Andersonville (film)
Encyclopedia
Andersonville is a film directed by John Frankenheimer
John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films...

 about a group of Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...

 soldiers during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 who are captured by the Confederates
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 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 match Ransom's descriptions very accurately, particularly those parts in reference to the administration of the camp by Captain 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".

Plot

The film begins with a group of Union soldiers being captured and forced to surrender. They are marched to Camp Sumter, near Andersonville, Georgia. When they enter, they discover a former comrade, named Dick Potter, who explains the realities of daily existence in the camp - primarily the lack of shelter, clean water, and regular food supplies. He also states the dangers of a rogue group of Union soldiers, called the " Raiders
Andersonville Raiders
The Andersonville Raiders were a band of rogue soldiers held prisoner at the Confederate Andersonville Prison during the American Civil War. Led by their chieftains Charles Curtis, John Sarsfield, Patrick Delaney, Teri Sullivan , William Collins, and A...

", who go around in search of "fresh fish", newly captured soldiers, to victimize and rob. More vicious than the rebel soldiers, these comrades prove to be the most deadly danger of the camp.

Rebel forces run low, so children or older men are used as guards. In one watch tower two child guards, stand alert. A Union soldier offers them money for some corn. He is instructed to step over the fence and approach; this contradicts rules of the camp that forbid any approach even near this line. But reluctantly the soldier steps over the line, and the young rebel soldiers shoot him dead. One yells "I warned him lieutenant".

As the story unfolds some soldiers ally with the band captured at the beginning of the film, and continue working on a tunnel under the wall. Eventually the tunnel is complete, but one man tries to inform the Rebel guards. He is stopped and TT (for tunnel traitor) is cut into his face so everyone would know. As the escape is attempted all goes well until the last man is spotted, and the guards and dogs are unleashed. In a very short time, the soldiers are back in the camp - this time in the stockade. But ultimately punishment ends and life goes on.

The situation with the rogue union soldiers slowly becomes unbearable. After a banjo is stolen one man fights to get it back. Things progressively get worse until one scene when new recruits arrive and one man named Jim decides he has seen enough of the "vultures out to rob and murder the new boys.". He rallies support yelling "WHO, WHO, WHO'S WITH ME." Within minutes hundreds of his fellow comrades are charging the Raider's camp. A massive fight ensues, the confederate soldiers watching as they are powerless to stop it.

In the end the Raiders are caught. Many want them all hanged out right. But upon the insistence of a few, a request for a trial is given to the Confederate commander of the prison camp. A trial ensues, conducted fairly, but which ultimately resulted in the ring leaders of this gang being found guilty and sentenced to hanging. After the death of the troublesome "inmates" life became peaceful, but the cold reality of starvation began to set in. As the film ends, an announcement is made that all the soldiers are free. They are offered transport via a train to wherever they wish. In reality the trains transported the men to another POW camp.
The movie's end coda reads:

In 1864-5, more than 45,000 Union soldiers were imprisoned in Andersonville.
12,912 died there.
The prisoner exchange never happened. The men who walked to the trains were taken to other prisons, where they remained until the war ended.

Cast

  • Jarrod Emick
    Jarrod Emick
    Jarrod Emick is an American musical theatre actor best known for his performance as Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees.-Biography:...

     - Josiah Day
  • Frederic Forrest
    Frederic Forrest
    -Life:Forrest was born in Waxahachie, Texas, the son of Virginia Allie and Frederic Fenimore Forrest, a furniture store owner. He is known for his roles as Chef in Apocalypse Now, When The Legends Die, It Lives Again, the neo-Nazi surplus store owner in Falling Down, Right to Kill? and for playing...

     - Sgt. McSpadden
  • Ted Marcoux - Martin Blackburn
  • Carmen Argenziano
    Carmen Argenziano
    Carmen Antimo Argenziano is an American actor who has appeared in over 50 movies and around 100 television movies or episodes....

     - Hopkins
  • Jayce Bartok
    Jayce Bartok
    Jayce Bartok is an American actor. A young leading man with TV and film experience, Bartok had his best chance to date as Pony, the rock star who returns to his home town where his pals are waiting in Richard Linklater's subUrbia . He wrote, directed and produced the short film Stricken in 2005...

