 |
When this came out, there was a lot of excitement. After all, Gettysburg was the pivotal battle of the American Civil War, a bloody three-day toe-to-toe battle that saw the end of the Southern army's move north. I quickly came to be disappointed with much of the casting. It seems to me that the Confederate generals (Lee, Longstreet, Stewart) were made to look somewhat ridiculous. Martin Sheen as General Lee fell short of the mark, and the fact that they mounted him on a lame horse annoyed me no end. As a horsewoman, I also found his incessant bouncing up and down in the saddle as he spoke extremely annoying. His subordinate offcers with equally unconvincing southern accents and fake beards were just plain silly. Better efforts were made in casting the Union officers, and casting Jeff Daniels was genius. His portrayal of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was so believable, it seemed he had been reincarnated before our eyes. Much of the film seems to drag, and only when we get to the battle scenes does it get "good", in my words. The Battle of Little Round Top, Pickett's Charge, the opening salvos the first day of Gettysburg were riveting. Hundreds of re-enactors showed up to participate in the filming, and in my opinion, they carried the movie. In my opinion, these scenes made the movie. They were exceptionally well done and realistic. I would watch the battle scenes without hesitation. Most of the rest is simply filler. There is a lot of historical fact included in the scripting, but one must remember that this was based on the book "Killer Angels", and therefore, some aspects of this movie are purely fictional.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
30 minutes of the dvd jumped right in the middle of it. mo matter what player I put it in it has a problem.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This IS a long movie and some of the acting leaves a lot to be desired. However, the movie has some excellent performances by Jeff Daniels, Stephen Lang, Sam Elliott, and a few others. The Special Features, especially the Making of Gettysburg and the Commentary are top knotch and give the viewer an even greater appreciation of the battles at Gettsburg and what is portrayed onscreen in the movie. The Battle of Little Round Top and Pickett's Charge in the film show the relentless human wave attacks that 20th century war buffs mostly associate with the Korean War and the Pacific campaign during WW II. However, GETTYSBURG conveys very well the disturbing reality that Civil War soldiers were killing relatives, friends, and neighbors in those battles and often in hand-to-hand combat. Don't look for the pace of action or the graphic depiction of battle casualties to rival those seen in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN or BAND OF BROTHERS. What the battle scenes in this movie depict is the deadly toll of large scale frontal assaults by both the Union and Confederate forces. It defies all logic to think that hundreds of men (thousands in Pickett's Charge) would march in formation while lethal cannon shells explode in their midst and enemy marksmen fire deadly volleys of musket rounds into the advancing ranks of foot soldiers and cavalry troops. Yet, with the aid of a small robotic helicopter used to film Pickett's Charge and the massive artillery barrage that preceded it, the scale of the battle and the deadly outcome for the attacking Confederate Army are depicted vividly. The futile but heroic plight of Pickett's men becomes apparent well before the attack even begins. These were some of our forefathers shedding their blood on that hallowed ground, and the film helps to show how costly that War of the States would be on the country's psyche for nearly another century after the war ended. Buy it and judge for yourself.Read full review
Tom Berenger, Jeff Daniel and Richard Jordan were superb in their parts, Martin Sheen not so much. Kevin Conway was very good, Sam Elliot not so much. One of the most moving scenes in any movie I've ever watched was Armistead's visit with Longstreet on the night before Pickett's charge; thankfully, the orchestra shut up long enough to get through the scene without overloud and tedious music wrecking that, too. It's worth buying the movie for that scene alone. This production is another in which the superb period costuming, dialogue and infantry evolutions were completely subsumed in a tsunami of orchestra music, played as though louder is better, and too much is never enough. What should have been a platinum award, eternal classic docudrama comes out as pretty okay at best, over all, and masterpiece performances by most of the primary cast can't save the movie from the music. What a shame. Again, artistic license was used to insert as dialogue the eternal drivel about fighting to free the slaves, and I don't believe that there is any contemporary account that puts this stuff in the mouths of the principals, my own family's diaries and journals of the time don't take much notice of 'coloreds' or 'negroes' until late in the war when Union forces were occupying considerable areas of the Confederacy; slaves encountered in occupied areas were made free by executive order (the Emancipation Proclomation), as property to be confiscated, since slaves were of of material value to the Confederacy; the freed slaves were no longer in a position in which they were provided food, clothing and shelter, and there was no cash in the south for the hire of labour. Work for the Union army was haphazard at best, and consisted mostly of burial details after battles. Slavery is, admittedly, bad but is not forced abandonment even worse? The subject is never touched upon here, and would certainly not fall into the PC pidgeon hole that an unseemly amount of the dialoge in this movie does. The depiction of the battle, the various troop movements and the combat are, so far as I know, very well welded to historical fact and accounts, and had the orchestra been abesent the disciplined advances of the infantry into hopeless combat would have been so stirring as to choke up almost anyone, but again the orders, direction and field music, exhortations of the sergeants and file closers are overwhelmed by the damned orchestra. Overall opinion of the movie? Pretty good downgraded from stellar because of the Orchestra.Read full review
Reenactment scenes are outstanding and characters are well portrayed. Historical accuracy seems to be in line with actual events. There seems to be, in my opinion, a rather weak attempt to validate each side's justification for the conflict and some annoying patriotic dialogue, but all in all I found the DVD to be well worth the price and very interesting to watch. Glad I bought it.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in DVDs & Blu-ray Discs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on DVDs & Blu-ray Discs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- You may also like
