Gettysburg

[armybuff1945]

Hi, I am a Civil War reenactor, so I thought it would be cool to offer my mini-opinion on the movie Gettysburg.

 

THE GOOD:

 

 

The authenticity of the movie is great. The reenactors and the actors put forth a lot of effort to look

like their designated character. Actual dialog was used, and that made the movie seem almost real. The actors

such as Lee, Burnside, Chamberlain, Longstreet, and others looked almost identical to the real guys. The introduction

of the movie shows how much they look alike. The battles happened like they originally did, and the battles occured

where they originally happened, which was amazing, especially because the park rangers don't allow reenactors to carry

weapons or swords on the original battlefield out of respect.

 

THE BAD

 

 

Pickett's charge occurs, and the Confederates reach the wall, that's not really how it happened. Only ONE part of the charge

reached the wall, and all were captured or killed. Also, when the Confederates reach the wall, if you look closely at the Union's bayonets,

some of them are floppy and hang from the muzzle. This is because they are made out of rubber. They were issued for safety reasons,

because if two guys are locked in melee, the bayonet won't cause a REAL injury. If you look closely during Pickett's Charge, there is said to

be a white van in the shot, which I have not seen yet, but it's a theory. Also, the 20th Maine's charge is actually filmed on Culp's Hill, from

what I hear. Other then that, the movie is great!

[2Dogs]

I too have not seen the white van, and have watched the movie more then my wife cares for. Will have to get it on DVD so I can slow it down frame by frame.

Any idea when they are coming out with the last part?

[armybuff1945]

I too have not seen the white van, and have watched the movie more then my wife cares for. Will have to get it on DVD so I can slow it down frame by frame.

Any idea when they are coming out with the last part?

 

Last Full Measure Will probably not happen. There are rumors floating around that they can't get enough money for it, and

since the economy sucks, it sounds like a pretty accurate rumor! I wouldn't look forward to it coming out soon, if at all.

[Fixbayonets!]

I really like the movie and have seen it many times. One thing I have always found to be distracting are some of the over obvious fake beards, especially C. Thomas Howell sporting the Ambrose Burnside.

 

Rob

[JimmCapp]

I don't know about the beards, you don't get to see to many people sporting thick, well-groomed beards these days, so I don't have enough of a frame of reference to be distracted by them in the movie. One of my all time favorites movies too.

 

I used to visit almost every summer as a kid, then we'd head to a few of the museums and get as many WW2 patches as we could afford at some place called the Gettysburg Quartermaster or something...been a long time.

 

I took my family there a few years ago before moving to Arizona and we had a great time. I made them watch the movie before we went.

[armybuff1945]

I don't know about the beards, you don't get to see to many people sporting thick, well-groomed beards these days, so I don't have enough of a frame of reference to be distracted by them in the movie. One of my all time favorites movies too.

 

I used to visit almost every summer as a kid, then we'd head to a few of the museums and get as many WW2 patches as we could afford at some place called the Gettysburg Quartermaster or something...been a long time.

 

I took my family there a few years ago before moving to Arizona and we had a great time. I made them watch the movie before we went.

 

Ahhh you mean the Regimental Quartermaster, they sell some WWII stuff at some great prices, www.regtqm.com.

Some of you guys might be interested. They have all sorts of stuff. I'm actually doing a living history in front of the Wax museum in Gettysburg this weekend, and I'm going to stop into the shop there too. I'll check on the patch prices

[armybuff1945]

I don't know about the beards, you don't get to see to many people sporting thick, well-groomed beards these days, so I don't have enough of a frame of reference to be distracted by them in the movie. One of my all time favorites movies too.

 

I used to visit almost every summer as a kid, then we'd head to a few of the museums and get as many WW2 patches as we could afford at some place called the Gettysburg Quartermaster or something...been a long time.

 

I took my family there a few years ago before moving to Arizona and we had a great time. I made them watch the movie before we went.

 

You gotta love General Longstreet's one, I think that was the most obvious. I didn't have much of a problem with C. Thomas Howell's, though, it was OK.

