What on earth are you talking about, Walt? Jackson had a goal in that movie. You just don't like what that goal was - "drive the yankee invaders from our sacred land."
Well, that didn't happen, did it? That's bad on its face. How can you enjoy a movie where the goal is a miserable failure that leads to generations of poverty and backwardness?
And how did what the movie's exposition set the stage for Jackson's goal?
Remember in "Apollo 13" when Deke Slayton said, "If he can't dock that thing, we don't have a mission." It was plain how that incident (docking the command module/lunar module) in the movie tied into the goal.
How did the battles of First Manassas and Fredericksburg support Jackson's "goal"? How did skipping Antietam altogether help exposit how the goal was to be accomplished?
Another example from "Apollo 13":
They've lost power in the command module and you hear the voice of Jim Lovell (paraphrased) saying "We have to transfer the gimbal angles to the LEM computer or we'll be flying blind." See how that exposition moves the story forward? The goal (to be shortly abandoned) is to get to the moon. When that goal was abandoned, again it is brought out in the exposition -- the old goal is replaced with a new goal -- getting back alive. I didn't see anything in G&G (I left not long after the intermission) that supported good story telling or effective exposition.
Now of course Jackson is not destined to see the end of the film. He is killed. That is not necessarily a bad thing for a movie as movie. You can watch any movie on Joan of Arc; she will burn every time. But you can still enjoy a movie on that subject if it is set up properly -- say if Joan's goal is to maintain her faith in God in the face of all adversity. You can leave the theater with a good feeling and an enjoyable experience.
Look at "Road to Perdition." That is a very good film. But Tom Hanks' character is killed at the end. We are asked, as an audience, to accept the death of the main character because he got to really get to know and love his son, and his son got to know his previously unapproachable father. We also see Hanks' character change from the gang hit man to concerned father -- he had a character arc. To me, it was a stretch that this was good or positive since they only had a few weeks on the run together, but that is what the writer was asking the audience to accept. I didn't see anything in G&G that would engage me on that level. Remember in "Gettysburg", where Longstreet says to Lee, "Your goal was to drive them out in the open, and well, they are in the open." The exposition advanced the story. "Gettysburg" was a satisfying movie experience, if tinged with great sadness. G&G is just a hodge-podge of scenes thrown together.
Walt
And Jim Lovell didn't walk on the moon.
How can you enjoy a movie where the goal is a miserable failure that leads to generations of poverty and backwardness?
As I said previously, Walt. Contrary to your assertion, Jackson had a goal in that movie. You just don't like what that goal was. The above statement proves this to be the case with you. It also proves that you do not dislike the movie on merited reasons but rather because it does not bash the south.
Remember in "Apollo 13" when Deke Slayton said, "If he can't dock that thing, we don't have a mission." It was plain how that incident (docking the command module/lunar module) in the movie tied into the goal.
Yep, but that goal - getting to the moon - went nevertheless unachieved for other reasons that happened later.
How did the battles of First Manassas and Fredericksburg support Jackson's "goal"?
If the goal was to "drive the yankees from our land," both battles were thwarts upon the yankee invasion of that land that halted it and pushed it back. Same goes for Chancellorsville.
How did skipping Antietam altogether help exposit how the goal was to be accomplished?
The very nature of the movie did not permit time to cover all major battles, Walt. You know that. Had they done so it could have easily been six or seven hours instead of four. I am not certain, but have read that some of the others will be on the extended DVD version.