"Well sah.......they wouldn't leave!"

Rating: 7/10 (9 February 2005)

"Gettysburg" was first conceived as a miniseries. The original intent is easily discerned in the sometimes choppy flow of the story. At 4 hours the movie is long and the script is rendered anemic at times. Still, it is a decent effort to put real American history on the screen.
The first segment concerns Buford's brave stand on the first day of the battle. Sam Elliot is good as the Union cavalry commander who risked his unit to buy a few hours for the Army of the Potomac to come up and occupy the high ground outside of Gettysburg. It was a gamble that paid off.
The second part of the film centers on J.L. Chamberlain's 20th Maine throwing back the Confederates who were trying to turn the Union flank at Little Round Top on the second day. This action received much acclaim more than 125 years after the fact when it was featured in Ken Burn's Civil War (1990). In that series it was described as a feat that "saved the Union army........ and maybe even the Union itself.". Jeff Daniels bears a striking resemblance to Chamberlain and does a fine job with the role. Unfortunately, the script gives him some lame lines at times. ("Here they come again boys!"). He is especially badly used by keeping his character around after the moment of glory to just duck Confederate shells in the back of the Union center during Pickett's Charge on the third day. Chamberlain's brother is dizzily played by C. Thomas Howell. His is the only character in the film that really got on my nerves---I kept hoping that he would collapse from heat stroke or get hit in the head and knocked unconscious by a spent minnie ball.
The scene where Howells' character talks to the rebel prisoners, at the end of the first day of the battle, is supposedly based on a famous Civil War painting. But John Huston must have had the exact same idea when he made "The Red Badge of Courage " (1951) --- The scene in "Gettysburg" almost exactly matches the one in "Red Badge of Courage" even down to some of the dialogue. Only John Huston had the good fortune of having his lines uttered by Arthur Hunnicutt and not C. Thomas Howell.
Another part of the picture follows the course of all three days of the battle as seen from the perspective of the Confederate commanders. Tom Berenger is very charismatic as Longstreet. However, like Daniels, he has got to spout some rather insipid lines at times. And he has to stand there like a dummy while his junior officers engage in a flip discussion on the pros and cons of Darwinism. Berenger's southern accent is overdone at times and on a couple occasions it seems to disappear altogether. Still - all in all - a creditable performance. Longstreet spends a great deal of the movie trying to convince General Lee (Martin Sheen) to disengage the rebel army and find a strong defensive position somewhere between the Union army and Washington. It's ironic then that he is left to plan and execute (against his own strong judgment) the futile Confederate assault on the Union center on the last day of the battle.
I see in the trivia section of IMDb that Sheen was only the 4th or 5th choice to play Robert E. Lee. Sheen does not match Lee's physical type. Lee being relatively tall and angular while Sheen is a smaller man. I think Sheen would make a wonderful General Grant - he bears a remarkable likeness to the Union General. However--taking all of that into account -it is a tribute to Sheen's acting ability that he does succeed to a large degree in this role. He shows Lee's fighting spirit, his dignity and humility. The scene where Lee rides among his cheering troops just before Pickett's charge is the most moving of the film---and apparently completely unplanned. More is revealed in the faces of the re-enactors in this scene- about the caliber of the men of the Army of Northern Virginia -than could be discovered in any other ten Civil War movies.
The conventional view is that Pickett's Charge was a horrendous blunder by Lee -- his only major mis-step of the war. I tend to hold with those who dissent from this view. Lee certainly knew that the final assault was a long shot. However, he also knew that it was imperative that a decisive defeat be inflicted on the Union Army somewhere north of Washington. He was determined to seize the day and the hour to attack the Union Army wherever he could and not let the campaign be deflected by stalemate or the uncertainty of further maneuvering. The battle of Gettysburg had a now or never quality for Lee. He rolled the dice and lost.
Stephen Lang is unmatched in theatrical flair as Pickett. If you want to see real life courage though- you had better watch Richard Jordan's performance as Armistead. A dying man in real life playing a man fated to die in the movie. The friendship motif that is played out between Jordan's Armistead and Brian Mallon's Union General Hancock doesn't work. The emotional connection is not made---but it is not from a lack of emotional sincerity or intensity on Jordan's part.
While this movie only succeeds modestly where it does succeed - it can at least be said that- where it fails--it doesn't miss by much. I have a real appreciation for the effort that I can see was made here to put American history on the screen. The commitment is made visible by the acting performances, in the use of re-enactors -- in the camera work on location at the Gettysburg battlefield--in the beautiful musical score. This is a movie worth owning.