Gods and Generals (2003)
Directed by Ronald F. Maxwell
Written by Ronald F. Maxwell
Starring Robert Duvall, Stephen Lang, Jeff Daniels, Mira Sorvino, Frankie Faison
Release Date February 21st, 2003
Published February 20th, 2003
The Civil War isn't quite the blockbuster story that popcorn-loving audiences seek out in search of escapist fare. So I must credit Ted Turner and the makers of Gods & Generals for attempting such a bold, non-commercial effort. That said, at well over three hours in length and with a decidedly pro-South approach, Gods & Generals is not only non-commercial, it's non-watchable.
A dramatic retelling of the Battle of Fredericksburg, Gods & Generals stars Stephen Lang as Southern Colonel Stonewall Jackson and Robert Duvall as General Robert E. Lee. On the Northern side it's Jeff Daniels reprising his role from Gettysburg as Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, though since Fredericksburg is chronologically before Gettysburg, Chamberlain has just joined the Maine contingent of the Northern army on his way to becoming a Colonel. Duvall inherited the role of Robert E. Lee from Martin Sheen who held the role in Gettysburg.
Of course I'm getting well ahead of myself. Gods & Generals details the beginning of a three part film series that again actually began with it's middle segment, Gettysburg, in 1993. This first installment is about how Virginia was drawn into the war on the side of the South. Representatives of President Lincoln offered General Robert E. Lee the command of all Northern armies to fight the secessionist South. Feeling sympathy for the South's states rights stance Lee declined and began to organize a Virginia regiment to fight on the side of the South. A Virginia Military Institute professor, Thomas Jackson, whose students are quick to join in, also joins Lee. Jackson joins up telling friends that his priorities are God, family, Virginia and country.
Looking for a quick end to the war, President Lincoln is prepared to fight Lee's Virginia troops and the supporting armies from the South in Fredericksburg, with the feeling that without Virginia, the South would fall quickly. Sensing a moral imperative to the end of slavery and reuniting of the country, a philosophy professor from Maine named Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain joined the Northern army over the objection of his wife Fanny (Mira Sorvino, in a cameo role). Chamberlain is joined by his less idealistic brother Thomas (C. Thomas Howell), who doesn't believe in the cause as much as he believes in helping his brother.
Those are the recognizable characters, but like the classic Hollywood epics of the 1930's and 40's, there really is a cast of thousands. Thousands of actors and committed Civil War re-enactors came together under the direction of Ronald F. Maxwell, who also directed Gettysburg, to recreate The Battle of Fredericksburg with nearly flawless detail. From strategy to historic legend, right down to the costuming, Gods & Generals is as faithful as a movie could be to it's subject matter.
The accuracy and precision involved in the recreation of the battle is truly commendable. Unfortunately, all that surrounds it is snooze inducing. Speech after speech after speech drone on and on and on. When Lang, Duvall or Daniels isn't on screen, it's nearly impossible to tell the Northern and Southern armies apart, even as the recreation of the battle is extraordinarily detailed . In the awesome confusion of muskets and cannon fire, telling them apart becomes an entirely futile and exhausting effort and audiences are left out of the film until after the battle when the major characters are back upfront explaining who won the day and why.
That confusion however isn't the film’s biggest problem. The biggest problem is the script, which paints the army from Virginia as the noblest army ever to walk on to a battlefield. To watch Gods & Generals as pure history would lead one to believe that Stonewall Jackson was a combination of Superman and Ghandi. That's not to criticize Stephen Lang, who has a few very effective scenes. It would be difficult for any actor to portray Stonewall Jackson as the second coming of Christ but he does the best he can with the role. We can argue forever, and historians have, why the Civil War was fought, but in the end neither side could live up to the way they are portrayed in the script, written by the director Ronald Maxwell.
The film’s length at just under 7,200 hours is deathly. Actually it was just under 4 hours but it feels a lot longer. Though the battle scenes may hold your attention, the scenes that don't include massive explosions are tremendously dull and filled with pious speeches from characters that Maxwell seems to want to put up for sainthood. I don't mind long movies, I own the nearly five hour versions of Lord Of The Rings and Apocalypse Now Redux, but Gods & Generals has some obvious segments that even junior editors could easily clip out without hurting the film’s narrative in the least. One less interminable speech by Stonewall Jackson about God's judgment and the film would be half as long.
What Gods and Generals needs more than anything iss an editor, a good one. An editor who could reign in the visionary director and hip him to the necessity for brevity in modern cinema. Gods and Generals would play better as a television movie, broken up over two or three days. There, the commitment to accuracy could be appreciated more while not taxing the backside of everyone watching it.
