HF Last Full Measure? Hello?? Anyone???

Historical-Fiction
Oops. That's a good step up because they do get the recoil right, and the results are realistic - but unless I'm hallucinating I think I saw a block trail in there. If I recall correctly, the block trail wasn't even conceived until c. 1780 and was developed by a combination of Desagulier and Congreve into the early 1790.s. It was not fully adopted by the RA until the Napoleonic wars. Until then the danged carriage moved the weight of the entire contraption back from the tube, interfered with turning radius, and kept "mobile" out of the description of field artillery.

Well yeah as said in the video it gets some technical details wrong specifically for Culloden in 1746 like having too much constant cannon fire for only a dozen artillery pieces that were present, but I think it does a really good job of representing the feel and violence of 18th-19th century warfare in general which includes things like cannon recoil.
 
Just my humble opinion but if you want to see a Gettysburg mini-series or movie that attracts an audience then follow the same principles as Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan, give us ‘the ‘audience’ characters that we can identify with, put us in a position where we experience a wide range of emotions, fire our imagination so that we want to learn more. I mean, who didn’t identify with with private Upham and his loss of innocence!

The movie audience of today are a far more discerning bunch than they were even 10 years ago, perhaps we’ve become desensitised to blood, gore and horror but the truth is, war is a nasty and vicious business, perhaps it’s time to show us the horror of war, take us back in time to Gettysburg and don’t sugarcoat it, I’m not talking about gratuitous violence nobody wants to see that but it would really help to see a movie about the civil war that didn’t gloss over the reality, hardship and horrors of war.
Okay, I’m not an American but your civil war is your history, it happened and it shaped a nation, every time a lame movie is made I think it does a massive disservice to the American people. You’d think that someone somewhere would want to tell an accurate story of those young men and their families, warts and all.
Before I end my rant, I think it’s worth saying that I think Gettysburg is an awesome movie but it’s definitely lacking something, time for a remake perhaps!

I couldn't agree with you more! America (the world in general?) is ready for a realistic, gritty, ACW movie shown simply from the perspective of enlisted men. For a country so obsessed with this war, we've done better at depicting dragons in our films and TV. Show the war, without the generals and the pandering. I'd say, take the folks behind this, and utilize their talents and knowledge on a grand scale, well-funded series. I'll be happy to provide the script ;-)
 
I'm 17, and I enjoyed G&G immensely when I first watched it when I was 14...

I've been addicted to Gettysburg since I was 12...

Am I the only guy who likes these movies?
I can only speak for myself, I’m always very happy to watch a civil war movie, the problem is that the more I learn about the CW the more mistakes that I notice. To be honest I probably would annoy the hell out of anyone that sat through a historic movie with me. Don’t get me started on the abomination that was ‘Fly Boys’ or Zulu.
 
You don't advertise a Civil War trilogy at the end of Gods and Generals and NOT make a third movie! I am a die hard Gettysburg addict and I loved Gods and Generals as well. Where in the HECK is the Last Full Measure?

And let me guess, because of pc, and anti confederate viewpoints it will never be made. Shame.

That, is my rant for the day.




Edit: And they lost money on G&G. Why? I loved it!

This is going to answer both why the movie failed in theaters and why LFM will most likely never be made.

I knew guys who were extras for the Battle of Fredericksburg scene and can actually be spotted behind Chamberlain when they are forming up after getting past the ditch.

The way they described it, even the Directors Cut did away with several scenes that would have made the movie more balanced. Such as scenes involving the Chamberlains marriage life with a Southern friend visiting them.

They were telling me that there were several battle sequences that didn't make it into even the Directors Cut. Such as there was a May 3rd battle scene which was a Hancock scene and he repulses several attacks on the Union line. And I guess Antietam was supposed to have been much better than what we got.

One of these reenactors told me that she was going to Harper's Ferry where they were preparing to film for LFM. Although I figure she may have been talking about Copperhead.

The problem with G&G in my opinion and why it failed, is that the theatrical edition wasn't done as well as it probably should have done. What we were left with was a pretty boring cut. The Director's Cut is far superior and probably should have been released.

