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Credits

Genre: Drama; With: Virginia Madsen
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By Ken Tucker
Ken Tucker
Ken Tucker
Ken Tucker is critic-at-large for EW

Delbert Mann, who once directed such witty froth as Lover Come Back and That Touch of Mink, presides over this leaden TV movie about the iron-covered wooden ships that were used during the Civil War. Virginia Madsen (The Hot Spot) applies a Southern accent as thick as her eyeliner in portraying a spy for the Union. One of her romantic interests is a fellow spy played by Reed Edward Diamond (Memphis Belle), who gets to say the line ''They hang spies, don't they?'' Together, Madsen and Diamond flirt, argue, kiss, and try to check out the Southern warship Merrimack in order to provide information that will help the North build its own ''ironclad,'' the Monitor. Ironclads is full of beards that look like they're stuck on with glue, loads of ''colorful'' dialogue (''Suh, rumors about this war ah as thick as Mississippi mud!''), and guaranteed real historical facts. The movie provides a great educational service to the nation: TV this dull is likely to inspire viewers to turn off their sets and read books about the Civil War. D-


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Posted May 12, 2008
 

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