I think Jeff Daniel's mustache is real, and if so, I'm VERY glad Jeff Danials played the part!!! I also heard a little Maine accent in there sometimes. Ellis Spears being example #1: "You mean chaage?" lol

[Championhilz]

Your post brought back a lot of good memories - I was a Civil War reenactor for many years, and in 1992 a group of friends and myself traveled to Gettysburg to be extras in the movie. We were in the big Pickett's charge scene, serving an original 12-pounder Napoleon in the bombardment just before the main attack. The first day of filming was actually in the Gettysburg National Military Park on the site of Pickett's charge, and we had 50 cannons lined up firing at the Union position on Cemetery Ridge - it was an amazing sight to see. Attached is a photograph of myself (on the right) and my friend Bud with Martin Sheen after we had finished filming for the day. Sheen was super nice to all the reenactors - he went out of his way to talk with us, sign autographs, and have his picture taken.

I think I will pull out some more pictures I took during the filming and post them tonight.

 

 

 

[Championhilz]

Here's one more picture that I had at hand - this was taken just after sunrise as we were preparing the guns for the days filming. It was very foggy that morning, and much colder than this Mississippi boy was used to. This picture was taken at a site about seven miles from the Gettysburg battlefield. We were only allowed to shoot for one day in the National military park, so much of the Pickett's charge scene, including all of the close-ups of hand to hand combat, were filmed here.

 

 

[Kration]

I too have not seen the white van, and have watched the movie more then my wife cares for. Will have to get it on DVD so I can slow it down frame by frame.

Any idea when they are coming out with the last part?

 

 

I think the shot that most people think is a white van may be something totally different.. In one of the far away shots of the main body at distance during the first few minutes of Picketts charge there is a large white flash in the distance that is seen moving from left to right.. right behind the troop mass.. I believe it to possibly be a portion of flag or banner being carried on horseback as it does seem to "fly".

Kration

[armybuff1945]

I think the shot that most people think is a white van may be something totally different.. In one of the far away shots of the main body at distance during the first few minutes of Picketts charge there is a large white flash in the distance that is seen moving from left to right.. right behind the troop mass.. I believe it to possibly be a portion of flag or banner being carried on horseback as it does seem to "fly".

Kration

 

That's also what I think it is. There is a soldier on a horse flying a flag behind the troops. He seems to be going pretty fast.

 

This is the flag he is flying, or something close to it:

 

 

Could it look like a white van? Probably. The ironic thing is real Union soldiers hated this flag too, because when the Confederates flew it, it looked like the Confederates were trying to surrender! It hasn't only confused Gettysburg viewers

[MAW]

I do like the film......but honestly, the overall authenticity was not very good.

 

In fact, in some ways, G-burg filming jump-started the hard-core movement in CW reenacting. The foundation of the old Southern Guard came out of there.

 

I keep waiting for someone to do a CW movie with the same quality of Band of Brothers.

 

 

Nice pic of the artillery in the morning fog. Those are priceless moments.

[shrapneldude]

Ahhh you mean the Regimental Quartermaster, they sell some WWII stuff at some great prices, www.regtqm.com.

Some of you guys might be interested. They have all sorts of stuff. I'm actually doing a living history in front of the Wax museum in Gettysburg this weekend, and I'm going to stop into the shop there too. I'll check on the patch prices

 

There actually is a place called the Gettysburg Quartermaster -- Regimental Quartermaster deals mainly in repro type stuff now, but the Gettysburg Quartermaster is on Balitmore street, beside the Farnsworth house I think. LOT of nice WWI and WWII items in thee -- a touch on the pricy side, and like all the shops in that town, open with very odd hours...almost whenever the guy feels like opening up. They've recently branched out into an eBay business and sell probably a LOT more online than they do at the shop.

 

I'm out there every few months or so, and the Gettysburg Quartermaster is always on my list of places to stop and look (found a LOT of nice military stuff out there, and not just CW stuff either.) Whether they'll be open is another matter altogether.

[J_Andrews]

I just re-watched the movie a week ago. My favorite part is where Ted Turner, as Conf LTC, gets hit at the fence.

 

A reenactor who was a participant told me that Jeff Daniles and C. Thomas Howell grew their very own facial hair, and that Tom Berenger tried, but could not produce one as lush and thick as Longstreet's original. Martin Sheen's was his own, but the makeup artists put more white in it.

 

I would like to see an expanded and REVISED "Gettysburg", with Industrial Light and magic or an equivalent CGI firm involved. Though I would give them an A for effort, some scenes/views seemed skimpy in terms of troops visible, as well as horses, tents, wagons, cannon and smoke. Also my wife commented that, compared to Saving Private Ryan (that I encouraged her to watch, including the beach scenes) or BOB the blood and mayhem were "pretty much DISNEY".

