A new remake could be just what this pretty good (overall) story needs to make it great!!! I grew up watching "Shenandoah" and "The Horse Soldiers" in the 1970's and then the 1980's with it's two monumental mini-series "The Blue And The Grey" and "North and South" I loved them all and they all played a huge part in making me a rabid Civil War buff by the time I was 12. I must confess in the wake of a movie like "Glory" though, I do find it hard to watch those old movies with any sense of awe. They are sentimental, bucolic, sterile, romanticised views of the Civil War, but they still can charm me even to this day. "Shenandoah" is, at it's core, a very good story. I have even sketched a story line for a remake which this story is more than worthy of. It would need to be stripped of it's nonsense (and there is plenty of that!!!) and made far more historically accurate. I don't think the director and writer were really "up" on Civil War history let alone the specific region of the Shenandoah Valley in 1864-65 with Generals Sheridan (Union) and Early(Confederate) fighting for control. As for the nonsense, the Anderson family Farm hardley looked like a "working" farm but more like a well manicured Hollywood Country Club. The civilian clothing was not at all "period", highly inaccurate uniforms and rifles, and too many clean shaven faces for the 1860's even for the 1960's when it was made!!!. I'm not sure why it was necessary for the Anderson Family to have such a ridiculously high number of sons and even had time to have a daughter. No wonder Mrs. Anderson is deceased, who could blame her? I think a smaller number of sons would have worked fine in conveying Charlie Anderson's "principled" reluctance to have his sons fight in the war. One could have been killed in the war which would work better as to why Charlie Anderson strongly resists conscription of his remaining 5 (2 or 3 in my version)sons but as it was six sons not fighting a war so close by is rather unbelievable, especialy considering the oldest son does want to fight. The hi-jacking of a Union Army train was silly, the brawl with Union "Purchasing" agents who ride freely around a seemingly rebel occupied countryside, was worthy of a Three Stooges film but not a Civil War drama. Too many battle scenes featuring whooping good ol' boys knocking clumsy "Yankees" of their horses and both sides dying bloodless deaths in the process. It's all great fun when your a kid but then you grow up and watch "Glory" which features as it's opening, the battle of Antietam and you get physically shaken. Some how after that those "whooping good ol' boys" just look stupid. Inspite of all this however, I do, as i have already said, think that "Shenandoah"is at it's core, a pretty good story about a family and in particular it's Patriarch, living through powerful events which they cannot control and threaten their existence. Jimmy Stewart was very good as Charlie Anderson who tries desperatley to shield himself and his family from the inevitable pain and tragedy. His devotion to his departed wife who's grave site he visits often is still, all these years later, very poignent. His Daughter left at the altar on her wedding day because her betrothed has been called to war is a little sappy but well done in the film (I'd leave it out of my version). The reunion on the battlefield between the wounded (and mistakenly captured) son and his former slave friend Gabriel was also very well done. People forget that it was "Shenandoah"in 1965 and not "Glory" in 1989 that first showed black soldiers in the Union Army fighting for their freedom (D.W. Griffith's "The Birth Of A Nation"is a poor example of this). That fact seems to have been totally lost on critics and historians who (rightfully so) praised "Glory" in 1989. "Shenandoah" does , however, imply that the Union Army was integrated which it was not. The ending is still a tear jerking scene and has saved "Shenandoah" in my mind as a good family story which, with a lot of work, could be an Academy Award winning remake. It's a pretty good story which requires some "tweaking" to make it great. I still will always have a soft spot for the original.