Gods And Generals (another take)

[Viking6]

Contemplate this for a moment. Ebert liked "Gettysburg" because it was a Northern victory.. I saw the movie and am reading the book -- quite a few differences, in fact I was told that the movie draws more from a book about Stonewall from a Virginia Tech history professor than than "Gods and Generals". I believe it because of the character development of the first hundred plus pages that I've read so far. I saw the movie with my wife and son and one of my daughters. I enjoyed it, felt it could have been better, my daughter left at intermission and went next door to Books a Million, wife so-so, son enjoyed it. I'm not saying anything that some of you don't know but some folks really did have ugly beards.
I have two pet peeves about the movie and both are unavoidable.

1) Jeff Daniels has not aged well since "Gettysburg".

2) Logistically, the dependence on reenactors as extra made for a much older demographic of the soldiers than what I would have expected.

 

[Viking6]

"Much is made of the film's total and obsessive historical accuracy; the costumes, flags, battle plans and ordnance are all doubtless flawless, although there could have been no Sgt. "Buster" Kilrain in the 20th Maine, for the unavoidable reason that "Buster" was never used as a name until Buster Keaton used it."

Well, Mr. Ebert is WRONG. I could probably find another example of Buster earlier but this is illustrative enough.

Buster Brown - one of the nation's oldest existing children's shoe trademarks - originated as a character in one of the earliest newspaper cartoon strips.
Created in 1902 by Richard Fenton Outcault, "Buster" was a mischievous youngster who, with his sister Mary Jane, and his dog, Tige, were as famous in their time as Orphan Annie and Charlie Brown became for succeeding generations. Buster's Lord Fauntleroy clothes and antic behavior were as familiar to those who read the "funnies" at the turn of the century as Annie's blank eyes or Charlie's inability to coach a winning baseball team.

The late John A. Bush, who at that time was a rising young sales executive with Brown Shoe Company, saw the value of the Buster Brown name as a juvenile shoe trademark. He persuaded the company to purchase the rights to the name from Outcault, and the brand was introduced to the public in 1904 during the St. Louis World's Fair. John Bush went on to become president of the firm in 1915 and Chairman of the Board in 1948.

 

[JohnBT]

"What's the old joke about Monument Avenue? Something about the biggest collection of second place trophies in the world."

Heh-heh.

Okay, another one:

Q: How many Richmonders does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Four. One to change it and three to talk about how good the old one was.

John
V.P.I. Class of '72 (That's VA TECH to all you youngsters)

 

[Navy joe]

I want to put this in perspective for all you folks from the 49 wrong states. Just in case you didn't know, there are commerations of where Jackson was shot and also the Jackson shrine where his arm is buried, both near Catherine's Furnace. The Lee Chapel in Lexington on the Grounds of Washington & LEE is also worth a visit. Yep, we take that second place stuff serious here.

 

[Delmar]

The 49 wrong states? You're gonna say that about Virginia to a bunch of Texans???

 

[BigG]

Most of my movie reviewer friends gave it a pretty poor rating. I saw Gettysburg and, yes, it was pretty good, but it was also pretty l-o-n-g. Coulda used a scissors on that one. Of course, all the reenactors woulda been p.o.ed because their 5 seconds of screen time (multiplied by the cast of thousands) were the logical place to apply the scissors.

 

[cuchulainn]

Yep, we take that second place stuff serious here.

Yes we do, don't we?

The 49 wrong states? You're gonna say that about Virginia to a bunch of Texans???

Sam Houston and Steven Austin were Virginia natives who happened to do some stuff in Texas.

V.P.I. Class of '72 (That's VA TECH to all you youngsters)

HSC Class of '88 (That's Hampden-Sydney College to all you folks not in the know.)