Alternate Character Interpretation: There‘s some ambiguity about whether Tinkham and his companions are heavy-handed genuine Federal employees or self-employed horse thieves impersonating Federal officials.
The Confederate officer and non-com who decide to take a fat-looking Union cow "prisoner."
Boy's fellow prisoner (and the folksy yet calculating mastermind of their escape plan) Carter is quite well-liked.
Inferred Holocaust: Set in 1864, the movie glances over the actual campaigns of burning and counter burning. In late fall, much of the valley is burned, with most farms put to the torch.
Values Resonance: Charlie shutting down his sons' thoughts of fighting the war by saying whatever else they may think of the Confederacy, it's still a pro-slavery nation and that isn't something you should fight for. In an era when attempts to whitewash the CSA and its motives have come under increasing fire, this sentiment has aged very well indeed.
The Woobie: Boy Anderson's mother died when he was born, he didn't even get a first name from his family (although they love him and don’t blame him for his mother’s death), and then there's how he's mistakenly taken as a POW.
While Boy is the main woobie, the Andersons in general are pretty pitiable by the end of the movie after three of their members die under pretty pointless circumstances despite their efforts to remain neutral during the war. It doesn't help watching how they spend much of the movie looking for the unjustly imprisoned Boy without success.
Dr. Witherspoon's family isn't any better off than the Andersons, as two of his sons are dead or dying after joining the Confederate army and another is still fighting. All of this clearly weighs on Dr. Witherspoon, especially since he can see that the South is losing the war and he's lost at least two children for nothing.
