Overrated

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

The field of lost shoes is historically very accurate representation of what happened on May 15th 1863 where teenage boys were told they were being sent off to war in the Battle of New Market where they would fight against union troops until eventually the confederate troops or probably better known as the teenage boys we see first hand experience the terrors of the civil war. The movie is also seen to be very historically accurate in the way that as the boys move from place to place in the movie we see real world places from the area come up in the bottom of the screen as a subtitle leaving it to be very historically accurate with almost nothing left unturned from this unbelievable battle

A great part of the movie was it's historical accuracy. Showing confederate soldiers without shoes and low on supplies, with the facts about the tributes to the group of cadets by the Virginia Military Institute today in the beginning and the end. It tells stories of perseverance, love, and sacrifice all at once. Right when it felt like it was starting to drag in the middle it threw a twist to keep things interesting. This movie is underrated, and a great showing of the side that isn't shown as often.

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.

For the most part the movie was historically accurate but there are a few nit picky things that you could pick out. For instance the Confederate army had wide brim hats not kepi hats, and the Union should have kepi hats not wide brim. There was no cavalry during the battle in the movie, and the Confederate general Breckinridge was suppose to advance with all his troops when a key battery went to reload, not just the corps cadets as shown in the movie. After the battle Sam Atwell died the same day after his injury instead of what really happened where he died 66 days after his injury. More likely than not Confederate soldiers wouldn't break rank to help a black woman. They also wouldn't tell anyone that they were against slavery because that was the main reason people were fighting for the south. But when the kids did advance they did indeed lose their shoes in the mud thus "Field of Lost Shoes". The confederates were suppose to win the battle, General Breckinridge did make the very hard decision to send the kids into battle. Every year they have an annual memorial service for the people that died in the battle where they name all the people who died fighting.