On G List of Movie Reviews
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Gods and Generals (2003)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
4/18
4/18:
Ronald F. Maxwell was going to make a trilogy of Civil War films.
The first one was Gettysburg which was released in 1993 and was meant to be the second part. Next in line was
Gods and Generals which came a decade later to serve as the prequel with a running time of four hours and
thirty-nine minutes(!). Because of its absolute failure, having grossed $12.8 million against a budget
of $56 million (almost all of it being Ted Turner's money), plans for the third and final picture of the trilogy had been
scrapped, and it was going to be entitled The Last Full Measure.
The trouble with Gods and Generals is essentially the same complaint that I made about Gettysburg: too many speeches.
Just show the fighting and be done with it. Nobody wants to listen to a sermon, or many of them as there were in this case,
while watching the movie. Not only do the filmmakers waste time with words, but they also can't make up their minds whether
Gods and Generals should be about the Civil War or Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The special effects and the fake-looking
landscapes are ugly.
The more time spent on Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, the more obvious the movie was going to sympathize with the South
and its so-called Lost Cause which isn't true anyway. The war was about slavery, period.
I don't like the changes, either, preferring Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee and Tom Berenger as James Longstreet, who declined
to appear because he wanted the Stonewall role, regardless of their fake beards. At least, Jeff Daniels, who was so good in
Gettysburg, comes back to reprise his role as Joshua Chamberlain but is only passable this time.
Stephen Lang gives a decidedly decent performance as Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, who was a fervent proponent of slavery which
is a fact that's lost in the shuffle. However, the more I think about how much he monopolized the running time, the less pleased I
am with Gods and Generals. And what's with the child actor paired up with him? Most of what happened
had already been covered in two different television miniseries:
North and South and
The Blue and the Gray with
my preference going to the former sans Book III. Hence, there's no need to reinvent the wheel.
By the way, American Airlines Flight 77, which was scheduled to land in Los Angeles, California, from Washington Dulles
International Airport, is the one that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. Martin Sheen wanted to be paid $1 million to appear
in Gods and Generals, but the studio told him no. Hence, he never boarded the planned flight.
All in all, Gods and Generals is too long, ambitious, and uneven, signalling the end of Civil War pictures.