A film crew sets up a shot of Union re-enactors for a scene depicting the Battle of Fredericksburg in the film 'Gods and Generals.' View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

Hurray for "Gods and Generals"

Date published: 2/16/2003

WASHINGTON--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 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."

Come Friday, "Gods and Generals" will invade the nation's theaters in a commercial gamble by Warner Brothers that could be a masterstroke, à la Lincoln's maneuvering at Fort Sumter, or a disaster on the order of Pickett's Charge. The four-hour-plus "Gettysburg" was a commercial and critical success, but that and six dollars will buy Maxwell a cup of coffee in Hollywood.

Over eggs and toast in Charlotte, N.C., I spoke with the writer-director on the morning after his film was screened for one of those putatively Middle American "test audiences" that corporations solicit to grade shampoo, new flavors of M&M's, and big-budget movies.

"They operate from fear and loathing and a complete lack of understanding of what this film is about," says Maxwell of studio executives. "They might as well be looking at hieroglyphics." In test markets like Charlotte, the film scored spectacularly high with men over the age of 35 and not so well with teenage girls.

I asked Maxwell why so few films are made about American history. "There's a feeling in Hollywood that the audience doesn't care," he answered. "I think that's because those who make the decisions don't care about history. Their field of view is contemporary. Many studio executives, because they aren't interested in looking beyond their own lifetimes, draw the conclusion that no one else is interested, either. They don't understand that an audience is out there. Of course, they haven't catered to that audience for decades."

Follow us on

Date published: 2/16/2003