Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1815 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-05-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.com
Shenandoah, a film well-liked in its day, recalls Friendly Persuasion and foreshadows The Patriot as it tells of an American clan traumatized by war on native soil. Virginia farmer James Stewart has never owned slaves, owes allegiance to no one beyond his own kin, and adamantly disregards the North-South strife rumbling just over the hill: "This war is not mine and I take no note of it." That changes when youngest son Philip Alford (To Kill a Mockingbird's Jem) is carried off by Yankees, and the family must ride out to reclaim him. Shenandoah has several affecting moments--notably a homefront atrocity--but much of it is lit and played like a television show. Script and direction are formulaic, Stewart falls back on cozy shtick, and the supporting cast is a collection of bland studio contract players. As the closing credit says: "filmed entirely at Universal City." --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

An individualist who finds himself unwillingly at war
This Jimmy Stewart star vehicle was released in 1965, so I could have seen it as a kid. But I didn't. Usually we attended blockbuster musicals and comedies.

When I say this is a star vehicle for Stewart, I mean that he gets more lines than anyone else, and he gets all the good lines. There are a fair number of good lines in this movie, which tells the story of a Virginia farmer who tries to keep himself and his sons out of the Civil War raging all around him. He is successful at tending his own business exclusively (he doesn't believe in slavery and finds no reason he or any of his should fight for it) until the war finds him. The South tries to requisition ("steal") his animals, which leads to an altercation. His youngest boy is carried off by mistake by the North as a prisoner of war. Dad sets off to find his son. The family does not remain unscathed, due to bad men and bad luck.

Shenandoah is probably one of the last Hollywood films that is unabashedly religious in underlying orientation, in the old style of the 1940s and 50's. Though Stewart's character has, shall we say, a strained relationship with God, he keeps his family tied to the church -- to fulfill his wife's final wishes. There's a very effective scene at the end where he talks to his wife Martha at her grave, longing for her to be there to give him some comforting words to help him deal with the tragedy he has just endured.

It's a simple story, effectively told. You could say it was an anti-war movie, but without the trappings of modern anti-war films, which tend to end up being anti-American. This film is more anti-government, in my opinion. Libertarian in outlook.

A fine film that is true to its era and still holds up today. Stewart knew how to pick his projects.

Stewart's patriarach
This film proven to be perhaps the last big hit for Stewart but what an heartfelt one!! It has endured in various screenings on TV and also resulted in a musical with John McCullum in the role Jimmy created memorably here. Although he was to make a few more films in this genre (Firecreek, Bandolero,The Rare Breed, Cheyenne Social Club), none of them held a candle to this family oriented Western. Stewart gives one of his best performances as a patriarch of a large family in the South who tries to hold on to his pacifist ways despite the fact a Civil War is brewing and that his family will be torn apart from it. This film may not appeal to Stewart fans used to seeing him in the rough edged films he did with Anthony Mann since this film is extremely sentimental and non-edgy but still powerful in its message of tolerance and forgiveness in troubled times. In a sense, then, this film is timeless regardless of the fact that's it's a Civil War western. Andrew V. McLaglan may not be Anthony Mann or John Ford (or Delmar Davies for that matter) but he does bring a lot of warmth to this material that William Wyler brought to a very similiar film, "Friendly Persuasion". I know this film will appeal to women as well as men so prepare to shed some tears on this when viewed. A fitting sonata to Stewart's long career in film.

Classic!!!
Shenandoah is a classic Jimmy Stewart Western. There's not a whole lot to say other than it's just an awesome movie!!