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Shenandoah (film)

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My corn I take serious because it's my corn, and my potatoes and my tomatoes and fences I take note of because they're mine.  But this war is not mine and I take no note of it!

Shenandoah is a 1965 American drama film set in Virginia during the American Civil War. Charlie Anderson is a single father and farmer who has no slaves and wishes to stay out of the war.

Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen. Written by James Lee Barrett.
Two Mighty Armies Trampled Its Valley…A Fighting Family Challenged Them Both! taglines

Charlie Anderson

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I've got five hundred acres of good, rich dirt, here, and as long as the rains come and the sun shines, it'll grow anything I have a mind to plant.  And we pulled every stump, and we cleared every field, and we done it ourselves without the sweat of one slave.
There's nothing much I can tell you about this war.  It's like all wars, I suppose.  The undertakers are winning it.  Oh, the politicians will talk a lot about the "glory" of it, and the old men'll talk about the "need" of it—the soldiers, they just want to go home.
  • Lord,
    We cleared this land;
    We plowed it, sowed it, and harvested it.
    We cooked the harvest.
    It wouldn't be here—we wouldn't be eating it—if we hadn't done it all ourselves.
    We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel
    But we thank you just the same anyway, Lord, for this food we're about to eat.
    Amen.
  • [after Boy Anderson is abducted by Union soldiers] Now it concerns us.
  • You run a sad kind of train, mister. It takes people away when they don't want to go, and won't bring them back when they're ready.
  • [at the site of his wife's grave] I don't even know what to say to you anymore, Martha. There's not much I can tell you about this war. It's like all wars, I guess. The undertakers are winning. And the politicians who talk about the glory of it. And the old men who talk about the need of it. And the soldiers, well, they just wanna go home. I guess you're not so lonely anymore, with Ann and James and Jacob. And maybe the boy. You didn't know Ann, did you? Well, you'd like her. You'd like her, Martha. Why, she and James are so much alike, they're just like... no... no... we were never that much alike, were we Martha? We just sorta grew alike through the years. But I wish, I wish I could just know what you're thinking about it all, Martha. And maybe it wouldn't seem so bad to me if I knew what you thought about it. [He notices the church bells are ringing] You never give up, do you?
  • [to a young Confederate picket has just shot one of Anderson's sons] I'm not going to kill you. I want you to live. I want you to live to be an old man, and I want you to have many, many, many children, and I want you to feel about your children then the way I feel about mine now. And someday, when a man comes along and kills one of 'em, I want you to remember! Okay? I want you to remember.
  • I wanna say somethin'. I've known since the train that we weren't liable to find him. It was just a hair of a chance that we got Sam back. I knew that. Maybe I knew even before we left home, but somehow I just had to try! And if we don't try, we don't do. And if we don't do, why are we here on this earth?

Jacob Anderson

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  • I know how you feel about this war, Pa. I guess we more or less feel the same way, but I don't see how we can sit by and ignore it anymore. Now you say it's not our business, not our fight, but we're Virginians and I believe that anything that concerns Virginia concerns us.

