I have to first caution the readers that I am a war movie and history buff. Unlike many IMDB commentators who paid $8.25 and walked out of Gods and Generals, I only paid $6.25 (i.e. matinee bargain price) and stayed for the entire three hours and forty-nine minutes. As a war movie buff, I should have given a high mark to this historical epic. Even though there are lots of things that I really like about this movie, there are countless flaws which I cannot overlook. To be honest, I am rather disappointed with this movie. "Gods and Generals" is far from a masterpiece; it is merely an overlong, clumsily directed movie.
Let's start with the good points about this movie. The movie spectacularly recreated the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, which many of us could only read in history books, with thousands of Civil War re-enactors and authentic weapons and uniforms. Also, Stephen Lang gave an Academy Award class performance as Stonewall Jackson. (Most likely, the Motion Picture Academy will not nominate him because of the release date of this film-it won't be nominated until next year-and the critics' vicious panning of the film-the Motion Picture Academy rarely nominates performers from movies which were panned badly as Gods and Generals.)
However, there are countless bad points that overwhelm the good points. First, there is the almost ludicrous miscasting. Robert Duvall, even though he is a great thespian and reputed to be a real descendant of Robert E. Lee, is way too old to play Lee during Civil War. When Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia, he was either 52 or 53. When the movie was filmed, Duvall was in his early 70's. Judging from extant photographs from that period, real Lee looked much, much younger than Duvall.
When I saw Jeff Daniels in "Bloodwork," he was perfect as a fat, beer-guzzling bum. When I heard that he was reprising the role of Joshua Chamberlain in a new movie, I prayed to God that he would go on a crash diet to drastically lose weight. No, in "Gods and Generals" he still looked like the overweight bum of Bloodwork. How could a Civil War era foot soldier, who was forced to march dozen of miles a day, look like a twenty-first century sedentary overweight bum? Moreover, judging from extant photographs Chamberlain during the Civil War was a trim soldier. He didn't look like that overweight bum!
Oh, and as many other IMDB commentators stated, that awful beard on Jeb Stuart! You can buy better fake beards at 99cent stores than that THING! By the way, who is the make-up artist? Some unemployed beautician who was fired from the cheapest beauty salon?
But the fundamental flaws of the movie are Ron Maxwell's horrendous screenplay, incompetent direction and misguided focus.
When I saw Gettysburg, Maxwell's earlier effort, I thought the characters' dialogues were artificial and unnatural. Maxwell's screenplay for "Gods and Generals" is even worse. Every major character had to give a lengthy speech or soliloquy. But, Mr. Maxwell, no real human being talks like that. After I read the critique of one of IMDB commentators, I realized why Ron Maxwell wrote many of those artificial speeches. He consciously or unconsciously wanted his movie to be just like Ken Burns' "Civil War." He wanted each character like Chamberlain or Stonewall Jackson to speak the historical remarks attributed to them. However, this is silly to do in a movie. In Ken Burns' "Civil War," actors were reading from people's speeches, diaries, letters and published articles. However, real people do not talk like written words contained in speeches, diaries and published articles. By forcing the actors and actresses to speak like published articles and diaries, Ron Maxwell made the characters seem robotic and even unintentionally comical at times. Take for example, the character Fanny Chamberlain (played by Mira Sorvino). Mira Sorvino gave such a competent job of delivering her Shakespearean flowery speech that her entire performance looked silly and absurd. As her lines became more and more flowery and Shakespearean, Fanny Chamberlain looked less and less human. No real human being I know of talks like that!
By making the characters indulge in these meaningless, lengthy-and often nauseating-speeches, Ron Maxwell, the director, failed to convey the great dramatic potential of the Civil War. What can be more dramatic and fascinating than the agony of thousands of men and women whose loyalty was challenged when the United States split into two warring nations? In spite of this great dramatic potential which was practically handed to him, Ron Maxwell made this movie into a second-rate, often languid epic with lifeless characters who blurted out robotic speeches.
But the greatest flaw of this movie is Mr. Maxwell's misguided focus. When making a movie, the director and producers select a target audience. For example, a teenage movie is mainly for teenagers and young adults while cartoons are mainly for children. The producers and director of "Gods and Generals" must have chosen Civil War buffs, a small segment of the general population, as the target audience. The accurate weapons, uniforms and lines containing historically accurate quotes are pleasures for eyes and ears of Civil War buffs. For these enthusiasts, three hours forty minutes of this movie is too short. They want more Springfield rifles, triangular bayonets and historical quotes of Stonewall Jackson. For the great majority of the moviegoers, who are not Civil War enthusiasts, over three hours of badly directed Civil War soap opera seems like a meaningless and time-wasting self-indulgence by Mr. Maxwell. No wonder so many people walked out of this movie disgusted.
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