War Flowers (2013)
Written and directed by Serge Rodnunsky (available on DVD and VOD)
War Flowers poses an important question: Why is it so difficult to make a good Civil War movie? Is it because writers and directors are so overwhelmed by the scale of the conflict or the challenge of conveying so many events? Is it because it is so challenging to create a visual narrative that is both historically credible (something less than documentary accuracy but more than pure fiction) and engaging?
To deal with these challenges, most writers and directors have chosen to narrow their focus to a specific wartime experience—the recruitment and campaigns of the 54th Massachusetts in Glory, for example, or the home-front trials of women in Gone With the Wind and Cold Mountain. Serge Rodnunsky has also gone this route in War Flowers; he focuses on the wartime trials of a mother and daughter living in “the Valley” (presumably the Shenandoah Valley, but this is never stated). Sarabeth Ellis (Christina Ricci) and Melody (Gabrielle Popa) live lives of quiet starvation and yearn for the man of the house (Bren Foster) to return from war.
Sarabeth is not tilling the fields herself, of course. At one point, she does some half-hearted spading. As in many recent historical films in which the protagonists are white Southerners, slavery is marginalized and sanitized. Melody’s best friend Ellie is black (Jordyn Thomas), and they spend their time together walking down a road hand-in-hand; when she needs advice and help, Sarabeth goes to Ellie’s grandfather. The only physical danger the Ellises face comes from locals—no-good shirker, thief and amputee Rufus (Kurt Yaeger) and Tim, the leader of the local home guard (Scott Michael Campbell).
Pretty soon, a battle coalesces around the homestead. A handsome Union soldier, Louis McIntire (Jason Gedrick) is shot and crawls into the Ellis’ root cellar; Melody finds him there and (wisely) confiscates his weapon and brings it to her mother. As a neighbor boy loads up the bodies of dead soldiers in the yard, Sarabeth performs minor surgery on the wounded man. This is, of course, the meet-cute: the poignant first meeting of the future romantic couple. A lot of action ensues: Tim threatens Sarabeth with rape; Rufus tries to rob the Ellises; Sarabeth and Louis fall in love seemingly instantaneously and with no real chemistry; Melody tries to convince her mother that her father is still alive and she should have hope. They all continue to starve. There are some dream sequences involving dark, oncoming clouds. There is also some slow-motion hugging.
When Louis is well enough to leave, Ellie’s grandfather helps him secure passage to the North with—wait for it—two fugitive slaves. This plan goes awry, of course, and McIntire is captured. There’s another battle, and shot and shell set the house on fire; Sarabeth is left weeping in the ruins. The Federals throw her some hardtack and move on. Louis is among them, and there’s a teary reunion. Melody then reveals it’s OK if they are together, because her father is dead. It turns out— spoiler alert!—that a neighbor had removed John Ellis’ body while Sarabeth tended to Louis. Melody had taken a distinctive ribbon from his body, which she presents to Sarabeth and Louis. Everyone smiles and hugs—a creepy ending, since Melody has all along been encouraging her mother to believe her father survived.
As this synopsis should suggest, War Flowers is a wretched movie. The acting is wooden, and the landscape is not remotely Southern. Which is not surprising, as War Flowers was filmed in Michigan.
I continue to wait for a decent Civil War film as the sesquicentennial marches wearily on. As Louis says as he peers down a rural road, “We’re not going to look back. We’re going to look forward.” Hear, hear.
Originally published in the December 2013 issue of Civil War Times. To subscribe, click here.
