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DVD Gods and Generals
The more you know about the Civil War, the more you'll appreciate Gods and Generals and the painstaking attention to detail that Gettysburg writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell has invested in this academically respectable 220-minute historical pageant. In adapting Jeffrey Shaara's 1996 novel (encompassing events of 1861-63, specifically the Virginian battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville), Maxwell sacrifices depth for scope while focusing on the devoutly religious "Stonewall" Jackson (Stephen Lang), whose Confederate campaigns endear him to Gen. Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall, giving the film's most subtle performance). Battles are impeccably recreated using 7,500 Civil War re-enactors and sanitized PG-13 violence, their authenticity compromised by tasteful discretion and endless scenes of grandiloquent dialogue. Still, as the first part of a trilogy that ends with The Last Full Measure, this is a superbly crafted, instantly essential film for Civil War study. For all its misguided priorities, Gods and Generals is a noble effort, honoring faith and patriotism with the kind of reverence that has all but vanished from American film – but provides abundant proof that historical accuracy is no guarantee of great storytelling. --Jeff Shannon
Everything that made "Killer Angels" and "Gettysburg" so effective and powerful is absent from this movie: taking a major historical event and taking it down to the human element; not of the average soldier, but the human element in the event's leaders.
I tried to see Gods and Generals in the theater and couldn't even last until intermission (was there an intermission?). If you are a civil war buff who is only interested in the big battle scenes, you may like some of this. If you are interested in the human element of the war--which is what makes the Civil War so powerful even 140 years later, this film is horrible.
All the sanctimonious speechmaking that fills the non-battle scenes are intolarable. In terms of accurate portrayals and white-washing of the characters, I'll leave to other reviewers.
But even during the open credits music, I could tell I was in for a rough ride. Instead of just showing us and letting us make our own emotional conclusions, this started with the "oh, I'm telling you audiences this is going to be a powerful and moving story--If you are not deeply moved, there is something wrong with you!"--sort of a technique Spielberg uses in his historical films--which is why his are so over-rated!
Missing where the interactions that were so moving in Killer Angels and Gettysberg: Armistead's opening up to Longstreet about his conflicts about fighting his closest friend, and Chamberlain's--well most everything about Chamberlain was remarkably dead-on in the first movie. Remarkable historical characters portrayed with remarkable human performances by Jeff Daniels and a sadly missed Richard Jordan. Daniels, so great the first time, should had stayed home. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is one of my true heros; Jeff remarkably captured the essence of the man the first time; despite obvious aging (double chin and all) between films, I assume at least part of Jeff's problem was the material.
And that brings us to the main problem: I think most of the problem is in the source: Jeff Shaara's novel (which I did try to read) was just lacking in everything that made his father's novel so powerful, especially when considering the scope of the event. The emotional resonance in Killer Angels was honest and intimate; Gods and Generals is dishonest and contrived. Since Maxwell did so well the first time, I just assume the fault is with the material--He had nothing to work with.
As other reviewers have said here, Gods and Generals is a quick history of 2 years of the Civil War with simplistic and artificiallay reverent views of the primarary characters and expressed in a style of santamonious and other artificial wrappings that do nothing to capture the real power of these events.
Needless to say, a deep disappointment!!
Stonewall Jackson's Story
Gods and Generals was a good movie that could have been better. This movie was long and much of Jeff Shaara's book's storyline was cut out.
This movie was pretty faithful to the book as far as Stonewall Jackson was concerned. But so much was left out about the other characters. Yes, the movie contained much about Lee; however, the rising winds of war in California and Texas were nonexistent.
The movie takes us from 1861 to before the Battle of Gettysburg.
This movie is the prequel to Gettysburg, an excellent Civil War movie based on the book, Killer Angels, by Jeff's father.
If you like Civil War movies and you are not into reading, watch this movie: you'll find it enjoyable. If you are a Shaara fan, you may be disappointed until Gods and Generals is remade as a TV miniseries.
Conor T.review:Gods and Generals
10/21 / 05
Conor t. review: Gods and Generals
This terrific four hour civil war story shows not only the heroic battles, but the lives and feelings four dashing generals. The movie starts out with Colonel Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall) refusing to be promoted to major general to invade his home in the south. Instead he betrays the union and answers the call of Jefferson Davis. To me this movie was difficult to make because Ron Maxwell (the director) didn't use a lot of computerized special effects to me a lot looked old school.
Meanwhile major Thomas J. (stonewall) Jackson (Steven Lang) parts with his wife to join the citizen army of Virginia .Steven Lang played general George Pickett in the sequel to this
Movie. Gettysburg. Miles away in Brunswick Maine soon to be Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels) tries to keep a secrete from his wife that he has signed the recruitment list for the union. Making a civil war movie with only little computerized special effects is not very easy because you know that people will get hurt. I don't want to spoil the movie for you so I shouldn't tell the story. I and my buddies don't under stand why Gods and Generals was made after Gettysburg. Sometimes during the movie they had to use wax figures as extras!
To me this movie was the best movie ever.
By: Conor T.
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One of the very best films about the Civil War, this instant classic from 1989 is also one of the few films to depict the participation of African American soldiers in Civil War combat. Based in part on the books Lay This Laurel by Lincoln Kirstein and One Gallant Rush by Peter Burchard, the film also draws from the letters of Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick), the 25-year-old son of Boston abolitionists who volunteered to command the all-black 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Their training and battle experience leads them to their final assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina, where their heroic bravery turned bitter defeat into a symbolic victory that brought recognition to black soldiers and turned the tide of the war. With... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Matthew Broderick - Denzel Washington - Cary Elwes - Morgan Freeman Director(s): Edward Zwick DVD Release Date: Released the 30 January 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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"Andersonville" is an intense drama about a Civil War prison camp for captured Union soldiers. The camp is a huge stockade, built for 5,000 prisoners of war, but is filled to overcrowding with 8,000 Union POW's, and more arriving daily. The conditions are horrible beyond words, virtually no food, no sanitation, clothing in rags and tatters, no shelter from the rain, gangs rampaging through the camp, rampant disease, a hundred men dying a day - a literal hell on earth. Puported to be historical fact, the story centers on a brigade from Massachusetts and their struggle to survive, and what a horrendous struggle it is. Other reviewers have stated that the story is not entirely truthful. Due to the shortage of critical supplies in the south, I do not doubt that the deporable conditions... More Info about this DVD Director(s): John Frankenheimer DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Packed with nearly six hours of historical material, The Last Days of the Civil War provides a fascinating study of a nation in the painful throes of transition. The five History Channel programs compiled here effectively combine to form a multifaceted account of the pivotal events of 1864-65, when the bloodshed of civil war slowly brought forth a government (in the words of President Abraham Lincoln) "of the people by the people for the people," that would define the United States as it progressed toward the 20th century. The cornerstone of this two-disc set is "April 1865: The Month That Changed America," which thoroughly examines the most tumultuous month in U.S. history, encompassing Gen. Robert E. Lee's ill-fated campaigns including carnage at Sailor's Creek and eventual... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 26 August 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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