Gettysburg (1993)

Disappointment for a huge fan!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A Brilliant Conflict

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Although it is long, the movie builds up a lot of characters and gives background to the battle occuring around them. Good movie with great historical accuracy, recreation of battles were realistic.

Short and to the point, i LOVED the idea that someone would make a movie from one of the few books i have read more than once, Robert Maxwell, who was a devotee of the book The Killer Angels did just that., i get it i get it you wanted to worship at the altar of the author's altar, but could you have gotten a better writer and composer for this film? MAN oh man,! it wasn't the bloviating i minded, it was the stupid banal dialogue that was coming out of the actors mouths AS they were bloviating. The most childish. insulting to the viewers, type of dialogue EVER. The scene that stinks the most is the scene where the scout tries to get the pickets to let him see General Longstreet, and then the dialogue between the scout and Longstreet with the "good Virginia tobacco" line, or the over blown Sam Elliot's speech about the "the High ground, the high ground" my friends and i, just laugh at that bit, hey Sam why don't you just drop to your knees and pound the dirt with your fist as you say it..ack!!. The rest of the film really needed to be shown as it was intended to be, on TBS, over a couple of nights. it would have helped. Oh while im ranting that God awful hat Berenger apparently, INSISTED, on wearing even though it bore NO resemblance to the real Longstreet's hat..that being said it WAS a Civil War film and it was better than others. BUT....! just think if Maxwell and Turner had hired the writers for "Glory",it would made a ton of difference.

In 1863, the Northern and Southern forces fight at Gettysburg in the decisive battle of the American Civil War.While this is truly a great film and one that probably got many people interested in history and the Civil War, it is also sort of strange in its forced portrayal of the events. Despite a massive budget, some of the beards look ridiculously fake. And the dialogue is often very unnatural, thrown in to make a point. The speech where it is shown that many Confederate soldiers were the grandchildren of Revolutionary War patriots is very interesting, but it is extremely unlikely that any such conversation happened. Why would a general even know who a soldier's great-uncle was? Anyway, if you can ignore the beards and the overly-clean uniforms, this is a pretty spectacular movie that goes out of its way to get an emotional response from people.

"Little Darlings" director Ronald F. Maxwell's admirable but flawed epic "Gettysburg" qualifies as one of the better movies about the American Civil War. Unquestionably, it ranks as the best reenactment of this turning point battle because nobody has tried to mount a similar movie. Nevertheless, "Gettysburg" suffers from several flaws. Initially, the film was designed to be shown on television as a mini-series, so at a four and a half hours in length, it rivals anything that either David Lean or Sergio Leone could have attempted. Second, its loquacity occasionally overwhelms its sense of spectacle, but loquacity constitutes the hallmark of any mini-series. Everybody delivers a speech. Everybody who speaks is typically a general or an officer. Most of the dialogue is straightforward without a shred of irony. Rarely is anything uttered that is quotable. The enlisted men in blue and gray aren't so much heard as seen. On the other hand, Maxwell scores surplus points for apparent authenticity, with dedicated reenactors on up to conscientious American history scholars providing incomparable verisimilitude. Undoubtedly, Maxwell had more than enough to contend with during this sprawling $20-million production. My major argument is tone. "Gettysburg" boasts no surprises and Maxwell generates little momentum. During the actual event, the Confederates arrived at Gettysburg feeling invincible owing to earlier triumphs. Maxwell's Confederates are losers from the start and the music blends nostalgia with tragedy. Indeed, Maxwell treats "Gettysburg" as a national tragedy. Kees Van Oostrum photography is competent, but neither Maxwell nor Oostrum were as adept as they were later when they made the infinitely superior "Gods and Generals." Nevertheless, what salvages Maxwell's film is the magnificently staged Pickett's Charge, particularly the cannon barrages over a smoky battlefield. Tom Berenger, Stephen Lange, Richard Jordan, Jeff Daniels, Sam Elliot, and Kevin Conway stand out as the leaders.