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.
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 Sobre 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
