Review of Gettysburg (1993) by Aryo Bimo N — 19 Jan 2012

How to start a review about a 4 hour leviathan?

Well, it's epic. It has virtually everything you expect from such a film - big speeches and epic battles, pathos, patriotism, bravery all spiced with a certain civil war nostalgia that will make fans of this era rejoice.

The costumes are top-notch as is the whole equipment (I'm not a historian, so I actually can't judge but it certainly looks right).

Beside the production design I also liked the cinematography - war films are perfect playground for large scale pictures and no genre can be more epic. Gettysburg is no exception and delivers some excellent work.

Also, Sheen's performance as General Lee is noteworthy.

However, from a film with this exuberant length you expect some more emotions or personal stories while Gettysburg gives you more or less a history lesson with some neat battles. This makes the film as entertaining as a 4 hour flick can be but there's this uncertain feeling about wasting precious time watching a reenactment.

What you get is a detailed and (quite) accurate description of the battle of Gettysburg and some superficial thoughts on various themes. It lacks depth though (hard to believe considering its runtime), depth that could have been achieved by further exploring the battle of friends and brothers (although that has been done dozens of times already) or by focussing on the change of warfare itself - away from the dominance of manpower to technology.

PS: nothing beats the flamboyant beards in this film - shrink them a bit and you could make them fight orcs in Moria^^.