So, I made two mistakes yesterday when I was shooting the video for this pick. First, I thought that it was Gods and Generals that won a bunch of awards but I was actually thinking Gods and Monsters. Second, I said that you can't go wrong with Civil War movies. Oh stupid, stupid me. Not to say that this was a BAD one...it just wasn't really a very good o...yeah, it was a bad one.
Gods and Generals is the first of the Civil War trilogy including Gettysburg and The Last Full Measure. It focuses around the first parts of the war leading up to two months prior to Gettysburg, taking you through the stories of various generals on both sides until it realizes “oh shit, this was supposed to be the rise and fall of Stonewall Jackson.” By the time it figures that out though, the movie's almost over and you've spent two and half hours of your life druging through a misdirected highlight reel that fails to show you what really made Stonewall Jackson so much of an icon. The movie decided it was more important to show how much a man of God he was than showcase the fact that he was fucking tactical genius.
Do I really need to go over the story here? It's a civil war movie, 1860s during a time where a man's worth was determined by how far out his beard stretched out in front of his face. South loses (spoilers...) and nearly a century and a half later we get The Chapelle Show and Tyler Perry.
Though shot beautifully, Gods and Generals lacked guidance and seemed to exist only to glorify itself and have a potential movie trailer in every scene (not as bad as Armageddon...but not far off). I really did enjoy the great speeches that were made by the great generals of the Civil War...and this movie really had power in those moments, but the problem with being as disjointed as this movie was is when you shift focus so much, you inadvertently become a highlight reel, and those impactful words and emotions lose their luster because they're just mixed in with a bunch of others like a barrel of fortune cookies . It seemed like every five minutes the brass started up again creating that ambience that usually means “pay attention because this is the most important part of the movie.”
This movie was designed to set the stage for Gettysburg, but the problem with movies that choose it as its SOLE purpose to do so is they become lackluster and you can't appreciate the story they're trying to tell.
I don't have too much more to tell with this review, no more jokes to tell, no more to complain about. I was really hoping for something that was epic and I got the standard re-enactment with no reason to care. Sadly this is only worth 6 dustbusters out of 10. With all that time, I was really hoping for something more.
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