This DVD item from Warner Home Video was reviewed on 11-Dec-2008.
Gods & Generals Reference DVD. Classifications : General Action & Adventure Genres DVD Video General Drama Genres DVD Video Action & Combat Military & War Genres DVD Video Drama Military & War Genres DVD Video War Epics Military & War Genres DVD Vid . Click the following link to view the cover of Gods & Generals. Related topics: 2003-02-21. General. Action & Adventure. Genres. DVD. Video. General. Drama. Genres. DVD. Video. requestid: eaf80b2e-67d7-4703-be17-43a1b9ed26e9
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1) DVD DVD Gods & Generals by Warner Home Video. I was born and raised in what people call the ´South´. My elementary school classes had both the flag of the USA and the flag of the CSA. So naturally, I wanted to be proud of who I was...a Southerner. As such, I wanted to like these kinds of movies (and books, essays, etc.), but when I actually studied real history, I just didn´t like the South. Don´t get me wrong...I don´t think the South is any worse than ´northern´ states. But I just know how the supposed great Southern leaders acted before the War of Northern Aggression (at least, I get the war´s name right). Before that war, most of the Souther leaders were in complete cahoots with the very same leaders they fought. Working together both were quite ´aggressive´ themselves in their younger days...just ask the Mexicans why they feel California is their land.
I suspect them of staging the war for profit...really it is all that they really knew how to do. Also, they ran in circles with other wealthy types who knew how to really profit from war...international banking types. Lincoln, who barely got elected, nearly screwed up that plan by printing his own money to fund the war instead of borrowing it...which is what the banks expected him to do...well, we all know what happened to Lincoln.
Anyway, I don´t have very much sympathy for either northern or southern leaders. And I surely don´t believe in their sincerity. The masses who killed each other in the WoNA? Well, the masses have proved themselves to be cowards and idiots.¤ 2) DVD DVD Gods & Generals by Warner Home Video. I had my ususal above excellent experience with Amazon. I ordered on a Friday and received on Tuesday. Is this fantastic service or what? But then, I am Amazon´s biggest fan!¤ 3) DVD DVD Gods & Generals by Warner Home Video. This is the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. It takes itself very seriously, and is just dull from start to finish. There is a 5-10 minute sequence at one point where you just watch people marching. No dialogue, nothing, just marching.
Other movies are bad, and you can laugh at them. Watching this one is like being in prison.¤ 4) DVD DVD Gods & Generals by Warner Home Video. First, let me say that I´ve read every novel ever written by Jeff Shaara and have loved every one. Having said that, I think this is one of the worst Civil War movies I´ve ever seen. It was dull, over-acted, and the screenplay was horrible -- filled with flowery speaches, no real character development, no real-life conversations. I can understand why all these "South will rise again" folks like it -- it´s pro-confederacy, hardly mentions the word "slavery", and makes it look like all the southern slaves just loved their "masters". That´s OK though, as all films are made with some bias. It´s mostly just a rotten script.¤ 5) DVD DVD Gods & Generals by Warner Home Video. It may be that some reviewers who complain about the length are just too ´antzy´ to sit through this ´prequal´ movie. I found it a fascinating portrait of General ´Stonewall´ Jackson during the early years of the civil war, and to some lesser extent his relationship with General Lee. This movie was not intended to be a ´fair and balanced´ depiction of the years 1861-1863 for both North and South; it is about stunning victories of the South due in no small part to the generalship of General Thomas Jackson. Although there is some view from the Northern perspective in the battles depicted, it is really a movie about Jackson and how pivital he was to the early Confederate victories.
Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine Regiment is given some lengthy treatment at the Battle of Fedricksburg in great part due to the pivotal role the 20th Maine would play later in the eventual defeat of Lee at Gettysburg and is featured in this movie´s sequal "Gettysburg". It was a good attempt at continuity between the two movies.
The ´commentary´ on both "G and G" discs is also excellent and very informative with a good discussion of the events surrounding Stonewall Jackson´s accidental shooting by his own men during the Battle of Chancellorsville. It is interesting to speculate about the outcome of the war had Jackson survived. Lee was a stratigic genius and Jackson was his tactical genius. When informed of Jacksons injuries, Lee reportedly said "General Jackson has lost his left arm, I have lost my right arm." There was no one to step up and fill the tactial void left by Jackson´s death.¤ 6) DVD DVD Gods & Generals by Warner Home Video. A sweeping epic charting the early years of the Civil War and how campaigns unfolded from Manassas to the Battle of Fredericksburg, this prequel to the film Gettysburg explores the motivations of the combatants and examines the lives of those who waited at home.¤ 7) DVD DVD Gods & Generals by Warner Home Video. The more you know about the Civil War, the more you´ll appreciate Gods and Generals and the painstaking attention to detail that Gettysburg writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell has invested in this academically respectable 220-minute historical pageant. In adapting Jeffrey Shaara´s 1996 novel (encompassing events of 1861-63, specifically the Virginian battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville), Maxwell sacrifices depth for scope while focusing on the devoutly religious "Stonewall" Jackson (Stephen Lang), whose Confederate campaigns endear him to Gen. Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall, giving the film´s most subtle performance). Battles are impeccably recreated using 7,500 Civil War re-enactors and sanitized PG-13 violence, their authenticity compromised by tasteful discretion and endless scenes of grandiloquent dialogue. Still, as the first part of a trilogy that ends with The Last Full Measure, this is a superbly crafted, instantly essential film for Civil War study. For all its misguided priorities, Gods and Generals is a noble effort, honoring faith and patriotism with the kind of reverence that has all but vanished from American film – but provides abundant proof that historical accuracy is no guarantee of great storytelling. --Jeff Shannon ¤Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 8-Jan-2009, 085392341320, 670-A6B-PGB-PNB-FAB-EOB-GAB-N6B-LGB-NMB-8 
Gods & Generals, DVD, Image © Warner Home Video
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