A moving and very educational - truly great - docudrama of a key American battle..

Rating: 10/10 (27 October 2011)

I too have watched this over and over. Criticisms of the fake beards and other flaws miss the overall meaning and majesty of this film.
If I was a teacher of American history ... or of English in another country ... and wanted a film for my students to see which would epitomize *American* beliefs and resolution, this would be it. As at least one other reviewer has pointed out, Jeff Daniels' monologue about the North's case for war is deeply moving and explains why and how antislavery was the basic issue at stake.
If the film is too long for the classroom, that monologue, Buford's cavalry's desperate holding action at the outset of the battle, the pre-battle conversation between Longstreet and the British Army observer Freemantle, the fight for Little Round Top, and Pickett's Charge are the excerpts that most should be shown.
A personal anecdote: An old Army buddy of mine, who had to put up with my love for military history even while we were draftees, lives in Bethel PA. My then 13 yr old son and I were visiting the Naval Academy, THE Academy (West Point), and swinging back through PA to go home to Illinois. Ron was eager to show off Gettysburg to me, even though my primary interest has been World War 2. We got to the top of one of the Gettysburg observation towers - since torn down - and even before he could start his local history lecture, my son started exclaiming "Hey! There's Seminary Ridge! There's Cemetery Ridge! There are the Round Tops!" etc. etc.
You see, Robert and I had played the Gettysburg board game - Cemetery Hill - in the old Simulations Publications Inc. Blue & Gray "quad" game set, and we had fought back and forth over the terrain ourselves, being motivated to learning the true history of the battle from the set's historical commentary and other sources. :-)
Ted Turner did a profound service to our Country, seeing this film through to completion, and he has my deepest thanks. Every American should see this film!
Lou Coatney, Librarian, Historian, Historical Game and (cardstock paper) Model Ship Designer