It's for people who already know the story in detail

Rating: Null/10 (28 March 2009)

This movie makes little sense for anyone who isn't already familiar with the characters, locations, tactics, etc. of the Battle of Gettysburg. There is so much talk about high ground to the west, divisions coming in from the north, General So-and-So doing this, General Such-and-Such doing that (which side is he on?), that it's quite meaningless unless you already have lots of good background information. To me it looks like a clumsy job of trying to maintain historical accuracy - unfortunately, at the expense of a clear storyline and dramatic coherence.
Another major problem is some truly awful dialogue spoken against a background of swelling, inspirational music. Characters pause, stare into the distance, the action around them comes to a halt, and they give long, noble, philosophical speeches. The effect verges on the embarrassing, even the comical. It's just plain very bad, amateur writing.
Jeff Daniels does an interesting job of portraying a Union officer with a soft heart.
Sam Elliott (Brig. Gen. John Buford), the officer leading the Union troops in the first encounter, is less impressive. He had an annoying habit of, in the middle of a speech, suddenly spitting out a sentence with great force and a great show of passion without communicating any sense of why that sentence possessed him so much. It looks like an actor trying to inject lots of feeling into his words without quite knowing why and where.
I watched it tonight for about two hours until bedtime, fairly bored most of the time. There are still at least 20 minutes left, but I turned it off to go to bed. I probably won't bother watching the end.