We can't get around the fact that this is extremely pro-Confederate. Black men are seen eagerly volunteering their services for the CS army, slaves who love their masters as if they are family. The South is portrayed as these people who were horribly put upon by an aggressive Federal government and they are simply these morally superior beings. Even John Wilkes Booth is portrayed as a tragic hero, who saw what was becoming of his fair nation and that his later actions were not villanous but noble. Of course, they even in film acknowledge that when he's playing Brutus and asked if he thinks Brutus is a hero he says, "everyone believes themselves to be the hero."

This obviously did not go over well. Especially when the book itself is very even handed with how it deals with Northern and Southern characters.

But my understanding is that Maxwell did this with the express intent of making Last Full Measure Union focused. So G&G was to be Confederate viewpoint. Gettysburg as equal focused between both side. And LFM as Union. In some ways doing a very larger version of the balanced viewpoint that the Shaaras did in the books.

But not only that, but several key plot-points that are heavily eluded to in Gettysburg were completely ignored in G&G. One being Hancock and Armistead's friendship. The was very Central to both characters in the first film, and should have been done in this film, but it wasn't. Or Lee's loyalty to the Union prior to the Civil War. Again, completely ignored by this film.

So not only are you not following the book, you are also making it clear that the Confederacy is the viewpoint, especially making slaves seem happy and even joking about the status, barely delving into that they may not like being slaves.

Had G&G followed (such as dropping the Fredericksburg family and the Wilkes plotline) and instead done more with the Pre-War US and giving the northern characters more to do beyond what may see like glorified cameos, you would have seen LFM already.

Perhaps the major thing that will hinder it's being made is that even in G&G, the returning actors are indeed showing their age. So, a decade later, trying to get Robert Duvall, Jeff Daniels and the others to return may simply be no longer feasible and they'd need to recast.

The best thing to do would turn it into perhaps a 5 season Netflix series. With G&G being 2 seasons, Gettysburg 1 and LFM 2 seasons.
 
I couldn't agree with you more! America (the world in general?) is ready for a realistic, gritty, ACW movie shown simply from the perspective of enlisted men. For a country so obsessed with this war, we've done better at depicting dragons in our films and TV. Show the war, without the generals and the pandering. I'd say, take the folks behind this, and utilize their talents and knowledge on a grand scale, well-funded series. I'll be happy to provide the script ;-)
Thanks for posting that link, I’ve never seen anything like that before, I was so engrossed in following that patrol that I forgot to scroll around the screen. The hospital scene was very well done, that poor soul on the stretcher waiting to have his leg amputated was awful, I think he panicked when he spotted the surgeon stood waiting for him in a blood soaked apron. In his situation, I wouldn’t care how bad my leg was damaged, I’d have been off that stretcher and crawling my way back to the trenches in record time.
 
While we're at it, it would help if the ANV actually looked like the ANV instead of an outfit lining up for senior discounts at the local theater. Cold Mountain at least got that right by hiring the Romanian Army.
yeah and they saved a lot of $ filming it over there too. Too bad Stuart's Lematt revolver showed up in that movie. Renee Zelweger was the best part of that one
 
Hollywood wants to make money not lose money. G&G lost money Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer made money. We will probably get to see Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer II before we see Last Full Measure.Why? It is not that Hollywood PC or Hollywood hating the Confederacy, it is just Hollywood like to make money.
 
Just my humble opinion but if you want to see a Gettysburg mini-series or movie that attracts an audience then follow the same principles as Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan, give us ‘the ‘audience’ characters that we can identify with, put us in a position where we experience a wide range of emotions, fire our imagination so that we want to learn more. I mean, who didn’t identify with with private Upham and his loss of innocence!

The movie audience of today are a far more discerning bunch than they were even 10 years ago, perhaps we’ve become desensitised to blood, gore and horror but the truth is, war is a nasty and vicious business, perhaps it’s time to show us the horror of war, take us back in time to Gettysburg and don’t sugarcoat it, I’m not talking about gratuitous violence nobody wants to see that but it would really help to see a movie about the civil war that didn’t gloss over the reality, hardship and horrors of war.
Okay, I’m not an American but your civil war is your history, it happened and it shaped a nation, every time a lame movie is made I think it does a massive disservice to the American people. You’d think that someone somewhere would want to tell an accurate story of those young men and their families, warts and all.
Before I end my rant, I think it’s worth saying that I think Gettysburg is an awesome movie but it’s definitely lacking something, time for a remake perhaps!
If you really want people to see the horrors those men went through I think a movie about Spotsylvania and the Bloody angle would fit the bill !
 
