Good, but could be better.

Rating: 7/10 (4 January 2015)

Although I am not usually interested in history movies, the movie did a good job of keeping me interested throughout in the Civil War. It also opened my eyes to the true horrors of the Civil War. Although not gory or graphic in any way, the movie depicts the high death rates in the war and how it deeply affects the soldiers and especially the generals.
I thought the acting in the war was good as well. Sheen's portrayal of Lee was very good, I thought. The movie has some good scenes as well, the action scenes especially. However, the movie fails in some parts, too. Most noticeably, it was obviously too long. It has the record as the longest American movie ever made, I think, and it shows. It could have easily been cut down by at least an hour, by shortening some of the seemingly endless marching scenes. There was one marching period that I timed to be nearly six minutes long. This had no dialogue and just showed people walking and bring on horseback.
Overall, I thought the movie was good and kept me interested throughout, but it could have been much better. It remains, to me at least, a good movie, but more for people who are very serious about history.