Gettysburg

I'm not going to claim that I am an expert on the American Civil War, however I am a lover of history and as such I've studied it quite closely. Before watching this "documentary" I read up on the battle of Gettysburg and watched videos made by the tour guides who work there.

It made me very interested to learn more and then found this "documentary". Figured it couldn't hurt to see it. Right? What met me was a disjointed, uninteresting, muddled portrayal of the events that took place at Gettysburg. You have Rebel soldiers dressed in rags, not uniforms. You've got people running all over the place pretty much never staying in any kind of formation. Not to mention all the things they get wrong both big and small in terms of history.

The cinematography is sub-par to say the least, the camera is constantly shaking, it's cut up to all hell, using slow-motion as well as extreme close-up shots WAY too much.

Even with them trying to focus on specific soldiers to portray whatever story they were trying to tell the whole thing is hidden by a 20 inch layer of vaseline.

I have no idea what they were going for with this. It's boring, disjointed and impossible to follow from start to finish. Whoever says that this is a good or great film/documentary clearly have no point of reference because this is EASILY the worst historical portrayal of any kind I've EVER seen.

Then again, what else should I have expected from a History Channel production?

You can make the case that the grammar of the regular enlisted man for North or South would be very basic, their vocabulary severely limited by a lifetime of not receiving any education.

But even the Generals and other officers, particularly those on the South, are speaking gibberish, not one discernible English phrase. And it takes away from me taking this program seriously to any degree.

I mean, do the actors get paid less if they just speak gibberish instead of English? Is that in the union contract or something? Case in point: Barksdale, he is shouting orders out that are in a language totally foreign to anything heard on planet earth. It really bothered me too because this was a pretty important commander in the "history" of the South, something the "history" channel doesn't take as seriously as most people, which in itself is confusing. Showing this man to be an illiterate buffoon that can't even muster a single properly structured sentence let alone a few words to his own troops does him a disservice.

Just nonsense. History Channel has produced another winner here.

It seems very clear that others who have left glowing reviews of this "film" (I have to resist the gag reflex to call this such a thing) Like other reviewers who have stated quite accurately how horrible and inaccurate this presentation is, I add my thumbs down to the growing disdain. As a former re-enactor of the Blue and gray and a proud American, I was incredibly disappointed by this Farb- filled festival of feces. For those who don't know Farb is short for Farby which is a term we re-enactors use to describe inaccuracies in a re-enactors impression of a soldier or collectively in a camp or in a film. The most famous in "Glory"- a film I love when a young actor wears a "Swatch" his wrist as he waves to Morgan Freeman. Another example would be modern glasses or the scarf you can get at 7-11 with a paisley print. "Gettysburg" in this instance is an offense and "much offense too" as Hamlet said. The characters NEVER marched in the correct formation in the battle style of that day. And was all style but no substance. I am not only a former reenactor, but I am also a filmmaker myself and I was disgusted by the total lack of focus, and it was evident that the director and the brothers' Scott had no idea how Civil Wr Soldiers fought or spoke. The late Anthony Minghella , director of Cold Mountain, filmed in Romania and he had advisors like Michael Kraus, Don Toriani and the late Brian Pohanka to ensure historical accuracy. Pohanka and Kraus also worked on Ron Maxwell's Gettysburg and Ed Zwick's Glory. This "film"(again I gag), should be destroyed and forgotten and the same for all the DVD copies. This is not censorship- it is a mercy killing for the sake of honoring the men who gave the last full measure and ought not to be offended in such a way. This director is about to finish work on "Killing Lincoln" A friend of mine is in it, I hope that the director has done his homework.

This is entertaining. I will not deny that. However, the factual errors are outrageous. One of the former reviews accused those who don't like it as armchair historians. I have my Master's in History, and have done my theses on Gettysburg (particularly cavalry actions there). I must say that this is highly inaccurate. Watch it if you want to see blood, gore, and action. It is great at making the story intense. Just do not take it for the gospel.

I'm a cultural historian, and I've don't a good deal of work on representations of history. To expect that a movie will offer a completely accurate representation of events is to ask too much. Still, this one drips with inaccuracies. The devil is truly in the details. For example, maybe some would argue that showing LTG Richard S. Ewell arriving on horseback is forgivable, even though he really arrived in a carriage and his wooden leg was promptly shattered by a Union minie ball. Unfortunately, though, the arrival on horseback supports the idea that Ewell was eager to take vengeance for the leg he had lost. There's nothing to support this. Historians have found plenty of evidence that he was not fighter he had been. MG Isaac Trimble almost begged Ewell to order an attack on Culp's and Cemetery Hills on July 1, before Federal troops had entrenched and solidified a position. Ewell refused. There are similar gaffes throughout. It's not clear what point the producers wanted to make here; if it were, perhaps the reason for the easily avoided errors would be clear.