General Intro
I’m finally into the Civil War proper,
my favorite era of history. Because of my enthusiasm for the subject, a couple
review are going to be long. That’s why the first movie for the war, Gods and Generals, is going to get a
multi-part review.
Before the movie Gods and Generals was the prequel to Gettysburg, the novel it was based was written as a prequel to Gettysburg’s source Killer Angels. The author Jeff Shaara, was following the success of
his father’s historical novel in that he takes a few important officers on each
side of a conflict and then tries to get into their minds. Unlike Killer Angels, which focuses only on a
few days in 1863, Gods and Generals
covers entire Civil War up to the death of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in May
1863. Naturally, one may imagine a screen adaptation would take the form of a
mini-series (Jeff Shaara has said this), but Ron Maxwell, who had a bit hit
with Gettysburg, seemed to think it
would be fine as an actual theatrical release.
Between the large scope of history the film covers and some poor filmmaking choices, Gods and Generals was such an uneven slog that it became a big flop. Critical events and important figures have to be cut to make room, but at the same time Maxwell spends an inordinate amount of time on fluff, unnecessary side characters, and long speeches that worked in the more condensed timeline of Gettysburg, but kill the pacing here.
The movie was also criticized for
leaning into Lost Cause mythology, especially in the original theatrical
version which was very unbalanced in favor of the Confederate characters. It’s
possible Ron Maxwell was planning to make the third installment, Last Full Measure, more Union-centric
since it would be his one opportunity to use Ulysses S. Grant as a character. With
Gettysburg being even-handed, this
would have balanced everything out, but we’ll never know now. It should be
noted that the film’s big defenders tend to big Confederate fans. Back when it
was released, homeschooling organization Vision Forum’s founder Doug Phillips (who was really into Confederate minister Robert Lewis Dabney) sang it’s praises as one of the greatest movies ever, and many of his adherents
certainly shared his opinions.
There are two cuts of the film. The
theatrical cut is three and a half hours long, and the expanded director’s cut,
which adds a ton of scenes but also trims quite a few, is over four and a half
hours. While the director’s cut adds unnecessary material where we could have
had more actual military history, I would say it runs much better, and is even
split into five titled acts. It’s still deeply flawed, but there is quite a bit
of good stuff. It’s just assembled very poorly. The remaining problem is that
while Gettysburg was almost entirely about the soldiers and their
personalities, Maxwell felt like including John Wilkes Booth, an entire
Southern family, and black laborers and slaves who have no effect on the plot
at all. My recommendation is to watch the director’s cut across two or three
days, or maybe somebody made an awesome reduced cut.
Central
Characters
The novel is centered on two characters
for each side: Confederate commander Robert E. Lee, famed Confederate general
Stonewall Jackson, Union general Winfield Scott Hancock, and volunteer officer
Joshua Chamberlain. Really, Chamberlain is only a major character here because
he was one in Killer Angels/Gettysburg,
but Hancock (who starts as a brigade commander in the novel) is understandable
as most of the really high ranking Union generals came and went during the Army
of the Potomac’s controversial 1861-1863 run.
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| General Lee backed by the Stars and Bars |
The movie could have easily copied this template, but instead seriously unbalances it. Robert E. Lee is played by Robert Duvall. Duvall is a great actor and better captures the general’s popular dignified image than Martin Sheen in Gettysburg. For a few minutes it looks like he’ll be a main character, but he largely disappears. In fact, he doesn’t really have much character development as all since the movie completely skips his transition from taking on odd jobs (coastal defense supervisor, military advisor, an underwhelming long-distance command in western Virginia) to becoming the revered and feared battlefield commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. He’s great when he shows up thanks to Duvall’s performance, but still comes across as a mythic figure than a real human being.
Maxwell was obviously more interested in Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, the South’s other big Confederate hero. Jackson died before Gettysburg, so Maxwell must have wanted to milk his character. In fact, he is pretty much the main character, especially in the director’s cut. Originally none other than Russell Crowe was tapped to play him, but thanks to scheduling conflicts Stephen Lang, who had played General George Pickett in Gettysburg, was elevated to the lead role.
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| Jackson reads scriptures with his wife Anna (Kali Rocha) |
One thing I appreciate about this film is that it doesn’t shy away from how religious America was in the 19th Century. I mention it here because Jackson is accurately shown as a fervent Christian, constantly bringing up the scriptures and his faith and applying them to his military life. For example, at the Battle of First Bull Run he shows a complete calm in battle because as a Calvinist he believes he won’t die until God’s time of choosing, so there’s nothing he can do. Unfortunately, perhaps in an attempt to make him more of a leading man, Maxwell ignored almost all the quirks that would have made him a fascinating character. Here is a list:
1.
Refusing
to share his plans with his subordinate officers to maintain secrecy
2.
Obsession
with punctuality
3.
Refusal
to engage in small talk (he talks a LOT in this movie)
4.
Flying
off at the handle at the smallest mistakes or misbehavior from his subordinates
5.
