I loved Gettysburg. The movie, and the book which I read as a result, changed my mind about the American Civil War. I had a kind of passing interest in it, I knew certain battles had happened.... but that made me want to know more. It wasn't the most publicised movie, in fact the first thing I knew about it was seeing the music video for Going home'. Isn't that Joshua Lawrence and Tom? It took me some time to track down a copy; here in the UK it wasn't very well publicised, but what a disappointment. The style is totally different from Gettysburg; from the beginning it's a television mini-series, all clear-eyed recruits willing to die for their country and jaunty music sending them off to war, where they die clean proud deaths charging the enemy. There's none of the despair, the brutality of war, that shadowed Gettysburg, the actors are all happy, joking, laughing, "Lawrence! Mama told me to look out for you!' kind of fun that makes me want to go off to war. Ain't it grand? 'You just shoot at the man who is shooting at you!' Simple. All those great, fun, joking guys march off to war, get blown up, get shot, and there's still time for a laugh on the battlefield, among all that jaunty music. 'I thought you was with the beyond'.
For some strange reason we deviate from the book to add some pontificating old woman and her daughter... why????... and here come the Oirish. Those poor Oirish. At one point, after they'd been featured yet again, I checked to see if it was sponsored by Bord Scannan. All the characters have their speeches, like a poor Shakespeare, and they strut and fret their hour upon the stage and then are heard no more. I even bought the Director's Cut for the additional footage, but it's just more of the same. In Gettysburg the characters were deep, and both believable and likeable for that depth; here they're too shallow, too plastic, too soap opera.
Ultimately, it's interesting, but came too late after Gettysburg; the actors are too old now to reprise the roles of years before, and the style is too different to be even a distant relative, and we have too many unnecessary and irrelevant characters included for what reason? I feel like I'm betraying it, but it tries, not hard enough, and ultimately fails.
For some strange reason we deviate from the book to add some pontificating old woman and her daughter... why????... and here come the Oirish. Those poor Oirish. At one point, after they'd been featured yet again, I checked to see if it was sponsored by Bord Scannan. All the characters have their speeches, like a poor Shakespeare, and they strut and fret their hour upon the stage and then are heard no more. I even bought the Director's Cut for the additional footage, but it's just more of the same. In Gettysburg the characters were deep, and both believable and likeable for that depth; here they're too shallow, too plastic, too soap opera.
Ultimately, it's interesting, but came too late after Gettysburg; the actors are too old now to reprise the roles of years before, and the style is too different to be even a distant relative, and we have too many unnecessary and irrelevant characters included for what reason? I feel like I'm betraying it, but it tries, not hard enough, and ultimately fails.