Magnificent, Masterful.

Rating: 10/10 (25 September 1998)

Somehow words seem inadequate to describe this powerful film. Even though the movie deals with an historical event that is 135 years in our past, it makes those three days in July, 1863, come alive for the viewer. If moving a viewer to a deep emotional experience is a criteria for judging how successful a film or a story is, then Gettysburg must be awarded 5 stars, because no one with a heart or a mind can watch this movie without being touched by the magnificence, the grandeur, the horror, the shock of the experience. The historical accuracy is marvelous. The acting superb. And the musical score -- Wow! It will surely out live the film itself. A masterpiece that works so well (even when separated from the movie) that it will no doubt be played whenever and where ever the Civil War is the subject of our attention. In short, the score will have a long life of its own. I can not recommend a movie more highly that this one.