Movie Reviews for Gettysburg (Widescreen Edition)

Gettysburg (Widescreen Edition)

	List Price: ~~$14.98~~ Our Price: $8.99 You Save: $5.99 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $3.61 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases

Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

Movie Reviews of Gettysburg (Widescreen Edition)

Movie Review: Civil War Enthusiasts, take note!
Summary: 5 Stars

Gettysburg (Widescreen Edition) Civil War re-enactors, history buffs, and those who will be "bitten", take note! This movie is FANTASTIC! My family and I recently visited the Gettysburg battlefield, so we had some reference points. Before viewing this movie, an overall basic study would greatly help to understand the historical significance and military strategy of the era. Now that we have seen this movie, we are researching even more about the Civil War era! If you just want a good, sit-back-in-your-seat movie, this comes highly recommended. The only complaint is Martin Sheen's portrayal of Lee as more of a dreamer than a strategist. The prequel to this movie, "Gods and Generals" has Robert Duvall as Lee, who he excellently depicts. PLEASE check out the documentaries of this movie! The background helps with the battle scenes.

Movie Review: Good not great
Summary: 4 Stars

Gettysburg is a really good film if you're a civil war fan, or even if you're not willing to go that far and are only slightly interested you'll still probably get something out of it. The acting is alright (if you can get past martin sheen as robert e. lee...that ain't quite right) the score is fantastic and the battle scenes are powerful and memorable.

But this is a long movie. A really really long one. At 4 hours and 15 minutes it's one of the longest feature films ever released. And even though I can sit through three hours of just about anything if it's interesting and fun, there's something about that fourth hour that gets to you. So excessive length is the only real demerit here.

But if the civil war interests you and you haven't checked this flick out yet, give it a go. Wait for some rainy sunday afternoon and pop it in. You won't be disappointed.

Movie Review: Somewhat disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars

The movie seemed historically accurate as told from the Union side. Unfortunately, the movie leaves out many important battlefield events--events like the "battle of the wheatfield," or the fighting in the orchard. Much is left out. My main complaint was a lack of passion in this movie--a lack of emotion. The characters walk into the battle like toy soldiers, albeit colorful ones. They seem to take pride in a lack of emotion. On every level, this movie fails to show the stress of battle, the fear, the hatred, the horror or emotion of human beings shooting each other down by the hundreds like cattle on a smoky, choking, dusty, noisy, confused battlefield. Maybe I am missing the point, but I just could not feel this movie--it lacked emotion, and I probably would not watch it again.

Movie Review: A must for Civil War buffs but others may be less excited
Summary: 3 Stars

"Gettysburg" is an epic recreation of this pivotal battle of the US Civil War.

It combines huge battle scenes with intimate conversations among the famous personalities including Lee, Pickett, Armistead, Longstreet on the Confederate side, and Hancock and Chamberlain on the Federal side.

Standout performance are Tom Berenger as the cautious Longstreet and Martin Sheen as the legendary Robert E. Lee.

At over four hours in length "Gettysburg" will test the patience of many viewers. It has feel of a mini-series and would be ideal to spread over two nights rather than watching it in one go. The characters indulge in a little too much speechifying and some of the battle scenes - staged using Civil War reenactors - seem a bit tame - but overall this is a well-made film.

(****) for Civil War buffs and (***) for everybody else.