Gods and Generals

I just watched a short clip of this movie on youtube and it looks very intriguing, can anyone tell me more about it?

Is it good? and would you recommend it? Thanks

Is worth it imo, need to watch Gettysburg as well since it is imo the better movie and since Gods is technically a prequel with basically alot of the same cast. I wouldnt call it a great movie but there is so few civil war movies that it fills the void...Stephen Lang was great as Stonewall Jackson imo. Didnt realize the director's cut of the movie is evidently 6 hours long but never been released...ashame really.

One of the worst movies every made.
It's about the efforts of the confederate general Stonewall Jackson during the american civil war.
Except it does a piss-poor job at it.
Half the movie he is praying, yes I understand that he was a religious man but in movie terms you don't need to show him praying so many time, 1 time is enough.
Out of the 3 battles in the movie, Jackson is in 1 of them and guess what, he does nothing in it. He sits on a horse, that's it.
What a brilliant general.
From what I understand the real Jackson did good during the battle of Fredriksburg but in the movie he is nowhere to be seen.
The 3rd battle he gets shot by his own men(not a spoiler since that's what happened in real life), no doubt tired of him not doing anything.
Almost everyone in the movie is giving a speech too.
A mother that says farewell to her sons, she gives a long boring speech.
A wife saying farewell to her husband, again a long boring speech follows.

Which is a perfect description of the movie, it's long and boring. Nothing happens and when something does happen like a battlescene, it's so badly made that it becomes boring as well.
They take a man who is quite honored for his skills as a general and they just throw it out completely, even the movie Alexander did a far better job at showing Alexander as a great general.
The movie had almost twice the budget that the first movie Gettysburg had and yet the movie looks so much cheaper and so much low-budget then the other one that it's just mindblowing.

I would say watch Gettysburg instead, it's a better made movie and not as boring.

Lol, I only saw part of it, but I agree with those sentiments above.

I have a feeling that both this movie and Gettysburg were never meant as actual movies but rather very elaborate history lessons. Gettysburg has the benefit of focusing on a single important battle and so is an overall more enjoyable movie. I'm always having the feeling though that only Americans really get the most out of it. Characters aren't so much conversing in fluid dialogue as they simply deliver important speeches to each other, all the time, while I'm imagining some high school kids somewhere scribbling notes about it in history class.

Gods and Generals was pretty racist, too, imo.

I agree that Gods and Generals isn't that great. I've watched it multiple times because I'm into the civil war, but I skip boring parts of it. Gettysburg is a lot better.

I'd say its worth watching if you have any interest in the civil war.

There are precious few civil war movies.

Originally Posted by Rapax

Lol, I only saw part of it, but I agree with those sentiments above.

I have a feeling that both this movie and Gettysburg were never meant as actual movies but rather very elaborate history lessons. Gettysburg has the benefit of focusing on a single important battle and so is an overall more enjoyable movie. I'm always having the feeling though that only Americans really get the most out of it. Characters aren't so much conversing in fluid dialogue as they simply deliver important speeches to each other, all the time, while I'm imagining some high school kids somewhere scribbling notes about it in history class.

Except not even the americans seemed to have been that much interested in the movie considering it bombed badly at the box office.

Gods and Generals was pretty racist, too, imo.

It wasn't really racists, it just pretty much side-stepped the whole slavery issue by having 1 slave in the movie who was perfectly fine with being a slave.

Originally Posted by TB666

Except not even the americans seemed to have been that much interested in the movie considering it bombed badly at the box office.

Well I just lumped Gettysburg in there as well. Movies that were made specifically for an American audience, for all the civil war buffs and all the people who grew up learning about it in detail in school. So that it ends up not so much being a "war movie" as a "history movie" where those interested can go "ah, General Lee's famous quote!".
I mean, I liked Gettysburg but it is kinda awkward to watch when 2 people are having a "conversation" which is really just one actor giving a monologue as if on a stage while the other tries to look interested during all the little pauses where normally you'd expect a reply.

Originally Posted by Rapax

Well I just lumped Gettysburg in there as well. Movies that were made specifically for an American audience, for all the civil war buffs and all the people who grew up learning about it in detail in school. So that it ends up not so much being a "war movie" as a "history movie" where those interested can go "ah, General Lee's famous quote!".
I mean, I liked Gettysburg but it is kinda awkward to watch when 2 people are having a "conversation" which is really just one actor giving a monologue as if on a stage while the other tries to look interested during all the little pauses where normally you'd expect a reply.

I think the "on stage" thing is no doubt how it was written, like it was written for a school play.
Mean in G&G we have Chamberlain quoting Caesar during the battle of Fredricksburg.
The same old woman that gave a speech to her two sons that were going off to war, later gives another speech on how she curses those damn northerners from her home.
There is even a singalong

*shivers*

I have to agree with TB666 on this one. I've only seen it once and couldn't wait to get out of the theater as my mind was numb by all the pontification going on.

One thing that I think was dealt with decently in Gettysburg but beaten to death in G&G is the use of actual memoirs for much of the dialogue. What people say in their diaries is a far cry from how they speak in real life. In G&G they could have focused on Jackson's skill as a commander, his role in First Manassas, his Shanandoah Campaign, his role in Fredricksburg, and then the affect of his loss on the Lee's forces after Chanclersville. But instead they decided to treat him sort of like Jesus giving sermons on the mount.

We need another good CW movie. Heck, some good war movies of the period (18th & 19th century) would be nice.

The praying is very realistic. 100% to be exact. The south takes Christianity very seriously. We are not called the Bible Belt without reason. Watch it, it is historically accurate. I'm from the South and I enjoy it. If your from the South and Proud you'll love it. If you're a southern bashing person you'll hate it. If your atheist, it don't matter it's good to watch anyway. I liked it when the black man and Jackson prayed together. Loved it. I liked G&G better than Gettysburg. Just my personal taste. The CSA wern't all that bad the military people were good Lee was anti-slavery. Most of the people in the south didn't have slaves it was just rich people. Jefferson sucked and some of the other officials. If there we more people like Robert E. Lee it would've done better.

If you want to know what Southern Culture is watch it. Our culture is dieing little ways. Nothing like living in the South, except Europe of course.

I thought Cold Mountain did a better job than Gods and Generals. Cold Mountain shows the poor folk who were stuck fighting a war which really wasn't their own, and the brutality used against those thought to harbor deserters from the CSA, showed the worst and unglorifed parts of the war most don't try to think about when they think of the American Civil War, it isn't a one sided film either, but it's in the south so union soldiers only show up in a few parts of the entire film, one in a turkey shoot in a big hole which was sadly filmed in such an unhistorical mannor which did annoy, some of Sherman's troops show up at one point, not in a very plesent mannor either showing some cruel union moments. There are reasons why I call the American Civil War our nation's greatest tragety, mainly for a fact that it laid to waste half our entire country which didn't recover for generatoins later, and an entire generation of young souls were barried in it's soil.