Reviewing the film in the present day, Jim McLennan writes:From a modern perspective, perhaps the most unusual thing is seeing the
Union soldiers (with the exception of Frank) portrayed as the villains of the piece. These days, the
Confederate flag is basically the same thing as the
swastika, yet the movie seems perfectly happy to accept that there were basically decent people on both sides. Pointedly, at the end, nobody mentions who won the war, because that's not important – just that it's over. Though on the other hand, there is literally not a single non-Caucasian in the entire movie. It's flat-out impossible to imagine any depiction of the
Civil War like this being made nowadays, making it a period piece almost as much as the era it represents. ==See also==