Gettysburg (Widescreen Edition)

The new movie was good quality, amzing that they get that much on one disc. I would buy an another new movie from amazon and would recommend it to a friend with no reservations.

To begin, I am not a student of the Civil War; however, I purchased the movie due to a recent and 1st time trip to the battlefield. The driving tour, accompanied by the audio CD, is a very inspiring and educational way to spend a spring day.

The movie appears to accurately portray the actual events of those three days of July 1863. I would, however, recommend watching the "making of the movie" sections first as the characters and events are difficult to follow without some preliminary study. Also recommend having a battlefield map at hand.

The movie plus the battlefield visit makes one realize how real and how tragic those three days were. A second visit to the battlefied is planned for the fall!!

The four hour battle of Gettysburg was on the whole very entertaining, well shot with good action. The story focuses on two viewpoints, that of James Longstreet and Joshua Chamberland and we view the story through their eyes.

Unfortunately, as an historian I saw the vast amount of visual errors in fact which are constantly taking place. The worst being scenes that are placed in the wrong time sequence for the first day's fighting. Second was the charge at Little Round Top. If you have ever been there you know its not that long a slope. It takes only a couple seconds from the battle line to the saddle between the two Round Tops. The movie shows this as a long long sloping ground which it is not. And finally did anyone notice the credits? There are cast members listed who are not shown in the film...cutting room floor I guess. (I now understand from reading further posts that there was at one time a Collector's Edition Video Tape which has more footage so I guess this is where the missing cast went.)

The storyline is however is essentially correct as there are no errors in fact contained in the spoken dialogue. Many of the spoken lines are taken directly from first hand accounts of the battle.

But as a Civil War (Gettysburg) story I enjoyed the movie for it places you in the lives of those men who fought there and on the whole is worth seeing despite the technical errors.

Well...very disapointed..i am quite a fan of this era, and was expecting a much better delivered film.

I guess i was more interested with the family connection, more than anything, but was disapointed with the film.
3/5 for me.

This is one of those rare films that does justice to the event it portrays. Technically, the movie is well made and it would not be out of place to say that the photography, the music, acting and dialogue is both compelling and remarkable.
However, what makes this movie stand out are those qualities that cannot be measured. Perhaps it was the fact that most of the "extras" were actual civil war re-enactors who played their parts out of love and loyalty, perhaps because it was filmed on the actual grounds where the action occurred which, along with the Alamo, is the most hollowed ground on American soil, perhaps because as an American I realized how much I owed to every man who fought those three days - on both sides of the field - who gave "their last full measure of devotion".
I highly recommend this movie but be prepared to smile, to cry, to swell with pride, to be devasted and ultimately to be lifted up.