SHENANDOAH: Blu-ray (Universal, 1965) Kino Lorber

James Stewart struggles to retain his rugged individualism against the resplendently thought-numbing backdrop of the American Civil War in director, Andrew V. McLaglen’s Shenandoah (1965) – one of the finest examples of the introspective ‘western’ – with its sometimes, thorny protagonist, Charlie Anderson exercising his conscientious objections to the war for war’s sake – even if valor is to be measured in hard times and by the blood of its men spilled on distant fields. Important to note, the Shenandoah valley, nicknamed ‘the breadbasket of the south’ was of vital importance during the war between the states. Lincoln’s armies launched two major offensives to claim it, thereby cutting off the south’s sustenance; the first campaign in 1862, then again, two years later, in 1864, the year in which this movie is set.  After six of the bloodiest battles yet waged on southern territory, Yankee General Sheridan defeated General Earley, resulting in a scorched earth policy against the rebel classes, leaving much of the region decimated for years yet to come. Some 56-years since its theatrical debut, Shenandoah will break your heart. James Stewart’s every man, weathered and crotchety, still ailing from a broken heart over the loss of his beloved Martha, nevertheless refuses to surrender his conscience or his opinions to those who would seek to silence or crush it for flying in the face of their smug moral superiority. The picture, expertly scripted by proud Southerner, James Lee Barrett (who left us much too soon, age 58 in 1989) also contains some of the best nuggets of wisdom about the proper way to love, honor and cherish our significant others, Charlie’s slyly astute observations imparted on Sam (Doug McClure), the stout-hearted, but intellectually naïve love interest for Charlie’s only daughter, Jennie (the rather placid and ineffectual Rosemary Forsyth). Come to ask for Jennie’s hand, Sam is given a scholarly rebuttal in the clear-eyed pursuit of his romantic interests. When Sam professes to love Jennie, Charlie instead inquires if yet he ‘likes’ her. “There's some difference between lovin' and likin'…You see, Sam, when you love a woman without likin' her, the night can be long and cold, and contempt comes up with the sun.” This prudence is later followed up by an even more clairvoyant reflection on the subtle emotional differences between men and women that, nevertheless, can put a significant strain on any relationship. “(Women) expect things they never ask for,” Charlie explains, “…and when they don't get them, they ask you why. Sometimes they don't ask... and just go ahead and punish you for not doing something you didn't know you were supposed to do in the first place.”

It goes without saying movies are a product of their time. Yet, in reflecting on Shenandoah today, it seems far more a byproduct of the Eisenhower fifties, one clearly reimagined by Barrett’s own antiwar bent against America’s involvement in the Vietnam conflict, then bubbling to the surface. Behind the scenes, this kismet would be even more heartfelt as Stewart, a decorated WWII bomber pilot, who also flew as an observer on a mission in Vietnam, would – like his fictional counterpoint, suffer the loss of his own stepson to the cause on June 8, 1969; ironically, almost four years to the day of Shenandoah’s world premiere. Viewed today, the weakest part of the picture remains its production values. For anyone who has seen more than one movie made at Universal throughout the sixties, these stock western sets, entirely shot on Universal City’s backlot, are very ‘old hat’ indeed. William H. Clothier’s Technicolor cinematography is unable to conceal the brightly colored artifice, with long-time art director, Alexander Golitzen, abetted by Alfred Sweeney, Oliver Emert, and, John McCarthy Jr., and plate-glass mattes painted by artist extraordinaire, Albert Whitlock, exaggerating the theatricality of the piece. Nothing here looks lived in, especially the Anderson’s sprawling farmhouse, as distinctly to have been ripped from the pages of a vintage ‘Better Homes and Gardens’ than to embody the rugged homestead, hewn from back-breaking labors put forth by an industrious and tightly-knit family of pioneers. Perhaps most obvious of Uni’s penny-pinching measures; its decision to license whole scenes from MGM’s lavishly appointed mid-fifties flop, Raintree County (1957) to substitute for the battle sequences, printed as a mirror image of the original footage shot in expansive MGM Camera-65, but herein cropped and reformatted for Shenandoah’s spherical 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

