Here we have yet
another entry into the ‘family divided’ theme of Civil War television and
movies. Point of Honor is a proposed series for ABC Signature and Amazon
Studios, the online retailer’s video programming branch, focusing on a
slaveholding family in Lynchburg, Virginia.
So far, only one hour-long episode has been released, produced and written
by Carlton Cuse of Lost fame and
Randall Wallace (writer of Braveheart,
and director of Pearl Harbor, We Were Soldiers, and this). Its promise does not look good. Its southern focus, ridiculous handling of
the slavery issue and basic historical errors ruin its dramatic impact. The result is a series similar in style to The Blue and the Gray and North and South but also their flaws in
portraying families torn apart by the Civil War.
First, the family structure works for and against the
narrative. Ralston Rhodes (played by Apollo 13’s Brett Cullen) owns the Point
of Honor plantation near Lynchburg (which actually exists if the family itself
is fictional). Although in financial
straits, he still commands great respect from those around him, as evidenced when
he hosts a large party with his neighbors.
Here, we are introduced to four of his five children, including arrogant
and aggressive daughters Estella, Kate and Lorelei, whom Ralston prepared to be
strong-willed. Garland oversees the
plantation. John attends West Point
where his best friend is an anti-slavery northerner, Robert Sumner, who also
happens to be married to Lorelei. These
relationships are the grounding for the movie, but the southern focus expects
the audience to see them as the heroes.
Sumner, a peripheral member of the family, serves no purpose except to
tear at his wife’s allegiances, and barely so at that. This may play out in later episodes, but it
is unconvincing in the pilot.
Second, the slavery issue occupies a prominent part of the story
but in ridiculous ways. The Rhodes’
family appears to own about fifteen enslaved persons and employs them in
domestic and field tasks. When war
begins, John renounces slavery to Robert’s great relief, but resigns from the
Army to return home and raise a regiment of non-slaveholders for the
Confederate cause. Somehow, we are
supposed to believe that this makes John the great hero, indeed it fulfills the
series’ title. Word of his decision
reaches the plantation incredibly fast, for the family has a hard time believing
it. Adding to their woes, a mob of
neighbors condemning the possible liberation appears at the front gate. This part is actually credible, for non-slaveholders
still had a stake in maintaining the institution. When
John carries out on his promise, the slaves are relieved but none know what
comes next. The Rhodes family promise to
pay wages to them, but it is clear that they do not know what to do either. One
slave is not freed as she was sold to another plantation, headed by a
stereotypically cruel master and overseer, similar to David Carradine in North and South. Even if the audience accepts John’s
emancipatory act as sincere, it is clear that no one else, not even his family,
does. This evading of the politics and
economics of slavery is intended to make the Rhodes the heroes. It fails as both as drama or history.
There are too many historical errors in this episode to
count. At West Point, Robert says that
John has the highest standing since Robert E. Lee. Either he or the screenwriters did not know
that Charles Mason graduated ahead of the more famous Lee. The assertive daughters appear out of place for
an upper-class southern woman of the time.
Their father’s desire that they be strong-willed, possibly since he was
a widower, may explain part of that. A
small Union cavalry troop, led in part by Robert, manages to make it from the
north to outside of Lynchburg within days of the attack on Fort Sumter. This act completely ignores the five-week
delay on secession in Virginia pending the outcome of a statewide referendum. Ralston dies in a clash with these raiders,
yet it is not explained why he wore a blue uniform with officer’s
insignia. If one could speculate, he may
have served in the Mexican War. Please
note that no comment has been made about limited production values. The combined effects of its southern bias,
poor handling of the slavery issue, and historical errors thwart Point of Honor in its attempt to tell a
story that we have heard many times before.