Class Of '61

"A plot divided against itself cannot stand." That's how Abe Lincoln might have summed up CLASS OF '61, an ambitious but ultimately disappointing TV feature from Steven Spielberg's company.

Taking more than a little inspiration from Ken Burns' popular PBS documentary series "The Civil War" (and utilizing input from Burns's star historian Shelby Foote), CLASS OF '61 purports to span the diary entries of Shelby Peyton (Dan Futterman), a West Point cadet from 1860s Virginia. When cannon fire at Fort Sumter signals open hostility between the Union and Confederate states, Shelby and other Southern cadets enlist with the Rebel army. Yet he maintains a close friendship...