Gods and Generals is an interesting film from director Ron Maxwell. It’s a prequel to his 1993 hit Gettysburg (review here) and a more focused attempt at explaining Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Maxwell did a spectacular job with his previous film by not demonizing the south and giving a clear view to what they were fighting for. What’s typical of Civil War films is to assign each side (North/South) a good/bad reputation. While there’s certainly no doubt that one side wanted the horror of slavery to be intact and the other didn’t, there still are other factors to include when portraying the bloodiest American war on our soil. For the most part, Maxwell pulled this feat off again with Gods and Generals.
Maxwell’s focus of the film was almost solely on Stonewall Jackson. He wanted to show who the man was, what he meant to the south and what important role he had to keep the south alive during the Civil War. Choosing the ever-powerful Stephan Lang (Avatar) to portray the ever steady Lt. General was perfect. Lang makes Stonewall a hard-nosed leader from the beginning until the end when he dies. Lang’s consistent nature of never backing down with his character helps bring to light exactly what type of leader Jackson truly was. On top of this, Lang’s ability to shift gears and make Jackson a human from time to time keeps Stonewall’s image balanced, and more importantly ‘human’. While the history books that I was raised with certainly tried to shed an evil light on this man, Maxwell and Lang make Jackson out to be a truthfully passionate soldier that didn’t share the beliefs of the south, but still believed in his loyalty to it. Again, that’s a perfect example of the balance that I was talking about; he’s a soldier on the field, but a human off of it. History books simply don’t teach that, as most people believe there has to be a good/evil when it comes to war (especially the Civil War).
In short, Maxwell and crew did a great job with bringing Jackson into a more defined light.
With that said, I do have an issue with the production. While the focus was mainly on Lang’s Stonewall Jackson, it just seemed such a waste to not tell the other stories of the continuing characters that Maxwell included. At the beginning of the film we’re introduced to Robert Duvall’s General Robert E. Lee. I know that we get a taste of his ‘oops, bad decision’ in Gettysburg (with Martin Sheen as the general), but I found it absolutely fascinating to see how much he was respected and loved by both sides of the war. What I didn’t like is that we didn’t get much of him from that point on, as the focus of the film shifted. Lee needed more story and more time. In the same vein, e needed a bit more from Jeff Daniels’ Lt. Colonel Chamberlain (who was a big part of Gettysburg) and more from Chris Conner’s John Wilkes Booth. Again, I know the focus was more on Jackson, but if you’re going to make a 260+ minute film we could probably use a bit more variety.
My other issue with this production is how disjointed it felt. While there are five parts of the movie (and good ones, individually), it was difficult with keeping all five together as the movie progressed. There were times where the movie would trail off to other parts of the story and then come back ‘way’ later. For example, Booth’s story was horribly paced. I knew by the end of his story that he was very much against Lincoln’s beliefs, but because he was continually separated from the last time we saw him onscreen the story seemed a bit disjointed. I needed some sort of build from the moment the war started until right before Booth’s hatred for the north (and Lincoln) bubbled over. It was tough to connect with the man’s viewpoint when there was 30 minutes between leaving and coming back to him. The pacing of the entire film, much like Booth’s story, seemed just a bit unbalanced and forgetful at times.
There’s nothing wrong with making an epic film, but just make sure you audience isn’t separated too badly between storylines; it really was just a balance issue for me.
While I thought there were several things wrong with the production of the film (just in terms of pacing and keeping the audience’s attention), the Blu-ray looked so much better than the Gettysburg release. While you can certainly give credit to the ever-changing technology in Hollywood in 2003 (in comparison to Gettysburg, which was shot in 1993), there is still something a lot cleaner and better about Gods and Generals. The movie was gorgeous and without almost any grain or artifacts (or noise) in the picture. Viewing it on a very high-quality 1080p will be a visual treat, if you can keep up with the story. The audio is also splendidly mastered, so that you can hear all the wonderful ‘BOOM!’ from the canons when they are fired. It looks and sounds superb on Blu-ray.
On top of that you also get some great features. Here’s what you’re looking at:
– Commentary with Ron Maxwell, Keith Gibson and Professor James Robertson
– Extended Cut Commentary with Maxwell, Gibson and Robertson (NEW)
– Introduction by Ted Turner and Ron Maxwell (NEW)
– Gods & Generals: Journey to the Past
– The Life of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
– The Authenticities of the Film
– Cross the Green Mountain – Music Video by Bob Dylan
– Ron Maxwell’s Invitation to Take the Journey Through Hallowed Ground (NEW)
Maxwell and crew know their stuff and they could probably give Ken Burns a run for his money when it comes to the Civil War. While what you get on this list is in SD on a separate DVD (sans the commentary), it still is quite informative and impressive much like what you would find on the Gettysburg release. You will know more and more about the film, the man who was Stonewall Jackson and many other facts around the Civil War. These are excellent features for this type of film.
With that said, this was the first booklet I didn’t particularly like too much. While I commend director Ron Maxwell for taking a step out and defending his movie from us critics (nothing wrong with that), I feel like the booklet could have been less about what he thinks he got right and more about what the movie was about. The booklet comes off as a defense rather than an informative piece, which is a shame. Maxwell doesn’t have to answer to us for his vision, nor explain himself. Inform your audience and don’t mind others opinions. This is the first booklet that just didn’t add any real value to the Blu-ray.
Gods and Generals Extended Director’s Cut & Gettysburg Director’s Cut arrive on Blu-ray May 24, just in time for the commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War.