The brothers Anderson are played with nondescript modestly by Glenn Corbett (as Jacob) Patrick Wayne (John Wayne’s son, as James), Charles Robinson (Nathan), James McMullen (John), Tim McIntire (Henry) and Philip Alford (the unnamed youngest – interminably referred to as ‘Boy’). Of noteworthy casting - Katherine Ross (in her movie debut) as James’ devoted wife, Ann, George Kennedy (a war-weary Col. Fairchild), Hollywood’s stalwart, Paul Fix (as Dr. Tom Witherspoon), Denver Pyle (TV’s The Dukes of Hazzard’s Uncle Jessie, herein remade as stuffy Pastor Bjoerling), and finally, another ‘Dukes’ alumni, James ‘Roscoe P. Coltrane’ Best (as the defiant rebel, Carter, who takes ‘Boy’ under his wing during their perilous escape from a Union prison camp). If Shenandoah has a fatal flaw, it remains McLaghlen’s distinct decision to generally skirt around the grotesqueness of the war. Thus, the virtues in its storytelling are also, at least retrospectively, equally its vices. The whole issue of slavery, the very cause for the war, is bloodlessly dispatched, first - in a brief dinner table conversation, the emancipation given even less consideration as the family’s devoted boyhood friend, Gabriel (Gene Jackson) awakens to the uncertainty of his newly bequeathed future. In a brief reprise, Gabriel, now as a Union soldier, stumbles upon a wounded Boy and, defying his rank and racism, carries his old friend to a grassy knoll where he may escape being mowed down by the Union cavalry in full charge. There is also some speculation made that Boy is later under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, whose notorious exploits during the war included the total annihilation of approximately 400 surrendered union troops, as well as the torture, maiming, burning alive, and crucifixion-styled executions of other prisoners of war. None of this makes it into Shenandoah. Even more curiously, given its premise and setting, in 1975, Shenandoah debuted on Broadway as – wait for it - a musical!!!, to run a whopping 1050 performances and garner Tony nominations for Best Musical, Book and Score.

Shenandoah is set in the Commonwealth of Virginia, circa 1864. Yet, despite the Civil War raging all around them, Charlie Anderson and his family of six sons - Jacob, John, James, Nathan, Henry, and Boy, daughter, Jennie and daughter-in-law Ann - remain relatively untouched by the conflict. The echo of not-so-distant gunfire is about all they hear. The family possesses no slaves as Charlie has raised his brood to consider such a practice unlawful and cruel. But apart from this philosophy, Charlie does not afford the state or its politicians any leeway in their procurement of either supplies from his farm or to enforce conscription upon his children to partake of the conflict. At the behest of his late wife, Martha, Charlie agrees he and his entire family will attend weekly church services, though they are frequently late, and much to the consternation of Pastor Bjoering. Yet, Charlie blames God for Martha’s premature death during childbirth and, in his nightly prayers, affords the Creator no credit for his bounty, reminding God that it was he and his boys who carved their niche upon the land with the sweat off their brows and through back-breaking labor.

Despite Charlie’s aversion to the war and bitterness towards God, he has raised his family to be God-fearing Christians.  Nevertheless, his eldest, Jacob desires to enlist – a wish to remain unfulfilled and repeatedly denied by Charlie. No member of the Anderson family will join to fight until such time as the war itself directly concerns them. Meanwhile, Jennie is courted by Confederate officer, Sam. After some mild grumbling, Charlie gives his permission to the couple and they are promptly wedded. Their bliss is very short-lived, as directly following the church service Sam is recalled to fight, leaving Jennie in her father’s care. Meanwhile Ann, who is pregnant with James’ child, goes into labor. She delivers a healthy baby girl the couple elect to name Martha. Charlie’s idyllic retreat is intruded upon when Federal purchasing agents (Kelly Thordsen, John Daheim) arrive to commandeer his horses and his sons for the cause. Claiming Virginia needs all her fighting sons, the men are read the riot act by Charlie who declares the state holds no ownership on his offspring. Charlie also denies the men their authority to take his work horses for cavalry use. A fist fight ensues between the Andersons, the agents and their posse; a conflict halted when Ann and Jennie arrive, toting rifles, and Jennie threatens, if the agents do not retreat immediately, she will surely shoot every last one dead.

