GETTYSBURG film essay
by Lauren Steere

Historical war epics are popular film settings, but the balance between authentic detail and entertaining believability is a thin line.  Some films sacrifice or change historical content and details to enhance the story, while others stay true to form but lack any entertainment value.  Gettysburg (1993), a film by Ronald F. Maxwell and based upon the novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, entails the battle of Gettysburg in the summer of 1863 of the American Civil War.  The film takes over four hours to tell the tale of the bloodiest three days in American history.  An entertaining and masterful film, Gettysburg also boasts incredible attention to accurate detail in telling its epic story.

While presenting the story of the greatest battle of the Civil War in a narrative form, Gettysburg is very much so a documentary as well.  Everything from uniforms, weapons, locations and maps used are as authentic as possible, including much of the dialog and the actors cast to portray the men that fought on the Pennsylvanian ground in those bloody days long ago.  Our very first glimpse of the film is the opening credits, where archival photographs of the leading Union and Confederate officers fade to the actor who plays him, each carefully wardrobed and make-upped to look as closely to their character as possible.  Uniforms are designed and approved by Civil War historians, made to be exact copies of those worn by soldiers and collected by museums after the war.  Most of the soldiers seen throughout the film are re-enactors who study the war in great detail and participate in recreations of the battles year after year; many have their own uniforms and props that they have authentically duplicated for such a purpose, lending additional believability to each scene.  Virtually every prop on screen is as close to the real thing as permissible, from muskets and cannons to tents and flags.  Even the buttons on every uniform are ones that could have been found in the early 1860’s.

Gettysburg opens over an old military map as used during the war, describing through a voice over narration the Union and Confederate movements in the last week of June, 1863.  Throughout the film, many maps are displayed, centering upon the small seminary town in Pennsylvania.  Every setting and location in the movie was filmed at Gettysburg National Park and the surrounding country; when Chamberlain leads a bayonet charge down the slopes of Little Round Top, we are looking at the very ground where he fought one hundred and thirty years ago.

As both armies converge upon Gettysburg, we are introduced to the men in command of either side.  Maxwell shows each as men caught up in the tides of war rather than the unreachable, glorious commanders that are commonly portrayed in other war films.  We see Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels) weak from heatstroke before the battle and Brigadier General Lewis “Lo” Armistead (Richard Jordan) concerned for his best friend who waits to face him on the other side of the small, deadly battlefield.  Clearly, Maxwell was careful to show each man as true to form as the Civil War heroes we can read about in history books and look upon in museums.

Dialog was carefully scripted from recounts of the battles and scenes by witnesses who lived in the day.  Their reports were recorded by history, lending to the conversations Shaara wrote and Maxwell later adapted.  The drama of the war and the speeches given by commanders on both sides were not created by Hollywood writers, but rather spoken by the men who stood upon the Pennsylvanian ground and faced death.  Before Pickett’s Charge on July 3^rd, 1863, Armistead addressed his troops:  “Virginians!  Virginians!  For your lands, for your homes, for your sweethearts, for your wives!  For Virginia!  Forward, march!”  After the battle, the victorious Union soldiers at the center of the line chanted, “Fredericksburg!  Fredericksburg!” at the retreating Confederate soldiers – an emotional scene told through history in retaliation for a Rebel victory earlier in the war.  We see another instance of actual quotations used in the film in the chilling scene in which Confederate Commanding Officer, General Robert E. Lee (Martin Sheen) orders Major General George E. Pickett (Stephen Lang) to attend to his division.  Pickett replies with his immortal words,  “General Lee.  I have no division.”

The authenticity of Gettysburg goes beyond props, uniforms, maps, and character quotes, but also delves into the relationships of the men involved in combat, both Blue and Gray.  Many scenes in the film are outside of the battles, showing us that these are not just men who fought and died, but they were men who lived life each day.  There are several fireside scenes between soldiers of both armies, where talk echoes of memories from before the war or of issues of the day, such as Darwinism.  Few in the war did not know a man wearing the other uniform, a fact enhanced by the true story of the Confederate Armistead’s friendship with Major General Winfield Scott Hancock (Brian Mellon), a Union division commander.  Close as brothers, they separated before the war to fight on either side and have not seen one another until Gettysburg.  Before Pickett’s Charge, Armistead gives a small package to Lieutenant General James Longstreet (Tom Berenger) to be sent to Hancock’s wife, Myra. We learn from the closing, factual credits that the package contained Armistead’s personal Bible.  Armistead and Hancock never see each other on July 3^rd, as Armistead is mortally wounded once reaching the top of the ridge and hears word that Hancock is down as well.  “No!  Not both of us!  Not all of us!  Please, God!” he cries.  He died two days later in the Union hospital.

Gettysburg is careful regarding the Civil War issue of freedom, not just for slaves, as most understand the war to be about, but rather the desire of the Confederacy to be free from the Union.  Many Yankees, then and now, saw the war only to serve the purpose of setting the slaves free, but to the South, it was a war for their rights. “Virginia, by God, should be run by Virginians!” declared Brigadier General James L. Kemper (Royce D. Applegate).  Longstreet further enhances this point by saying, “We should have freed the slaves and then fired on Fort Sumter.”

Maxwell’s attention to historic detail goes beyond maps, uniforms, props, and quotations, lending to the accuracy of the film through such detail as Confederate soldiers walking into Taneytown barefoot, an aide’s comment that some men reload continuously without ever firing a shot, or even the music the bands play on the fields and in the camps.  In addition, Maxwell uses masterful film techniques to take us through the epic story of sight and sound.  Two men playing Dixie on violin and guitar fade from the scene as the movie’s score, by composer Randy Edelman, takes us from scene to scene.  Cannons reverberate across open fields, launching their hot bore or deadly canister into enemy lines.  With Maxwell’s sweeping, and stunning, camera shots by crane, we pan across a line of soldiers marching along the Baltimore Pike or backwards across a line of cannon firing one by one at a rocky ridge.  As Pickett’s charge closes, we realize that the music has ended at some point and we’re hearing the sharp cracks of musket fire, the deep thundering of cannon, and the ever-present sound of men moving, yelling, dying.  Amidst the mass of fighting bodies and billowing smoke, Confederate ensigns struggle over a barricade, but the Stars and Stripes wave steadily just beyond.  We see the waning light reflecting on unshed tears in the eyes of Chamberlain and his younger brother, Thomas (C. Thomas Howell), as they find each other at sunset and embrace in relief.  Lee explains his battle plan to attack the Union center, and we feel anxiety with the knowledge of this as the next seen reveals that Chamberlain and the 20^th Maine are being relocated to the safest place in the line to rest and recuperate: the center of the line. 

Though the film is more than worthy to be called a narrative, Gettysburg clearly is a documentary as well.  The stories of Lee, Longstreet, Chamberlain, Armistead, and all the boys in Blue and Gray is told through film techniques meant to entertain and inform; this is not just another Civil War film, but a tribute to the men who served, fought, and died to preserve our Union and the lives of the brothers they fought against.  We can see that Ronald F. Maxwell paid special attention to history detail throughout the film, using it to enhance the story of the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil.