthy: recent events such as Charlottesville and the controversy over Confederate memorials are very much in the public consciousness. Most of the essays are well written and creatively engage media portrayals of the Civil War and its aftermath. Particular standouts are Guerric DeBona's history of John Huston’s adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Susan Aronstein and Jeanne Holland’s overview of Disney Civil War–themed productions of the 1950s and 1960s, and Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper’s take on alternate history and the othering of the Civil War (Kevin Wilmot’s C.S.A would have worked nicely here). Arranged in rough chronological order of the release dates of the films discussed, the essays take readers through US popular culture of the past 120 years as they look at the breadth and impact of the American Civil War. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

CHOICE

A collection's merit hangs on the skill of its editors, whose task it is to commission essays on meaningful topics and then edit those essays to meet the overall needs of the collection. Douglas Brode, Shea Brode, and Cynthia Miller succeed beautifully in this excellent volume. The timeliness of the book is noteworthy: recent events such as Charlottesville and the controversy over Confederate memorials are very much in the public consciousness. Most of the essays are well written and creatively engage media portrayals of the Civil War and its aftermath. Particular standouts are Guerric DeBona's history of John Huston's adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Susan Aronstein and Jeanne Holland's overview of Disney Civil War-themed productions of the 1950s and 1960s, and Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper's take on alternate history and the othering of the Civil War (Kevin Wilmot's C.S.A would have worked nicely here). Arranged in rough chronological order of the release dates of the films discussed, the essays take readers through US popular culture of the past 120 years as they look at the breadth and impact of the American Civil War. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

Douglas Brode, Shea Brode, and Cynthia Miller's The American Civil War on Film and TV: Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color not only offers a great study of a specific genre of popular film and television, it is also highly informative about the popular culture reception of one of the great, turbulent times in American history. This book is a 'must have' for anyone interested in the Civil War or in popular film and television. It is both discerning and entertaining.

This excellent collection of essays insightfully analyzes most of the important films about the Civil War. Moreover, it sheds new light on the evolution of American attitudes toward the Civil War and its significance.

From the Publisher