Genres:
Epic
Historical Film
Release Date: 01/01/2001
Sound: 2
Run Time:
Flags: Questionable for Children, Profanity, War Violence
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel
The Killer Angels by
Michael Shaara becomes this sprawling
historical epic. As in
Shaara's novel, director
Ronald Maxwell focuses on a handful of major players to dramatize the events of July 1863, when the armies of the Union and Confederacy clash at the small Pennsylvania town of the title. Among them are
Martin Sheen as
General Robert E. Lee, who disagrees with his top advisor,
General James Longstreet (
Tom Berenger) over battle strategy, and
Jeff Daniels as
Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a college professor whose unorthodox techniques save the day (and possibly the war) for his beleaguered army. Other cast standouts include
Richard Jordan in his final film appearance as the ill-fated
General Lewis Armistead, and cameo roles for Civil War buff
Ken Burns and media mogul producer
Ted Turner. Filmed on-location at Gettysburg National Military Park,
Gettysburg was shot as a television miniseries for
Turner's
TNT cable channel, but earned a limited theatrical release. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
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