Tragically, Boy and his friend, Gabriel become inveigled in a Confederate ambush. Boy, have previously claimed a Confederate cap from the river, is mistaken as a soldier by the Union army and taken as their prisoner, leaving Gabriel to forewarn Charlie of his incarceration.  In response, Charlie and his sons prepare to make their journey to the nearby Union encampment where Boy is likely being held. At the last moment, Jennie – disguised as a boy – is allowed to come along, despite Charlie’s objections. This leaves James and Ann behind to tend the farm in their absence. Alas, the search for Boy is repeatedly stifled. At the Union camp, Charlie learns from a weary Col. Fairchild, all Confederate prisoners have already been shipped by railroad North. Empathetic to Charlie’s plight, Fairchild authors a note of permission allowing Charlie to reclaim his son, if he can find him. However, at the depot, the Union Sergeant (Edward Faulkner) disregards Fairchild’s letter and denies Charlie even the right to examine the box cars full of prisoners. In reply, Charlie and his sons ride ahead of the train, setting up a roadblock on the tracks and holding the Union guards at gunpoint. Liberating the prisoners en masse, Charlie discovers Sam among them. He and Jennie are tearfully reunited. Now, Charlie elects to burn the train as a symbol of his own defiance against the war.

For days thereafter, the search for Boy continues, but to no avail. The child has seemingly vanished or been lost somewhere on the battlefields stretching hard and bloodied before them. At a remote and burned-out cabin in the woods, Charlie sets up Sam and Jennie to share their marital bed as husband and wife for the first time. The action shifts to Boy, a prisoner of the Union army, about to be taken by paddle wheeler back North to a prison camp. Boy befriends the rebel, Carter who plots a daring escape by night, diving into the river and narrowly avoiding being shot by the Union soldiers. The handful of escapees now plot to head deeper south, even though Boy’s home is further north. Eventually, the rebels come upon a camp of their own soldiers where they are provided food, water and arms to take up the cause against a line of advancing Union soldiers. However, during this battle, Carter is shot in the head and Boy wounded in the leg. Lying on the battlefield and sure to be butchered along with the rest, Boy is instead confronted by Gabriel, who has since joined the Union army. Mercifully, their friendship has not been forgotten. Instead of putting an end to Boy, Gabriel rescues his friend from certain death, depositing him in the underbrush where he will go unnoticed by the advancing cavalry.

The story now shifts to the Anderson homestead where James is met, seemingly by a loner while he is drawing water up from the well. The man, Mule (Kevin Hagen) pretends to seek only a respite before going on his way, but then bayonets James through his belly, calling out two cohorts from the forest to investigate the house for food stuffs and other valuables to steal. A terrified Ann is driven upstairs by the men and murdered. A short while later, Charlie, Jennie and his sons come across a Confederate camp. Tragically, a young and inexperienced picket (James Heneghan Jr.) mistakes them for the enemy, shoots and kills Jacob. An enraged Charlie dismounts and attempts to strangle his son’s killer, only to find an ounce of bitter compassion left within him. He informs the picket, who is also sixteen (the same age as Boy), his fervent desire now is that he should grow into a ripe old age, though never without a day’s rest from reconsidering his murderous actions. Alas, upon returning home, Charlie and his family are informed by Doc Witherspoon of James and Ann’s demise, hinting Ann was also raped and tortured before coming to her end. Martha, however, has survived, as Witherspoon placed her in the care of a local woman (Pae Miller) until Charlie’s return.

