Gods & Generals

Gods & Generals

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Movie Reviews of Gods & Generals

Movie Review: A Grand Movie that will Endure Through the Years
Summary: 5 Stars

Movies about the War have been regularly produced for one hundred years, as is appropriate for a cataclysmic event that is still reverberating though our culture. The most successful was a four-hour epic, Gone with the Wind (GWTW).

GWTW is a romantic monument to the Old South -homage to a vanquished culture, told though the eyes of the O'Hara family. The opening title tells the story: "There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind."

Wildly popular, GWTW is the most successful film ever. But, it has been sixty-four years since GWTW was released in 1939, and the times have changed-boy, have they changed.

Maxwell has tried to combine entertainment with historical accuracy and a balanced treatment of North and South. He does not impugn the motives of either side. He presents the characters as they saw themselves and not as the Politically Correct (PC) crowd sees them today.

This means that Robert E. Lee, with dignity and honor, rejects command of the army raised to attack his native state and home. The Virginia legislature gives command of its army to Lee, not to preserve slavery, but because the state was being invaded, something Virginia would "never do to other states." It means that Colonel Joshua Chamberlain admits that the War was not started to end slavery and believed the Union should be preserved, even if by force.

Although quick to condemn slavery, reviewers exhibited collective amnesia about the Union army's depredations against civilians revealed in the Fredericksburg battle scenes-acts that would be punished as war crimes now under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Most notably, the movie reveals Stonewall Jackson as a complex and admirable person; a lover of the union, a man who started a Sunday school for Negroes, and a dedicated family man. It also shows him as the superb warrior he was who was determined to defend his homeland. Because Southern military successes dominated the war during the period of this film, Jackson is the central character and is presented non-judgmentally and honestly; and for this, the PC press cannot forgive Maxwell, calling the film an "apologia."

Many critics disliked the movie for its success in delivering Maxwell's objective: the truth. They can't stand the truth that many blacks had conflicting loyalties; wanting to be free, but having bonds of affection to the white families they served.

A family servant says goodbye with unfeigned love for the two sons of her mistress that she helped raise and who are marching off to war. Jackson's cook, Jim Lewis, a free black, serves with Jackson to "help defend his country." Political Correctness (PC) is the dominant ethic of most of the movie critics.

They simply will not allow for the expression of a cordial relationship between slave and master. More importantly, they do not realize that their view is in itself racist and denigrating. It denies to the slaves their own humanity, and the prospect of rising above their involuntary servitude to have meaningful lives and relationships.

The critics bridle at the presentation of Confederate motives for fighting as anything other than the desire to maintain slavery. One reviewer was livid at Jackson's condemnation of the commercial war motives of the North.

The movie reveals the embarrassing fact that most Union soldiers wanted nothing to do with blacks and were outraged when Lincoln said that emancipation would become a war aim. Desertions increased dramatically and the New York Draft Riots ensued.

As with any film, Gods and Generals is not perfect. The music, while adequate, does not have the majesty of Gettysburg. The characters explain themselves by extended dialogue. Thus, the film is a series of historical vignettes. It is a learning experience delivered with great care, faithfulness and honesty.

The only legitimate claim of the critics is that the entertainment objective of the movie was sometimes sacrificed to Maxwell's desire to tell the complete story. Perhaps, in trying to cover the entire story, he told a few too many stories.

But, every American should see this movie, because it provides a needed antidote to the "big lie,"-one-dimensional portrayals of Southerners as evil people with no humanity and the invading Yankees as virtuous warriors slaying the dragon of slavery. It accurately shows the struggle both sides had with defining patriotism and duty.

It is not surprising that most reviewers were bored. Most are immersed in the glittering entertainment-celebrity culture, focusing on the star of the moment. They find history too slow, too boring. In addition, most have been taught the current revisionist history that makes students ashamed of their past and have little hope for the future. They think we are much superior to our ancestors. Their attitude is self-righteous and ungrateful. Gods and Generals contradict those ideas and the reviewers squirm.

So, if you simply want to be excited, and not think too much, or take too much time, and have no curiosity about your heritage, go see Ben Affleck in Daredevil. If you want to learn about your country's history, told truthfully, free of conformist PC genuflections; watch the three hours and forty minutes Gods and Generals. Don't trust the critics. They would trash Gone with the Wind if it came out today.

Summary of Gods & Generals