StunnaKrypto
Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
Derry Herrera
Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
Roy Hart
If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Ariella Broughton
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
MartinHafer
This is an early Technicolor film made by Vitaphone just before the Warner Brothers (the parent studio) began making full-length color films. In other words, this short was sort of an experiment to work on technique and enabled these same folks to later make such gorgeous color classics as "The Adventures of Robin Hood".This film is set during the US Civil War and concerns the last days of General Stonewall Jackson. If you are looking for an accurate history lesson, it's a mixed bag--some quite factual and some very fanciful. But what you are much more likely to notice is the silly and VERY syrupy dialog as well as the fact that Warner/Vitaphone often portrayed the Confederacy very sympathetically during this era. It also has some unnecessary singing at the beginning and end--and it makes little sense. Overall, it makes for an odd sort of curio but nothing more. But, it does have some very pretty color.
bkoganbing
This short subject film chronicles the last day in the life of General Thomas Jonathan Jackson better known as Stonewall. The fate of the southern cause may very well have died with him that day in Chancellorsville in 1863.He got the nickname of Stonewall at that first major battle of the Civil War, Bull Run. So named because the brigade he commanded stood against the charging Union army and turned it back. But his finest hour was Chancellorsville.Jackson was a man of deep religious faith who never doubted the rightness of his cause. That's usually the problem with those who think God is on their side, there were some folks like Oliver O. Howard on the Union side who prayed as much for their troops as Jackson is shown here.That he was a military genius is unmistakable. He devises the strategy with Robert E. Lee which brings victory at Chancellorsville which you will see here in Under Southern Stars. Fritz Lieber is impressive as Jackson as is Pierre Watkin as Robert E. Lee. A pair of young lovers played by Fred Lawrence and Jane Bryan get more in the way of the main story, attractive though they are.A nice thumbnail history of Chancellorsville.
martin lane
This is one of the more bizarre of Warner Brothes' surprisingly lavish "Historical" two reeler's. This is part biopic (which tries to reclaim "Stonewall" Jackson as an all American hero ...and glorify General Lee as most films of this period do), part musical romance (though the theme song is totally anachronistic... and pretty bad...and the "Romance" is truncated to the point of anemia). This is, nonetheless, fascinating for the large scale production values, lavish action scenes, and interesting use of talent (why is wonderful Harry Davenport in the opening scene only? And why didn't handsome and appealing Wayne Morriss ever move from early bits like the one he has here to super-stardom like he should have?). As history lesson...weird and wacky...as curio of the Studio moving toward the Technicolor glories of "The Adventures Of Robin Hood"...invaluable.
max von meyerling
A really dopey and inappropriate title song crooned by a tenor and a sappy and perfunctory love story have been tacked on to this tale of the death of Confederate General Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson. However it does have unexpected moments of power and sentiment very much in the D.W. Griifith tradition. Strong words indeed for what is a Warner's short subject used mainly to show off the three strip Technicolor process and train technicians in its use. There are shots of General Lee with his artillery battery with the land dropping off and rising up beyond that seems very much a Griffisonian composition and the handing of Jackson on his deathbed wallows in exactly the type of emotionalism that Griffith openly courted. The Turner Classic copy runs at only 16 1/2 minutes and there seems to be a somewhat jarring cut after Jackson dies but whether this is responsible for the short running time or it is mislisted is a subject for further research.