Search - Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All on DVD

Kind of strange movie

Christopher Rubin | 01/23/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, the oldest living confederate widow married a civil war vet 40 years after the war, so her story really has little to do with the war and the south during the war, which is why I wanted to watch this movie in the first place. Second, this widow married a 50 year old at 14 years old, which means you have to watch a child get wedlock-raped while benign music plays in the background for half of the movie. Stranger still is when she supposedly falls in love with the old sheep.

You see a number of other events in her life, the death of an infant, the blinding of her son, intermixed with clips of her life as an old person. It's interesting and funny at times, and is well-acted. It ends with an ode to parenthood, which I found pretty dull. That's all a 100 year old woman could come up with? It's ok, but if you're looking for something inspiring or historically rich, look elsewhere."

An Amazing Movie, With Talented Actors!

D. Munro | PA, USA | 02/18/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I saw this movie years ago, when it first appeared as a TV movie. It amazed me then, and it amazes me now. There are so many great parts in this movie, so many poignant moments. And what a cast -- Diane Lane as Lucy Marsden and Donald Sutherland as "Captain" Willie Marsden, who she calls only "Cap'n."

The story is told through flashbacks as an elderly Lucy reflects upon her life as she now lives at a retirement facility. She remembers back to her childhood, starting with the year 1899 when she was 15 years old. A school assignment takes her to the Marsden home, where she is to interview Mrs. Marsden (Willie's mother) about Civil War life. During this visit, she runs into the family's maid, Castalia (Cicely Tyson) a freed slave who chose to remain with the family as a servant, and a 50-year-old Captain Marsden, who's been a good friend to Lucy's family. Captain Marsden courts Lucy (who's always been more of a tomboy than a young Southern lady, to her mother's constant frustration) and proposes to her. As is the way during that time, age isn't a factor and her parents approve the match.

Sutherland does an excellent job as William Marsden, a man who has never forgotten just what the Civil War has cost him ... and how it's changed him. He was a young soldier at 13, given a uniform in the South's desperation to get as many men onto the field as possible. At 13, he watched men die around him, endured terror in a field hospital, and lost his best friend,Ned, another young boy, in battle. He carries the Civil War with him daily.

One thing I like about this movie is the chemistry between Lane and Sutherland. It is easy to see that Lucy and Captain Marsden DO love each other and have a mostly happy marriage, with a house full of children ... the boys named by Cap'n Marsden after comrades he'd known and lost during various battles. Both are stubborn people, and they have many battles of will ... but they do love each other. The Captain relies upon his wife to help him forget the war, and Lucy tries ... but as PTSD wasn't diagnosed back then, she is powerless. After a hunting accident injurs her oldest child and yellow fever claims her youngest, Lucy struggles to maintain her own equilibrium. At one point, she leaves her home but encounters a childhood friend (who actually betrayed her back then) who lost her family by running away ... and finally returns home with a new sense of where she belongs.

This is a great drama with fascinating insight about just what those boys who returned home from the nation's most bloody war may have felt ... the demons that chased them into their adult lives, and how those demons affected their own families. It also shows how strong Lucy was for putting up with those demons he brought in, and enduring her own.

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