 

The troops also need to be dirtier and sweatier (both sides). Anybody else notice how many of the reenactors were freshly shaved? At least their cheeks. I suspect a stubble of several days or a week or more would have more likely.

[willysmb44]

Last Full Measure Will probably not happen. There are rumors floating around that they can't get enough money for it, and since the economy sucks, it sounds like a pretty accurate rumor! I wouldn't look forward to it coming out soon, if at all.

No rumor, “Last Full Measure” will never be made. Turner lost his shirt on “Gods and Generals” which did terrible in the box office (it didn’t even do well in Europe, which shocked Turner). The movie was almost cut in half in its release, the entire Antietam part was removed. There were hours of film they cut after it was first edited. Apparently, the long-promised director’s cut will never happen, either.

As for “Gettysburg,” I really liked it. It’s very watchable, you get a good feel for the time period and it moved along well given the long spells with no action on them. I think they put far more emphasis on Chamberlin’s role in the battle, but that’s just my take (he didn’t even lead that charge, one of his LT’s did) as he’s the “flavor of the month” in CW history ever since Shelby Foote (and later Ken Burns) made such a big deal of him. There are also a few unlikely things, such as some REALLY large re-enactors with speaking roles, saluting in a frequency I can’t imagine you’d have seen at that point, hats that look like they were stolen off of Cowboy Action Shooters, and plenty of people in Picket’s Charge smiling like it was Christmas. But overall, an amazing effort.

[Lee Ragan]

I was lucky that I first saw Gettysbug on the big screen, but since then I've looked at it at least a dozen more times on TV & DVD. For all the minor inaccuracies, and farbiness, it's still a good movie IMHO. Over on some of the Civil War reenactors forums, this movie and especially Gods and Generals have been soundly trashed. NO MOVIE is ever going to be 100% historicaly accurate or have just the right "feel", for everyone who watches it. Having been a Civil War reenactor myself I'm also guilty of being maybe a bit overly critical of how some things looked, but all things being considered, Gettysburg was a pretty good movie and Hollyweird probably will never attempt to tell that story again. I really doubt that there will be another movie comparable to Gettysburg, Glory or Gods and Generals made by Hollyweird in the forseeable future if ever. Maybe we ought to be happy with what we got instead of complaining.

[kammo-man]

so what if they got some fine points wrong , it made me think I was there and showed the fog of war in full effect

owen

[chrisdumford]

I too was in the movie on the Federal side. Several of my old unit went to the filming. I was there 9 days staying in a tent with my wife. I have pictures of the union camp and it looks like it goes on forever (largest event I have ever attended). If I remember correctly, they paid us $50.00 a day plus some decent meals. I was in the Picketts charge scene down at the far end of the stone wall. We had done several battle scenes and had burned a lot of powder and I was using an original 1861 contract springfield (E. Robinson and Sons). I was from an Ohio regiment and we were used to portray some of the iron brigade, wearing our hardee hats. I remember laying under the union guns on the ground while they fired over us during the artillery barrage. Lots of hot powder down the back of the neck. I will never forget seeing the Confederate brigades coming out of the woods with supports. They seemed like there were about a million of them (If I remember right there were about 8000 Confederate reenactors in the charge scene). Made my hair stand on end (still does today as I write this). The union army was oganized into four brigades and they were so large that one of them could not be mustered on the parade ground in the union camp in the mornings in order to get our instructions for the day. When we were ordered to stand up and commence firing during Pickett's charge, we started firing and my musket was so fouled it wouldn't fire. I dumped water down the barrel and tried everything to get it to fire. In the end I stood in the 2nd rank and loaded the muskets for the front rank that were passed back to me. I used up all 40 rounds in my cartridge box and never fired a shot!

 

Several scenes that were shot never ended up in the movie. We did a first day's scene in which the iron brigade was supposed to be routed. I fell back with the remnants of our brigade to small creek that bordered the field and took my borgans off and put my feet in the water. As the previous writer wrote, it was very foggy in the mornings and during the scene being shot, the union irish brigade came up to fill the gap we left and ran into a confederate brigade right in front of where I and several of my companions were resting. They engaged in mock had-to-hand combat right in front of us. It was eerie with the fog and musket smoke all. That scene ended up on the cutting room floor. I was really disappointed.

[Will]

"Gettysburg", while I think it's a really, really fine film, should not be taken as an account of the battle. The film was an adaptation of Michael Sharra's Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Killer Angels". The film used the title "Gettysburg" simply because it was thought that most people would not know what a film called "The Killer Angels" was about.

