I tried watching this film with my wife a few months ago and we turned it off after about 20 minutes. The problem was that the film just seemed awfully trivial and silly. However, after sitting down again alone to see it, I found that the movie markedly improved after the beginning. It went from what seemed a lot like SPENCER'S MOUNTAIN (this is NOT a compliment, by the way) to being a realistic and compelling drama about the Civil War and how a man who does his best to stay out of the fight but is ultimately forced to act. The film (apart from the "humorous" beginning portion) is very good and the film is pretty heart-breaking in places--so avoid it if you don't want to cry or if you are on antidepressants! Apart from the always good acting by Jimmy Stewart, he has an excellent supporting cast--including (among others) Glenn Corbet, Patrick Wayne and Katherine Ross (in her first film). The film provides an excellent and unusual look at the war from the viewpoint of a Southerner who just wants to be left alone.

If James Stewart had done Shenandoah twenty years earlier he would have had the role that Glenn Corbett has of the son challenging the Anderson family neutrality policy at the dinner table. The Anderson patriarch would have been played by Lionel Barrymore.

Charley Anderson is a man raising a family with six sons and a daughter all on one family farm. He owns no slaves as did many in the South back in those Civil War days. Some of his sons want to get into the Civil War as a matter of regional pride. He doesn't think that's reason enough or a real good idea in any event.

But when youngest son Philip Alford is taken by the Union soldiers because he was wearing a lost Confederate hat he found, Stewart sets out to get his son back. The journey is filled with the heartbreak and tragedy visited on a man who never wanted to get involved in a war he considered none of his business.

There sure were easier places you could be neutral in the Civil WAr. In New England you had little danger of invasion and Florida saw no great land battles of the Civil War. But the Shenandoah Valley was one of the major theaters of war back in the day. Viewers of Shenandoah know that and when the film is over we know that the Anderson family and the rest of the people living there will have more to deal with.

Shenandoah became a long running Broadway musical in the Seventies starring John Cullom. But I think more people identify with it as a James Stewart project.

Saddest moment in the film, the deaths of Patrick Wayne and Katherine Ross. Very poignant indeed.

Funniest moment is easily when Doug McClure is looking for the hand of Rosemary Forsyth from James Stewart. Funny, but also wise in terms of what makes a long term relationship possible.

Shenandoah still holds up very well forty years later as grand family entertainment.

SHENANDOAH is an engaging little war movie with a topical twist. It must have hit home for American audiences watching at the outset of the Vietnam War and wondering if they were going to see their sons again. Jimmy Stewart is an excellent choice for the lead role, a mild-mannered farmer who finds himself drawn into the American Civil War despite his best wishes, due to Yankee soldiers trespassing on his land.

Andrew V. McLaglen was a good choice for director as he creates a strong and compelling movie. The famous theme tune is worth catching in itself and the casting director has done well to populate the film with the likes of Doug McClure and Patrick Wayne, with Katharine Ross shining in a small star-making turn. There isn't a great deal of action here but the battle and fight scenes that do take place are fine. The ending deserves mention for being particularly poignant.