This movie's narrative is split between two stories: a handful of boys at a military academy who are learning to become men; and a handful of military commanders planning their fate. Unfortunately, one of these stories is far more interesting than the other. The boys at the school prank one another, get into trouble, hit on the local girls, and dream of becoming war heroes. We see the same "brother in arms" narrative that has pervaded most movies, except here is seems forced and unnatural. The actors do their part and do it pretty well, but I feel at times the writing is pretty clunky. Occasionally we cut from the boys to various military leaders (and President Lincoln) and hear their perspectives, ideas, opinions, and watch as they try to out-fox one another. I was far more interested in this b-story than I was seeing young boys awkwardly dance and talk to girls. The film really picks up in the third act when we FINALLY get to see some of the war. The production is great and could stand beside any Civil War in terms of quality. By this point in the story, however, I had lost patience with the characters and just kind of zoned out. Strong ending, but the first half of the movie is pretty rough.

Despite the lack of actual 'punch' within the plot, the portrayal of wartime and issues with regards to slavery during and after the war was interesting and well-represented. It provides a new perspective for viewers, as the Confederate Army is often demonized in many Civil war movies; the Field of Lost Shoes, instead focuses on the morality and humanity of many young soldiers and cadets. Robert, as portrayed by Nolan Gould, even mentions in the beginning that his father was opposed to slavery and took him to see a slave auction as a 'lesson in life', to which he witnesses a black family being separated. In fact, many of the young cadet boys held anti-slavery sentiments, scenes such as the Old Judge and slave lady who got stuck under a cart really illustrates the notion that not all soldiers enlisted or reserved to fight with the confederate army all held the same values with regards to slavery. Many of the boy's motivation to fight was to defend their land, seek 'revenge' for the fallen and uphold honor- many in which are disregarded in many Civil War movies and the Field of Lost Shoes does a great job at providing another perspective. There is a somber contrast between the cadets and the old soldiers, many of which are portrayed to be rude old men who jeered at the cadets. In a turn of events, during the actual fighting, it was the cadets that marched in order and upheld their bravery and honor, even suggesting they should charge through union fire. All in all, the movie, although a little lacking in plot, provided a great and entertaining representation of the Civil War and specifically the Battle of Newmarket.

This film had some positives and some negatives. The battle scenes and costumes seemed realistic rather than cheesy. However, the love story was a complete cliché. Libby and Sam claimed they were in love but they barely knew each other and she didn't seem very upset when he died. Although, the ending was surprising which is a plus. It was surprising to see which boys died and which ones did not. The title was sadly fitting. All the boys lost their shoes in the mud. Then there was the heartbreaking scene at the end where Sir Rat and Judge cried over the shoes and the cruelties of war. This movie depicted the negative aspects of war and how it affected the soldiers that bravely fought it.

For the most part the movie was historically accurate but there are a few nit picky things that you could pick out. For instance the Confederate army had wide brim hats not kepi hats, and the Union should have kepi hats not wide brim. There was no cavalry during the battle in the movie, and the Confederate general Breckinridge was suppose to advance with all his troops when a key battery went to reload, not just the corps cadets as shown in the movie. After the battle Sam Atwell died the same day after his injury instead of what really happened where he died 66 days after his injury. More likely than not Confederate soldiers wouldn't break rank to help a black woman. They also wouldn't tell anyone that they were against slavery because that was the main reason people were fighting for the south. But when the kids did advance they did indeed lose their shoes in the mud thus "Field of Lost Shoes". The confederates were suppose to win the battle, General Breckinridge did make the very hard decision to send the kids into battle. Every year they have an annual memorial service for the people that died in the battle where they name all the people who died fighting.