Unable to make sense of his losses, Charlie attends his wife’s grave where Ann, James and Jacob are now also buried. Quietly, Charlie’s eulogizes his reflections about the war, “I don't even know what to say to you any more, Martha. There's not much I can tell you about this war. It's like all wars, I guess. The undertakers are winning. And the politicians who talk about the glory of it. And the old men who talk about the need of it. And the soldiers, well, they just wanna go home. I guess you're not so lonely anymore, with Ann and James and Jacob. And maybe the boy. You didn't know Ann, did you? Well, you'd like her. You'd like her, Martha. Why, she and James are so much alike, they're just like... no... no... we were never that much alike, were we Martha? We just sort’a grew alike through the years. But I wish I could just know what you're thinking about it all, Martha. And maybe it wouldn't seem so bad to me if I knew what you thought about it.” His thoughts are interrupted by the church bell, recalling him to Sunday services. However, just as Pastor Bjoerling is about to get underway, Boy stumbles into the chapel on a crutch having, somehow – miraculously – survived his ordeal. A grateful Charlie embraces his son as the congregation begins to sing.

Shenandoah is a poignant, tenderly affecting and emotionally satisfying familial saga that never tests the boundaries or even dares, for the most part, to expose the actual brutalities of its Civil War backdrop. The Anderson’s personal plight is front and center, yet in hindsight, hermetically sealed from this conflict, if not its tragic fallout. Battle sequences throughout are brief and remarkably restrained in their depiction of the bloody carnage. James Stewart is ideally cast as the emotionally scarred patriarch who commands the respect of his children through a stern, but otherwise devoted and loving nature, seeking only the fulfillment of their happiness, having long ago sacrificed his own. Stewart’s Charlie Anderson is an ‘old salt’, chronically to chomp on his cigar, yet endowed with Stewart’s unique and appealingly grizzled warmth to have made him a beloved of Hollywood for more than 50 years. Given, not only the political climate of the sixties, but also the changing winds to afflict the picture-making biz throughout the decade, Shenandoah is rather queerly disconnected from both contemporary strains in American life. Its social commentary (on the Vietnam war via James Lee Barrett’s reflections about the Civil War) spring almost by accident from Barrett’s screenplay to Charlie Anderson’s lips, relayed in homespun homilies by James Stewart’s inimitably big-hearted acting style. Stewart truly was an American institution by this time in his career. And, in the interim since his death in 1997, this reputation, as the irreplaceable face of the ‘common man’ who typifies the proudest and most moral ideals of the nation has only ripened into a golden-age reflection for both a time and a place we are likely never to experience again. In a career of incalculable quality, Shenandoah endures as one of Stewart’s finest moments on the screen. His Charlie Anderson, thoughtfully aggrieved, burrows deep into our hearts.

Shenandoah arrives on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber’s licensing agreement with Universal. Alas, the effort put forth here is, at best, middling. It remains an ongoing consternation of mine to review Uni’s chronic disregard to invest barely anything on any and all of its deep catalog. ‘Asset management’ without any distinct effort to properly curate and restore its past – and that of Paramount Pictures, which Uni inherited via MCA, this short-sightedness is immediately apparent as soon as the Universal logo appears on the screen. It’s the wrong logo, folks – the original lopped off decades ago when it was briefly fashionable to re-brand ‘ancient’ product with the ‘then’ prevailing updated version. So, Shenandoah’s Uni credit is from a late seventies/early eighties vintage. Thereafter, Shenandoah’s image is inconsistently rendered, derived from a print master, not an original camera negative, and sporting light speckling and other age-related dirt and scratches throughout. Uncharacteristic for Technicolor, colors here a muted at best. The image has a sort of unrefined clumpiness, with fine details generally obscured, except in close-up. Yet, even then, the image is not nearly as pristine or as crisp as one might expect. Contrast is anemic. Blacks are never black, but deep and undistinguished tonal grey. Colors toggle between marginally appealing, slightly faded, to garish and overly contrasted. Film grain is scrubbed, almost to the point of being waxy and unappealing, and, there are minor hints throughout of edge enhancement, though these never rise to an egregious level. The 1.0 audio is adequate, though just. Extras include an 8mm short, The Defiant Virginian, a theatrical trailer and an audio commentary from historians, Michael F. Blake, C. Courtney Joyner and Constantine Nasr. The commentary is solid and enjoyable. Bottom line: Shenandoah is a superior Civil War drama, oft classified among the ‘greats’ of the 20th century. But it’s been given short shrift here and deserves far better in 1080p. Judge and buy accordingly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

3

EXTRAS

1

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