GETTYSBURG Movie Review
1993 Ronald F. Maxwell
This overachieving mini-series turned theatrical release may be the most historically accurate depiction of a Civil War battle ever put on film. It's also long and deeply flawed, but still worth watching. Based on Michael Shaara's Pulitizer Prize—winning novel The Killer Angels, it tells the story of the three-day battle from the point of view of the key officers involved. Though more than 5,000 re-enactors and excellent battlefield locations provide verisimilitude, none of the foot soldiers even have names. Appropriately then, writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell films the battle scenes in medium and long shots that emphasize relationships between conflicting masses of soldiers over individual emotion and action. Also, each important part of the battle is explained in detail more than once before it occurs. That clears up any confusion but also slows an already languid pace.
Further distancing the viewer from an appreciation of the physical realities of the events of July 1863, each of the major characters makes at least one impassioned political or philosophical speech that's longer than Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (and says considerably less). Man's nobility vs. his baser nature; states' rights; Darwin vs. the Bible; the rationale behind secession—each is commented upon while the plot stops dead. Many historical films are guilty of this cinematic sin, but that doesn't make it any more forgivable.
The film's dedication to authenticity is made clear during the opening credits, where photographs of the real historical figures are paired with the actors playing them in almost identical makeup, even when that calls for some extremely styled beards and mustaches. As the strengths and positions of the armies are set up, it's clear that key aspects of the battle are matters of luck and coincidence, not planning.
Early on, as the Confederates approach, Union General Buford (Sam Elliott) realizes that he is facing a much larger force than anyone on his side had suspected. He commits his men to hold high ground in a little Pennsylvania town where nobody had planned to fight. In that act, he changes everything that follows. Robert E. Lee (Martin Sheen) would have preferred another time and place. For the first time in his successful career, Lee faces a larger force that holds better ground. His most trusted general, Longstreet (Tom Berenger), advises that they fight somewhere else, but Lee is determined to end the war there.
The film divides the battle by key engagements on the three days over which it was fought. First is the attack on Buford's position. It's followed by the defense of Little Roundtop by Col. Joshua Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels)—hands down the most gripping and exciting part of the story—and, on the third day, Pickett's (Stephen Lang) charge.
The most compelling of the characters are Berenger's Longstreet and Daniels's Chamberlain. As presented here, Longstreet is a tragic figure, a man who understands that he is ordering his men into disaster but cannot disobey his beloved commander. Moreover, he is also pictured as a man who cares little about the causes he's fighting for. Beneath his devotion to the cause is the realization that “We Southerners...would rather lose a war than admit a mistake.” Chamberlain, on the other hand, is shown as a true idealist, a Christian humanist who believes in the Union and treats his men with respect. He's also the hero of the story, a citizen soldier who fights bravely, and at one pivotal moment changes the course of the battle and of American history. Daniels plays him with a perceptive mixture of humor and courage, and so is able to make even his high-flown rhetoric sound true. Lee, however, eludes the filmmakers. Though Sheen looks the part and even manages a fair accent, the man behind the myth is missing. This Lee has just stepped down from a pedestal. Though he's dignified and courtly, he's also a bungler who willfully ignores the obvious. Historical arguments can be made to defend those interpretations of the man and his decisions. But the figure in the film is never fully human and does not demonstrate the strength of character which, even then, had earned Lee such respect. Perhaps so many myths have been wrapped around Lee that the real man is forever lost.
Within such a long work, even such a key flaw is not fatal. Gettysburg does capture the scope of the battle and its importance as the central event of this country's most important war.
Cast: Jeff Daniels (Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain), Martin Sheen (Gen. Robert E. Lee), Tom Berenger (Lt. Gen. James Longstreet), Sam Elliott (Brig. Gen. John Buford), Richard Jordan (Brig. Gen. Lewis A. Armistead), Stephen Lang (Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett), Kevin Conway (Sgt. “Buster” Kilrain), C. Thomas Howell (Lt. Thomas D. Chamberlain), Maxwell Caulfield (Col. Strong Vincent), Andrew Prine (Brig. Gen. Richard B. Garnett), James Lancaster (Lt. Col. Arthur Freemantle), Royce D. Applegate (Brig. Gen. James L. Kemper), Brian Mallon (Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock), Cooper Huckabee (Henry T. Harrison), Bo Brinkman (Maj. Walter H. Taylor), Kieran Mulroney (Maj. G. Moxley Sorrel), Patrick Gorman (Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood), William Morgan Sheppard (Maj. Gen. Isaac R. Trimble), James Patrick Stuart (Col. E. Porter Alexander), Tim Ruddy (Maj. Charles Marshall), Joseph Fuqua (Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart), Ivan Kane (Capt. Thomas J. Goree), Warren Burton (Maj. Gen. Henry Heth), MacIntyre Dixon (Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early), George Lazenby (Brig. Gen. J. Johnson Pettigrew), Alex Harvey (Maj. Hawkins), John Diehl (Pvt. Bucklin), John Rothman (Maj. General John F. Reynolds), Richard Anderson (Maj. Gen. George G. Meade), Bill Campbell (Lt. Pitzer), David Carpenter (Col. Thomas C. Devin), Donal Logue (Capt. Ellis Spear), Dwier Brown (Capt. Brewer), Mark Moses (Sgt. Owen); Cameo(s): Ken Burns, Ted Turner; Written by: Ronald F. Maxwell; Cinematography by: Kees Van Oostrum; Music by: Randy Edelman; Technical Advisor: Brian Pohanka. Producer: Robert Katz, Moctesuma Esparza Productions, Turner Pictures; released by New Line Cinema. Budget: 25M. Boxoffice: 10.7M. MPAA Rating: PG. Running Time: 254 minutes. Format: VHS, Letterbox, Closed Caption.