schear
Joined Apr 2001
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schear's rating
Gods and Generals is arguably the first major film to treat our Civil War in both depth and breadth and not veer into political correctness. Those participating had a broad variety of convictions and motives. Previous fictional (e.g., Glory) and documentary (e.g., Ken Burns' The Civil War) treatments hew to the tired old line that slavery was either the only cause for the War or the only one of consequence (it certainly became the major Northern motive later).
This war's cause was no more about slavery than WW II was about saving the Jews from the Holocaust or the recent Iraq war was about weapons of mass destruction. Current events are instructive in the way leaders often seek to recast events and decisions in their best light and distance themselves from unsupportable things they said prior to a conflict.
If the film had even briefly covered the decades leading up to the Rebellion (as it was known in those times) it could have more clearly revealed how both sides were manipulated into the conflict by their extreme elements:
As other reviewers have pointed out, this film is long (too long for most audiences) and its use of contemporary dialog strikes today's ear as pretentious.
Another particular objection I have is the absence of any reference to how badly Gen. Lee bungled the war. By not following up their rout of the Union Army at the war's first big battle of Bull Run (called First Manassas in The South) just outside Washington. Gen. Jackson begged Lee for available reinforcements but Lee refused (he later said it was his worst decision). If Lee had agreed the war might have ended right then, 500,000 lives saved (including Lincoln's) and the possibility of peaceful emancipation made likely. Most importantly, we would still be a republic in fact and not simply in name.
Suggested reading: DiLorenzo - The Real Lincoln Adams - When in the Course of Human Events Freehling - The Road to Disunion: Session at Bay 1776 - 1854
This war's cause was no more about slavery than WW II was about saving the Jews from the Holocaust or the recent Iraq war was about weapons of mass destruction. Current events are instructive in the way leaders often seek to recast events and decisions in their best light and distance themselves from unsupportable things they said prior to a conflict.
If the film had even briefly covered the decades leading up to the Rebellion (as it was known in those times) it could have more clearly revealed how both sides were manipulated into the conflict by their extreme elements:
- rich Northern businessmen sought to protect their uncompetitive manufacturing from European imports with heavy tariffs which fell disproportionately on the South.
- Republican leaders focused on wiping out states rights and strengthening the Federal government in order to build an American empire and reward their wealthy constituents through massive political patronage
- Northern abolitionists (a minority within the Republican Party), and
- wealthy Southern plantation owners fearing future restrictions on the future of slavery.
As other reviewers have pointed out, this film is long (too long for most audiences) and its use of contemporary dialog strikes today's ear as pretentious.
Another particular objection I have is the absence of any reference to how badly Gen. Lee bungled the war. By not following up their rout of the Union Army at the war's first big battle of Bull Run (called First Manassas in The South) just outside Washington. Gen. Jackson begged Lee for available reinforcements but Lee refused (he later said it was his worst decision). If Lee had agreed the war might have ended right then, 500,000 lives saved (including Lincoln's) and the possibility of peaceful emancipation made likely. Most importantly, we would still be a republic in fact and not simply in name.
Suggested reading: DiLorenzo - The Real Lincoln Adams - When in the Course of Human Events Freehling - The Road to Disunion: Session at Bay 1776 - 1854