     - Billy
  • Frederick Coffin
    Frederick Coffin
    Frederick D. Coffin was an American film actor.-Early life:Coffin was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1943 to actress Winifred Deforest Coffin, and was one of five children. He was educated at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, where he was both a student and athlete. He began to study...

     - Collins
  • Cliff DeYoung
    Cliff DeYoung
    Clifford Tobin DeYoung is an American actor and musician.DeYoung was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended California State University....

     - Sgt. John Gleason
  • Denis Forest
    Denis Forest
    Denis Forest was a Canadian character actor.He was known for portraying henchmen in Academy Award-nominated blockbusters The Mask and Cliffhanger....

     - Mad Matthew
  • Justin Henry
    Justin Henry
    Justin Henry is a former child actor, who since 2000 has been a new media business professional. He appeared in the 1979 film Kramer vs. Kramer, his first role, in a performance that earned him a nomination for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the youngest actor to ever be nominated in any...

     - Tyce
  • Tony Higgins - Tucker
  • Andrew Kavovit
    Andrew Kavovit
    Andrew Michael Kavovit is an Emmy-award winning actor, best known as one of the portrayers of Paul Ryan as a youngster in the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, a role he played from 1986-1992 and then again 1996-2001...

     - Tobias
  • Olek Krupa
    Olek Krupa
    Aleksander Krupa , often credited as Olek Krupa, is a Polish actor best known for playing villains and/or criminals, such as in Blue Streak and Home Alone 3...

     - Olek Wisnovsky
  • William H. Macy
    William H. Macy
    William Hall Macy, Jr. is an American actor and writer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo. He is also a teacher and director in theater, film and television. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small, independent films, though...

     - Col. Chandler
  • Matt McGrath
    Matt McGrath (actor)
    Matt McGrath is an American actor.McGrath's film appearances include roles in The Notorious Bettie Page, Boys Don't Cry, The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy, and The Impostors. On television, McGrath has appeared in episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Now and Again, and New York...

     - Ethan
  • Peter Murnik
    Peter Murnik
    Peter Murnik is an American actor known for his various roles in television. Such shows include: JAG, Pensacola: Wings of Gold, Martial Law, and ER. He also had a role in the 1998 movie Hard Rain; where he played Phil....

     - Limber Jim
  • Gabriel Olds
    Gabriel Olds
    Gabriel Emerson Olds is an American actor and freelance writer. He is the son of poet Sharon Olds.-Acting career:Olds began acting at age 15 at The Public Theater in New York, in a performance of Measure for Measure in 1987. Soon after, he was cast in 14 Going on 30 , a two-part Disney Sunday...

     - Bob Reese
  • William Sanderson
    William Sanderson
    William Sanderson is an American character actor.-Early life:Sanderson was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to an elementary school teacher mother and a landscape designer father...

     - Munn
  • Gregory Sporleder
    Gregory Sporleder
    Gregory Sporleder is an American actor notable for playing military men in films such as The Rock, Black Hawk Down and Renaissance Man, as well as Calvin Norris in the HBO series True Blood- Personal Life :...

     - Dick Potter
  • Jan Tříska
    Jan Tríska
    Jan Triska or Jan Tříska is a Czech-American actor.-Early life and career:He was born in Prague. Before his emigration he performed in the theater and had many roles in movies, the movie version of Radúz a Mahulena and in the communist propaganda piece 30 Cases of Major Zeman...

     - Capt. Henry Wirz
    Henry Wirz
    Heinrich Hartmann Wirz better known as Henry Wirz was a Confederate officer in the American Civil War...

  • Bruce Evers - Lt. Barrett
  • Robert David Hall
    Robert David Hall
    Robert David Hall is an American actor, best known for his role as coroner Dr. Albert Robbins M.D. on the television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.-Biography:...

    - Samson

Reception

Andersonville is a rather depressing tale, all things considered. It is also a little overlong and somewhat predictable. It does have its good moments, particularly the trial of the ringleaders running the band of raiders inside the camp, an interesting chapter in the evolution of humanitarian law and military law. However, overall it is just a little too long, dragging out moments that could have been dealt with much better had they been a little more concise.

Awards

The program won a 1996 Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Directing for a Miniseries or a Special for director John Frankenheimer. It was nominated in six other categories as well.
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