The Blue and Gray

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An English navigator becomes both pawn and player in the deadly political games in feudal Japan. A continuation of the dramatic anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents hosted by the Master of Suspense and Mystery. America just before and during the Civil War, as seen through the eyes of an artist correspondent. It is a long drama about a family set at the time of that war.

Running more than six hours, it is indeed long. Yet, anyone interested in human relationships will find that the time is well spent and that no dead points exist. The snippets of the Civil War form a focus for the story and explain some of the relationship issues. They also remind the viewer what a truly difficult time it was for families and for our nation.

Explore popular and recently added TV series available to stream now with Prime Video. Start your free trial. Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Full Cast and Crew. Related News Scoring Lincoln: Original Series I Own. Series of movies new. Share this Rating Title: The Blue and the Gray — 7. Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 4 Primetime Emmys. Learn more More Like This. North and South — North and South, Book II The story of two friends and their families on opposite sides of the American Civil War.

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The Thorn Birds Pork Chop Hill Shogun TV Movie The Alfred Hitchcock Hour — Edit Cast Series cast summary: Jonas Steele 3 episodes, John Hammond John Geyser 3 episodes, Julia Duffy Mary Hale 3 episodes, Robin Gammell James Hale 3 episodes, Julius Harris Lester Bedell 3 episodes, Cooper Huckabee Matthew Geyser 3 episodes, James Carroll Jordan Professor Lowe 3 episodes, Brian Kerwin Malachy Hale 3 episodes, William Lucking Potts 3 episodes, Charles Napier Harrison 3 episodes, Walter Olkewicz Grundy 3 episodes, Penny Peyser Randolph 3 episodes, David Rounds Christopher Spencer 3 episodes, Christopher Stone Fairburn 3 episodes, Diane Baker Evelyn Hale 3 episodes, Kathleen Beller Kathy Reynolds 3 episodes, Paul Benedict Arbuthnot 3 episodes, Lloyd Bridges Ben Geyser 3 episodes, Rory Calhoun George Meade 3 episodes, Colleen Dewhurst Maggie Geyser 3 episodes, David Doyle Phineas Wade 3 episodes, Michael Horton Mark Geyser 3 episodes, Warren Oates O'Toole 3 episodes, Geraldine Page Lovelace 3 episodes, Dan Shor Luke Geyser 3 episodes, Rip Torn Grant 3 episodes, Robert Vaughn Reynolds 3 episodes, John Vernon Secretary of State Seward 3 episodes, Sterling Hayden I wasn't sure how it would stand the test of time both as a 16 year old production and my own view of it, being 16 years older now and braced myself for disappointment; however, I was very pleasantly surprised.

The movie is as well done as I remembered it. It's an engrossing movie that gives an honest, frank look at the inherent moral ambiguity of war, as well as the additional consequences of the Civil War, where "brother fought brother". Although the movie certainly takes dramatic license the main character, a young Southerner who relocates to the north after becoming disillusioned with the cruel treatment of slaves, ends up stumbling across his staunchly pro-Confederate siblings as if they're all wandering around in the same town instead of an entire country!

I'm certainly no Civil War expert, but I thought it was a very balanced portrait.

What's more amazing is that the mini rarely drags despite sometimes taking a leisurely pace during its 6 hour run-time. Although we all know how the movie with ultimately end, it keeps you interested in the lives of all the characters it introduces. I thought Stacy Keach did a particularly good job despite a few hammy lines. This mini-series should definitely be on any must-see list of war films. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote. This is such a good movie mainly due to the lack of bias and multiple story lines which keep you hooked throughout the extensive length of the film.

I thought that the film was, although of course not the greastest of civil war films, it definitely desearves nothing but good reviews. I saw this movie when i was visiting Utah with family and i had to live in a trailer with my brother and his friend for a few days and all we had was a DVD player and a few movies and some paper and pens.

So when we finally decided to watch what seemed like a boring war movie Even when invited to go horse-back riding by some neighborhood girls whom my brother had been eyeing. It is a long drama about a family set at the time of that war. Running more than six hours, it is indeed long. Yet, anyone interested in human relationships will find that the time is well spent and that no dead points exist.

The snippets of the Civil War form a focus for the story and explain some of the relationship issues. They also remind the viewer what a truly difficult time it was for families and for our nation. This was a very good film about the Civil War. It showed the mindset of people living in the south during that era; how they were swayed into entering a futile and dangerous undertaking. The agony of war was shown at its worst, depicting the loss of the combatants as well as bystanders. Any war is horrible, but the war between the states is more so because of its utter uselessness.

