Trailer
Plot summary
In Virginia in 1864, widower Charlie Anderson runs a farm with his six sons, Jacob, John, James, Nathan, Henry and Boy, and his daughter Jennie, while James's wife Ann keeps house. Though the fighting is nearby, Charlie refuses to let any of his sons enlist in the Civil War, which he says is not theirs. Jacob wants to defend Virginia but stays. Jennie marries Sam, a Confederate officer, who is called back to the front at once. Ann gives birth to a daughter, Martha. While hunting, sixteen-year-old Boy and his friend Gabriel come upon a Confederate ambush; a Union patrol later mistakes Boy for a rebel soldier because of a cap he picked up and takes him prisoner. Gabriel brings word to the farm, and Charlie sets off with his sons to find the boy, leaving James and Ann behind.
Cast
- Gene Jacksonas Gabriel (as Eugene Jackson Jr.)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Shenandoah (1965)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Though set during the Civil War, the film's strong antiwar and humanitarian themes resonated with audiences in later years as attitudes began to change against the Vietnam War. It also gave Katharine Ross and Rosemary Forsyth their film debuts.
- The film was particularly successful at the box office inside the state of Virginia, the story's own locale, where it broke records for ticket sales.
- The film was adapted as a hit Broadway musical in 1975, and the show won John Cullum his first Tony Award for Best Actor.
- In 1966 the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound, credited to Waldon O. Watson, and Rosemary Forsyth was nominated for a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer - Female for her part in it.