Dialogue

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Jacob Anderson: They come closer everyday, pa.
Charlie Anderson: They on our land?
Jacob Anderson: No, sir.
Charlie Anderson: Well, then, it doesn't concern us.
Sam: I'd be eternally grateful if you'd permit me to call upon you this evening.
Jennie Anderson: Eternally is a long time, Sam.
Sam: Not when one carries a memory of you, Miss Jennie.
Charlie Anderson: What about you, James? You ever think you might like to own a slave?
James Anderson: Well, I guess I never thought about it, Pa.
Charlie Anderson: Well, think about it! Think about it! If you had money would you go out and buy a slave?
James Anderson: No sir, I wouldn't.
Charlie Anderson: Why not?
James Anderson: Well, if I can't do my own work with my own hands it'd never get done.
Lt. Johnson: When are you going to take this war seriously, Anderson?
Charlie Anderson: Now let me tell you something, Johnson, before you get on my wrong side. My corn I take seriously, because it's mine. And my potatoes and tomatoes and my fence I take note of because they're mine. But this war is not mine and I don't take note of it.
Charlie Anderson: I've got five hundred acres of good, rich dirt, here, and as long as the rains come and the sun shines, it'll grow anything I have a mind to plant. And we pulled every stump, and we cleared every field, and we done it ourselves without the sweat of one slave.
Lt. Johnson: So?
Charlie Anderson: "So"!? So, can you give me one good reason why I should send my family, that took me a lifetime to raise, down that road like a bunch of damn fools to do somebody else's fighting?
Lt. Johnson: Virginia needs all of her sons, Mr. Anderson.
Charlie Anderson: That might be so, Johnson, but these are my sons! They don't belong to the state. When they were babies, I never saw the state coming around with a spare tit! We never asked anything of the state, and never expected anything. We do our own living and thanks to no man for the right. But seeing as how you're so worried about it, I'll tell ya: If any of my boys thinks this war's right, and wants to join in, he's free to do it. You all hear that!? Did you hear it!? You wanna dress up like these fellas, go ahead; here's your chance. [none of Anderson's sons volunteer; the soldier realises he has lost this battle.]
Boy Anderson: What's confiscate mean, pa?
Charlie Anderson: Steal!
Charlie Anderson: It's no easy job, Sam, to take care of a woman.
Sam: No, sir.
Charlie Anderson: They expect things they never ask for. And when they don't get them, they ask you why. Sometimes they don't ask... and just go ahead and punish you for not doing something you didn't know you were supposed to do in the first place.
Charlie Anderson: Do you like her?
Sam: Well, I just said I...
Charlie Anderson: No, no. You just said you loved her. There's some difference between lovin' and likin'. When I married Jennie's mother, I-I didn't love her - I liked her... I liked her a lot. I liked Martha for at least three years after we were married and then one day it just dawned on me I loved her. I still do... still do. You see, Sam, when you love a woman without likin' her, the night can be long and cold, and contempt comes up with the sun.
Mrs. Ann Anderson: Here's something else you must remember: husbands like to be alone once in a while.
Jennie Anderson: Why?
Mrs. Ann Anderson: You never know why, but I can always tell when James wants to be alone. A mood comes over him. I can always see it in his eyes before it gets there. I don't know where the mood comes from or why, but that's when I leave him alone. It seems sometimes things get so fickle in a man that he comes to feel that everything is closing in on him - and that's when he wants to be left alone. You understand, don't you?
Jennie Anderson: No!
Sam: [who has just learned he's being called to service] I'll hav'ta leave ya; you know that, don't you? Do you understand?
Jennie: Do you?
Jennie: Yes, I'm a woman, but I don't see anybody here that I can't outrun, outride, and outshoot. I'll unstrap for you, papa, and unhook, and I'll even sit here and watch you ride out of sight.
Charlie Anderson: And then what?
Jennie: And then I'll follow.
Charlie Anderson: That's what I thought.

Taglines

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  • SHAKES THE SCREEN LIKE CANNON THUNDER!
    • Original ad: all caps
  • Two Mighty Armies Trampled Its Valley…A Fighting Family Challenged Them Both!

Cast

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Quotes about the film

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  • A successful film not just because of the marriage of the right actor in the appropriate genre, but also the timely infusion of challenging questions about a nation at war.
  • Stewart uses his vast experience and established screen image as the all-American hero to an advantage in a role, which was made to order as he reached the later phases of his glorious career.  Beginning with his protag's name, Charlie is a classic American hero, played by Cooper, Stewart, and even Bogart, a man initially cherishing isolation and lack of involvement only to be forced into a divisive conflict through circumstances, both personal and political.
  • When this movie was released in 1965, the U. S. war in Vietnam had just begun, and antiwar sentiments had not yet began to swell in America.  Libertarians, of course, had opposed the war from the start, but at this time, the public sentiment in these united states was generally in favour of deployment.  Thus, the average moviegoer did not draw any connection between this film and the war when it was released.  A few years later, however, antiwar activists looked back on this libertarian western fondly.
    The antiwar and propertarian message in this film, however, should be looked upon in a broader context.  The message, after all, is timeless.  All wars really do resemble the description given by Mr. Anderson.  Whether it be the War Between the States, the Vietnam War, or our present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, governments wage them for the perceived benefit of the political class, and they get us to fight for them.  Let us, therefore, dream of a brighter future, a future where property rights are respected and where governments, insofar as they continue to exist, are so weak and powerless that they cannot compel even one man to fight on their behalf.
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