[JohnHuang2]

Saturday, March 22, 2003

Quote of the Day by rintense

[Larry Lucido]

I'll have to wait and see it on DVD.

[cricket]

"Look, I've had 30 years in this business," Maxwell said. "I've read a lot of reviews, and some of them are funny and dismissive. But I've never seen an effort [like this] to actually suppress a movie, to scare people away from it."

. . .anyone who doubts that we are in a indealogical war for the soul of this country better wake up. . .not sooner. . .but now.

[Ff--150]

Maxwell concedes that the length of the film – three hours, 49 minutes, including an intermission – has a "dampening effect" on box office receipts.

Duh! Sheeple can't sit that long--but it is heartening to see Terrible Ted yet losing more money however...

[Viva Le Dissention]

It was kind of a crappy movie--I'd give it two stars.

It would have earned 2 1/2 stars, but the movie filmed a scene at my Alma Mater, Washington and Lee University, and identified it as VMI. For those of you that have seen the film, it is when they are tearing down the flag and hoisting the stars and bars. That's W&L, not VMI.

It made me feel all dirty. In fact, on second thought, maybe that's worthy of a full star deduction--it only gets 1 1/2.

[Ahban]

His target audience does not go to movies often, and they (we) are too busy to sit still four four hours watching a movie. In addition, he partnered with Ted Turner, a man his target audience knows all too well from the insults he has directed at them.

I admire Mr. Maxwell for the stand he took, but he did everything wrong vis-a-vi making this a film a financial success.

[Illbay]

Did it occur to anyone that this is just bad timing? Typically in times of uncertainty people look for entertainment that is a diversion from what is happening in the real world.

(Thus you had the ritzy, glitzy Hollywood musicals of Busby Berkley, Fred 'n' Ginger, etc., during the Depression, e.g.)

I for one am not particularly interested in seeing a film whose message is "War Is Hell" right now.

I can turn on Fox News for that message.

[Future Useless Eater]

Ted Turner-financed film

That's the reason I will never pay to see it!

[syriacus]

Is this the movie that has Sen. Robert Byrd in the cast?

That's enough to keep me away.

He might be more tolerable on a smaller TV, than on the big movie screen.

[Jagdgewehr]

Such negative reviews inspire me to see it all the more.

More often than not, I have found that I like movies that everyone else hated, anyway.

[BenLurkin]

T - o - o L - o - n- g for the MTV generation's sickeningly short attention spans. (which are about two minutes - seriously)

[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

Or maybe instead of some vast left-wing Political Correctness conspiracy, it was a long, boring 3+ hour movie that could just as easily go straight to DVD and not be missed?

[white rose]

I'm sorry, but this Maxwell whiner is just using that old standby, "political correctness" to make excuses for the fact that he made a lousy movie. I'm as un-PC as they come, and I have no ideological axe to grind over a 140-year old war, so I can tell you "Gods and Generals" fully deserved to tank.

[churchillbuff]

I'm sorry, but the prospect of sitting in a movie theater for 180 minutes kept this Civil War buff away. The producers should have 1) known they'd be attacked by Hollywood pagan leftists and their think-alikes among the film reviewers; and 2) not given those creeps additional ammunition by making it rival War and Peace in length; and 3) they should have mounted a preemptive PR campaign over religious broadcasting, and talk radio, sort of the way the Left Behind filmmakers did.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

This movie will eventually be recognized as a classic. The 6-hour DVD will be extremely popular.

It is not without its faults. It is too long. It tries to do too much. Watching this movie is almost like attending church, Stonewall prays so much. Such positive portrayals of people of faith are as rare in America cinema as positive portrayals of Southern Whites.

The biggest problem with this movie is being released just before a war. If you sat through this whole flick with dry eyes you are a better man than me.

[Cicero]

I haven't seen the movie, so maybe I shouldn't talk, but I confess that after reading some of the Freeper reviews I don't much want to see it. Movies that have good word of mouth or that appeal to ordinary people and conservatives usually do pretty well despite the critics. From the sound of it, this just isn't a very good movie.

[Renatus]

It was only shown in select theatres. If I were to see it I
would have to drive 125 miles. It needs wider distribution.

[PatrioticAmerican]

Perhaps people don't care to see 3 hour movies in a theater, but would rather see one at home on DVD?

[Dave S]

How about they made a monstrosity four hours long when most Americans dont have attention spans that last that long. The audience didnt buy it, so you blame the critics. Thats strange. Maybe people had better things to do than watch somone stare at the sky for minutes at a time. Prune it down to two and a half hours and maybe I would watch it.

[Non-Sequitur]

I'm sorry but a bad movie is a bad movie regardless of subject. And "Gods and Generals", sad to say, was a bad movie. I loved the book, I like studying about the period, but for God's sake they spent more time on that lame 'Bonnie Blue Flag' scene than on Bull Run. I don't know what Turner was trying to do with this turkey.

[Ted]

I saw it and enjoyed it. It paid lavish attention to detail in recreating life in our country during that time, see it for that reason if nothing else. It struck me that our nation was, in the main, far more literate than we are today. And I was pleased and blessed to see the pure faith of Stonewall Jackson portrayed in a non-judgemental fashion. I am not a Civil War buff, so I learned a lot from the battle scenes. It is long, but flows OK. Go see it!