Went to see "Gods and Generals" today.
4 hours later it felt as though I had just sat through the entire Civil War.
The acting feels flat: major characters are given minimal screen time despite their abilities. There is no real plot per se; the film lays the Civil War out as though it were a high school history class, but still, the audience asks why they're being subjected to this.
I may take that back - the film attempts tender moments, such as a scene in which most of the Confederate high commands takes time out to sing "Silent Night" on Christmas Day. I'm not saying that it didn't happen historically, but it seems silly, trite, and overly melodramatic to include such a scene when you're trying to cram the entire war up through Chancelorsville into 3.5 hours.
Other nitpicks include the music - why does everything after "Lord of the Rings" have to sound like Enya? Instead of the Blue and Gray, the music had me picturing Orcs and Elves hurling themselves across the battlfields of Old Virginia. And for Ted Turner's money, why couldn't they find some decent looking fake beards? It looked like beavers attacking these poor men's chins.
It's not a bad movie, its just...long. The cinematography is incredible: some beautiful shots of the Shennendoah Valley, and of all the local-to-Maryland places they shot it in. And, as it trumpets itself all the way through, it is pretty historically accurate - hundreds of reenactors, what seems like thousands of guns and horses see to that.
Without a likeable and engaging plot its all just boring as hell.
Posted by Matthew at February 23, 2003 01:59 AM