Gods And Generals

Gods and Generals is the 2003 adaptation of Jeff Shaara's book about the Civil War, of which this was one of the trilogy. His father, Michael Shaara, wrote Killer Angels, and Jeff followed up with The Last Full Measure.

The movie stars Robert Duvall, Jeff Daniels, and Stephen Lang. Robert Duvall does a good job portraying Robert E. Lee. Jeff Daniels, though listed as one of the stars, really does not have that significant a role in the movie, though he does have a powerful part when he describes why the war is not about states rights and northern aggression, as some of our Southern brethren would like to believe. Instead, it is the fight to end slavery and to truly have liberty for all men in the United States. As would later play out over the next 100 years, liberty can be a relative term. Slavery is bad, but segregation racial inequities were not too much better, but that's for another commentary.

Continuing, Stephen Lang portrays Southern General "Stonewall" Jackson. You may know Lang from his other huge hits such as Another You and Shadow Conspiracy. Lang also suffers from Kevin Costner syndrome - the inability to cast a believable southern accent. Costner destroyed Kenny O'Donnell's southern accent in 13 Days, and Lang was just as unbelievable as a Southerner.

All in all, Gods and Generals is a high quality, 4 hour Civil War epic that any war historian should see. The battle scenes are intense and the history, though entwined with some fictional drama, is fairly accurate.