The waste of life and material should never have been allowed to happen. I recommend this movie; the action sequences are dramatic and well done, however, I felt some of the scenes seemed a bit underpopulated. As others have mentioned, this is a series of recollections of events which may or may not have occurred during the American Civil War. It is related from the point of view of a 'neutral' war correspondent, who's talent is for drawing sketches of what he has seen on various battle fields, from Bull Run to Appomattox Ct. There is considerable 'time jumping' from one period of the war, to another, which inhibits continuity to some extent.

For me the best part of the mini-series was watching Gregory Peck as Abraham Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg address. However, we are thrown into that scene without adequate preamble, so even this is diminished from what it could have been. I am quite an avid amateur Civil War historian, having read many books and watched many TV series including the excellent PBS series by Ken Burns, and the complete 3 volume set of books on the Civil War by historian Shelby Foote on the subject.

If you are looking for historical accuracy you will be disappointed. If you, on the other hand, are simply looking for a decent dramatization ala "Gone With the Wind , you will enjoy this series. As my summary states, this is a dramatic romp, so if you keep that in mind and set your sites correspondingly on the low side, you will not be disappointed.

Back in the early Sixties there was a short lived television series called The Americans about two brothers who after their father was killed decided to fight on opposite sides in the Civil War. The whole business about brother against brother was no exaggeration. Right up to the very top with Mary Todd Lincoln having relatives who fought for the Confederacy, families were torn apart. The Hales are from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and the Geysers from what would now be West Virginia in and around Harper's Ferry and that's not even miles distance.

But the families are true to the sectional divide. With the exception of John Geyser played by John Hammond who has made a black friend, a free man played by Paul Winfield who gets lynched for helping runaway slaves. He won't fight for a section that espouses slavery as a cause, but won't enlist in the Northern Armies either. A passing acquaintance played by Stacy Keach who gets himself involved in a lot of the major events of the war and married into the Hale family with Julia Duffy persuades Hammond to become a war correspondent and put his artistic talents to good use.

Hammond becomes a pictorial chronicler of the seminal event of his generation. Without ever losing control of the main story lines, what happens to the various Geyser and Hale family members, The Blue And The Gray captures the sweep and pageantry of the Civil War. Such real characters as Abraham Lincoln played by Gregory Peck and John Brown played by Sterling Hayden in what was his farewell performance do take a life of their own.

With Peck we see a public and a private Lincoln which is true to the Lincoln mythology and yet quite a human character. If I had to single out one performance that was especially touching it would be that of David W. Harper as one of the Hale brothers. The young man was eager to be the first to enlist in his town of Gettysburg, but he never made it to the battle that town became famous for.

A not well covered portion of the war was the lack of sanitary facilities in army camps. Young Harper falls victim to dysentery and his performance will move you. A few years later North and South covered a lot of the same ground that this particular mini-series did and it was as well done as The Blue And The Gray. This miniseries shows the war primarily through the eyes of a Virginian who wants to witness history but cannot commit to either side of the conflict. His new-found profession of journalism allows him to participate as a neutral observer.

He is surrounded by relatives and friends on both sides, and the miniseries shows events through their eyes as well. The human side of the war is stressed, and it excellently portrays the toll the conflict took on families. Rather, observations made in the book are woven around the main storyline as supplementary material. Most of the military aspects of the miniseries are laughable and bear little resemblance to reality. Due to the miniseries being done on a miniseries budget we see none of the grand scale evident in "Gettysburg" or "Glory.

We see from his performance a little of the decentralized, more personalized ways in which intelligence gathering and other non-standard military operations were conducted in the nineteenth century. The miniseries ran for over six hours on CBS in , but well over an hour was cut for the two-cassette video release. Get the whole treatment if you can. I enjoyed the Film mrc 24 July I did not see this movie when it was shown as a mini-series.

I happened to like this movie because it gave a simple portrayal of what it might have been like to be a family during this period and having to face the problem of a family that was divided in its loyalties. I thought the makers of this movie followed the history of the period and gave a good presentation of the issues that the people had to deal with at the time. Given the time that it was made I think it was a good portrayal of the period.

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My only fault with the movie was the fact that it seemed to put the fall of Vicksburg after the Gettysburg Address. I did not understand how this was allowed to happen given the fact that it seemed to be based on Bruce Catton's work. Can anyone explain this? I first saw this film when it was televised in My family taped it at that time and it remains one of our favorite films. Even with its' six-hour length, it flows well and I never find myself becoming bored while watching.

