Review of Copperhead (2013) by Michael S — 24 Dec 2014

Slow and meandering, Copperhead demonstrates many of the weaknesses of Maxwell's Gods and Generals. Maxwell doesn't quite seem to know when enough is enough. It's as if anything filmed must actually wind up on the screen, and it often leaves you with the feeling that with a cut here, and snip there, the film could actually be entertaining while still representing a point of view, rather than feeling like an overly long screed about how the North was just SO MEAN to those poor, noble Southerners.

Despite the historical facts, you almost get the feeling from watching Maxwell's films that rather than being the most important proximate cause of the war, slavery was merely ancillary issue of a few rather unpleasant fanatics.

This film only marginally addresses the issue, and the main character never really expresses an opinion on it. It winds up making the film feel empty, or even apologetic. I'm personally left wondering where the Maxwell who made Gettysburg is.

That films managed a sense of motivation and complexity that his other two Civil War films lack. It's as if his partisan and romantic support for the Southern cause overwhelms his directorial and editorial judgment leaving us with half-baked propaganda pieces instead of the complex and thoughtful works they COULD be.