Quite a long movie about a famous American Civil War battle

Rating: 6/10 (16 February 2012)

The one quirp that I had with this movie is that it deals more with the television station that broadcast it than the movie itself. They advertised it for about three hours and it went longer so I missed the ending of it. Okay, I know how the battle of Gettysburg ended (as many people who know about the Civil War know) but it would have been nice to have seen how the characters dealt with the defeat/victory, depending on the side.
For those who do not know much about the American Civil War, it was a war fought between the states of the North, in which slavery was illegal and the 11 States of the Confederacy, who seceded over the issue of slavery. The goal of the South was to continue with slavery as their entire economic system rested upon it, while the North did not want to see the union dissolve and fought to save it. Thousands of books and periodicals have been written on the war and there are a lot of other issues, such as the industralised north wanting to defeat an agraian south that relied upon slave labour.
The battle occurred when General Lee's troops from the South, moving around to attack Washington from the north, encountered the Union troops at Gettysburg. From the movie the battle lasted three days, with only minor skirmishes on the first day finishing with a huge southern defeat on the third day. Gettysburg is seen as the turning point of the war, though the fall of Vicksburg on the Mississippi is considered to be another turning point as the entire South was divided into two. Gettysburg is famous more because this battle was a forerunner of the devastation that modern wars would bring. What we see in the battle of Gettysburg is seen on a much bloodier scale in World War I.
Another show I say described the battle of Gettysburg as the last battle where the Napoleonic charge was used. Guns before that were not that accurate, and troops would charge the enemies and when they were in close range, they would then fire, hopefully hitting people. The Springfield rifle had been developed and was put to use in this battle by the North. This rifle was far more accurate and had a greater range than the rifled musket of previous decades. As such, the Northern troops were able to cut down the southern troops as they charged.
Gettysburg is a historical reenactment of the battle, but because it is a movie, they create a few characters to try and capture the feel of the war. One incident are two of the generals who are friends but have landed on opposite sides of the fighting. They focus of the tragedy of this situation, as they were good friends but are ordered to kill each other by their superiors. This is one of the big tragedies of the war.
They also use the movie to show both ideals of the sides. One commander stands up and gives the patriotic speech of how they fight the war for freedom. The southern troops claim that they fight the war because they want to leave the union and the Union won't let them and is forcing them to conform to their ways. This comes down to State Rights, mainly that the states have the right to behave how they like and the Federal Government cannot intervene. Of coarse the ideal and the reality is far different.
Finally I would like to theorise on what could have happened if the South won. The issue of slavery is important but consider that the confederacy was not a strong unity, and even as they fought for freedom from the North, if the North had lost then the union would have been weakened even more. Possibly the United States would have disintegrated into a loose collection of warring states attempting to push their ideals onto each other. Britain might have resumed control of their lost colonies. The more important things happen when we hit World War I because without the American reinforcements, Germany would have probably won, and forced the allies to pay reparations to them. The Ottoman empire would still be in existence, World War II might have still happened, but the dictator could have come out of France or England, and the USSR would have expanded unopposed. This is only theorising (and I like doing that), but there were are lot of factors that led to the South's defeat, the battle of Gettysburg being a minor one.
I didn't say much about the movie, but what is there to really say. It is an okay movie, a little long, but they wanted to capture the essence of the battle. I didn't see the end so I cannot comment on that either. Instead I just look at the events that the movie is based around, because it is these events that tell the stories and the themes that the movie is trying to portray.