Bemoaning
military activity on Sundays (there was a scene, but it’s cut from the extended
edition)
6.
Raising
one of his arms to balance his blood circulation (he believed his arms were
different lengths”
7.
Falling
asleep at random moments
8.
Sitting
in a completely straight manner
9.
Lemons
(referred to a couple times
Because most of these quirks and
eccentricities are absent, the character becomes shockingly boring at points.
This shouldn’t happen when Stephen Lang plays Stonewall Jackson!
Brian Mallon reprises his role as
Hancock, and it’s here that I should mention that many actors from Gettysburg returned to reprise their
roles. There was a ten-year gap, so some of the aging is very noticeable and
awkward, especially in a film set right before the previous one. The worst
offender is Patrick Gorman as General John Bell Hood. He was already too old,
and now he’s old and wheezy. The real Hood was a young buck just into his
thirties. Anyways, Hancock show up late and is prominent during the Battle of
Fredericksburg, before almost disappearing.
Jeff Daniels returns as Joshua Lawrence
Chamberlain. Daniels had obviously gotten older and fatter, but I have to say
that character-wise he’s the best part of this film. Unlike the seasoned
military characters, Chamberlain was a professor of theology and philosophy at
Bowdoin College in Maine, and is shown joining the Union Army in 1862 after a
student raises the moral issue of slavery. I’ll save most of my analysis of the
Chamberlain portrayal for my Gettysburg
review.
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| Chamberlain learns tactics from Colonel Adelbert Ames (Matt Letscher) |
The 20th Maine, which he became an officer in, was barely engaged in battle until Gettysburg, which is why audiences might wonder why we’re spending a time on this particular unit. C. Thomas Howell, one of the few who hasn’t seemed to age, reprises his role s Joshua’s brother Thomas and Kevin Conway does the same as Irish sergeant Buster Kilrain.
Soldiers
and Civilians
 |
| General Ambrose Burnside, sporting his awesome sideburns (Burnside is not a nickname because of it) |
There are loads of other characters. As with Gettysburg, the Union high command is near-absent. With the timeframe covered, this is understandable as the army went through three (practically four) different commanders before Gettysburg. George McClellan appears for a few seconds at Antietam to talk to Hancock, and I literally can’t find anything about his actor who could just be a random reenactor for all I know. McClellan is a complex and controversial figure who has yet to get any major role on film. Ambrose Burnside (Alex Hyde-White) does better with his one scene. Whereas the real Burnside was affable and was piteously out of his depth as a major army commander, this version comes off as more arrogant and one may say borderline villainous. Like McClellan, Joseph Hooker is pretty much a cameo and also seems to be played by a reenactor (Mac Butler appears in the independent Civil War film Wicked Spring). For a long time I was unaware that Hancock’s fellow officer was General Darius Couch, his superior and corps commander. I just assumed he was a subordinate because Hancock was doing all the talking and analysis in their scenes together.
By contrast the major Confederate
generals and officers are well represented. We pretty much get all of Stonewall
Jackson’s staff, with the boyishly good-looking Sandie Pendleton and Dr. Hunter
seeming to have the most to do. General James Longstreet is ably played by
Bruce Boxleitner, John Castle plays reverend and artillery general William
Pendleton, and Josh Fuqua has a good turn as famed cavalry commander J.E.B.
Stuart. Stuart’s Prussian subordinate Heros von Borcke also shows up for light
comic relief. There are at least a dozen other historical Confederate figures,
but I think I’ll stop for now.
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| From left to right in the foreground: Jackson, Lee, and Longstreet |
Despite an overabundance of Confederate characters, the makers of Gods and Generals feels like it needs more. There’s a pair of Confederate privates who I admit are kind of fun to watch. They grumble a lot and have a heartwarming exchange with a Union picket during Christmastime. The author of “The Bonnie Blue Flag” makes an appearance performing his song for the Confederate generals in one of many scenes that would have been great in a full-fledged mini-series but is questionable in a limited single film.
And speaking of questionable inclusions,
John Wilkes Booth gets his own subplot in the director’s cut. Played by Chris
Conner, he first shows up encouraging Confederate volunteers while girls swoon
over him. He then shows up in Shakespearean plays, his performances supposed to
be relevant to current events of the war. His four scenes are spaced out so far
across four hours that one wonders why Maxwell thought they would be wise to include.
Oh, and Lincoln gets a single scene so Booth can subtly threaten him while
playing Macbeth. This might sound strange, but I have to defend the historical Booth when it comes to a certain scene. When his fellow actor Harrison (another reprised character from Gettysburg) asks him why he doesn’t join
up with the Confederates since he supports them, there’s an implication that
Booth is all talk and no action. In reality he didn’t join because his mother
made him promise never to put himself in danger like that.
We also get the Corbin family that lives
in Fredericksburg. Now the civilian perspective of the war is interesting, but
again Gods and Generals needs to
focus its scope if it’s only going to be a movie. The most relevant part of
this group is the little girl Jane Corbin, who in real life became a darling of
Stonewall Jackson and his staff. For all his hardass characteristics, Jackson
would become playful and warm around children. The scenes with him and Jane are
charming, but would have had much more effect if the movie had presented him
more accurately to show that this hard Calvinistic warrior had a soft spot.
