Gods and Generals Personal Review

[larry_cockerham]

Guess you could say he LOOKED older?

[samgrant]

Did either film feature Gen. Lee's pet chicken?

[larry_cockerham]

I missed the chicken? The same little varmit that used to catch the buttons off the shirt of Tiny, the dude who rode the oversized tricycle up the mountain? (I was usually distracted by Daisy Mae, for obvious reasons at the time)

One very distracting thing about the movie was the cleaniness and lack of wear on the uniforms, particularly the publicity shots. One would believe the war was without hardship or death. A fat Confederate made far too good a target.

[scone]

Was it the greatest film? no

I like the movie myself .. was kinda silly in some parts.

They tried to cover to much in a little time frame hence all the left out battles and other historical tid bits of information.

To me theses movies Glory, Gettysburg, Gods and Generals,cold Mountain are not made for the serious civil war buffs and living historians as we tend to pick apart the movie & find the inaccurate details.

These movies are made only to briefly inform the general pubic are not Documentaries and shouldnt be seen as such.

Just my 2 cents.

[larry_cockerham]

Yo, Steven. You are quite correct; documentaries, they ain't.

With your reenactment experience, can you address some of the techniques required to make appearances more authenthic, such as garments and equipment conditioning?

Are things often "weathered" artificially as in the case of say, model railroads?

Make-up?

Just curious. I know Don Lewis often holds his breath for long periods of time? As you know, a great compatriot.

[scone]

Larry never done any real movie stuff.

I know a few folks that were in "80 acres of hell " the camp Douglas documentary for the History Channel and they went through hrs of makeup and rolling around getting dirty.


For reenacting though most let nature take its course. In some casese one may roll around on the ground to get a that extra dirty look smuging dirt on our hands and faces .

For movies most of the close ups are actors and are not into the 3 to 4 days with out a shower. in the same clothes etc. On campaign and in battle your typical soldier would dirty as can be plus black from the smoke and blackpowder.

I hope that helps explain a few things.. I sure they could have artificially aged their clothing better than they did.

[matthew mckeon]

I'm going to defend actors in this case, AGAINST reenactors. In "Gettysburg" the fat Confederates(and overweight Yankees--maybe dark blue is a more flattering color or we don't think of the Union guys as starving so we don't recognize the Northern extras as fat--but as soldiers on active service they would have been pretty lean) were reenactors.
Chamberlain and Buford looked dusty unshaven and with weathered uniforms. Hancock looked spiffy, but he actually did in real life.
Guys like Jeff Daniels or Tom Berenger are professionals who researched their roles and tried to make them as realistic as possible.
Gettysburg has a lot of things to pick over, but in fact its an reenactors dream. The reenactors favorite book dramatized, lots of details(like Col. Vincent's hairdo) are accurate, a point no one but an re enactor is likely to realize. Ken Burns as a 13 year old staff officer. Everybody's noble as heck. The major manuevers are lovingly recreated. IMO it should have been a lot more Hollywood. Made it a better film.
In the small roles there is a lot of bad acting. Union courier, "you, the 20th maine, are to lead set out flankers"
"flankers!" "yes flankers" wooden wooden wooden
Gen. Lee "Is Mississippi ready" Old guy dressed funny " we areready!" for what? We never see him again. Is he Barksdale? Is he someone in real life we supposed to recognize, the chamber of commerce chairman., the governor of Mississippi?

Anyway....

[william42]

By Whitworth:
Can anyone really attempt to put Stonewall Jackson, in perspective, in the modern era? Was the movie too much Stonewall Jackson?

Exactly. I always thought the name of the movie should have been changed to: "Ted Turner Presents the Life and Times of Stonewall Jackson", in yet another epic-length civil war movie, which features many of the original actors who've put on some weight since "Gettysburg", spending way too much time talking.

Just my opinion.


TW