GamerTab That was an excellent one.

ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

makkabee This documentary is a train-wreck, but be careful of reviews which are even more wildly inaccurate. For instance, one review from a self-described non-historian says " this documentary makes it seem as if the southern states had seceded out of fear of Abe abolishing slavery! Not only was abolishing slavery among the first things the confederacy was going to do after the war, but Abe wanted to send every African American to Panama! You've got to show every side of the secession because non of it is cut and dry. How would you like to be taxed "exporting" goods to your own country because you lived and worked in the south?"He's wrong about every item there. Southern states DID secede over fear that Lincoln would abolish slavery. They said so, openly and officially. The Declarations of Causes of Secession, the "Declarations of Independence" for most of the original Confederate states, all mention slavery repeatedly and talk of Republican plans to destroy it.Lincoln did not want to send every African American to Panama. He initially supported voluntary colonization, but abandoned the scheme when African-American leaders made it clear they didn't want to leave. Also note the contradiction between the reviewer's claim that ending slavery wasn't a Union war aim and his claim that Lincoln wanted to kick out all the black people.The claim that the Confederacy planned to abolish slavery is a bald- faced lie. There isn't a single bit of evidence that the Confederate government wished to do anything of the kind. Even at the very end, when they were desperate enough to try to recruit black soldiers, the Confederate Congress wouldn't pass the law until the provision requiring the freeing of enlisted slaves was struck.And the claim that southerners were taxed for exporting goods is another total fabrication. The United States didn't have export tariffs. It only taxed IMPORTS, and most of those imports came into northern ports, not southern. The "tax revolt" story is a fantasy concocted by defeated Confederate leaders after the war to make their cause look more attractive, but until the Confederacy collapsed they were quite open about being devoted to the preservation of slavery. I urge everyone who reads this to examine the primary sources and see for themselves where the truth lies.

draudrey-26730 Just watched the Antietam episode. There were top-notch Antietam historians interviewed for this episode. There were several poignant stories about soldiers in this battle effectively woven into the episode. Had I just heard the episode without seeing the accompanying visuals, I would have been much happier. The battle sequences were terrible and negated the good effect of the narrative. I agree with the other reviewers who have commented on the utter lack of proper Civil War infantry drill and tactics in the battle scenes and the horrible uniforms worn horribly by the actors. This horribleness extends to the depiction of the artillery as well. This episode features Battery B 4th US, a unit that incurred 40% casualties in the battle. With the exception of one Napoleon, everything that was shown about the battery was wrong. The drill was all wrong, the arrangement of the cannons one behind the others was wrong, the limber aligned on the oblique with no horses was wrong, the mushroom clouds of canister were wrong. Where's General John Gibbon getting off his horse to raise the elevation screw to lower the muzzle? Where's the 15 year-old Cincinnati paper boy Bugler Johnny Cook earning his Medal of Honor? So much potential in this dramatic story. All wasted.

krizzby7 It is understood that the American Civil War was a series of complex and pressing events that can cause one to devote their life to researching and studying, yet never come closer to fully understanding it. That in mind no series, how well funded or produced, could ever do the war true justice in both scope and scale or in accurately portraying the men who fought it. However most good studios and projects will do as much research as possible to ensure their information and their portrayal of the war is as accurate as possible America Heroes Channel and Cream Productions do not know what research is.  The focus of my scorn comes from the complete and utter lack of authentic recreations of the war. While their narrative may contain some positive points and usefully intriguing information, the show would have done so much better with a slide show of period photographs much in the vein of Ken Burns the Civil War What this company put to film resembles nothing of the American Civil War.  It is outright a travesty. I could fill this very page with more criticisms to the inaccuracies seen in just the first episode and their 360 shoot combined. There are more details wrong than ever right.  The old phrase the Devils in the Details was meant for this. Many of you would ask "why does it matter if their uniforms or accurate, it looked cool!" While having museum grade quality uniforms is exciting and accurate it is also very expensive and understandably so when film companies look for a step below.  The uniforms here are not a step below, they are floors. The confederate uniforms for one resemble NOTHING ever worn by a Southern soldier. They are fictions. The Federal soldiers headware is again so disappointing as to resemble a block than a kepi or forage cap.  As someone who has worked in the Historical film industry and had to work with very low budget pictures, it is still obtainable for us to have uniforms that resemble at the least what the real Mccoy did. The tactics are abysmal. They actually just lack tactics .  The entire film resembles a bunch of men playing paintball in the woods.  This production would have you believe the soldiers of the American Civil War ran around the woods in small clusters hiding behind rocks and trees, then dashing off in a wild charge at the enemy.  False. It actually is a disservice. The American Civil War was known for its nearly static battle lines drawn out in brigade fashion that slugged it out within a few hundred yards.  And when they did close within a hundred yards the result was devastating. Having background extras to work with is difficult, again I know from personal experience.  But having an actual adviser on set makes all the difference. How can you make a dozen men look like 300 in a battle line?  Good film making. Good editing. A DP who knows how to shoot around their limitations. Clearly this production had none of those. Again to close, why does it matter? Why does it matter that we need authentic representation of uniforms, equipment and materials. Because this show pitched the idea of using recreation scenes of battle. They chose the medium.  Cream Productions and AHC could have picked talking heads and slide shows of original images with graphics of moving battle lines.  But they wanted to be edgy so they chose battle scenes.  So now they pay that price.  Look at the other reviews, the stars given.  We are all upset.  Cream Productions has been blocking users and deleting comments because of the flood of negative responses they've received.  This is our history, do not take it for granted and think you can deliver a cheap, researchless project.

siltmanf These people have wasted a great opportunity to educate people on the realities of the Civil War, but their depiction of warfare and the soldiers is utterly terrible. Did you hire historical/technical advisors for the battle scenes? If so, who? They should be fired. More likely, you didn't. There is no excuse the historical inaccuracies portrayed and does a disservice to the men you are portraying. There are too many material culture and historical experts on the Civil War to do this so poorly and not even remotely depict the appearance, conduct or nature of the common soldier, and to not even depict warfare as it was. The battle scenes are nothing short of disgraceful.