laurenstevens-35305 Review of Field of Lost Shoes

Field of Lost Shoes (2015)

Good movie for people that aren't history buffs

[7/10 · 2 January 2017]

Overall, I enjoyed this movie. What I specifically enjoyed was how the producers made the movie about more than just battles, the President, or the government in general. I liked how they introduced the movie with character development, which further developed into friendship- another aspect I liked. Another enjoyable aspect was that the watcher received the viewpoint of slaves, generals, the President, soldiers, people outside of the war, everybody. This movie brought in a lot about slavery. The slaves involved in the movie were intelligent, eloquent-speaking, kind-hearted people that didn't seem to have any resentment towards whites. I found this odd because in this time period, many of these slaves weren't educated- which these people seemed to be. In addition, there were no "pro- slavery" people, which I found odd because the movie took place in the Confederacy. The teenagers in the movie seemed overly compassionate towards slaves, especially ones that weren't their own. One last odd thing about the slaves was how Old Judge stood over the dead bodies of people fighting for slavery while crying at the end of the movie. I was fond of the fact that they developed the Confederate soldier characters as they did- that they were more than just slavery-protecting people that were in the wrong. This movie revealed the sides of some of these people, especially when the soldiers took the blame for the food mishap with Old Judge, a slave, and helped an apparent slave woman when she had a structure fall on her leg- while marching to combat Union forces. They also showed how other things in life, such as religion, were important to them. I liked this because it showed that these soldiers were more than soldiers- they were people. It was eye-opening. I like how the movie exposed "relationships" as a soldier- that they were nice, yet fleeting. Oftentimes, I don't see many war movies that show true friendship, or the beginnings of flirtation- this movie provoked feelings, something that even people that aren't history-buffs can relate to. This movie definitely pulled heartstrings as the main characters throughout the whole movie were teenagers and even a young boy, yet it was pretty predictable towards the end of the movie when the battle was occurring. Another setback of this movie is how unrealistic it seems, the special effects aren't the best, and the settings aren't what one would expect from a tip-top Civil War movie. In addition, for the movie's description declaring that the movie was about this one battle, it took an awful long time to get to the battle. The battle part however though, was a good one. The friendship theme continues throughout and lasts. This movie exposed the emotions during and after a battle, and continued to last afterwards despite revealed religious differences. This movie brought in a community aspect, how after the battle the community gathered and worked to help nurse the wounded back to health. However, the one "relationship" in the movie was kind of cheesy and seemed as if it was built and destroyed just for the purpose of tearing people up. Overall, I thought this movie was relatively good and I would watch it for my own enjoyment and not for a US History assignment.