perfecting my day, along with its "genre"..

Rating: 5/10 (30 January 2003)

When I yesterday came to the conclusion that a reviewing of this film might be interesting, it eventually made the whole day worth its dawn. Last summer I rented the film, for a cheap prize. And when I experienced (couldn't think of a more proper choice of word) it, my mind told me it was a decent film about the American civil-war. The following week I had almost completely forgotten about it.
But as mentioned, I yesterday felt like "experience" it again, for some reason. I honestly haven't read any other comments about it, but I guess for some people, a four hour exceeding film is maybe two hours more than it requires (whichever the genre). Especially in this case now, when the plot can be seen as very simple, as it is only circuiting around one of the most striking and powerful battles in the history of America. The use of the word "only" in the last sentence was very objective and personally I couldn't agree with it less.
Perhaps if the film contained stupid* speeches about America's superiority in comparison to the rest of the world..
Perhaps if the battle scenes would have been made with less astonishing beauty, tense and feeling of something overwhelmingly powerful..
Perhaps if one of the sides in the conflict would have been obviously privileged or similar to that in moral, loosing the whole point, the whole idea of this film..
Perhaps if the characters would have been less researched (a wild guess of sensibility from my side that a research was actually made), if it would have been casted, not with worse actors but with worse fittingly actors for the characters (especially then general Lee, who I think is brilliantly performed by Martin Sheen; his wonderful accent nearly brought tears to my eyes in the end).. ..perhaps then, this would have been a "decent" film, made with historical authenticity. But it's not. It is so much more than a decent film produced for TV-audience. It is an extraordinary milestone in its genre (which one that might be.. 19th century war account..?) And I love it. I love it deeply, as deeply as a man (sixteen years, nine months.. all right then, not a man quite yet, to be perfectly accurate with the details) can love something that is beautiful in his eye.
And the beauty always, and only, exists in the eye of the beholder.

* I am not, so to speak, the biggest fan of the country/nation, or more precisely its leaders and their actions.