Wow!

Rating: 9/10 (5 September 2000)

What a film! This one grabs you right from the start and keeps you. And it needs to-it's a long film. The film is fairly accurate, historically, and was shot partially on location. The performances of Martin Sheen as General Robert E. Lee and Tom Berenger as General James Longstreet are nothing to get excited about, especially during one scene where both of them deliver their lines very woodenly. Nearly everyone else in the film is great! The most galvanizing performance is that of Jeff Daniels as Colonel Joshua Chamberlain. I'd have followed him into hell, which his men did. The battle scenes in this film are truly epic in size and the cinematography is brilliantly executed. When all those dozens of Confederate cannon fire one by one, it made me feel as if those cannonballs were headed for me. The soundtrack is spectacular, particularly if you have DTS 5.1! I gave it a 9 only because I felt that Sheen & Berenger could have done a little better. But it is truly one of the great war films of all time.