A truly epic re-telling of the battle

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2010)

I'm a huge fan of epics, movies with big casts and massive battles. In this regard, Gettysburg is one of the best I've seen.
Re-telling the famous and important battle Ronald F. Maxwell has done a fantastic job. I will state now that I'm not familiar with the history of the American Civil War, but from what I've read, this movie faithfully re-creates the battle. Using thousands of extras, and no CGI at all it would appear, the battle scenes are stunning. While they don't have the intensity of say Saving Private Ryan, they work brilliantly.
The script, written by Maxwell and based on the book The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, gives the actors plenty of good material to work with, and the cast, led by Jeff Daniels, Tom Berenger, Martin Sheen and Stephen Lang are all wonderful. One of the things about the script is that it never favours one side or another. Most movies about battles or wars, tend to only focus on one side. Here, Maxwell makes sure both sides get their moments on screen. He also shows how each side had officers who were friends now divided by uniform.
It is a long movie, running over 4 hours, but it doesn't actually feel that long watching it. To be fair, the movie is trying to be a faithful depiction of the battle and probably needs it's full running time.
One thing that should be noted is that some of the movie was filmed at the actual battlefield. I don't know how much was shot there, but I can't recall another war movie that has done this.
This an absorbing epic that stands as fitting tribute to the battle and those that died.