TCM AND THE CIVIL WAR

In recognition of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will embark on a month-long exploration of the brutal conflict as seen through the eyes of some of Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers. Mondays and Wednesdays in April, TCM will present a wide range of stories from both the battlefield and the home front. TCM’s commemoration of the Civil War begins Monday, April 4, with the beloved Gone with the Wind (1939).

Each night’s films will focus on a different theme. In addition to Gone with the Wind, the first night’s examination of Civil War epics will include Raintree County (1957), with an all-star cast led by Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, Lee Marvin, Rod Taylor and Agnes Moorehead. Life on the home front takes center stage Wednesday, April 6, led off by the moving Quaker drama Friendly Persuasion(1956), starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire and Anthony Perkins.

TCM presents a night of silent films on Monday, April 11, with a lineup that includes D.W. Griffith’s controversial The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Buster Keaton’s delightful The General (1927). Wednesday, April 18, will feature a lineup of comedies and musicals, including A Southern Yankee (1948), starring Red Skelton; The Littlest Rebel (1935), starring Shirley Temple; and the TCM premiere of Golden Girl(1951), with Mitzi Gaynor.

Week three of TCM’s Civil War collection focuses on westerns. The Monday, April 18, lineup includes Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and Charlton Heston in Sam Peckinpah’s Major Dundee (1965). On Wednesday, April 20, the western offerings include Alvarez Kelly (1966), with William Holden in the title role, and the TCM premiere of The Siege at Red River (1954), an underrated drama starring Van Johnson.

TCM heads to the battlefield Monday, April 25, with Glory(1989), starring Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman and Oscar®-winner Denzel Washington; Gettysburg(1993), Turner Pictures’ monumental epic with Martin Sheen as General Lee; and John Huston’s adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage (1951), starring Audie Murphy. The Civil War showcase comes to an end Wednesday, April 27, with a night of movies about the war’s politics and the difficult post-war reconstruction. The lineup includes D.W. Griffith’s presidential biography Abraham Lincoln (1930), with Walter Huston, and Tennessee Johnson (1942), a look at the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, played by Van Heflin.

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