Civil War Minutes: Confederate (2002)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Michael Krause and David Neville
Directed by Mark Bussler
Starring Michael Krause
Narrated by Charles King

Features:

• 32 short episodes

Rated: NR, suitable for most audiences

Anamorphic: N/A

My advice: Rent it.

Collecting almost three dozen short documentary episodes, Civil War Minutes: Confederate is an incredibly thorough examination of the minutiae of a conflict that is arguably the darkest period in U.S. history. Each episode focuses on a single point of interest, be it the gear the soldiers carried, famous horses of the generals, letters home, or technological advances in bullet-making.

Host and co-writer Michael Krause has been tapped in the past for other projects based on his near-encyclopedic knowledge of the Civil War. His filmography includes credits as a Military History Advisor for Cold Mountain and Military Coordinator for Gettysburg. He’s also acted as a commander in a number of anniversary re-enactments (though on the side of the Union, rather than the Confederacy).

This leads, circuitously, to my biggest problem with the set. While it advertises itself in name as the “Confederate” set, ostensibly half of a larger collection, the set doesn’t really focus particularly on one side or the other of the conflict. Some individual small episodes are tied closely to the southern states, but most of them are fairly evenly balanced, discussing both sides of the conflict. If this is held up in the “Union” set, then there’s really no problem. My suspicion, however, is that the Union just gets more play across both sets. Not necessarily anybody’s fault, but it would be nice to see more full disclosure from the docu makers if the pieces are going to slant away from their advertised focus.

The discs look and sound good, but aside from the feature presentation itself, there aren’t any bonus features to speak of in the set. With a total running time totaling 180 minutes, it’s still a great deal of information, but some still galleries or reproductions of letters, etc. would have made this a true “must have” for history buffs.

The information is a veritable gold mine of low-level detail and interesting trivia for students of the war or the era. It might not appeal to those that are casually pursuing the subject, as most of the information presented is truly minutiae, not likely of much interest to any but die-hards. But regardless, it's worth at least a rental.