There is the ole saying.."if you can't say something
good, don't say nothing at all" but that was before my time. Maxwell tried
to tell more story from his perspective than he had time. He failed
because he wrote it, produced it, directed it and Turner paid for it. Let
me just say that we walked out at the intermission and my wife, Maryann,
thought it was a Comedy and laughed when she wasn't supposed too. The
beards were too fake, the stars and heavens were fake, the towns
seen from the vistas were fake. The horses were hack line horses for a
fact. The Commanding General has a very fine horse,everyone knows this, he
has the best horse. There were no fine horses here and Virginia has some
very good horses. The re-enactors guns were used and they were stainless
and the good ole boys just didn't have that type of weapon with perfect
stocks. The cannons looked like they came from a museum and not across the
countryside in the midst of winter. The oratory sounded like a
Shakespearian Actor trying to sound like a Virginian of that period. There
was too much off topic innuendo that had nothing to do with the story and it
just made for a cluttered waste of time. I would not recommend this film
to anyone. Duvall was OK, but R.E.Lee was a Great Human Being with much
emphathy and compassion and the clearest blue eyes you could imagine.
During the winter of 1863-64 after the defeat at Gettysburg, Lee and his 60,000
troops spent the winter in tents with hardly shoes on their feet much less food
in their bellies. Lee could have gone to one of the finer homes in the
area but he chose to be near his men in his tent after what many said was a
heart attack at Gettysburg. He was much more of a man and human being than
this movie portrayed. Since this is a horse forum then i should mention
the horses. Did you notice at the beginning when Jackson was addressing
his troops...on what to me seemed like a skitzoid mare with ears telegraphing
all kinds of...whats going on here? Well she must have been too much for
him because after that he was shown on a sorrel that had a scrape on its
shoulder, but it was calm. The funniest horse scene was when J.E.B. Stuart
came riding in at a gallop and a sliding stop. He may have been dashing
but he was not a buffoon. For 54$million i would have hoped that the final
peice could have been better edited, written and presented and not so
hokey. Of course these observations come from someone who left at
intermission because i was not inspired or impressed for the first 2
hours. But like all entertainment, those that find it interesting and
factual will. There is another Civil War Movie coming to the area to film
and i hope they give a better factual representation than Gods and
Generals. setis mot
