It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Pedestrian Revolutionary War drama with a miscast Cary Grant as a young Virginian stirred to rebellion while falling in love with Loyalist Martha Scott. There's some interesting stuff here, as others have noted. The movie is a little more nuanced about the war and the relationship between the Americans and the Brits than the average movie of its type back then. This was probably influenced by the current world events of the time this was made, when Americans were being sold on solidarity with our British cousins. The location shooting at Colonial Williamsburg is certainly a plus. However the movie drags on way too long for such a straightforward plot. Also Grant's role doesn't really play to his strengths. The rest of the cast is decent, with Richard Carlson playing a likable Thomas Jefferson and Cedric Hardwicke being Cedric Hardwicke, which is always great to watch. A young Peter Cushing has an uncredited bit role as well. It's not a bad movie, just a little dull and overlong. Obviously Cary Grant completists will need to see it and maybe Revolutionary War buffs might like it, too.

I love Cary Grant and that's the only reason I kept watching this movie. It felt like it was about four hours long.While the story itself was pretty solid, the execution was very poor. Grant's accent wasn't consistent at all (it was there, and then gone, then Irish, then English, then gone again, etc.) and neither he nor his wife appeared to age (despite the movie taking place over 20 years). I also felt some of the major characters (like his brother-in-law) were too one dimensional. I'm a huge classic movie buff (and Cary Grant buff) so I'm glad I watched the movie, but it's not on my list to watch again. Unless I have insomnia.

Movies about the American Revolution for some reason have never succeeded as well as those about the Civil War. My guess is that the best of them is Drums Along the Mohawk and that was about one of the more obscure theaters of that war.Like Gone With the Wind, the Howards of Virginia is taken from a rather sprawling novel. But Gone With the Wind was very faithful to the original and managed to hold interest even given its length. The Howards of Virginia is a condensed version of the novel and some of the characterization has been sacrificed in the screen translation.Nevertheless it's a good story about a fictional Matt Howard from his days as a youth hearing the news about his father's death with Braddock's army in the French and Indian War to just before the Siege at Yorktown. Of course growing up with Thomas Jefferson, it's not surprising that Howard develops the opinions he does.Cary Grant is cast against type as Matt Howard. Takes a bit of getting used to in buckskins, but I like his characterization. In point of fact if you want to see the real Cary Grant on screen look at None, But the Lone Heart, Gunga Din, or Sylvia Scarlett. That's where you see the real Archie Leach. Cary Grant was the best role Cary Grant ever played.If The Howards of Virginia were made 10 years later, Burt Lancaster would have been spot-on in terms of casting.Martha Scott is fine as the Tory girl that Cary Grant woos and wins. It's quite a culture shock for her coming to the mostly unsettled Shenandoah valley among Grant's frontier friends and neighbors, but her best scenes in the film are at that point.Of course I think both Grant and Scott are acted off the screen when Cedric Hardwicke is on. As Scott's older brother Fleetwood Payton, Hardwicke is easily the best in the film. He's a privileged Virginia aristocrat and loyalist supporter of the crown. He's an aristocratic snob to be sure, but he's also a tender and loving brother to Martha Scott. Hardwicke managed to capture all the elements in Fleetwood Payton well as well as his losing his mind as his well ordered aristocratic world tumbles down about him.Richard Carlson is very much what I picture as the young Thomas Jefferson, full of new ideas and quite the rebel against his own class. Of course Patrick Henry and George Washington make their appearances as well in colonial Virginia. My guess is that in the book a whole lot of familiar names made it there, but were not in the screenplay.This is not the American Revolution's Gone With the Wind, but taken on its own terms The Howards of Virginia is good entertainment and does capture some of the motivating spirit behind the Virginia patriots and tories.

The only reason I watched this film was to see my Grandfather. He is the guy who hands Cary the bottle of booze in the house, then is shown again when Martha Scott comes out of her room and sits at the table. He is standing just to the left of her (screen left). But back to the flick. Cary was too hyper in this film. Everything he did was at 100 miles per hour! And that hair was the worst! Oh well. All of Cary's other movies more than make-up for this one. By the way, my grandfather's name is Dan White (I) (imdb.com)