Gods & Generals

Gods & Generals
by Ronald F. Maxwell

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DVD details

Actor: George Allen, Jeff Daniels, Mark Aldrich, Robert Duvall, Stephen Lang
Director: Ronald F. Maxwell
Brand: LANG,STEPHEN
Writer: Ronald F. Maxwell
Producer: Dennis E. Frye
Producer: Jeff Shaara
Writer: Jeff Shaara
Producer: Mace Neufeld
Producer: Moctesuma Esparza
Producer: Nick Grillo
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 219 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-07-15
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video

DVD Reviews of Gods & Generals

DVD Review: The DVD Was Fine With Me
Summary: 5 Stars

Divers of other reviews lament the double-sided DVD, but I'm a veteran of handling these enough that it isn't a gripe with me at all.

However, it is a minor gripe that the conclusion of one side pulls you out of the movie. With the Gods & Generals release, you're pulled out during the charge of the Irish Brigade, and the movie is cut kind of funny, so you aren't inserted right back when you flip to side B. This is a shame, because this is walking into the part of the movie where Joshua Chamberlain's role really shines.

Mary Fahl's 'Going Home' theme at the beginning should win over viewers right away. From there, through the fine instrumental scoring throughout, and even to Bob Dylan's melancholy whaling at the credits, this is a greatly scored film, scoring that could hold it's own with anything.

The central character is General Jackson. At times, it will seem more like a Jackson biopic than a movie where the Civil War is the subject. This make Stephen Lang unquestionably the star of the film. Contemporary audiences will definitely flinch at times at what may seem an absurdly melodramatic portrayal, but I can't honestly say there's any other way one could really inhabit the role of General Jackson. I certainly don't question his casting.

And I also don't question the casting of Robert Duvall as General Lee. He may be the only living actor with the gravitas for it, and he marked a vast improvement over Martin Sheen. Now, Sheen was fine in that TV series as President Bartlet, but there's the gravitas for playing presidents, and then there's a level for Robert E Lee. Duvall had the quality to inhabit the role. It was perhaps the strongest supporting role ever, with the possible exception of Gerald McRaney as Patton in the much overlooked 'Ike'.

I have a lot of enthusiasm for what I saw in this picture, but will admit going in not looking for a movie. I went in with the eye of an editor, and must agree with all the other reviews concerning pacing and whatnot. The craftsmanship is perfect, but this is a miniseries shoehorned into a movie. You'll love it if you make those allowances, and you too will find yourself daydreaming of cutting this into the perfect miniseries.

DVD Review: Opportunity lost
Summary: 1 Stars

The best thing about this film is the song during the opening credits sung by the great Mary Fahl. After that it's a fast downhill slide. I'm amazed at the amount of four and five stars that reviewers here have awarded this mess of a movie and can only guest that they are coming from that strange breed of person known as the "Civil War Re-enactor". Bad acting, bad beards(like it's sequel Gettysburg), bad computer generated images and above all fake battles using overweight civil war re-enactors. Director Ron Maxwell directs this film like he was back in the 1950's with 50's sensibilities. Any war movie, this one in particular, that ignores the groundbreaking vision that Steven Speilberg gave us in 1998 with his magnificent "Saving Private Ryan" deserves the failure this film had at the box office. What an opportunity Maxwell had. First of all he ignored two of the most fundamental rules of the post "Ryan" battle scene, no soundtrack music during a battle unless it is provided by the fife and drum corps existing in the scene and plenty of handheld camera work. Maxwell uses romantic battle hymns during the big battles and there are plenty of smooth slick tracking and crane shots during his essentially bloodless events. Nowhere do we see the visions of hell that I have read about by survivors of these hideous conflicts where modern industrial weaponry met napoleonic battle tactics.
Some fine actors were wasted in this film most notably Jeff Daniels and Robert Duvall as an incredibly pale Robert E. Lee. These men were sunburnt and weathered, they spent all of their time outdoors on horses. Steven Lang plays a romantic version of "Stonewall" Jackson, a departure from the tactical killing machine who was Lee's right arm. Oh I could go on and on. A really great film about our nations most horrendous folly has still never been made. Until that happens I would suggest instead of "Gods and Generals" either Ken Burn's monumental series "The Civil War" or the small independent film "Pharoahs Army" with Patricia Clarkson and the great Chris Cooper.

DVD Review: great movie on civil war
Summary: 5 Stars

this is a great movie but must be linked with Gettysburg..it's too bad the third part was never produced

DVD Review: Good historical movie
Summary: 4 Stars

I felt the movie did a good job of following the historical novel. Both Robert E Lee and Jackson portrayed close to what I felt their character was shown in history. Their were a few places that the movie was less captivating which is why I lowered its rating slightly. Very enjoyable!

DVD Review: Gods and Generals
Summary: 5 Stars

I liked this movie very much. Movies about how this country was formed and it's history are very pleasing to me.

Description of Gods & Generals

A sweeping epic charting the early years of the Civil War and how campaigns unfolded from Manassas to the Battle of Fredericksburg, this prequel to the film Gettysburg explores the motivations of the combatants and examines the lives of those who waited at home.

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

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