Copperhead offers an alternative to movies of late, which are inundated with CGI special affects and machine-gun pacing. It is a welcome departure from the current Hollywood format; however that alone does not make it as appealing as it could have been.

Copperhead's storyline development is more suited as a TV mini-series drama, with a strong emphasis on the dialog and drama–period. The acting alone does not save the film, despite the fact the script is exceptional well done and true to the period, as is expected from director Ron Maxwell. After an hour and a half of character development and setting the stage, the final thirty minutes of the movie leaves you wishing there was more to it. The movie ends as it started–relaxed and waiting for something more.

The acting and cinematography is worthy of note, but the screenplay-pacing is not enough to propel the film. A little extra effort and this could have been a classic film.

I love Ron Maxweel's films, his sheer scope of grandeur and historical accuracy, his impeccable taste and his keen eye on details. His two master works, Gettysburg (1993) and its prequel Gods And Generals (2003) made him a true genius and placed him the Pantheon for ever. Pity, that there will be no third part of Shaara's trilogy. This one is no sequel, instead, this is a separate entry. The theme is the same - Civil War, this time, small town in New York state, with all its gossips, tragedies and fun. The smoldering conflict of copperheads and unionists is shown well. There is a big problem, though, as for the first 90 minutes the movie is terribly slow and ploddy, but then all of a sudden it begins to gallop as wild beast. Seems like Ron decided to make it shorter and thus cut much of footage. Who knows? The scenery is lovely, and the play of all actors is just marvelous. All young and old actors made their jobs absolutely great. Billy Campbell is a real winner here, as loud, proud man, he shines all the film. His delivery is just awesome. Brian Downey is excellent in his cameo as a priest, while Peter Fonda did his job equally as well. They all did well and real raw, as life truly is. Pity, some errors still stay and that did not allow the film to become another Ron masterpiece

To my recollection, this is the only Civil War movie I've seen to deal with the friction between Northern Union citizens with opposite views of the conflict. 'Copperheads' were Northerners who didn't support Abraham Lincoln's view of going to war to free the slaves. Technically, they WERE opposed to slavery, but were against war for any reason, while upholding a state's right to determine it's status for themselves. Additionally, the Copperheads felt that using force to prevent Southern states from seceding was unconstitutional. It seems kind of conflicted to me, since the idea of states seceding itself sounds unconstitutional, so I had to bring my focus back to those ideas whenever Abner Beech (Billy Campbell) found himself in opposition to his neighbors. Considering this is nominally a Civil War era movie, there's really no battle action at all, the story revolves primarily around the tension between neighbors with a sub-plot involving a romance between Abner Beech's son, Thomas Jefferson (Casey Thomas Brown), and Esther Hagadorn (Lucy Boynton), daughter of the town's firebrand abolitionist leader and supporter of Lincoln's policies. For a brief period, Tom goes missing following the battle of Antietam, having joined the Northern cause in opposition to his father. As the citizens anxiously await word on the fate of other boys who joined the War, Esther agonizes over her fiance's fate, while attempting to reconcile her position with the Beech family as well as her own father. The tenor of the story gives it a Hallmark, made for TV film, with the attendant focus on family values and trying to do the right thing. The film's resolution offers the feel good sensation that comes with Esther's brother Ni (Augustus Prew) admonishing the town folk from the pulpit for their bitterness toward each other. It all ties together rather neatly, except for the fact that at that point in time, the War still had two more years to go, with the same tensions that would have to be dealt with once this story was over.