Reenactment with Actors

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2016)

Gettysburg, an adaptation of the novel by Michael Shaara, is a huge war epic that tells the story of the famous three-day battle in Civil War Pennsylvania. Like the novel, the film centers on the experiences of a few main characters, especially Joshua Chamberlain, the Yankee colonel commanding the 20th Maine regiment, and James Longstreet, the dour Confederate corps commander who foresaw the final disaster, and uses their lenses to tell the story of the battle as a whole. The film has a terrific ensemble cast including Jeff Daniels as Chamberlain, Tom Berenger as Longstreet, Sam Elliot as Union cavalry commander John Buford, and Martin Sheen as Confederate army commander Robert E Lee.
Gettysburg differs from its source novel, the Killer Angels, by projecting a sense of vastness and majesty. The battle scenes are done by thousands of volunteer reenactors, and the musical score by Randy Edelman projects a sweeping romantic breadth. The novel was more of a character study of Buford, Chamberlain and Longstreet and how they are essentially both killers and virtuous human beings at the same time ("Killer Angels"). The movie, on the other hand, gets caught up in the project of reenacting the battle as a sort of visual memorial to those who fought. Some scenes in the movie develop the book's characters well, but others seem a bit clunky and clichÃ©d. Also, because the movie follows the book in its narrative conception, some key parts of the battle are left out of the movie. Civil War buffs will notice these deficiencies and might wonder why the movie omitted such important details (the battle for Culp's and Cemetery Hills, for instance).
On the other hand, this movie succeeds brilliantly in creating that sort of visual memorial that the makers were seeking. The reenactors perform a tour-de-force, really taking us to the center of the action. The tactics and strategies are very clearly relayed in the movie, the sense of terror and courage are all well projected. Northern and Southern ideologies are presented without bias so the audience can draw its own conclusions. The production is very lovingly done, with tremendous admiration for the officers and soldiers of both sides. It is also one of the rare movies that is four hours long but seems much shorter because of all of the very gripping drama that happens on screen.
In short, Gettysburg will certain thrill the Civil War buffs, but will likely entertain and interest others as well. The time capsule is not perfectly faithful in all of its details, but its spirit is spot-on.