As others have mentioned, this is a series of recollections of events which may (or may not) have occurred during the American Civil War. It is related from the point of view of a 'neutral' war correspondent, who's talent is for drawing sketches of what he has seen on various battle fields, from Bull Run to Appomattox Ct. House. There is considerable 'time jumping' from one period of the war, to another, which inhibits continuity to some extent. For me the best part of the mini-series was watching Gregory Peck (as Abraham Lincoln) deliver the Gettysburg address. However, we are thrown into that scene without adequate preamble, so even this is diminished from what it could have been.I am quite an avid amateur Civil War historian, having read many books and watched many TV series (including the excellent PBS series by Ken Burns, and the complete 3 volume set of books on the Civil War by historian Shelby Foote) on the subject. If you are looking for historical accuracy you will be disappointed. If you, on the other hand, are simply looking for a decent dramatization (ala "Gone With the Wind), you will enjoy this series.The acting by the cast was, in general, C+, with the exception of a few of the notables (Gregory Peck, for one). As my summary states, this is a dramatic romp, so if you keep that in mind and set your sites correspondingly on the low side, you will not be disappointed.

Every cliché' in the book is used. And, worse, far more than once. If you can't guess what's going to happen in a particular scene then you haven't watched many if any movies. A far better soap opera on the Civil War is "North and South". You will find far better acting as well as a better and more believable story line. What's really a shame is that there is some very good talent in the mini series that is completely wasted. Even the scene when the Gettysburg Address is given is vastly overblown and forced. That scene is indicative of the series taken as a whole. Instead of being understated as the original speech was, it and the series take on the tone of Edward Everett, the speaker who was just before Lincoln. Edward Everett's saving grace is that his speech was only some 2 1/2 hours long. The mini-series is 7 1/2 hours in length, though it seems much, much longer. Lincoln's famous 300 words than didn't even take 3 minutes to recite.

The Blue and the Grey had a great plot and I really enjoyed this mini series. It showed the horrors of war and showed how some families were broken up by the conflict where in real life brother fought brother. I only wish that the Blue and the Grey could have been more realistic like Gettysburg. The uniforms used in this film are just too generic and too "Hollywood" unlike Gettysburg where the uniforms look authentic. I also dislike the over dubbing of the rifles and cannon that was so common until the last 15 years or so that seems so fake in comparison to Gettysburg. The battle scenes have a lot of action but there just seems to be too few people fighting the battle. Gettysburg on the other hand had plenty of extras; almost all of them Civil War reenactors, making the battle scenes more realistic. Perhaps if the producers of The Blue and the Grey had used reenactors they could have had better battle scenes and the mini series would have been more realistic.

I first saw this mini-series while in 5th grade history class as part of our studies on the Civil War, and I thought it was excellent. Many years later, I watched it again after finding a copy of the unabridged version (all 6+ hours of it!). I wasn't sure how it would stand the test of time (both as a 16 year old production and my own view of it, being 16 years older now) and braced myself for disappointment; however, I was very pleasantly surprised. The movie is as well done as I remembered it.It's an engrossing movie that gives an honest, frank look at the inherent moral ambiguity of war, as well as the additional consequences of the Civil War, where "brother fought brother". Although the movie certainly takes dramatic license (the main character, a young Southerner who relocates to the north after becoming disillusioned with the cruel treatment of slaves, ends up stumbling across his staunchly pro-Confederate siblings as if they're all wandering around in the same town instead of an entire country!), you can see that the film makers took great pains to portray as many perspectives as possible, to show that each and every person involved in the war was human, with their own thoughts and feelings. I'm certainly no Civil War expert, but I thought it was a very balanced portrait. What's more amazing is that the mini rarely drags despite sometimes taking a leisurely pace during its 6 hour run-time. Although we all know how the movie with ultimately end, it keeps you interested in the lives of all the characters it introduces. I thought Stacy Keach did a particularly good job despite a few hammy lines. This mini-series should definitely be on any must-see list of war films.