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Gods and Generals (2003)
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Reviews Counted: 115
Fresh: 9
Rotten:106
Average Rating: 3.6/10
Consensus: Filled with two-dimensional characters and pompous self-righteousness, Gods and Generals is a long, tedious sit. Some may also take offense at the pro-Confederate slant.
Theatrical Release:Feb 21, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $12,631,552
Synopsis: This epic film from writer-director Ron Maxwell chronicles the early events of the American Civil War. It's a prequel to his earlier GETTYSBURG, with some of the same cast, and is part of a planned... This epic film from writer-director Ron Maxwell chronicles the early events of the American Civil War. It's a prequel to his earlier GETTYSBURG, with some of the same cast, and is part of a planned trilogy. Stephen Lang plays Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, the famous (and deeply religious) Confederate general who, along with fellow General Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall), must weigh the mighty consequences of his actions, as each battle costs the lives of thousands of men. Over on the Union side there's Jeff Daniels as Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, who, like Jackson and Lee, is fond of making long, poetic speeches to his troops. Beginning with the start of the war and ending with Jackson's death, the film chronicles the three main battles leading up to Gettysburg, using their actual locations and thousands of actual Civil War re-enactors as extras. Maxwell pays careful attention to authentic period detail as he chronicles the minutiae of the generals' domestic lives in the intervals between the harrowing battle scenes. While a little on the long side, the end result should serve as an invaluable document for history buffs. Mogul Ted Turner was an executive producer and appears in a small role. [More]
Starring: Jeff Daniels, Stephen Lang, Robert Duvall, Mira Sorvino
Starring: Jeff Daniels, Stephen Lang, Robert Duvall, Mira Sorvino, Kevin Conway, C. Thomas Howell, Frankie Faison
Director: Ronald F. Maxwell
Director: Ronald F. Maxwell
Screenwriter: Ronald F. Maxwell
Producer: Ronald F. Maxwell
Composer: John Frizzell, Randy Edelman
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Reviews for Gods and Generals
Maxwell continues his textbook emphasis on military maneuvers, but despite literally thousands of Civil War reenactors recruited for the film, the wide-screen canvas fails to map the tactics or evoke the terror of battle.
The big battles impress, but become somewhat samey. Part Three is threatened.
The procession of monotonous, oddly gore-free battles breaks frequently for bloated speechifying.
Then there is 'Gods and Generals,' cut from the same production cloth as 'Gettysburg' but a film of very loose ends.
You will watch a series of battle re-enactments and wait for a film to break out.
Imagine watching half of Band of Brothers in one sitting, but with the story moving at a much slower pace.
Swapping politics for crass platitudes, Gods and Generals is a monumental folly.
An interesting film weakened by ham-fisted writing and direction and heavy-handed revisionism.
Maxwell has made the, shall we say interesting, decision to change [Stonewall Jackson]God’s hellcat into a warm and fuzzy teddy bear.
A stiff and stilted historical pageant that somehow manages to make the savage tumult of thousands pitched against thousands seem not so much dreadul as dreadfully dull.
Full of windy speeches about honor, god, fealty, and so on, the movie comes to a literal standstill whenever one of these noble addresses is about to be delivered.
Stay far away from the three hour-plus Gods and Generals--unless, of course, you need a good nap.
If D.W. Griffith's 1915 Civil War stunner, 'The Birth of a Nation,' was 'history writ with lightning,' in the famous phrase of President Woodrow Wilson, than Ted Turner's 'Gods and Generals' is history writ with sorghum...
A repulsive combination of dry textbook history and pandering melodrama.
Never manages anything like thrills and by the long-delayed end has turned into one big forced march.
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