Gods and Generals is anAmerican movieon theAmerican Civil Wardirected byRonald F. Maxwell, released in2003.
Synopsis
The film tells the story of what happened before the director’s previous film, Gettysburg , released in 1993.
Technical sheet
- Title: Gods and Generals
- Director: Ronald F. Maxwell
- Scenario: Ronald F. Maxwell, according to the book Gods and Generals of Jeff Shaara
- Music: John Frizzell and Randy Edelman
- Producers: Moctesuma Esparza, Robert Katz, Ted Turner , Mace Neufield and Robert Rehme
- Production: Ted Turner Pictures
- Distribution: Warner Bros. Pictures
- Genre: war
- Duration: 214 minutes
- Release date : (United States)
Distribution
- Stephen Lang : Lieutenant-General “Stonewall” Jackson
- Jeff Daniels : Lieutenant-Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
- Robert Duvall : General Robert E. Lee
- C. Thomas Howell : Sergeant Thomas Chamberlain
- Donzaleigh Abernathy : Martha
- Mark Aldrich
- George Allen: Confederate Officer
- Brian Mallon : Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock
- Keith Allison
- Royce D. Applegate : Brigadier James L. Kemper
- Bruce Boxleitner : Lieutenant-Colonel James Longstreet
- Shane Callahan
- Billy Campbell : Major George Pickett
- David Carpenter
- John Castle
- Scott Cooper
- Kevin Conway : Sergeant Buster Kilrain
- Jeremy London : Captain Alexander “Sandie” Pendleton
- Carsten Norgaard : Major General Darius Nash Couch
- Joseph Fuqua : Maj. Gen. JEB Stuart
- Patrick Gorman : Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood
- James Patrick Stuart : Col. E. Porter Alexander
Around the film
A version Director’s cut of the film, 280 minutes ( 4 hours 40 ), was released in Blu-ray Disc May 24, 2011.
Among the additional sequences is a scene where Joshua Chamberlain and his wife Fanny attend a performance of Julius Caesar . John Wilkes Booth , the future assassin of President Abraham Lincoln , plays the role of Brutus . After the end of the play, Chamberlain and his wife chat with Booth and the other actors. Another cut scene shows Booth playing Macbeth in Washington while Lincoln is in the audience. When he recites the famous tirade of the ” imaginary dagger ” , he looks directly at Lincoln.
Viewed essentially from the views of Jackson and Chamberlain in the short version, the Battle of Antietam is fully displayed in the Director’s cut version .
Soundtrack
The song ‘Cross the Green Mountain’ , written and performed by Bob Dylan , was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Original Song at the 2004 Satellite Awards . She was later included in the compilation The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs .