2.5/5

An odd film exploring a lesser known theater of the civil war. Lee sets out to defy expectations but in doing so creates a whiplash effect on the viewer as the film vacillates between truly senseless violence and pondering the outcome and meaning of cyclical violence. Capturing the deeply personal war between the jayhawkers and bushwackers (which had begun in 1854, years before the films 1861 opening act) is a difficult task and the movie seems determined to make us understand the motivation of the characters. Unfortunately, this falls a bit flat and the truly gut wrenching cycle of violence in Kansas and Missouri only has its moments in the limelight as the film shuffles between sequences. What motivates Roedel and Chiles beyond the cycle of revenge? The film doesn’t seem sure.