Thursday, February 27, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Film: Gods and Generals ridicules history

By Bob Grimm

According to the makers of Gods and Generals, slavery was almost a non-issue in the Civil War. Heck, the two African-Americans who get to speak in this despicable movie play slaves with smiles on their faces, lovingly loyal to their masters and glowingly optimistic that they will be set free.

Even worse, the film is horrifically sympathetic to the Confederacy; so much so that I wouldn't be surprised to find out executive producer Ted Turner has a Confederate flag bedspread with matching jammies. The movie simply says the Confederacy didn't really do anything wrong, putting the issue of slavery on the back burner and painting the North as invading, marauding Vikings.

The film focuses primarily on Gen. Stonewall Jackson, portrayed as a pontificating, preaching moron by Stephen Lang in a performance that should get his SAG card revoked and a few tomatoes in his face. Constantly quoting scripture and speaking in a voice that he know doubt loves listening to, Lang goes so far over the top that you expect blood to explode from his nose due to altitude.

Also wasting his time is Jeff Daniels as Lt. Col. Joshua Chamberlain, the top-billed actor in the film, but given far less screen time than Lang because his character hails from the North. Robert Duvall graces the proceeding as Gen. Robert E. Lee, but he brings nothing interesting to the role other than a resemblance to the black-and-white photos we've seen of the man.

The battle sequences are horribly shot, as if producers wrangled weekend re-enactment enthusiasts, saddled them with bad beards and shoddy costumes and set them loose. If you look closely, you can see Union soldiers laughing at one another as they run away from approaching Confederates. Clearly, the movie extras were having a good old time...a much better time than my sorry ass watching this nearly four-hour travesty.