SHENANDOAH (1965) *** Jimmy Stewart as an anti-American terrorist? You can only push a man so far. 1965 was a good year to warn people that fighting wars that don't have anything to do with you is stupid, and Hollywood did its part. The strange thing is that this film has the feel of a movie made 15 or 20 years earlier, the first half is much like a musicless The Sound of Music. Stewart has all the great lines, and there are lots of 'em, and he delivers like Jimmy Stewart. Who needs range? He does it all with depth. Eventually the plot breaks down under too many ultra-dramatic Greek Tragedian twists, or Hollywood's or a plumber's conception of them, but by then the point has been made. War ravages the big family, emptying key spaces around the table and scarring everyone who's still there. Katharine Ross is angelic as a young lady that marries into Stewart's patriarchal family, and likes him anyway.
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