Film God's and General's

[Thor]

John,

Not many people saw it. :P

I was one of the unfortunates who did. I loved "Gettysburg" and waited with anticipation for Gods and Generals to come out. I am an enthusiastic ACW buff and have visited almost every battlefied in the Eastern Theater.

But I was sorely disappointed in the movie, which was lambasted by critics and audiences both. It had some decent action scenes for sure and a few good moments, but the four minute Karaoke rendition of the "Bonnie Blue Flag" with Ted Turner made we want to wretch.

Plus, Stephan Lang kinda butchered Stonewall IMO and made him look every bit the "Tom Fool", but not in the way he was known for. Lang hammed it up so bad that Stonewall looked more like Pee Wee Herman than one of the greatest American generals of all time.

That's more than my .02 of course, but I had really, really high hopes for that movie after the brilliance of "Ghettysburg" and came away from the theater on opening night stunned. :(

Our showing was packed and very quiet for about 20 minutes or so, aside from a few intermitent chuckles, when out of the silence a sixty year old man in the center of the theater proclaimed loadly: "This SUCKS!" and walked out.

Unfortunately, most of the folks there readily agreed with him and about half the crowd left before the end of the movie.

John, if you have not seen "Ghettysburg" with Martin Sheen, Tom Berenger and Jeff Danials -- check it out. It's a much, much better movie with more action and a far better plot thread. :thumbs_up: Many southerners have criticized Sheen for a weak portrayal of R.E. Lee, but I liked him ok in it and thought the movie was overall excellent.

Of course it is based on Longstreet's memoirs, so you have to take a bit of the criticism of Lee with a grain of salt. Longstreet was real putz. :censored:

Take Care,
Mark~Thor