 

There are some major historical inaccuracies in the film as, for example, the depiction of Lawrence Chamberlain and his brother as being present at Pickett's Charge. They were not there in reality, but the drama of the story flowed better by placing them there.

 

I thought that, by far, the most effective actor in the film from the standpoint of authenticity was Sam Elliot as General Buford. When he takes off his hat his hair is greasy and matted, and when he thumps his fist against his chest, clouds of dust fly off of his tunic. He really looked as though he had been in the saddle for days on end.

 

More problematic were some of the reenactors who were placed on film.

Remember the scene at the begining, where the scout Harrison is moving through the lines to find General Longstreet? The Confederate soldier who steps out and stops him looks like Santa Clause, with a long white beard and a belly like a bowl full of jelly! He hardly looks as though he had been marching for a couple of hundred miles on nothing but hardtack and bacon grease.

 

I'm also wondering what has become of footage that seems to have been shot but not used?

Has anyone else noticed that "General Ewell" is referenced in the film, and in the credits there is an actor pictured as portraying him, yet he never appeared in the movie?

What happened?

 

And did anyone else notice that the actor who portrayed General Pettigrew was George Lazenby, the English actor who portrayed 007, James Bond, in the film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in the 1960's.

 

Yeah, I've watched Gettysburg "a few" times!

It's one of my favorites.

[bfryar44]

It's one of the films I wish I had seen on the big screen. :crying:

 

Very good movie especially the Little Round Top scenes.

 

Bryan

[Will]

It's one of the films I wish I had seen on the big screen. :crying:

 

Very good movie especially the Little Round Top scenes.

 

Bryan

 

 

True enough, except....the action on Little Round Top took place on July 2, 1863, an exceptionally hot summer day.

So how come when Chamberlain is speaking with Buster Kilrain after Kilrain has been shot, you can see their breath? Clouds of vapor are coming out of their mouths as though it was 40 degrees out.

Which, of course, it probably was when they filmed it!

Today they could just use computers to eliminate such a minor error.

[MAW]

I was able to see the priemier of this film before it was released, and only partially edited. I was able to get tickets to the event through a friend, and we went to see this first-ever public screening. In that format, it was around 6 hours long, and I've seen the finished version so much that it's really difficult to remember what all they did cut out.

 

One scene that sticks in my mind is unanimous cheers from the audiance when Ted Turner got shot. :wink2:

[Marchville1918]

I saw Gettysburg in a theater when it first came out. I was so impressed that I made up my mind I had to see the place for myself. The next summer I took two weeks vacation and spent the whole time walking over the battlefield. I was struck by how much the movie locations resembled the actual battlefield. (as you all know, some of it was filmed there). I became a Gettysburg fanatic and have returned there almost every year since then (with an occasional diversion to the other eastern civil war sights) and the last three years on Ed Bearss tours of the area which are a real treat. In short, I don't care if it was 100% accurate in every detail or not, it got me interested in the subject and opened up an entire new area of study for me. Besides, when you get down to real details even the "experts" often disagree anyway. Marchville

[limestone]

I visited Gettysburg battlefield area in 1998 with a 29th veteran's friend. I sincerely got an historical shock and the first think I did while back home in France was buying the movie. I watched it again and again and just would love to find the DVD some day as my tapes are just getting too old and I can't watch them again today (which is realy sad).

 

I am certainly not an historian of this battle (which is great in some way, as I keep my kid's eye on it!) but It was surely one of my great experience to visit that battlefield years ago. I have much more appreciated that the movie was made on the original battlefield. Such movies are just great!!

 

I would love to see here more photos of you reenactors who participated in this great film. Thanks in advance!!!

 

 

And yes, the scene on Little Round Top is also one of my favorites!!

 

 

Would love to go back to Gettysburg where I spent a real good time. There is so much to learn and visit there...

 

Just keep me informed if there is a dvd someday!

 

Yannick

[LtRGFRANK]

I saw Gettysburg after having visited Gettysburg. I told my son they did a good job finding a location that looked just like it. When he told me its was filmed on site I asked "what about all the monuments?" Dumb me. Shows you what I didn't know about what they could do with computors. But the movie really made me understand better about what happened where. No I didn't see any ghosts but you sure feel something there. I did see two Confederates walking around Petersburg tho. But when they got into a Honda to leave I felt better. Robert