The widowed Corbin matriarch is
certainly something to behold. I don’t know if the actress was more of a stage
performer or Maxwell’s direction and Victorian script didn’t work well, but her
weepy, heavily emotional performance is the source of much unintentional comedy
to myself, especially her prayer to God after escaping Fredericksburg.
The
Slavery Question
Finally there are the black characters
and oh boy, their scenes can be awkward. One criticism of Gettysburg was that aside from one speechless appearance, no black
people appeared in a movie about a war about the expansion of slavery.
Maxwell’s attempt to compensate is mixed, to say the least. While they don’t
break out into the stereotypes of early Hollywood, the black characters with
speaking roles come uncomfortably close to the “faithful negro” trope, with one
working for his former master out of gratitude. Martha (Donzaleigh Abernathy)
is, I believe, a fictional character serving the Corbins. She saves their house
from looting, but at least has a scene with General Hancock where she expresses
her desire for her children to be free.
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| Martha pretends to be the mistress of the house she serves in to save it from Union looting. |
Jim Lewis (Frankie Faison from The Wire) serves as a cook for Jackson and is at the center of a troublesome scene. Stonewall Jackson tells him that many in the Confederate Army are pushing for blacks to serve in exchange for freedom. This is a complete lie. Free blacks did offer to join the army at the beginning of the war, but were denied by recruiters. Eventually one officer, General Patrick Cleburne, did proposed enlisting slaves with freedom as a reward at the start of 1864. He was an Irish immigrant who lived in Arkansas, a state that certainly had slavery, but not to the heavy levels of the Deep South. Because of this, Cleburne didn't fully grasp the ideological implications of his proposal and caused outrage in the government. Despite being one of the few actually great officers in the Confederacy’s Army of Tennessee, never got a promotion again.
In general, Gods and Generals only lightly acknowledges slavery as a cause for
the Confederates. Many did fight for their local state community, feeling that
they were invaded. Indeed, state loyalty could trump national loyalty back in
those days. However, slavery and racism cannot be ignored as a driving force
for secession, as they were so intertwined with the South’s economics and class
system that they played a role in even purportedly independent causes such as
high tariffs. Yet not a single Confederate character expresses fears over the
Lincoln administration restricting and thus killing off slavery.
There is one Union character who does
so. In one scene where his brother expresses concerns over the Emancipation
Proclamation and its adjustment to the Union cause, Joshua Chamberlain gives a
monologue on how hypocritical it is for the Confederates to fight for freedom
when they deny it to another large group of people. He further explains that in
order to make sure there is no repeat of the war, the cause of it, slavery,
must be completely removed. Indeed, even hardened racists in the Union Army
accepted this belief.
The
Filmmaking
Aside from the long historical scope,
the major reason for Gods and Generals’
mismanaged runtime is Maxwell’s attempt to mimic aspects of Gettysburg. We got charming campfire
scenes between Longstreet and Picket and his generals, so now we need
unnecessary scenes of Jackson’s staff socializing. We got long wind-up shots
for Pickett’s charge, so we need a long panning shot of Confederates waiting to
charge at Chancellorsville. We need random appearances of characters who were
relevant to Gettysburg’s plot, but
not to the events here.
But nothing beats the many speeches.
Some were actually not too long on my rewatch, but many do definitely eat up
the running time. Gettysburg did fine
with monologues because it focused on a few days and characters. There was room
to breathe. With Gods and Generals we
have a lot of history to cover. Imagine if Maxwell edited down the speeches and
removed a few of the minor characters, and then added in bits of exposition and
action to put the military aspects back in focus. The movie would likely still
have issues, but it would run better as a single experience.
There’s also something off about the
longer conversations. They often feel uninteresting. I was thinking it was the
blocking, as Maxwell will literally film two people staying in the same spot as
they talk, or in once case have them lying in bed. Movies usually have their
characters move about in some way to keep audiences visually engaged. However, Gettysburg did the same thing, so
perhaps it’s the writing.
The military action itself is better
than Gettysburg’s. While the free
service of reenactors was repeated to keep the budget down, the aged or
overweight soldiers are less noticeable. There is also more effort to show
bullet holes showing up in soldiers when it in close view. It’s far from
R-rated, but it adds more oomph. The fighting in general looks better, except
for some awful wide-range CGI shots (speaking of which, check out the horrific tie-in video game). What makes these shots worse is that
they’re repeated. I’ll get more into the battles themselves in a bit.
John Frizzell’s’ musical score is pretty great, doing a wonderful job of capturing the time period. Also great is the opening song “Going Home”, sung by Mary Fahl. It might have gotten Oscar contention if it wasn’t attached to this film. I'm less impressed with the eight minute Bob Dylan song for the end credits, but then again I'm not a Dylan fan.
I'll list my remaining thoughts, including my analysis of the battle depictions, in a rundown on the next post
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