SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Majorthebys Charming and brutal

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

dougdoepke Maybe most interesting in the movie is the conflict between the social and the political. The Confederate major (Heflin) experiences this when he gets somewhat socialized into the Union town his raiders are slated to attack. He prepares the way for his raiders by infiltrating the town as a businessman. There he meets friendly people, including a widow (Bancroft) and her son (Rettig). It's impossible not to like what he finds there. Still, he and his men have a duty to the Confederacy, regardless of personal feelings. Besides, Gen. Sherman is burning his way through the southern states. So, given the personal conflict, what will the major do. Well acted by a stellar cast, including an unstable Lee Marvin as a Johnny Reb with an itchy trigger finger. With his distinctive looks and manner, Marvin is clearly on his way up the Hollywood ladder. The burning of the town is done to scale, though the flames are clearly controlled. Still, it's an elaborate effect, though I didn't know portable fire-grenades like those used were available at that early time. Of course, a topic like the Civil War means neither side can be treated as evil, unlike propaganda films involving foreign enemies. So each side, Union and Confederate, gets to show good points and bad, but ultimately, each gets respect. All in all, it's a good personality western and showcase for a number of up and coming stars.

John T. Ryan WE are so often conditioned into viewing History as a sort of two-dimensional, us against them, good guys vs. the bad. If that is not a black and white way of viewing the World, it's certainly a dull and monotonous view of these planetary occurrences of ours.IN the subject of our own American Civil War, we probably have become conditioned into believing that we know everything about it and all of the causes that was behind its being fought in the first place. The Secession of the 11 Slave States was the product a multi-faceted breakdown of relations between those in the various sections of the Republic, as well as the issue of the Legalized Slavery of Blacks of African; as well as the practice of having Indentured Servants (those bound to a Master for a period of years (9 or 11, I think.).BUT a War is a great undertaking and has multi groups in the causal drivers' seat who generate the desire and fervor of a free people to undertake such a task. Those involved in the Declaration, Administration and Prosecution of the said hostilities by the Armed Forces. The men on the fronts are as different from each other as can be. There are as many different types as there are Stars in the Milky Way. (Our home Galaxy, Schultz.) IN the motion picture, THE RAID (Panoramic Productions/20th Century-Fox, 1954), the fact that those clashing Armies of the Blue and the Gray were made up of individuals; men with different backgrounds, stations in life and reasons for fighting. THE RAID makes a genuine attempt at driving this point home to each and every viewer.OUR STORY……………….We enter the story to view a prison break. A number of Rebel Prisoners are making there way out of a Yankee P.O.W. Camp; to freedom and to return to fight in the War Between the States. Among the escapees are Major Neal Benton (Mr. Van Heflin), Lieutenant Elmo Keating (Lee Marvin) and Captain Frank Dwyer (Peter Graves). They successfully get out and make their way to the Canadian Border; but not without the cost to them of the loss of life.WE next encounter Major Benton disembarking from a Passenger Train from Montreal, Quebec, in the then Dominion of Canada to the Town of St. Albans, Vermont. He is now in his civvies and well dressed at that. He is the Commanding Officer of a Special Operations raid on the Northern Town by real Troops of the Confederate States of America's Army.HE poses as a Canadian Business Man, the kind of individual that we would today refer to as being "an entrepreneur". Carefully he "cases" the whole town and formulates the final plan to sack the Town, rob the three existing Banks and burning any vestige of business or industry that is found there.ALONG the way he gets to know a good deal of the Townspeople, such as: Josiah Anderson, Banker (Will Wright), Captain Lionel Foster, Union Army Recruiter (Richard Boone), Widow Katie Bishop, Hotel Keeper (Anne Bancroft). It was Mrs. Bishop and the Major who had the potential to become an "item", as we had referred to it and still do call it in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.THE Major's smooth and successful completion of the assignment is further complicated by his meeting up with The Widow Bishop's little Son, Larry Bishop (Tommy Retig, Jeff Miller on "LASSIE") and his lil' bud, Elmo (Lee Aker, Rusty "B"Company on "RIN-TIN-TIN"*) There is also the unexpected arrival of a contingent of Union Infantry and Cavalry; all on their way to link-up with General Grant's Army of the Potomac. He also finds himself to be sweet on Miss Katie (Miss Anne Bancroft, remember?).LIEUTENANT Keating (Lee Marvin), a brutal, hot-headed Yankee hater, gets himself stone drunk, beats a Union Soldier to death and is shot to death by Major Benton at Sunday Prayer Meeting as he threatens the Reverend Merle Lucas (Douglas Spencer) with a pistol; objecting to the Clergyman's imploring the help of the Almighty in defeating the forces of the rebellious 11 States of the Confederacy.** ABOUT two or so days late, the raid takes place. Captain Foster, a self confessed coward, gets the chance to redeem himself in battling the group of Rebels and Mrs. Bishop reads a letter from Major Benton asking her forgiveness and understanding for his military actions.IN the formulation of the storyline of THE RAID (based on the Historical Novel "Affair at St. Albans" by Herbert Ravenal Sass), the production team attempts to put a human face on the characters caught up in the realities and horrors of War. They also brought attention to the little publicized special military excursions by the Confederates way high up in the North. This is one subject of which this writer has very little knowledge; but, I promise that will change and soon. Didja hear that, Schultz? NOTE: * It's one of those stranger than fiction occurrences as the future owner of Lassie meets the future mentor of Rinty! (Both in later TV Series.) NOTE ** Just for the Record, the 11 secessionist Southern Slave States were: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. Other Slave States that didn't secede from the Union were: Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware and the Indian Territory (the future Oklahoma, OK!) POODLE SCHNITZ!!

heckles (Avast, slight spoilers ahead) I got this tape from my local library, which keeps a copy for obvious reasons.I once went to the town of Matewan, West Virginia, and in a little museum there I saw the schedule for the town theatre citra May 1954. Movies would change at the theatre each day. As there would be no TV for another decade or so in those parts, this was much of the available entertainment in the town. "The Raid" seems to have been made for towns like Matewan in the 1950's. Although it wasn't listed for that month, I am sure showed there some Monday or Tuesday night for an audience which probably wasn't too demanding. The historical raid - daring and remarkably successful - didn't seem to have been very well researched, so the movie is full of Hollywood embellishments, including a loose cannon played by Lee Marvin. Marvin uses the opportunity to practice being Liberty Valance. And St. Albans seems to have had more Yankee soldiers coming and going through the town than Washington D.C. had.What really made me snicker was when the raiders change into their Confederate uniforms. Only in tacky Civil War paintings do Rebel uniforms look so pristine. When Anne Bancroft's son catches Van Heflin in his uniform just before the raid, I expected the boy to think it was Halloween.And then there's Anne Bancroft herself. While watching the movie I actually looked on the IMDb to see if there was a second Anne Bancroft. The then-studio contract actress looks nothing like in her later films, and has none of the presence she would later have in "The Miracle Worker," "Agnes of God," and of course "The Graduate."Worth seeing if only 1). you live in St. Albans and 2). you have a couple hours to kill on a Hollywood fictionalization of your home town's biggest news story.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) Van Heflin is a confederate officer disguised as a businessman, who is planning to raid the town of St. Albans, near the Canadian border. He gets emotionally involved with his landlady Anne Bancroft and her son, and eventually with the town's people. This is going to make his mission become much harder. Heflin gives a great performance, you can feel the agony he is going through. This is not an easy film to see, because you feel with him and it becomes almost unbearable. But it shows very well the horror of a war between people which were alike, but had a different cause.