Andersonville (1996), by John Frankenheimer

[Neville]

Those die hard John Frankenheimer fans like me know that despite the fact that some of his later stuff was bad, he still had it.

Some local TV had the brilliant idea to show the complete Andersonville miniseries without previous warning, but I'm happy enough to have missed only the first 15 minutes or so. The entire film / series is about 160', and covers a year in the lifes of several union soldiers unlucky enough to end up in the infamous POW camp of Andersonville.

It is nothing short of fantastic. Frankenheimer's experience in prison films is evident here (apart from "The birdman of Alcatraz", he also made the "Against the wall" TV movie about the Attica riots) ,as he deals with multiple characters, mass scenes and subplots almost constantly. His use of the TV-square format is fabulous, often using it to frame dozens of people in the background, a nice and subtle way of expressing the sensation of confinement and overcrowding the prisoners had to endure.

Even better, the cas, composed of mostly unknows (at least for me), was very good, and Frankenheimer moves things at a brisky pace. Just imagine, I watched the whole  miniseries in an afternoon and still didn't find it tiresome.

Unlike many other made-for-TV stuff, this mini is as good as any theatrical film out there, and certainly a hell better than most TV movies out there. If you haven't seen it, do it right now or order the DVD from Amazon. This one is a must see. I'm serious.

[Scott]

I'll definately check it out when I get the chance. 160 minutes will take a while, but I'm going to work on those mini-series type movies one day.