4 and a half hours of drivel. While accurate on the timeline and events, the dialogue and acting in this made for TV turkey are hideous. And those beards!! Who did the make-up? Didn't anyone see how laughably awful they were. Watch something else. This is an over-long, over-boring soap opera that's DOA.

Short and to the point, i LOVED the idea that someone would make a movie from one of the few books i have read more than once, Robert Maxwell, who was a devotee of the book The Killer Angels did just that., i get it i get it you wanted to worship at the altar of the author's altar, but could you have gotten a better writer and composer for this film? MAN oh man,! it wasn't the bloviating i minded, it was the stupid banal dialogue that was coming out of the actors mouths AS they were bloviating. The most childish. insulting to the viewers, type of dialogue EVER. The scene that stinks the most is the scene where the scout tries to get the pickets to let him see General Longstreet, and then the dialogue between the scout and Longstreet with the "good Virginia tobacco" line, or the over blown Sam Elliot's speech about the "the High ground, the high ground" my friends and i, just laugh at that bit, hey Sam why don't you just drop to your knees and pound the dirt with your fist as you say it..ack!!. The rest of the film really needed to be shown as it was intended to be, on TBS, over a couple of nights. it would have helped. Oh while im ranting that God awful hat Berenger apparently, INSISTED, on wearing even though it bore NO resemblance to the real Longstreet's hat..that being said it WAS a Civil War film and it was better than others. BUT....! just think if Maxwell and Turner had hired the writers for "Glory",it would made a ton of difference.

The music and melodrama in this movie, make war seem like a glorious event. In fact, of course, war is foremost horrific. All the men in the movie, act like little boys and murder each other. But this no less true in real life, so one could say it is a realistic representation of war, or men fighting each other. Still, murdering and wasting lives is kind of depicted as meaningul and heroic in these movie. Typically American and totally moronic and detrimental to society's values.

"Little Darlings" director Ronald F. Maxwell's admirable but flawed epic "Gettysburg" qualifies as one of the better movies about the American Civil War. Unquestionably, it ranks as the best reenactment of this turning point battle because nobody has tried to mount a similar movie. Nevertheless, "Gettysburg" suffers from several flaws. Initially, the film was designed to be shown on television as a mini-series, so at a four and a half hours in length, it rivals anything that either David Lean or Sergio Leone could have attempted. Second, its loquacity occasionally overwhelms its sense of spectacle, but loquacity constitutes the hallmark of any mini-series. Everybody delivers a speech. Everybody who speaks is typically a general or an officer. Most of the dialogue is straightforward without a shred of irony. Rarely is anything uttered that is quotable. The enlisted men in blue and gray aren't so much heard as seen. On the other hand, Maxwell scores surplus points for apparent authenticity, with dedicated reenactors on up to conscientious American history scholars providing incomparable verisimilitude. Undoubtedly, Maxwell had more than enough to contend with during this sprawling $20-million production. My major argument is tone. "Gettysburg" boasts no surprises and Maxwell generates little momentum. During the actual event, the Confederates arrived at Gettysburg feeling invincible owing to earlier triumphs. Maxwell's Confederates are losers from the start and the music blends nostalgia with tragedy. Indeed, Maxwell treats "Gettysburg" as a national tragedy. Kees Van Oostrum photography is competent, but neither Maxwell nor Oostrum were as adept as they were later when they made the infinitely superior "Gods and Generals." Nevertheless, what salvages Maxwell's film is the magnificently staged Pickett's Charge, particularly the cannon barrages over a smoky battlefield. Tom Berenger, Stephen Lange, Richard Jordan, Jeff Daniels, Sam Elliot, and Kevin Conway stand out as the leaders.