YE "GODS...and Generals"!!! Civil War Sominex.

Anyone else HATE this turkey?

And some idiot had the GALL to suggest that it bombed in theaters due to some facet of the "Liberal Conspiracy" because of its Pro-"Southern Cause" slant (did I say "slant?" The incline on this loser makes Mt. McKinley look like a prairie dog mound.)

Hey, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, a military genius, is one of my boyhood heroes (so is Maj. Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain) so I'm not playing piss on the Confederates here, but I had waited for this film for MONTHS, and had planned to just buy it, not rent first. THANK GOD I CHANGED MY MIND. I have stopped watching in mid movie (or since tape and disk, fast forwarded to the end) less than 10 films in my LIFE, and this one is now on that short list.

I wrote a review for AMAZON on it: I gave it one star, only because that was the lowest rating you could use, and derided it as "SPRINGTIME FOR STONEWALL."

LORD what a turkey.:puke:

I went to see this steaming pile of crap because "Gettysburg" was such a good film.

Boy, was I wrong...I never leave the theater to smoke, but I had to do it three times for this crapfest.

When Jackson went to visit the little girl, that tore it for me. I scanned the rest and returned the DVD before the store closed with a warning not to recommend it to anyone they like personally.

And WHERE the FUCK was ANTIETAM, not only the bloodiest single day in the war, but one of the most important? This beast was a love letter to Jackson, and a TRUE example of revisionist history.

And WHERE the FUCK was ANTIETAM, not only the bloodiest single day in the war, but one of the most important?

Antietam was left on the cutting room floor. Now, before you blow a gasket (which is what I did when I first heard this), I'll tell you why: At Antietam, both Jackson and Chamberlain played secondary roles. Jackson only provided cover for the withdrawal of the ANV on the final day, and Chamberlain was kept in reserve. Try as they might, the scenes ended up being little more than a showcase of re-enactors and their skills (not a bad thing in my book, but still...). This December, they are releasing an expanded "Gods and Generals" DVD, which will include most of the scenes they cut out -- which will make G&G about six hours long, and will include Antietam.

Martin

First of all, it was what it was -- an attempt to portray the relationship between religion and soldiers, through the eyes of T.J. Jackson (who was well known for his religious zeal) and J.L. Chamberlain. To have expected anything more out of it was folly.

But, have patience, Tyler. They're already beginning work on "Last Full Measure", which will close out the trilogy. That one will focus on Grant, Chamberlain, Lee and Longstreet. Hopefully, they'll find the right Grant and Lee this time (Duvall as Lee was a bad move -- though not as bad as Sheen in "Gettysburg"), and will convince Tom Berringer to reprise his role as Longstreet (minus the Chia Beard, of course).

I still intend to buy it, and watch it many times. But, I'm a Civil War buff, so you can expect nothing less.

Martin

I'm a Yankee to the MAX, but when a friend in Houston (while I was marooned there) found out I could ride a horse, he got me a temporary commission as a Leutenant in a CONFEDERATE Cavalry troop. Nobody can accuse me of panning the South.

Martin, I just wished they'd billed it as "Springtime for Stonewall": I wouldn't have wasted the money even renting it. Those scenes with Lang and the little girl were cloying at best. The wife called it a "Civil War Soap Opera," and GETTYSBURG makes her sob.

If you thought G&G the movie was bad, try the Shaara book. :puke: That's more like "Springtime for Stonewall" than the movie. to be honest, Tyler, I liked the movie. I particularly liked the interactions between Joshua and Tom about the war and slavery. I thought it was really good the way they built the progression of thought through the film. (I also liked the "Hail Caesar" monologue of Chamberlain at Fredericksburg.)

A re-enactor, eh? You still in the Detroit area? If so, PM me. I'd like to talk to you about something.

Martin

Where they call the "Civil War" the "War B'tween the States." Being originally from Connecticut and therefore not subject to constant obsession about something that happened, oh, well over a HUNDRED YEARS ago, I am sadly bemused by the overweening preoccupation here in Tennessee with the Civil War. People talk about it here more than country music, even! I just wanna say to these people: "get over it! You lost! Aw, too bad you can't keep people as pets, that's a real bummer! Losers!" They even actuyally believe that the Civil War wasn't REALLY about Slavery, and some of them still think Slavery is a good idea. There's a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest (KKK founder) on the side of the highway just outside of town.

I'm not saying Lincoln was the shit or anything (Yes, I've read Zinn) or that the North was the shit either, just that it strikes me as stupid to go to battlefield rercreations and get all wistful over what coulda been......

it strikes me as stupid to go to battlefield rercreations and get all wistful over what coulda been

Or, if you're a Union supporter, to get all wistful about what was? Remember, there were two sides fighting.

Martin

ESPECIALLY when if you read newspaper archives like I do, you'll see that the RIGHTS talked about by modern apologists for the Confederacy 9 times out of 10 refer to PROPERTY RIGHTS, and the "Way of Life" issue has a TON to do not necessarily with slavery but with OPPRESSION. The speeches of the Southern Aristocracy remind me much of the opinions of the modern Bushites: I got my money, FUCK YOU, and GO AWAY.

forgive me if i'm wrong. civil war history is back when it was on PBS and it wasn't quite that comprehensive, but i think Tenn fought on the norths side(or was that Kentucky). either way, Tennesseean fought on both sides and many battles were fought there.
I have family that moved there and I did buy a civil war bullet down there. When you did in the back yard and find relics, it's hard to put it away.

I believe Lincoln's reasons for going to war were somewhat deceptive (keeping "the union" intact to preserve economic interests), and I think that The Southern People were deceiving themselves with talk of "property rights" and "states rights" when all they wanted was to commit the mass subjection of an entire race to forced labor (just like republicans want to do today.) Neither side was totally justified, and if you read Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States," you'll find that often Northern Troops acted like war criminals, that there were mass desertions, that freed slaves were treated horribly by Northerners, etc. What a mess! The whole Civil War seems like a shameful period in American history. No one was innocent.

Recreating this episode, in my opinion, is rather like getting together every year and replicating your divorce proceedings.

Apart from that, my whole beef is that these Southern Civil War recreators and fanatics seem utterly obsessed with LOSING THE RIGHT TO OWN PEOPLE AS PROPERTY, as long as they cloak their rhetoric with terms like "states rights.". They're always talking about how "The South's Gonna Rise Again" and shit when what they really mean is "Someday, I'd like some slaves too!"

Granted, I also believe that the white working class of the South and especially Appalachia has been continually screwed up the ass by the Industrial North via strip mining, etc. I mean, it's obvious that the poor of all regions get the shaft...Like I said, no one is innocent here.

If I seem intolerant of certain ideas, it's become I'm honest enough to admit my prejudices. I'm prejudiced against the racism and nationalism of the South; Where I grew up, nationalism and "states' rights" and the Civil War were not huge issues. Coming to the South and finding lots of overweight, republican-voting, Rush-quoting white guys who obviously knew WAY too much minutiae about "Th' War B'tween th' States" makes one come to certain conclusions, i.e. they miss the big stick white people used to wield like it was a god-given right.

I'm sure that there are Union Buffs around, too, and that's a moose of a whole nuther hue.....

Not the greatest of writing on the screen in my opinion.

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BOOORRRRING.