What’s your take on “Lee and Grant?”

Thank you so much for your advice on programs available through Netflix that will help give him a more accurate education on Gettysburg. I truly appreciate it.

Bill, thank you so much for your recommendations on what to do when we are able to take him to Gettysburg. We’re hoping to take a family trip there next year, most likely, during either the spring or summer. We’ve talked with him about it and have encouraged him to begin writing down questions he has so we can research information and so he has a list of questions prepared ahead of time to ask once we are able to go.

Thank you all so much, all of your insight and input, and knowledge is truly appreciated.

Gayle

Since “Glory” was brought up, yes it is a very good, dramatic and powerful movie. But it has a lot more inaccuracies than the wrong designation color for infantry uniforms. The timeline of events was incorrect. The movie gives the impression that most of the men had been slaves until they ran away; in fact, most of them, like Thomas Searles (a fictional character), were raised in the north, some even from Canada.

An accurate Civil War program with an honest look at what caused the war is hard to find. Let’s hope for more of this in the future.

Not mentioning certain officers who played a prominent role in the battle is equivalent to doing a documentary on Chancellorsville and not mentioning Stonewall Jackson or Joseph Hooker.

Not only were there serious historical omissions (as MANY people have already pointed out) but the bottom line is that with all that money, the program did not accurate depict combat in the Civil War. You mentioned impressive CGI — how about CGIing more troops into the shots to accurately depict what a full regiment, brigade, or division looked like in line of battle–that would have been impressive–instead of the 30 or so soldiers that the program depicted in the average battle scene. It looked pathetic.

I can go on, like the lack of any NEW analysis on the battle…god forbid the writers and researchers actually speak with authors who are researching new interpretations on Ambrose Wright’s attack on July 2 or the role of the 137th New York in defending Culp’s Hill.

And I much prefer the final battle scene in Glory compared to this garbage…

I think a very interesting visual film of the Civil War not mentioned is John Huston’s 1951 ‘Red Badge of Courage’ with Audie Murphy. It was too bad that it was butchered in post production and filmed in California instead of Virginia but it has some shots that look like real Civil War photographs and some combat scenes that are still pretty impressive despite their age.

Chris

Todd Berkoff — I think “the program had no real strengths” is a bit unfair. Clearly historical accuracy was a weakness, but the photography, visual flair, and excitement in the battle sequences seemed above average for Civil War films. I agree that Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers have impressive combat sequences, but they’re not Civil War films. Aside from maybe Cold Mountain and Glory, Civil War films tend to be pretty visually unexciting and the battle sequences, surprisingly tame (compare the 1993 Gettysburg to Saving Private Ryan, if you dare). This film was a nice change of pace in that department.

I also think your argument that “they didn’t mention X; therefore, it sucked” misses the point of the film. It’s not meant to be an all-encompassing epic; that’s already been done to death. Instead, it’s a series of anecdotes about a handful of individuals involved in the battle. That necessarily leaves out a lot of important names, places, and events.

I appreciate your recommendation of Civil War Combat and will check it out. And I promise that I don’t work for any production company. Just a grad student in Atlanta with a love of Gettysburg and Civil War films.