I love Ron Maxweel's films, his sheer scope of grandeur and historical accuracy, his impeccable taste and his keen eye on details. His two master works, Gettysburg (1993) and its prequel Gods And Generals (2003) made him a true genius and placed him the Pantheon for ever. Pity, that there will be no third part of Shaara's trilogy. This one is no sequel, instead, this is a separate entry. The theme is the same - Civil War, this time, small town in New York state, with all its gossips, tragedies and fun. The smoldering conflict of copperheads and unionists is shown well. There is a big problem, though, as for the first 90 minutes the movie is terribly slow and ploddy, but then all of a sudden it begins to gallop as wild beast. Seems like Ron decided to make it shorter and thus cut much of footage. Who knows? The scenery is lovely, and the play of all actors is just marvelous. All young and old actors made their jobs absolutely great. Billy Campbell is a real winner here, as loud, proud man, he shines all the film. His delivery is just awesome. Brian Downey is excellent in his cameo as a priest, while Peter Fonda did his job equally as well. They all did well and real raw, as life truly is. Pity, some errors still stay and that did not allow the film to become another Ron masterpiece
