Posted on 02/21/2003 12:32:15 PM PST by Jael
‘Gods and Generals' Succeeds ‘Chariots of Fire’ as the Christ-Honoring Film for This Generation
Review by Doug Phillips
Jackson: "My esposita! Come, before I leave, we must sit, read together ... a verse." Jackson finds his Bible on a shelf.
Jackson: "Yes, yes, here. Corinthians. Second Corinthians, chapter 5. I have been thinking about this verse." Anna puts her hand on his, and they read it together.
"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." They kneel together, his arm is around her.
(From the script of Gods and Generals)
In every generation, one film emerges from the dust heap which is Hollywood and reminds even the most hardened of us skeptics that God can turn ashes into beauty, that He often works outside our tidy little mental boxes, and that there yet remains a witness for Jesus Christ in our culture -- though that witness may take the form of a hero speaking from the grave.
When I was a young man en route to college, that film was Chariots of Fire, the epic tale of Christian Olympian Eric Liddell. For our children's generation, that film is Gods and Generals, the stunning prequel to the Civil War masterpiece Gettysburg.
THE HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR'S CUT
In February of 2002, I flew to Hollywood with my father [Howard Phillips-COnstitution Party] to see a private five-and-a-half-hour director's cut with Ron Maxwell, the genius behind the movie.
None of us were prepared for what we saw that day -- what can only be described as the most compelling and distinctively Christian tribute to principled biblical leadership that this generation has seen on celluloid.
It took me more than a week to recover from what I experienced.
For one brief moment in our lives, those of us in that forty-person theater were transported out of the twenty-first century and into the more distant time of the Civil War, the events of which would help define the people which we are today. And for a few hours, we were allowed to live and breathe with the man whose very sobriquet has become synonymous with manhood.
We rode with Stonewall.
The heart and the soul of Gods and Generals is Stephen Lang's never-to-be-surpassed portrayal of Thomas Jonathan Jackson, the most misunderstood, but most overtly evangelical and Christian general in our nation's history. (See Life and Campaigns of Stonewall Jackson by Robert Louis Dabney.)
Here we see Jackson seeking to win dying souls, not to some god, but to Jesus Christ.
Here we watch him praying that God would allow a cessation from battle to honor the Holy Sabbath.
Here we weep with him as he rejoices that God would bless the fruit of the womb.
Here we see the man, who was known to most as a warrior, demonstrate a love and loyalty to his wife so precious and sanctified that an aura of holiness engulfs the couple as they pray before their God.
Here we watch in awe, as we have never watched a man before, embrace a holy ferocity in battle motivated by the singular belief that the warrior of Christ need never fear bullets, for he will not die one day sooner nor later than the sovereign God decrees.
And here, with heartbreaking anguish, we watch the dying warrior commend his soul to his God, while the loved ones around him bathe him with hymns of eternal love to the Savior.
After seeing the film, James Robertson, our nation's premier Civil War historian, declared that "Gods and Generals is the greatest Civil War film I have ever seen, and I have seen every one of them."
Mr. Lincoln said he liked his speeches short and sweet, so here it is: The new Warner Brothers picture Gods and Generals is not only the finest movie ever made about the Civil War, it is also the best American historical film. Period.
Writer-director Ron Maxwell's prequel ... is so free of cant, of false notes, of the politically conformist genuflections that we expect in our historical movies, that one watches it as if in a trance, wondering if he hasn't stumbled into a movie theater in an alternative America wherein talented independents like Maxwell get $80 million from Ted Turner to make complex and beautiful films about what Gore Vidal has called "the great single tragic event that continues to give resonance to our Republic."
MAXWELL: HUMBLE, VISIONARY, FEARLESS
By this film, Maxwell has emerged as the most humble, the most visionary, and the most fearless director of the day. His humility is evidenced by what the film does not say, as much as by what it does say. Maxwell understands that the poignant complexities surrounding the Civil War and the profound nobility of purpose imagined by the players on both sides of the conflict demand a film that neither preaches nor skirts the true issues. He not only refuses to reduce history to trite sound bites, but he weaves a film that requires the viewer to understand the heart and soul of the key players on both sides before making judgments.
Maxwell's vision is especially impressive. He has understood what no other producer of note has understood -- namely, that a profanity- and sensuality-free epic battle film with an overtly evangelical Christian protagonist can be utterly compelling to the people of this nation. Not since Cecil B. DeMille has this even been attempted. Yet many viewers will find that Maxwell surpasses even DeMille in his open enthusiasm for teaching history through the lens of Christian heroism.
Maxwell is simply fearless. My first reaction after seeing the movie in 2002 was, "it will never reach the theaters -- someone will blackball the project." Maxwell has dared to tell the truth about the much-maligned Southern cause: Namely, that the leadership was predominantly made up of men whose entire ethic was defined by their personal relationship with Jesus Christ; and that black men and women -- many of them brothers and sisters in Christ with their white counterparts -- willingly and proudly served with the Confederacy, standing against those whom they perceived to be the invaders of their homeland.
But note: Maxwell is not taking sides.
He is simply presenting truths that are not easily processed by those who want to reduce the complexities of history to socially acceptable sound bites about slavery.
Equally compelling is Maxwell's portrayal of the federal soldier, personified through the character of Joshua Chamberlain (played by Jeff Daniels). I predict that even the most ardent Southerner will find himself deeply touched by Chamberlain and the heroic battle of the Irish Brigade.
