Is "Gods and Generals" any good or not?

[Khephra]

I seem to remember that most DUers didn't have a high opinion of the movie.

[Rick Myers]

1. Not as good as Gettyburg

But it's okay... I've sat thru it twice!!!

Hey Kef!!!!!!!!!! How's things???

[Khephra]

6. Heya Rick!

This thread will tell you how I've been.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x1642010

You enjoying your new space? Where is it that you moved again? It looks like Mom and me are moving somewhere SW or W this next October. We're looking as NV but we're not sure yet. For out health, both of us have to move somewhere warmer and dryer--her for her asthma and me for my arthritis.

[No2W2004]

2. Meh.....

I thought it was good in the begining, but then slowly gets bogged down under it's own weight. The movie is pretty much the "Stonewall Jackson" show, without showing much of his weird side.

It does demonstrate that not all confederates were for slavery, or racist.

[leftchick]

3. I found it pretty compelling...

and interesting how Stonewall Jackson was pretty much on a Christian crusade ( I never knew that) not unlike our current aWol* chimp. I look forward to the sequel.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

17. I found that compelling too...

Ron Maxwell, the director, made it explicitly clear that this was a Christian film. I think the idea of faith, particularly in the case of Jackson and Chamberlain, was one of the best aspects of the film.

[WilliamPitt]

4. I was disappointed

Get 'Gettysburg' and 'Glory' instead.

[Khephra]

7. Well, I've seen Glory and I agree that it's a great film.

I actually was lucky enough to see it in the theater too. I'll be sure to add Gettysburg to my list. Wasn't G&G considered a "sequel" to Gettysburg in the sense that it was made by the same people?

The main reason I ask is that G&G is on cable, so I was thinking of catching it. Opinions seem varied enough that I'll probably record it and at least give it a half hour to see if I like it or not.

Before that though, I'll be watching The Right Stuff. Can you believe that I've never been able to see that film? It's not been from a lack of trying. Something just keeps on happening each and every damn time that I've tried to record it or watch it live. I'm hoping that I finally broke the curse today. It seems as if I managed to catch it this time.

[mfritz]

5. Long and boring

and I'm actually very interested in the Civil War. Almost unwatchable except for some battle scenes.

[MidwestTransplant]

8. Really liked it

Jackson is an interesting fellow.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. Read the book...

I haven't seen the movie, but the book was terrific! :D

[Khephra]

10. I might

THe history book I'm currently crawling through is "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". That's going to take me some time to finish.

[AlFrankenFan]

11. The book kicked ass

I'd hope the movie is at least half as good.

[JohnKleeb]

13. is it?

I read Killer Angels a few years back and I liked it. Isn't there a sequel to Gettysburg about the post 1863 battles in the surroundings of Richmond like Cold Harbor, The Wilderness, I am intrigued by those battles a lot becasue they were like a preview of what happened 50 years later in WWI.

[carpetbagger]

12. Not great.

I enjoyed Gettysburg a great deal. I own it, and watch it regularly both for the movie itself as well as for the fact that it's the best example of mid-Atlantic scenery I can find on video. I lived in Harpers Ferry for several years, and in Maryland for several years before that. Gods and Generals tried to replicate the format, but failed. Here's my analysis...

These two movies were both the modern equivalent of an oratorio. The characters give stock speeches throughout in an attempt to tell a classical story. Gettysburg, the battle, was a great story to tell. It happened in a narrow frame of time and place, so that you were able to experience on a 4hr=4day scale the events of the battle. The story was the battle, and the asides were just that.

Gods and Generals tried to bite off too large a time frame, several months leading up to the Chancellorsville campaign. You don't get the sense of real-time that made Gettysburg work (and by extension Alamo movies, Pearl Harbor movies, and more modern military drama from Failsafe/Strangelove to The Day After). Also, the asides, especially the intrusion of cute children, were at times the main plot rather than an aside to any of a number of main plots that would have made a good historical play based on the ANV's formative period.

I got the sense that Gettysburg was a story telling the myths, some true, some false, most inbetween, held by most people who have successfully told the story of the battle (Foote, Coddington, Pfanz, the National Park Service, and many of the generals who went on to publish their stories, best collected in the 4-volume "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War"). I got the sense that Gods and Generals was more the telling of the myths held by, well, civil war reenactors (the best recounting of these folks is the book "Confederates in the Attic").

On edit: Definitely record it. Definitely watch through at least parts of it. There's great scenery, and good battle scenes (although I use the term loosely, since the battle scenes are somewhat contrived like most movie battles that occured prior to, say, Saving Private Ryan or some of the Vietnam movies). But if you're expecting something like Glory, or even "The Last Days of Patton", you'll be disappointed. And don't let the oratorio-play style dissuade you from watching Gettysburg, which is executed quite well.

[No2W2004]

14. Yeah, it was hard to know when you were in reference to the time frame

and the whole "Christmas in Fredericksburg" thing should have been either trimmed down or cut out.

I think they were a bit kind with Stonewall.....they didn't show why the VMI students didn't think much of him as a teacher, or why most Confederate comanders would rather not have much to do with him. That said, he was a great General, but a very "odd" one.

G&G is a "prequill" and really sets up Chamberlian and the 20th Main nicely for their fight on Little Round Top.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

15. I was skeptical at first, but I liked it.

It gives an even-handed account of the Union and Confederate positions (it tries its best to stay neutral, as much as such a thing is possible in this case)and isn't a Confederate propaganda piece. The war scenes are epic indeed, and the film has a great cast.

[LiberalPersona]

16. Well

I liked Gettysburg, but I couldn't sit through Gods & Generals. It just bored me to tears.

[PittPoliSci]

18. meh.

not nearly as good as gettysburg