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Gods And Generals - 2/21/03 - PG-13 - 223m
Stephen Lang
- Gen. 'Stonewall' Jackson
Robert Duvall - Gen. Robert E. Lee
Jeff Daniels - Lt. Col. Chamberlain
Director: Ronald F. Maxwell
Screenplay: Ronald F. Maxwell
JEF
Like a Sunday morning sermon gone WAY too long. You know the sermon being
told is important, and you know you should be paying attention, but all
you can think about is when is this going to end so I can go home and
sleep.
First off, my apologies for such a long review… But I’ve got
4 hours of film to review here… grab a cup of coffee and bear with
me.
I’m sorry Mr. Maxwell (director), I tried really hard to like this
movie, but found myself wishing it would just end so I could go home and
go to bed. Yes, I actually considered walking out on this movie about
3-4 times, but I can only relate it to reading a thick book… at
some point while reading a thick book you might realize that you don’t
like the book, but you’ve invested so much time into it already
that you feel a self imposed obligation to finish it in the hopes that
there will be a part that makes the entire book worth reading.
Storyline: For such a long movie (almost 4 hours), you
would think there would be a large storyline here, but no. It’s
basically about a small portion of General Thomas “Stonewall”
Jackson’s life and role in the Civil War. The film begins in 1861
and continues up until 1863. It shows the civil war from a point in history
that mainly revolves around the state of Virginia.
Unfortunately that’s about the extent of the basic storyline. Yes
there are some small subplots, Like Gen. Jackson’s love for his
wife, and Lt. Col. Chamberlain’s (Jeff Daniels) teaching career
and his love for his wife in the state of Maine, and a small family in
Fredericksburg Virginia whose house is used by the military as a hospital.
But trust me they are small parts. The story attempts to show the audience
that behind these military heroes there are wives, and children, an attempt
to develop the character, and to make us care more for them. But unfortunately
it wasn’t enough. For example, we’re never even shown the
children of Lt. Col. Chamberlain. They were up sleeping in bed during
his talk with his wife about leaving and signing up for the war. If you
want the audience to care about the character you must show them these
points that they can relate to.
Also I have to admit… I slept through most of my high school history
classes. I hated History. I used to think 'how does a bunch of old dudes
from so long ago that I can’t even comprehend, effect my life now?'
Unfortunately today, I see the error of this sort of thinking. I’ve
made attempts to try to learn more about history. But at this point it’s
all self taught. So, I wanted to see this movie also for the historical
aspect. One of the taglines for the movie was that it is supposed to be
one of the most historically accurate films ever made. That may be true,
but because of the way it was told, or filmed, I found myself being very
confused and feeling like I was back in my high school history class.
For one thing, it seemed like everyone in the movie was a General; General
Lee, General Higgs, General Riggs, Brigadier General Hood, General this,
General that... I had wished that I had a “cheat sheet” of
military rankings to figure out who was what, and who had higher ranking
over whom. (I’m including this cheat sheet at the end of my review
that it may help you.)
I came up with my “tag-line” about the church sermon that
goes too long for a reason too… The dialog felt very forced in this
movie. At times I felt like I was being preached to. I was getting tired
of each general trying to come up with a speech to inspire the troops
to march into certain death. Why their side was right and the other side
was wrong.
The acting was OK. Robert Duval (who I am a fan of) played the role of
General Robert E. Lee. He nailed his character. I felt like I was watching
the Real Gen. Lee on screen. With his southern twang accent, to his ability
to just exude authority, Duval WAS Gen. Lee.
Jeff Daniels did great too. His ability to play the somewhat nerdy, well
educated, Lt. Col. Chamberlain was well done.
Stephan Lang played the part of Gen. “stonewall” Jackson.
