As both history and drama, Mary Silliman’s War satisfies many of the potential goals of historians and filmmakers. The film is a unique look at the civilian experience in the American Revolution. The story follows Mary Silliman coming to terms with her standing on the war while putting every effort to return her husband home. Filmed in Nova Scotia, the film was able to capture the feeling and look of 18th century Connecticut.
The film offers a convincing representation of the social intricacies of Fairfield, Connecticut from the vantage point of a woman, Mary Silliman. The story weaves an array of thematic threads such as community relations and tensions, gender roles, religion and family as a private and public institution. While this may seem to be a lot to handle for the filmmakers, they tend to treat many of these themes in a suggestive manner rather than a complete interpretation. For example, in one of the few scenes in a church, the preacher proclaims that in a time of war it is hard to be a Christian morally. The film doesn’t intend to answer whether this is right or wrong but rather state the contradiction.
The producers and fifteen historical consultants took clues from Mary’s entire correspondence and from her journal to put together a likely depiction of her actions and reactions of the period. However, this is not to say that the filmmakers didn’t take liberties with the source material, for example, letters written during this period would not include a daily record or details of social relationships with neighbors or friends. The filmmakers decided to add a social context so that audiences wouldn’t be bored with lengthy correspondence of transactions and bills to pay. The writers of the film chose to focus on the affective side of letter writing with a dose of social context rather than conversations about bills.
One issue of note is the gender roles of this film particularly at the beginning between Mary and her husband. She begins to question her husband’s reaction to the trial, reflecting the between political and community perspectives. The husband assumes this a challenge and responds that he will not tolerate rebellion in his own home. This scene shows that Mary can think for herself even if it leads to an awkward disagreement between her and her husband.