Outstanding film

This is a bittersweet, moving -- sometimes even beautiful --film. Jimmy Stewart is superb as Charlie Anderson, an arrogant, self-reliant man who thinks that he and his family can ignore the civil war which rages around his farm in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He is disabused of this idealistic but naive notion when Union troops mistake his beloved youngest son, 'Boy,' for a rebel soldier and take him prisoner. Impetuously, the furious Anderson rides off with his older sons on a mission to get the boy back. But this dangerous adventure costs him the lives of two sons and one of their wives. Only after the chastened Anderson reluctantly abandons his search does his beloved 'Boy' -- who has escaped -- return home to him. Fine acting, good drama and characterization, beautiful scenery and film score, and a poignant ending make this an oustanding movie. One of the best fims ever made in my opinion -- and, quite possibly, Jimmy Stewart's greatest role.