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Gods and Generals: I want my Bruce Boxleitner

broberfett

broberfett

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I recorded Gods and Generals since I have an interest in history. The movie is 3hrs and 45min. I'm reading the names during the opening credits when the final name comes up-Bruce Boxleitner. I was excited-It's Bruce Boxleitner!

So I watch the whole movie about Stonewall Jackson and there are a dozen generals here and there. The movie ends and I never saw Bruce Boxleitner! So I recheck the credits and it says that he is General Longstreet. So I review the movie and look for any scenes with generals. I finally found him!

He had a beard that you could hide a tank battalion behind. This was the thickest beard in the history of the universe. Moses would have been proud of this beard. General Stonewall Jackson's beard, with a mass equaling at least three neutron stars, is not even close. So Bruce delivers his little battlefield assesment to General Lee in a far more subdued manner than I'm used to. I was hoping for a far hammier delivery-closer to something that would make William Shatner proud. I was disappointed.
 
Ah, Gods & Generals. That I actually wasted those four hours of my life in a movie theater watching it remains one of my most shameful experiences. What a terrible film.
 
What pisses me off is that because it was so bad, we never got "Last Full Measure." :mad:
 
It sucked. I wouldn't think it could that much, but it just did. Stephen Lang is a capable actor but as Stonewall Jackson he's just fake and creepy. The battle scenes are cutting edge for maybe the 70's...but war movies have moved on.
 
I greatly enjoy Gettysburg, but I rarely return to this one. I don't care for the broader scope of the follow-up, and the often bad special effects don't help. There are some redeemable aspects, mostly carry-overs from Gettysburg. But Gods and Generals is surprisingly bad, and, worse, cancelled The Last Full Measure.
 
T'Bonz said:
What pisses me off is that because it was so bad, we never got "Last Full Measure." :mad:
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If Gods & Generals was what Ron Maxwell could do with $90 million and all the creative control in the world, then I'm honestly quite glad we didn't get The Last Full Measure.
 
RandyS said:
T'Bonz said:
What pisses me off is that because it was so bad, we never got "Last Full Measure." :mad:
Click to expand...

Is THAT why they never finished the trilogy? The first one (which I have yet to see) didn't make enough money?
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Gettysburg got a huge cult following and sold a shit-ton of VHS tapes and DVDs. Based on that, and his love of Jeff Shaara's follow-up novels (and Ron Maxwell's willingness and / or desire to go along with a "Rebels rule, Yankees drool" viewpoint), Ted Turner decided to entirely self-finance the sequel, Gods and Generals.

When it turned out to be a colossal piece of shit, ultimately costing Turner a shit-ton of money between his production and advertising costs, Turner allowed the film rights to Last Full Measure to lapse and revert back to Jeff Shaara. Thus far, no one has stepped forward to acquire the license, and it appears completely dead.
 
Awww c'mon, G&G wasn't THAT bad.I really enjoy the battlefield scenes. You just have to FF through the talky bits.

Timby said:
(and Ron Maxwell's willingness and / or desire to go along with a "Rebels rule, Yankees drool" viewpoint)
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Thats a bit of an exaggeration. Just because it didn't go with the usual PC 'OMG, the southerners are teh evil!' attitude in these films. Gettysburg deserves props for showing both sides in a fair, reasonable light.
 
I really liked Gods & Generals. My dad and I went to see it at, like, 10pm... not exactly a good time for such a long movie, but whatever. I really liked it, and I especially love the music. "Going Home" is so hauntingly beautiful.

My favorite "war" movie, though, will always be Glory.

Joy
 
According to Wikipedia there's allegedlly an original cut of Gods and Generals that's 6 hours long.

Russell Crowe was the original Stonewall Jackson but his wife had a kid.

I actually never saw Gettysburg.
 
Cutter John said:
Awww c'mon, G&G wasn't THAT bad.
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Yes. Yes, it absolutely was. It was the cinematic equivalent of a four-hour-long high school play, with characters walking around delivering insipid soliloquy after soliloquy, with random idiotic bits of dialogue like Jeff Daniels shouting "War is a scourge! But so is slavery!"

It was just absolutely awful, a complete abortion of filmmaking. Its only redeeming parts are Robert Duvall playing a Robert E. Lee that isn't a simpering fool (like Sheen did in Gettysburg), and John Frizzell's fantastic score. The rest of it deserves to be forgotten and lost in the sands of time.

Just because it didn't go with the usual PC 'OMG, the southerners are teh evil!' attitude in these films. Gettysburg deserves props for showing both sides in a fair, reasonable light.
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Gettysburg absolutely did this, without a doubt. But Ron Maxwell decided that in Gods and Generals, he had to turn Stonewall Jackson from a raging lunatic (a genius, but he was a bit of a nutter) and a hard-ass taskmaster into a sympathetic grandfather figure. Just one example of the film having a not terribly subtle pro-South slant.
 
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Not saying G&G was a great movie. But I managed to find some good in it. Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.


MeanJoe - You should check it out, since youcan find it for $10 or less nowadays. I'm a history nut and its one of my favorite films. To me it gets props from me for being all battlefield scenes. No 'romantic subplots' or other rubbish. Definately a 'guy' movie. :)

Downside though, the dvd's tend to be flaky. I've had two copies of the film go bad on me. Wound up just copying it to my harddrive.
 
I have a friend that likes war movies the way I like scifi movies. So I called him and asked if he had seen it. He groaned and talked about how long and slow and boring it was. So Gettysburg is actually good?
 
Gettysburg was "not bad". Gods and Generals is on my Ten Worst American Movies of All-Time List. I hated it so much that my brother-in-law bought me the soundtrack as a joke.

It was as subtle as the moon crashing into the earth. The make-up was by first graders. The script by advanced first graders.

Just a really, really bad film. And not even FUN bad.

--Ted
 
Timby said:
RandyS said:
T'Bonz said:
What pisses me off is that because it was so bad, we never got "Last Full Measure." :mad:
Click to expand...

Is THAT why they never finished the trilogy? The first one (which I have yet to see) didn't make enough money?
Click to expand...

Gettysburg got a huge cult following and sold a shit-ton of VHS tapes and DVDs. Based on that, and his love of Jeff Shaara's follow-up novels (and Ron Maxwell's willingness and / or desire to go along with a "Rebels rule, Yankees drool" viewpoint), Ted Turner decided to entirely self-finance the sequel, Gods and Generals.
Click to expand...

At first, your reply confused me even further, I had assumed that GG was the first movie in the trilogy. I had completely forgotten about the Killer Angels, and never knew that Gettysburg was based on that book. I had assumed that, like GG, an adaption of that book would have the same title. Now I have two movies to see. Thanks for the info.:bolian:

I can sympathize with everybody here who complains about the 3 hours and 1/2 length. I had the same experience when I saw Lord of the Rings, and later found out that the near four hour version I saw was the SHORT one. I haven't seen the extended version yet, and have never even seen the two sequels at all.
 
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