This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I really thought this might be good but it was an overdone, sappy, made for TV soap opera about the Lexington-Concord battle. While some large facts were accurate, it was a pretty, fictionalized, maudlin piece of crap. Molasses moves faster.....in January. Awful.

This is a made-for-TV movie adaptation of Howard Fast's novel "April Morning," one of the few assigned novels I enjoyed reading in school - a story about Adam and Moses Cooper and their involvement in the battle that initiated the American war for independence.From what I remembered in this film, the teleplay does follow the novel pretty well and it is a fascinating movie that I thought included some decent acting, interesting history overview of the American Revolution, some exciting action and suspenseful elements. Just the part where Adam Cooper (Chad Lowe) attempt to conquer his fear and fight alongside his fellow soldiers in battle is intriguing to watch.The setting, make-up and costumes used in the film represented that period in time very well. Though a movie based on war, there is an absence of gore and graphic scenes, which makes it suitable for a larger audience including children. In addition, Director Delbert Mann took great care in making the movie interesting minus all the excessive gore and violence and, instead, relied on the substance, history, drama and character impact.Overall, this is one of the few war movies I could remember that I've found suitable and enjoyable for the entire audience.Grade B

Synopsis: On "April Morning," April 19 1775, a shot fired on Lexington green changed the world forever.The prosecution of Robert Goldstein for the movie Spirit of 1776 put down the Revolution in the theatre. Literature has produced greats in the genre but only a short list of motion pictures embraces a subject with issues which remain contemporary.American leftist Howard Fast produced several notable novels on the Revolution: April Morning about the Battles of Lexington and Concord, The Unvanquished about the disastrous Battle of Brooklyn, "The Crossing" about the battle of Trenton and Citizen Thomas Paine about the apostle of democratic revolution.Two of Fast's critically acclaimed books were made into movies: The Crossing and April Morning. Neither movie version drew large audiences.Often compared to Red Badge of Courage, April Morning dawns over the sleepy hamlet of Lexington where 15-year-old Adam Cooper's main concern is the chores on the family farm, courting his girl and hanging out with his friends. Creeping toward the quiet town, is a red coat column bound to destroy the patriot's caches of arms at Concord.Forewarned the local militia musters some men to stand on the green. Inexplicably, Major John Pitcairn, commanding the advance party, orders the militia to disperse. Refused, the British advance on the minutemen. A shot rings out. Firing begins.When the smoke clears, 10 locals are killed and 8 more wounded. Adam and his friends are sent packing. As English lines continue the march to Concord, Adam's friend Solomon predicts "It'll be easier for them to go down that road then it will be for them to come back." After skirmishing with militia at Concord, the British return to Boston down a road walled with angry farmers whipped up into a rage by the incursion. Redcoats face hostile fire according to legend from every tree, rock, fence, and bush.The British take casualties, but inflict not a few on their aroused adversary clinging to the protection of the bush. A more mature Adam returns home with the painful knowledge that peaceful joys are over.The battle sequences are well staged with the drums of the advancing British beating a terrifying warning of the approach of the mighty British host whose clanking bayonets and the accompanying huzzahs send a soul splitting chill.

"April Morning" tells of the skirmish between colonial militia and the English army at Lexington, MA which is regarded as the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. The film is a melodramatic made-for-tv drama which spends more time with fictional accounts of the April 19th battle than it does with matters of history and warfare. Obviously conceived to be palatable for prime time viewing and sell commercial products, this film is a poor American history lesson. Nonetheless, poor may be better than none at all.