Stars: Tom Berenger, Jeff Daniels, Martin Sheen, Maxwell Caulfield, Kevin Conway, C. Thomas Howell, Richard Jordan, James Lancaster

Director: Ronald F. Maxwell

Summary: A drama revolving around the famous battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. More American lives were lost at Gettysburg than the whole of the Vietnam War.

GETTYSBURG captures in vivid detail one of the most famous battles of the Civil War, in which more than 50,000 American lives were lost. Covering three days of brutal military campaigns, the film re-creates the world in which Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Lewis Armistead, and others made their tactical decisions and demonstrated their leadership.
Special attention is paid to historical accuracy in costumes, epic battle scenes, and weaponry. The film alternates between Northern and Southern perspectives in order to deliver a full picture of the battle that changed American history.

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Thanks to generous funding from media mogul Ted Turner, first-time director Ronald F Maxwell was able to make an almost word-for-word adaptation of Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Killer Angels. Running over four hours, Gettysburg(1993) splits into two convenient parts for TV viewing (although a 70mm print was given limited theatrical release). This story of three bloody days of conflict in July, 1863 (an unimaginable 50,000 casualties), is divided equally between Union and Confederate forces. On the Union side, Jeff Daniels is the quietly heroic Colonel Joshua Chamberlain; Sam Elliott is utterly convincing as General Buford, the Union cavalryman who holds the Confederate army at bay on the first day. Martin Sheen plays an oddly subdued and vacillating General Lee--a controversial portrait of the legendary Confederate chief--while Tom Berenger, despite being almost hidden underneath an enormous authentically period-style beard, is strong and authoritative as General Longstreet (whose opposition to Lee's plans gave many in the Confederacy a reason to blame him for the disaster at Gettysburg). Chamberlain's last-ditch defence of Little Round Top, which prevented the Union forces from being flanked on the second day of battle, forms theclimax to the first half; the heartbreaking Pickett's Charge--the Confederates' disastrous frontal assault on the entrenched Union lines on the third day--is the movie's greatest set piece and one of the most compelling reasons to endure a little too much stodgy dialogue (lifted directly from the novel) and an apparently over-reverential attitude to the subject-matter. But much of this movie was made in and around the actual battle site, so it's only to be expected that the cast and crew tread carefully, as if literally under the watchful eyes of the men whose lives they are re-enacting. And re-enactment is the key: with a cast of thousands in splendidly detailed period costumes, cannonades galore and massed ranks of musketry, the sheer scale of the military spectacle is endlessly impressive. If as a piece of filmmaking it has many faults, as an historical re-enactment Gettysburgis unsurpassed--even by the epic Waterloo(1970), which drafted in a large chunk of the Russian army as Napoleonic extras. --Mark Walker

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Commentary With Director Cinematographer Author And Military Historian, Interviews, The Making Of, Maps Of The Battlefield, TV Spots, Behind The Scenes Footage
Year:	1993
Release Date:	July 5, 2004
Runtime:	243 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D0 T 6139
Keywords:	General, Wide, Screen, Gettysburg, Drama, Historical
Genre:	Drama