Although I think he did well in his acting, I found myself wanting to
call him General “Mush-mouth” Jackson. Maybe it was the heavy
beard, or his accent, but I found myself not understanding many of his
lines. (Odd side note: This movie is supposed to be the Prequel to the
movie “Gettysburg” And although Stephan Lang is a fairly unknown
actor, he was in “Gettysburg” as Maj. Gen. Pickett.). Lang
did well to show the multiple sides of the military hero, from a commanding
presence on the battle field, to a warm hearted man showing affection
to a small child who hasn’t seen her father in over a year due to
the war, to a very religious family man.
Technically speaking I found the film lacking. Yes, there were a ton of
extras that really showed the grandiosity of the battlefields. The costumes
were for the most part well done. I still have to admit that many times
I didn’t quite know if I were watching the southern troops or the
northern troops. The Northerners for the most part had Blue uniforms,
and the South had “gray”, but many times the Gray looked bluish
on screen, and I had a hard time trying to determine if it was a lighter
blue, or a blue-ish gray. And many times they didn’t have any uniform
and I wasn’t sure if these were just the soldiers from the south
or if the soldiers from the North also didn’t all have uniforms.
The effects during the battle scenes were a bit cheesy. Here were men
getting shot, and blown-up by cannonballs and I think I can say there
were probably 3 scenes where we saw any blood. Men were shot in the front
line by large caliber musket balls, and yet fell forward in a dramatic
death fall. The cannon ball effects were a little better, but still there
was one scene that stood out, that showed about a 6” piece of the
ground just “poofed” up a bunch of smoke. The battle scenes
were repetitive too… We’re shown a long line of soldiers marching
in an open field to their death, and as the line marches on, the soldiers
closest to the camera were the ones who were getting shot, or blown up,
and the camera would roll through the smoke about every ten feet. It was
almost like clockwork that you could predict “man shot” –
“smoke cloud” on an alternating basis. For much of the movie
we’re shown these battle scenes and I found myself hoping there
would be something original or new about these scenes to justify taking
up so much of my time in the overly long movie.
One other thing that bothered me was the cleanliness of the movie. The
soldiers were all well dressed and clean. Occasionally, their coat would
have white powder on the shoulder, or a mud spot smeared on, but for the
most part everyone looked like they just stepped out of a shower, and
were afraid at getting their uniforms dirty. Everyone’s belt buckle
was a nice shiny piece of brass. The tents for the soldiers were all a
pristine “white as snow” canvas. One scene the men are shown
running across big heavy wooden planks to get across a small 5’
ditch… what? You mean to say that these men carried around these
boards on their mile long marches just so they didn’t get their
boots wet? I doubt that very much!
Ah… the dirt too… There was very little dirt in the movie.
They used mulch, or shredded tree bark to cover an entire road. Where
was the dirt and grime in this movie? Men were shown digging earthen bunkers
for the cannons and they were barely taking a shovel full of the light
bark. Dig in men! Your life depends on these bunkers. Don’t tickle
the dirt with your shovel!
Ok, maybe I’m being too picky there, but I’m a little upset
about losing 4 hours to this movie. There was about a 20 minute Intermission
which was great to have, but to know that you still had about 2 hours
to go, it was a bitter sweet break.
To sum it up… unless you’re a history buff, or have an interest
in the civil war, I would say to skip this movie. It’s just way
too long, and the battle scenes are unoriginal and weak. Mr. Maxwell,
you should watch the HBO series “Band of Brothers”, or the
opening sequence to “Private Ryan” That’s how a battle
scene should look.
Jef
PS> According to IMDB, Ted Turner invested 60 Million of his own money into this movie! Just for a Cameo?
Here’s the military cheat sheet:
Commissioned:
General of the Army
General
Lieutenant General
Major General
Brigadier General
Colonel
Lt. Colonel
Major
Captain
First Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Enlisted:
Command Sergeant Major of the Army
Command Sergeant Major
Sergeant Major
Master Sergeant
First Sergeant
Sergeant First Class
Staff Sergeant
Specialist, Sixth Class
Sergeant
Specialist, Fifth Class
Corporal
Specialist, Fourth Class
Private First Class
Private