Gods and Generals was an atrocious movie made by an atrocious director who couldn't direct his way out of a wet paper bag with a crowbar. Personally, I'm glad that the third installment of awfulness was never made.

Thats why they should have hired me as the director. I'd have broken the movie into two parts, Gods and Generals 1: Gathering Storm dealing exclusively with the Pre-War chapters and then Gods and Generals 2: Broken Union which would have dealt with the war chapters.

Never mind that I was only a teenager at the time and never did anything beyond filming myself passing gas and laughing at it!
 
Honestly G&G wasn’t that bad. I think it was PC and it was too sympathetic to the Confederates, but honestly I liked it quite a lot. The soundtrack was good, the parts where there was fighting was good, and the acting was good as well. Loved Lang’s (Stonewall) speech when he left his brigade. I get emotional every time.
 
I find myself ignoring the movie between battle scenes when I watch it. I like the battle sequences and some other stuff. Stonewall's speech to the brigade is nice(and actually happened). I also enjoyed the two Confederate soldiers that were used as comic relief in a couple points, as well as the campfire scene before Chancellorsville, where one of the aforementioned privates predicts his own death in the coming fight.... other than that, meh.

Also everything I've read about Stonewall Jackson suggests the movie's version is bogus. He didn't get along with anyone, even his own staff most times. But here he's everyone's best friend? Okay.
 
There sould be one on the Battle of franklin TN wouldn't that be a sight … Night battle with torches …. a dream...There was a movie "The Human Mill" its all lost due to fire and director dying … but it got heated when they said cut old vets locals didn't stop north or south …

 
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Gods and Generals was an atrocious movie made by an atrocious director who couldn't direct his way out of a wet paper bag with a crowbar. Personally, I'm glad that the third installment of awfulness was never made.
What you said. Giving Turner a chance to put on a Confederate Colonel's Halloween costume for a songest by the famous group Bobby Lee and the Rebs was just the tip of one very large junk-ridden iceberg. But it did show us that Chamberlain went on a significant diet between December 1862 and July 1863.
 
I've always thought that doing a mini-series like Band of Brothers would be the way to go for a Civil War series. Follow a regiment throughout the war. That way you can get the personal connection with the soldiers, and then get the battle scenes as well. Since we are on the Gettysburg topic, if you followed the 20th Maine, you'd have a ton of material that would be a solid mini-series.

Just a thought.
 
I've always thought that doing a mini-series like Band of Brothers would be the way to go for a Civil War series. Follow a regiment throughout the war. That way you can get the personal connection with the soldiers, and then get the battle scenes as well. Since we are on the Gettysburg topic, if you followed the 20th Maine, you'd have a ton of material that would be a solid mini-series.

Just a thought.
I agree that a Band of Brothers/Pacific style series (with the accompanying accuracy and realism in presentation) might be interesting. IMHO it's probably better to stay away from the 20th because of the way it's been stereotyped by Shaara, Burns, and the movie. Pick a unit that the general public isn't familiar with.
 
I've been watching Generation Kill, which is an HBO mini-series following the US Marine Corps 1st Reconnaissance Battalion through the beginning of the Iraq War. It's done in a style similar to B.O.B, and I had been thinking a Civil War version would be really neat.

Pick two companies, one Union one Confederate and follow them through the war. Add dialog about every day things like complaining about rations, why they're still stuck carrying old rusty flintlocks, finding out Pvt Jones is really a woman, how they hate the new Colonel and why wasn't Major Smith promoted instead of some stranger. Keep politics as far as possible, for both sides. Do frequent battle scenes, using the actors and the US Army and National Guard as extras. Make it actually look like two armies are fighting, not just 20 guys shooting at each other with apparently worse aim than Imperial Storm Troopers despite being at point blank range.

I think we'd all watch that.
 
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