Gods & Generals | 
| Director: Ronald F. Maxwell
Actors: Stephen Lang, Robert Duvall, Jeff Daniels, Mark Aldrich, George Allen
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $1.80
You Save: $13.18 (88%)
New (62) Used (94) Collectible (3) from $1.80
Rating:  741 reviews
Sales Rank: 3770
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 231 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.5 x 0.5
MPN: D23413D
UPC: 008539234132
EAN: 0008539234132
ASIN: B00009OOFA
Theatrical Release Date: February 21, 2003
Release Date: July 15, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Gods and generals follows the rise and fall of legendary war hero Stonewall Jackson. The prequel to the 1993 hit Gettysburg.
Amazon.com
The more you know about the Civil War, the more you'll appreciate Gods and Generals and the painstaking attention to detail that Gettysburg writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell has invested in this academically respectable 220-minute historical pageant. In adapting Jeffrey Shaara's 1996 novel (encompassing events of 1861-63, specifically the Virginian battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville), Maxwell sacrifices depth for scope while focusing on the devoutly religious "Stonewall" Jackson (Stephen Lang), whose Confederate campaigns endear him to Gen. Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall, giving the film's most subtle performance). Battles are impeccably recreated using 7,500 Civil War re-enactors and sanitized PG-13 violence, their authenticity compromised by tasteful discretion and endless scenes of grandiloquent dialogue. Still, as the first part of a trilogy that ends with The Last Full Measure, this is a superbly crafted, instantly essential film for Civil War study. For all its misguided priorities, Gods and Generals is a noble effort, honoring faith and patriotism with the kind of reverence that has all but vanished from American film - but provides abundant proof that historical accuracy is no guarantee of great storytelling. --Jeff Shannon
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| Customer Reviews: Read 736 more reviews...
 What happened to Antietam?? July 4, 2009
Curmudgeon (The South)
Although the photography in this movie is breathtaking, I can't recommend it. It seems to me as if Ted Turner is trying to rewrite the history of the Civil War, only this time the South wins. Purportedly, this is the prequel to "Gettysburg," but a major battle is missing -- Antietam. The only major battle in the East which the North won before Gettysburg, yet it is completely omitted from the movie. How can this movie be historically accurate when a major battle is omitted?
Fundamentally Flawed July 3, 2009
M. J. Bourne (Cumbria UK)
I loved "Gettysburg", and I had high hopes for this movie, but I'm afraid I was disappointed.
This doesn't mean there isn't merit here. "Gods and Generals" is very faithful to the book on which it is based (probably over-faithful in fact. They are, after all, very different media). It is beautifully filmed, it is painstakingly historically accurate. The acting is superlative, especially Stephen Lang as "Stonewall" Jackson. It is well produced, and well directed. There are some very touching moments - especially during the battle of Fredericksburg, when opposing Irish regiments clash, and the famous display of the Northern lights after nightfall.
One thing I particularly like about it, and also about "Gettysburg", is that there is no conventional "good guys vs bad guys". Fundamentally, "Gettysburg" is a pro-Union movie, while "Gods and Generals" is more sympathetic to the South, but in both movies at least the other side is given the courtesy of explaining their side of the argument, and to point out the reasons why they are fighting this bloody war. This enables you to see that neither side has a monopoly on virtue or vice, and that helps to show them as real characters.
The problem with "Gods and Generals" is that it is too ambitious. While "Gettysburg" shows what everyone was doing in an intense period of three days, this movie covers the activities of several major characters over two whole years. With a book that is a difficult act. In a film, even a long one like this, that inevitably means that events are going to be skipped over, and the result is a huge sprawling mess of a movie. The individual scenes are excellent, but they just don't connect to each other with any kind of coherence. If you are a Civil War "buff" this won't matter too much because you know what happens next, but the general viewer is just going to get lost. Really, it would have been better to have expanded this and made it into a 26 part series. Instead, the makers were just unable to decide which of the very interesting characters they had would be the focus of the film, so they tried to show all of them, and the net result is that the film has no focus at all.
One for the history affectionados only (which admittedly includes me!)
 Amazing June 16, 2009
Billy L. Hallman (Wilsonville, OR)
Simply amazing! This movie was so awesome that, two and a half hours had passed and I had not a clue. If you haven't seen the movie, BUY IT or RENT it and WATCH IT!
Cheers!
"This, our second War of Independence" June 9, 2009
Daniel A. Wright (Bayville, NJ)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is my attempt here to clear up the confusion that this film created. I think many out there need to take some blinders off and look at this movie for what it is trying to portray: a victorious south. Prior to Gettysburg, the Confederates had won many battles and had proven their resolve well against the better funded North. In addition to this, they were lead by a brillant military general: Thomas Jackson. Stonewall represented not only the strength of the Southern cause but also the tactical ability for strategy that Lee always lacked. With Jackson, Lee knew he had the upper hand on the Federal Army. However, there were also brillant minds in Union colors who understood and caught on to Jackson's ways. This explains his death.
To me the focal point of this film is to demonstrate how determined the south was to continue to fight and also portray the specific way in which their cause was justified. The director showed many simply defending their homes. That was something never done on film before, and for that we should all give Maxwell the credit he deserves. If this film does anything, it convinced me that the Civil War was the most difficult experience Americans ever faced.
 Nowhere near as good as "Gettysburg" June 8, 2009
Nachtjager (Baton Rouge, LA)
I've been a military history geek all my life. In addition to being a founding member of the U.S. Civil War Center at LSU, I've had bit parts in several Civil War films and been an adviser on others and helped prop departments before. I've also done reenacting for decades as a hobby. Having said all that, this movie is okay, but it attempts to do too much in too little time - and it suffers from that.
Gettysburg was a superb movie and gave that epic event in our history the time it deserves. Gods and Generals attempts to cram two years of war into the same time it took to give a decent impression of just one battle. This is more of an attempted biography of Stonewall Jackson than anything else, and it loses its focus on that attempting to jump around from subject to subject. There are numerous historical errors, particularly in regards to Robert E. Lee's early days as a Confederate commander.
It's not a bad movie, but it's not great, and it had the potential to be great. The battle scenes are great, but the story just doesn't seem focused.
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