Andersonville (1996) (TV)

Information from IMDb

Plot Summary
Sort of Civil War version of "Schindler's List" looks at the atrocities that occurred in the 1864 prisoner-of-war camp run by the Confederacy in Georgia. The prison originally planned to house 8000, eventually swelled to 33,000 which left little shelter, food or water for the prisoners and unclean conditions. Written by John Sacksteder

Full Cast
Jarrod Emick ... Josiah Day
Frederic Forrest ... Sgt. McSpadden
Ted Marcoux ... Martin Blackburn
Carmen Argenziano ... Hopkins
Jayce Bartok ... Billy
Frederick Coffin ... Collins
Cliff De Young ... Sgt. John Gleason
Denis Forest ... Mad Matthew
Justin Henry ... Tyce
Tony Higgins ... Tucker
Kris Kamm ... 2nd Wisconsin Soldier
Andrew Kavovit ... Tobias
Olek Krupa ... Olek Wisnovsky
William H. Macy ... Col. Chandler
Matt McGrath ... Ethan
Peter Murnik ... Limber Jim
Gabriel Olds ... Bob Reese
Tim Parati ... 60th Ohio Soldier
William Sanderson ... Munn
Gregory Sporleder ... Dick Potter
Jan Tríska ... Capt. Henry Wirz
Bruce Evers ... Lt. Barrett
Blake Heron ... Patrick Shay
Robert David Hall ... Samson
Bruce Winant ... Benson
Judson Vaughn ... Capt. Sills
Stephen Michael Ayers ... Captain Russell
Tim Black ... Lt. Oliver
Clancy Imislund ... Col. O'Neil
Gary Lee Davis ... Georgie
Michael Haynes ... Stansfield
Lonnie R. Smith Jr. ... Sullivan
Bud Davis ... Delaney
Charles Lawlor ... Willens
Kyle Hester ... Sergeant of the Artillery
and many, many more ......

Produced
Diane Batson-Smith .... co-producer (as Diane Smith)
John Frankenheimer .... executive producer
David W. Rintels .... producer
Lansing L. Smith .... producer
Ethel Winant .... executive producer

Writing Credits
David W. Rintels

Original Music
Gary Chang

Cinematography
Ric Waite

Trivia
Casting director Marsha Kleinman died during production.

At some point during production, several reels of film were lost on the way from location in Georgia, to printing in California. Director John Frankenheimer had to reshoot the lost footage, which was about 40% of the trial sequence, in a new location in North Carolina, rebuilding parts of the original set to the last detail in order to match the coinciding Georgia scenes.

Ted Turner originally wanted Ron Maxwell to direct the miniseries following the success of Maxwell and Turner's film "Gettysburg". Maxwell politely declined citing that (at the time) he was no longer interested in doing Civil War films. Turner then went to John Frankenheimer.

The jury members at the trial are all sergeants, indicated by their shoulder patches.

Memorable Quotes

Filming Location
Turin, Georgia, USA

Watch the Trailer

[extendedmedia]

Andersonville is an American television film directed by John Frankenheimer
about a group of Union soldiers during the American Civil War
who are captured by the Confederates and sent to an infamous
Confederate prison camp.

The film is loosely based on the diary of John Ransom,
a Union soldier imprisoned there.
Although certain points of the plot are fabricated,
the general conditions of the camp
accurately match Ransom's descriptions, particularly references
to the administration of the camp by Captain Henry Wirz.
His line on escaping prisoners is very similar to the book,
"The Flying Dutchman [Wirz] offers to give two at a time twelve hours the start".

User Review

Quote

Best Civil War Film Ever!
18 February 2004 | by historynut (Ashland, Ohio) – See all my reviews

My opinion is that Andersonville is the best Civil War movie ever made, period. As a former Civil War reenactor, I'm not going to sit here and nitpick at all the "mistakes." Were there mistakes? Sure. The timeline was a little fuzzy for one. But that does not detract from the power of this movie. The guards were not well fed regulars either, but so what? You don't have to take a test after watching this movie!

I think the REAL factor in Andersonville being such a great production was the fact that you had no real "name" people involved. Fredric Forrest may have been the biggest name in the film and is a career role actor - but WHAT an actor! These guys busted their balls for this film and it really shows. I heard one reenactor complain that the characters seemed "cartoonish," and I don't buy it. I bet he was refering to Jan Triska who played Wirz. Well, read up on Wirz. I think they got it pretty close.

Forgive me, my reenacting brethern, but alhough Gettysburg was a tolerable film (I got to be an extra in that) and Gods and Generals was a disaster, the problem with these productions was the fact that they relied way too heavily on reenactors. Reenactors are NOT actors! They were used most effectively in Glory, not so well in Gettysburg, and Gods and Generals? Don't want to even go there. Andersonville followed Glory's success formula in using reenactors as background with small parts filled in by them (my buddy Martin Leibschner playing the banjo in the Raider camp was a good use of the talent reenactors can bring to film).

Frankenheimer must be given a lot of credit, as should the writer. The script did get a little cheesy here and there, but not enough again to trash the overall production. Jarrod Emick (sp?) as Josiah Day did a nice job, but until that point he had been a stage actor mostly, and his voice inflections projected that. Still, he did a great job. Peter Murnik as Limber Jim added that "mystery character" to the film well (as the real Limber Jim who was at Andersonville is a mystery to history). Again, I can't think of one lame performance by any of the key actors here. They put 110% into the job and I commend them for it. And whoever was involved in the set design was on the ball too. To try and recreate that place was no small task.

I remember a reenactor bitching because for the "filling" of the stockade for the wide shots, they had to use women and even cardboard figures. Big frekin deal! When they are dots on the screen, did it REALLY matter?

I can't see this movie being topped in terms of a Civil War period piece. Hollywierd is always bent on turning just about every period piece into some type of romance for the younger target audience. Andersonville is certainly a refreshing change of pace to that drill.

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