The film is loosely based on the diary of John Ransom, a Union soldier imprisoned there. Although certain points of the plot are fabricated, the general conditions of the camp accurately match Ransom's descriptions, particularly references to the administration of the camp by Captain Henry Wirz. His line on escaping prisoners is very similar to the book, "The Flying Dutchman [Wirz] offers to give two at a time twelve hours the start".[1]
The group encounters Dick Potter, a former comrade who was captured at the Battle of Antietam. He prevents them from being lured into the territory of the "Raiders", a collective of rogue prisoners who attack, rob, and sometimes kill new internees in order to hoard their supplies. Potter further explains the grim realities of the camp; there is minimal shelter, safe drinking water, and food. Due to the Confederacy's dwindling population of able-bodied men, teenagers and old men are used as guards. Some of them delight in coaxing the prisoners to step over the "dead line" fence under the guise of trading for food, resulting in the prisoners being shot dead. A Confederate Colonel audits the camp, chastising Wirz for the abysmal conditions. Wirz responds with nothing but excuses, even asking for a promotion recommendation.
A group of men from the 19th Massachusetts ally themselves with other prisoners who are working on a secret tunnel under the stockade wall. As the group comes closer to completing the tunnel, the Raiders attack and tensions rise after they kill Potter. One prisoner attempts to inform the guards of the tunnel in hopes of receiving a reward; he is captured and "TT" (tunnel traitor) is carved into his forehead. The tunnel is completed and the escape commences; all except a few are killed or captured and placed in standing stocks as punishment.
The situation with the Raiders eventually becomes unbearable. A prisoner rallies support from the disparate groups and a prison riot ensues, resulting in the defeat and capture of the Raiders. With disagreements over what to do with the Raiders, a request for a legitimate court-martial is made to Captain Wirz who approves only if the trial is handled internally by the prisoners themselves. A jury of new internees find the six Raider chieftains guilty and they are sentenced to death by hanging.
Life in the camp becomes relatively peaceful. A group of new internees arrive and inform that one of the escapees successfully made it to General Grant and informed him of the camp's horrid conditions, but that Grant ordered no further prisoner exchanges due to the Confederacy's poor treatment of black Union soldiers. A Confederate officer arrives and offers the prisoners a deal: fight for the Confederacy to earn their freedom. The men of the 19th Massachusetts fall into formation and turn their backs on the officer; the companies of other prisoners follow suit. As time progresses and conditions worsen, starvation and disease begin to take their toll and thousands perish. Later, Captain Wirz announces that all prisoners are to be exchanged. The surviving prisoners leave the camp, filing past their dead comrades on the way to the trains.[2]
In 1864–5, more than 45,000 Union soldiers were imprisoned in Andersonville. 12,912 died there. The prisoner exchange never happened. The men who walked to the trains were taken to other prisons, where they remained until the war ended. After the war, Wirz was hanged, the only soldier to be tried and executed for war crimes committed during the Civil War.
John Frankenheimer, director of Andersonville, on set in 1994.
The mini series was a pet project of mogul Ted Turner, an American Civil War enthusiast who wanted to bring to the screen a series of historically accurate films about the conflict. After the critical acclaim and financial success of his previous production Gettysburg in 1993, he would go on to produce its prequel Gods and Generals in 2003. All were massive productions on huge scales.
Andersonville was filmed on location on a farm some fifty miles south of Atlanta (about a hundred miles north of the actual location of the camp) where a huge set was built (not quite to scale) of the actual camp. Accurate in detail down to the officer's quarters outside the camp gates, the fifty foot high raw timber walls and thousands of ragged tents, a working stream, and even a full scale railway depot with half of a locomotive made of wood were built on the property. At any given time there were hundreds of extras employed every day, many of whom were Civil War reenactors who came from all over the nation to take part in the production. Their deep devotion to the subject matter and attention to detail gave the film much of its authenticity. Many of the extras were also college students, both men and women brought in by the busload for the larger scenes. At its height more than four thousand extras a day were employed, making it necessary to have an ultra early call time of three a.m. for a general set call of seven. Dozens of additional makeup, hair, wardrobe and production staff were needed for these scenes, which actually went very well due to military style organization with the "troops" even being marched in platoons from the preparation tents to the set.
Shot in the early to late fall of 1994, it was a typical southern season of change with the weather proving difficult at best. With temperatures swinging between extremely hot to cold and rainy, the heavy red clay that makes up Georgia soil would turn into a sludge up to three feet deep during rains and would solidify to rock hard status a day later when temperatures soared. Long days took their toll on the cast and crew and the situation came to a head when disaster struck at the end of principal photography.
The critical scenes involving the trials and hanging of the raiders were shot over two days with the raw film being shipped out to Los Angeles labs every few days. The crate containing this film was lost in transit by the shipping company and though there was tremendous effort to find it the film was never located. Shooting had just wrapped with sets being torn down and the farm location restored. This necessitated a partial re-building of the set on location in North Carolina and a gathering of all the principal actors involved in the scenes for a very costly re-shoot which took about a week to complete.
Release
Critical reception
Caryn James of The New York Times gave a critical review of the film. She described the movie's central characters, especially the Raiders, as clichéd and underdeveloped. James faulted many elements of the plot as being similar to events in other prison movies. She said that the film improved as it went on, but not enough to redeem it, adding: "Scene for scene, Mr. Frankenheimer knows how to build tension, even when it fails to lead anywhere surprising."[3]
Howard Rosenberg of The Los Angeles Times praised the film for its opening sequences, visual effects, and historical accuracy. However, he took issue with its pacing in addition to what he believed to be a lack of suspense, and like James noted similarities to previous films. Rosenberg said that, while the central cast performed "ably," none of the characters stood out well enough from each other to allow the audience to root "for an individual instead of for a tormented blur."[4]
^Ransom, John L.; Catton, Bruce (May 1994). Andersonville Diary: Life Inside the Civil War's Most Infamous Prison. Berkley Trade. p. 71. ISBN0-425-14146-2.
