Raintree County (1994)

Raintree County, MGM's attempt at a '50s Gone With the Wind, is mostly remembered today as the film Montgomery Clift was making when he had a disfiguring, near-fatal car accident. Cineasts with a morbid streak may have difficulty pinpointing the post-crash actor due to the widescreen transfer premiering on this laserdisc (excellent except that it reduces the overall image to a thin stripe through the center of a television screen). But in any case, the movie itself is so insufferably dull, it's hardly worth the effort. After all, what kind of Civil War epic saves its battle scenes for the last third of an overly generous 168-minute length? And how's this for a lame plot gimmick: Elizabeth Taylor's character thinks she may be illegitimate and black. C-