I spoke with actors Stephen Lang (Stonewall Jackson), Jeff Daniels (Joshua Chamberlain) Bruce Boxleitner (General Longstreet) and Bo Brinkman (aide to Lee) during a visit to the film set just a few weeks following the 9-11 disaster. (I was visiting with my sixteen-year-old brother, whose "home school project" was to personally assist director Maxwell for several months.) Each of these men, in their own way, indicated that this film was different from any other project on which they had previously worked, that their participation was a labor of love, and that their own lives had been influenced by discovering the nobility of the men they portrayed.
Which brings me back to my own amazement about Gods and Generals: In one of the more remarkable episodes in the history of modern film, the Lord moved in the life of a Hollywood writer/director/producer to speak to the issue of manhood and faith, and then gave him favor in the eyes of media mogul Ted Turner, who opened up the door by bankrolling the $80 million project.
Impossible, you say? We serve the God of the impossible.
Now here's some tough medicine: If this film had been left to the Christian community to produce, it probably would never have been made -- not for lack of money, not even for lack of ability -- but for lack of a courageous vision.
Too many Christians would have been afraid of the inevitable and bogus charges of racism which abound whenever Confederate leaders are portrayed favorably. They would have been afraid of Jackson's uncompromising and manly Christianity. But most of all, they would have been afraid that the film was, well, just too Christian!
That's right. Christians are afraid of overtly Christian culture. Most Christian filmmakers and cultural communicators have bought into the notion that one must either reduce the Gospel message to trite little maxims, or present it with such subtlety that the Gospel message is almost undecipherable. Don't get me wrong. There's a place for subtlety, but there is also a place for the overt proclamation of truth.
Gods and Generals presents orthodox, no-holds-barred Christianity. Not because the film was designed as a tool of evangelism, but because the film is faithful and true to the life of a soldier who was first and foremost an obedient evangelist for Jesus Christ.
This is not a "nice" film, but Christianity is not always "nice." It's not nice when a general is called to execute his own soldiers for desertion. It is not nice, but it is biblical, as Jackson explains with tremendous clarity and precision. It is not nice to pick up the sword and go to battle, but when one is defending one's homeland, it is mandatory.
My single greatest concern is that many Christians will lack the spiritual and theological maturity to understand the consistency and orthodoxy of Jackson's worldview. They will seek to evaluate this man through the twenty-first century grid of pop-Christianity, or brand him a self-contradiction, or an enigma.
The truth is that Jackson was one of the most rigorously consistent and principled leaders in American military history. He represents the type of man we rarely see any more: focused under pressure, fearless in the face of death, ferocious in battle, but singularly tender in home life and wedded bliss. (Important: Please order a copy of our new book Beloved Bride: The Life and Letters of Stonewall Jackson to His Wife to better understand the Christian character of this great man. Click here to see how you can receive a free copy.)
[I didn't get the original email so I don't know what the link is for the book!]
CONCLUSION
Those of us privileged to watch the director's cut with Maxwell last February knew that we had observed something truly extraordinary, something which was bigger than the film itself. Here was a movie that would do more than accurately record history; it would make history. Maxwell has given the children of this generation the opportunity to gain rich insights into the fathers of their fathers. Only by engaging their history truthfully can we even dare to understand our present identity or our future destiny as the American people.
We sat motionless, completely unable to speak even after the last credit rolled and the music came to an end.
The first words I heard came from a man sitting near me, a writer of some note. Fighting back the emotions, the writer whispered:
"He's given me my country back."
And so he has. Ron Maxwell has defied the political correctness police of both the Right and the Left by giving the American people a truthful vision of their past. He has shown a time when men defended women, when faith in God defined a man's vision of duty, when the greatest leaders were also the most committed Christians. For the first time in the history of modern major motion pictures, a director with guts has given us the opportunity to understand the complexities, the beauty, the horror, the glory, the tragedy, and the Gospel witness found in one of the greatest fratricides in the history of any people.
After the review, my father and I drove director Maxwell home. That night we prayed with him and for him. We prayed that the final product would be pleasing to God, that God would use the film to bring honor to Jesus Christ, and that millions would better understand manhood as a result of watching the film. What a blessing to think that the testimony of a warrior who died more than one hundred and thirty years ago could lead people to Christ today.
Gods and Generals is rated PG-13 for battlefield violence
Doug Phillips is the president of Vision Forum and the producer/director of the documentary film Raising the Allosaur. He is the proud 38-year-old big brother to Samuel Phillips, a 16-year-old home educator who served as personal assistant to director Ron Maxwell on the film set of Gods and Generals, and both a Yankee and a Confederate extra in the film. At the time of this writing, Doug has yet to see the edited and final 3.5-hour version of the film.
To learn more about Christianity during the Civil War, we suggest:
Beloved Bride: The Letters of Stonewall Jackson to His Wife
Christ in the Camp: The True Stroy of the Great Revival During the War Between the States
The Life and Campaigns of Stonewall Jackson, by Robert Louis Dabney
Yankees vs, Rebels An audiocassette discussion of the issues behind the War
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That was a nice tribute to your dad.
I went to a reenactment at Ft. Morgan last spring. I don't know if I could actually do them. (The heat!) But it was a wonderful experience just being there.
I agree with you about Turner. Maybe the Lord will use this to soften his heart.
I've always thought what a great testimony it would be for him to get saved.
I may have to go see this one.
They began to lose when Jackson died.
Longstreet was a master of defense. Jackson was a master of offense. Wars are won on the offense.
I believe Gettysburg would never have happened when, how, and where it did had Jackson still been alive.
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