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Gods and Generals as history. Writing in The New Republic several years ago about the movie Glory, James McPherson cited a 1995 New York Times article by Richard Bernstein entitled "Can Movies Teach History?" Bernstein noted that "more people are getting their history, or what they think is history, from the movies these days than from the standard history books." Then he asked: Does "the filmmaker, like the novelist, have license to use the material of history selectively and partially in the goal of entertaining, creating a good dramatic product, even forging what is the sometime called the poetic truth,...

Below is a note from Howard Phillips on this great movie...I plan to see it this weekend. My friends tell me this movie is EXCELLENT The Liberal media HATES this movie because it shows soldiers praying and reading the Bible....so we need to SUPPORT IT! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As some of you know, I was involved with the premiere of "Gods and Generals" here in Richmond thru the Museum of the Confederacy. I am sending along this comment, with a hope that you will take in the film. The liberal press has already bashed it, and unless there is good attendance this...

Let me acknowledge, upfront, that as a member of the cast of the new Civil War epic movie "Gods & Generals," I cannot, even with my bit part, objectively review this production which meant so much to me. I do believe, however, that I have the moral journalistic right to marvel at the absolutely incredible contrast in various reviews. In the Baltimore Sun, movie critic Michael Sragow compared watching this movie to what he termed: "Being forced to stare for an entire afternoon at a statue of Stonewall Jackson in some Deep South town square. Before long, you hope a...

After three and a half hours, you will stagger out of Gods and Generals, Ronald F. Maxwell’s prequel to Gettysburg, stupefied with pathos. From the start, it offers the full Ken Burns treatment of the Civil War, with weepy violins and catch-in-the-throat personal commentary of a highly authentic character, and it never lets up. As Oscar Wilde said of the death of Dickens’s Little Nell, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh at it. For where Burnsian schmalz was endurable for an hour, with a week to recover before the next dose, it is quite intolerable spun...

For Immediate Release February 21, 2003 DEVELOPER RAY SMITH RESORTS TO LAST MINUTE DESPERATION TACTICS(Chancellorsville, Va.) - The Coalition to Save Chancellorsville Battlefield released the following statement today in response to a telemarketing campaign conducted by proponents of the controversial rezoning of the Mullins Farm. On May 1, 1863, the Union and Confederate armies collided on the Mullins Farm in the opening clash of the historic battle of Chancellorsville."Dogwood Development Group President Ray F. Smith is running scared. He knows the tide is turning against his effort to develop the 790-acre Mullins Farm. Smith is now resorting to 11th hour...

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It's been a critical Antietam for the film Gods and Generals, which opens in theaters Friday. Ron Maxwell's Civil War epic got massacred by reviewers. "Turgid, textureless and endless ... history as punishment," was the Associated Press verdict, typical of so many others. "Stiff, ponderous, fluttering in its 'poetry,' and crudely simplistic as an apologia for the Confederate ideology," says Entertainment Weekly. Declaims New York Press: "It is truly a whitewash of the past."Well. If the four-hour battlefield epic doesn't work for reviewers on an artistic level, it's hard to make a case against that kind of judgment. But...

Dear Ted Turner, At this advanced stage of your long and complicated career you have finally crossed the line – making a contribution to your country and its culture so unequivocally positive and powerful that every American, regardless of political perspective, owes you a debt of gratitude. No matter how one feels about your creation of CNN, your donation of a billion dollars to the UN, your marriage to Jane Fonda, your operation of the Atlanta Braves, your divorce from Jane Fonda, your dismissal of Christianity as "a religion for losers," your bison ranching, or your yachting, or your fanatical...

I seldom urge readers to go see a Hollywood movie. But that's what I will do in this column, so be warned. For 10 years, I covered Hollywood – the good and the bad. It was mostly bad – real bad. To my knowledge, I was the first journalist ever to write exclusively about the entertainment industry in a social, moral and political context. Now such commentary and analysis has burgeoned into a cottage industry. I still love films – but there are precious few great ones being made. Hollywood is a garbage factory – a moral cesspool. Yet, occasionally,...

The struggle that forged America and launched modern warfare comes to life in a major new film. By Bill Kauffman 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 to his epic Gettysburg (1993) 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...

It is sometimes said, including by me, that Americans don’t know as much history as they ought to. But there is one era that many Americans have studied carefully—and that is our own Civil War epoch. Indeed, national interest in the Civil War borders on obsession: over 60,000 have been produced—more than one a day since Lee called it quits at Appomattox Court House. An amazing 7,000 volumes have been written about Lincoln alone, making him the most heavily investigated figure in American history. And our fascination with the Civil War is rising, not falling. Your editors added up registered...

History Channel Tapes Program at VMI"History vs. Hollywood" examines film Gods and GeneralsThe History Channel was at VMI the weekend on 25-26 January to tape an episode of the series "History vs. Hollywood" on the upcoming film Gods and Generals, portions of which were also filmed at VMI in August of 2001.Shows in the series examine Hollywood films and discuss historical accuracy and "artistic license" used by the filmmakers.  To that end, a giant video screen was erected on the parade ground, which was used by the host to introduce film clips from the movie.

DANVILLE, Va. - Dr. James I. "Buddy" Robertson said Wednesday that emotion is the key element in the movie "Gods and Generals."Robertson, a renowned Civil War historian, was the historical consultant on the Warner Bros./Ted Turner movie that features Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson as its main character."Gods and Generals" is an adaptation of a book written by Jeff Shaara and is the prequel to "The Killer Angels," on which the film "Gettysburg" was based.The movie deviates from the book with a healthy dose of Jackson's character taken from Robertson's biography."This is the greatest Civil War movie ever made,"...

Shatrugan Sinha may be having a tough time explaining his frequent absence from Parliament ever since he became Health Minister, more specifically his plans to act again in a film. But he can draw some solace from a seasoned American lawmaker. Senator Robert Byrd, the formidable 84-year-old Democrat from West Virginia has taken time off to act in a film as well. But Byrd, unlike Sinha, is a lawmaker who is not only a regular in the Senate but one who makes his presence felt both in the Senate and its committees. Not long ago, he gave a torrid time...

[snip] Byrd said he is eagerly awaiting the Feb. 21 premiere of the Civil War movie "Gods and Generals," which will include his cameo as Confederate Gen. Paul J. Semmes. [snip] Gen. Semmes, a Georgia plantation owner and banker, was in command of key brigades in the battles leading up to the war's turning point at Gettysburg. Semmes was mortally wounded there. ..... Semmes died of his wounds in Martinsburg several days after the battle at age 48. He saw action at Yorktown, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Savage's Station, Malvern Hill, Crampton's Gap, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg and Salem Church. Byrd, 84, spent...

Jeff Shaara, author of the best-selling "Gods and Generals" and other historical novels, makes swing through town. FREDERICKSBURG has been good to him, and now he's returning the favor.That is one way of looking at today's visit to town by Jeff Shaara, author of the best-selling "Gods and Generals" and other historical novels.His feelings for the Fredericksburg area took root, by surprise, on a drive north from Richmond in 1994. He'd just paid a visit to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, doing research for "Gods and Generals."A lot was on the line. His late father, Michael Shaara, had...

<p>When the Battle of Antietam started, eighth-grade students from Wilson Middle School in Chowchilla were scattered along the rope line, all angling for an unobstructed view of the carnage.</p> <p>For those within earshot, history teacher Mike Martin was offering a running commentary.</p>