Gods and Generals (2003)

Directed by Ronald F. Maxwell. Starring Stephen Lang, Jeff Daniels, Robert Duvall, John Prosky, Matt Letscher, Kali Rocha, Jeremy London, Kevin Conway, Bruce Boxleitner, Bill Campbell, Frankie Faison, W. Morgan Sheppard, William Sanderson, C. Thomas Howell, Mira Sorvino. [PG-13]

Financier Ted Turner presents (and cameos in) a “prequel” to 1993’s Gettysburg from the same director, starting with Robert E. Lee’s (Duvall) resignation from the U.S. Army so he can join the Confederacy as the Civil War begins, and ending with the death of “Stonewall” Jackson (Lang) a couple of months before that famous battle. Gettysburg had the advantage of taking place entirely on the field, a detailed study of strategy and maneuvers, principles and philosophies. The scope of this one, however, takes us beyond the battle lines and into town streets and private rooms and plantation porches, allowing for political agenda to enter discussions, even color several “glowing” vignettes, and it is abhorrent enough to make me wonder if I judged Gone with the Wind too harshly (if you want to see “Stonewall” treated like a saintly hero in a deathbed scene that goes on forever, you’re in luck). That Lost Cause business would have been enough to inspire a negative reaction, but in addition, the dreadfully dry reverence mixed in with long noble speeches of such caked-on dignity and phony revisionism makes it feel like pompous theater between Civil War reenactors practically getting misty-eyed doing all the marching and shooting and dying they love. Those battles are also less involving than the ones from a decade earlier, shot in panorama with excruciating attention to detail, but the stakes and positions are murky, and I couldn’t find a reason to care about how they turned out. (Text indicating locations and names elucidate next to nothing if you’re not a studied Civil War buff.) Some adequate performances and (best I can tell) painstakingly authentic costuming and art direction go to waste in such a long, draggy, morally-and-historically-misguided fiasco. A Director’s Cut release restores a whole extra hour of footage, heaven help us. Credits promise (threaten?) this and Gettysburg to be two parts of a trilogy, but the third chapter, Last Full Measure, was never made.

25/100