Editor Reviews:

Description:
A sweeping epic charting the early years of the Civil War and how campaigns unfolded from Manassas to the Battle of Fredericksburg, this prequel to the film Gettysburg explores the motivations of the combatants and examines the lives of those who waited at home.

Amazon.com:

The more you know about the Civil War, the more you'll appreciate Gods and Generals and the painstaking attention to detail that Gettysburg writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell has invested in this academically respectable 220-minute historical pageant. In adapting Jeffrey Shaara's 1996 novel (encompassing events of 1861-63, specifically the Virginian battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville), Maxwell sacrifices depth for scope while focusing on the devoutly religious "Stonewall" Jackson (Stephen Lang), whose Confederate campaigns endear him to Gen. Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall, giving the film's most subtle performance). Battles are impeccably recreated using 7,500 Civil War re-enactors and sanitized PG-13 violence, their authenticity compromised by tasteful discretion and endless scenes of grandiloquent dialogue. Still, as the first part of a trilogy that ends with The Last Full Measure, this is a superbly crafted, instantly essential film for Civil War study. For all its misguided priorities, Gods and Generals is a noble effort, honoring faith and patriotism with the kind of reverence that has all but vanished from American film – but provides abundant proof that historical accuracy is no guarantee of great storytelling. --Jeff Shannon

Rating : - Southern (White) Supremacy propaganda
I was born and raised in what people call the 'South'. My elementary school classes had both the flag of the USA and the flag of the CSA. So naturally, I wanted to be proud of who I was...a Southerner. As such, I wanted to like these kinds of movies (and books, essays, etc.), but when I actually studied real history, I just didn't like the South. Don't get me wrong...I don't think the South is any worse than 'northern' states. But I just know how the supposed great Southern leaders acted before the War of Northern Aggression (at least, I get the war's name right). Before that war, most of the Souther leaders were in complete cahoots with the very same leaders they fought. Working together both were quite 'aggressive' themselves in their younger days...just ask the Mexicans why they feel California is their land.

I suspect them of staging the war for profit...really it is all that they really knew how to do. Also, they ran in circles with other wealthy types who knew how to really profit from war...international banking types. Lincoln, who barely got elected, nearly screwed up that plan by printing his own money to fund the war instead of borrowing it...which is what the banks expected him to do...well, we all know what happened to Lincoln.

Anyway, I don't have very much sympathy for either northern or southern leaders. And I surely don't believe in their sincerity. The masses who killed each other in the WoNA? Well, the masses have proved themselves to be cowards and idiots.