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The best aspect of the movie is the characters, who seem real to us. It shows how families, North and South, were affected in a profound way by the Civil War. Every time we watch The Blue and the Gray, it is easy to develop feelings for the characters, who could almost be members of our own family.

The Blue & the Gray Cast and Characters | TV Guide

It is this humanistic feature rather than dwelling on the intricacies of the battles themselves which makes this film great viewing, even for those who aren't "into" war movies. Eminently watchable and very much a film that delivers the 'feeling of the times'. This gets at what professional historians say that any historical works needs - i. As to the accuracy of historical details that some of your commentators complain about, I cannot say as I am not a military expert. Good cast and good acting all of which adds up to a very presentable dramatic view of the Civil War.

The only pleasant distraction for me was John Hammond who is so good looking that one wonders if anyone alive in those days could have been such a beautiful, clean cut 'All American' male. When you see old Civil War photos, most of the males, even the young ones, seem 'scruffy' and worn out before their time. TexasRedge 4 May I remember my high school history teacher making us watch this in class my freshmen year of high school Doylenf 7 April I'm not going to nitpick this film because the wrong number of buttons are on a Civil War jacket nor am I going to criticize the fact that certain battles are presented out of chronological sequence, as some others have already pointed out.

The human drama, both on the home front before the war and during the various battles, is portrayed very realistically, as are the graphic battle scenes. The cast assembled does a wonderful job with characters that come alive.

It may not be a perfect history lesson, but it is photographed beautifully in color all of it filmed in Arkansas , has a fine musical score and is well worth the time it takes to unwind a very compelling story with characters any viewer can relate to. I consider it one of the finest made-for-TV miniseries ever made. In the eighth grade, which was this past year for me , we take a field trip to Gettysburg, and before we do Now, don't get me wrong- at the very beginning I was bored out of my mind- but after I got into it I loved it!

I loved it so much I even stayed in the Histry Room during my free period to watch the end ahead of the class. I am good in history, and this movie was truly exceptional. At times, I thought of closing my eyes, and at other times- I could hardly stay on my seat. This movie made me think of how lucky I am to live in a world of freedom, and without the conditions like they had in those days.

Two scenes in particular I found hard to swallow were The branding scene and the scene where Jonas and Malachai discover Mooney murdered, and staked to a tree Although the hard scenes, and length of the movie- I still loved it and would recommend it to anyone! The Blue and the Grey had a great plot and I really enjoyed this mini series. It showed the horrors of war and showed how some families were broken up by the conflict where in real life brother fought brother.

I only wish that the Blue and the Grey could have been more realistic like Gettysburg. The uniforms used in this film are just too generic and too "Hollywood" unlike Gettysburg where the uniforms look authentic. I also dislike the over dubbing of the rifles and cannon that was so common until the last 15 years or so that seems so fake in comparison to Gettysburg.

The battle scenes have a lot of action but there just seems to be too few people fighting the battle. Gettysburg on the other hand had plenty of extras; almost all of them Civil War reenactors, making the battle scenes more realistic. Perhaps if the producers of The Blue and the Grey had used reenactors they could have had better battle scenes and the mini series would have been more realistic. StLouisAssassin 27 August This was the first ever mini series I watched in my life.

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It and was the first ever Civil War movie I ever watched in my life. I man did I pick a great first one to watch. I am 37 years old now, and to this day I still own a copy of the 3 disc DVD set. I get it out at least once a year and watch it. And I still love it to this day.

And in the years that have passed, I eventually did go back and watch Roots Although I still haven't seen the Thorn birds don't really think I want too though I am saddened by the fact that there aren't more films like this one being produced these days.

I really recommend this movie to anyone who like Long drawn out storyline and there is nothing wrong with that Good battle scenes. My only complaint is that I wish the producers would go back and remaster the sound quality. Cannot believe I never heard of theses mini-series before. But recently, have gotten the complete longer version and watched it all in several takes. Yes, I agree with many of the decent critics about this film.

True, the lack of budget is obvious, and it is obvious that there had to be more soldiers on both sides in all shown battle scenes, same may be said about scenes depicting camps or cities. True, some lines of actors are hammy, and some actors simply played not well enough. Yes, sometimes you pay attention to obvious goofs and anachronisms concerning rifles, uniforms, or other minutiae.

But still, good impressions remain. The serial captivates and holds you all 7 hours.

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