Gods and Generals: Movie Review, DVD Review, HD DVD, Blu-ray Review (2003)

9/21/2007 Posted by Admin

A big, bloated bust

Written and directed by Ronald F. Maxwell, based on the novel by Jeffrey M. Shaara, 225 minutes, rated PG-13.

With its reams of endless speeches, forced emotion, whitewashing of history and interminable length, Ron Maxwell's insufferable Civil War epic, "Gods and Generals," just out on HD DVD and Blu-ray, is a big, bloated bust.

On almost every level, it fails to live up to its 1993 predecessor "Gettysburg," a better movie that wasn't nearly as self-conscious or as self-important as this fresh blast of hot air from producer Ted Turner's furnace.

Based on Jeffrey M. Shaara's novel, “Gods and Generals” is a nearly four-hour prequel to "Gettysburg" and the second in a planned trilogy.

God help us all if the next film, if it even happens, is as dull as this.

Instead of focusing on one major battle, as he did in "Gettysburg," Maxwell focuses on three--the Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), the Battle of Fredericksburg and the Battle of Chancellorsville--while also telling the stories of the three most influential men behind those battles: Confederate Generals Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (Stephen Lang) and Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall) for the South and Maine's Lt. Col. Joshua Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels) of the 20th Maine Regiment for the North.

The balancing act that ensues is difficult to watch because Maxwell botches it so completely. With his purple script in hand, he sandbags his characters with such florid sentiment, you'd swear that Hallmark got screwed out of a writing credit. And maybe they did, because nobody--nobody--talks as archly as these people.

Jackson, in particular, comes off like a crazed, Bible-thumping madman, which some might say he was. Lang certainly seems to think so, and he gets behind the idea that every moment, small or great, deserves a big, holy-rolling speech to support it, which becomes at once hilarious and nauseating.

Joshua Chamberlain does have a speech toward the end in which he instructs a fellow officer to refrain from using the term "darkie" because "that's a patronizing expression from which we must free ourselves." But there's no passion in his voice, no sense of rage, and the scene ultimately falls flat and feels perfunctory.

Faring better are the battle scenes. Each is given its due with grand re-enactments comprising 7,500 real-life Civil War buffs. But for the most part, Maxwell sabotages a good deal of the combat scenes by not getting behind them. His camera is literally a stick in the mud, panning and shooting the action while only occasionally plunging into the heart of it.

With jarring cameos by Phill Gramm and Ted Turner, "Gods and Generals" is far from heaven, withering beneath the formidable shadow cast by Ken Burns' defining documentary on the Civil War.

Grade: D-

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