Re: Gettysburg movie reviews?
Steve Tilson (tilsons@csn.org)
Wed, 6 Apr 1994 16:51:34 ECT
A capsule review of Ted Turner's "Gettysburg";
-It has all the plusses and minuses that go with using re-enactors. The
"look" is pretty good, in most respects, but you also see guys giggling
during an artillery bombardment
-the music is terrible (in my opinion)
-the acting, by actors, is uneven. Tom Berenger is a wooden Longstreet,
but Jeff Daniels is a surprisingly effective Lawrence Chamberlain, and
contributes to what was, for me, the high point of the film, the defense
of Little Round Top by the 20th Maine. This segment really seemed to
capture the feel of muzzle-loading combat.
-In some deference to the actors, I felt they were often struggling with a
script that relied too heavily on what seemed like lengthy speeches lifted
directly from the Shaara book.
-It really is too long. I'd say there were three good hours of footage,
and an hour and a half that is too obviously there to make it long enough
for the mini-series.
-Would I use it in class? Quite possibly, in chunks, optimally
accompanied with reading the book, which I have used in classes before.
I can't help recounting the anecdote I heard from a re-enactor who is
currently taking a class of mine. He wasn't able to be in the film but
many of his buddies were, and one apparently had the strange experience,
on viewing the film after its release, of seeing himself in a gun crew
that fires a round which explodes very near another gun, on the other
side, in which he is also serving.
Steve Tilson
Front Range Community College
Westminster, Colorado
tilsons@csn.org