“Magnificent, awe-inspiring re-creation of the Civil War’s most famous battle. Ted Turner’s answer to GONE WITH THE WIND serves up generous portions of emotional human drama and roaring action. Based on Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Killer Angels, this long but engrossing slice of history was filmed on the battlefields of the Gettysburg National Military Park using over 5,000 Civil War “re-enactors” in the battle scenes. Look fast for filmmaker Ken Burns as General Hancock’s aide and Ted Turner as a Reb foot soldier during Pickett’s Charge. Elliott, and especially Daniels, stand out in a cast full of great performances. Final film for Richard Jordan, who has the most poignant role in the picture as General Armistead. Superb musical score by Randy Edelman.”
Leonard Maltin, Leonard Maltin’s Movie & Video Guide
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“A cinematic rarity — an intelligent epic . . . the four-hour epic speaks well for Writer/Director Ronald Maxwell’s sober intentions and very creditable achievements in this film.”
James Verniere, THE BOSTON HERALD
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“Four stars! A towering achievement! Gettysburg explodes on the screen in all its horror and heroism. Jeff Daniels is Amazing, Martin Sheen’s General Lee is a tour de force.”
Bill Diehl, ABC RADIO NETWORK
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“… A dramatic victory . . . a massive epic . . . great acting. There are simply no modern-day correlatives for movie making on this scale.”
Richard Schickel, TIME MAGAZINE
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“A masterpiece . . . could be the film of the decade.”
Bobbie Wygant, KXAS, DALLAS/FORT WORTH
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“A handsome and involving epic. . . lavish and meticulously detailed . . . Martin Sheen’s extraordinary Robert E. Lee and Jeff Daniels’ remarkable Col. Chamberlain are Oscar worth performances. . . Ronald Maxwell’s Gettysburg is the film against which all subsequent films about the Civil War’s decisive battle will now be measured.”
Jay Carr, BOSTON GLOBE
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“Awesome . . . Jaw-dropping . . . a major event! Writer-Director Ronald F. Maxwell mounts an impressive saga.”
Bruce Williamson, PLAYBOY
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“Four stars! Gettysburg is powerful stuff. . . Jeff Daniels merits serious Oscar consideration.”
Jeff Craig, SIXTY SECOND PREVIEW
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“A 10+! One of the best war pictures ever made. A powerful and touching study of the most costly battle ever fought on American soil. At times, it left me in tears. A great American work of film-art.”
Gary Franklin, KCOP-TV, LOS ANGELES
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“The Big Screen spectacular of the fall!”
Don Stotter,ENTERTAINMENT TIME-OUT
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“Lavishly filmed…well-made…profound.”
Drew Jubera, Atlanta Constitution
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“The fifteen years it took to realize the film were worth it. The result is a stunning, absorbing epic…With Gettysburg the filmmakers have created a fascinating study of the will for war and the terrible price it exacts…Both Jeff Daniels and the late Richard Jordan turn in Academy Award performances in two terse, yet eloquent, scenes.”
Luaine Lee, Scripps-Howard News Service
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“(Gettysburg) admirably recreates the events of those fateful days, even to the intimate moments between the men on both sides. The excellent acting and directing makes history alive again… Gettysburg is a magnificent movie which is destined to become a classic, stir hearts and inspire its viewers…a film worth watching again and again on the big screen. Ron Maxwell deserves America’s thanks for this mighty contribution to the best in American movies.”
Bonnie C. Harvey & Ted Baehr, Movieguide
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“The Civil War movie reaches a new crest with Ronald Maxwell’s Gettysburg, a film whose epic grandeur does much more than simply re-create the three day battle that decided the fate of the Union. Through thundering artillery and thousands of Civil War re-enactors, the awful killing field is brought to vivid life, but the real achievement of Gettysburg goes beyond historical faithfulness to psychological fidelity. Maxwell and his first-rate cast conjure the beliefs, emotions, fiercely held ideals and loyalties in the men on both sides. The sheer conviction of the playing refuses to allow many moral subtleties at each pivotal juncture to be overwhelmed by the majesty of the spectacle. As the battle proceeds words matter as much as deeds, and we come to grasp fully the folly and futility that went hand in hand with honor and valor…Gettysburg abounds in deft and moving profiles in courage, and the project itself represents an act of artistic bravery…The drama here is in the clash of great armies and the minds of the men who led them… There are many heart breaking moments…The names of the men who fought there are written in stone on monuments at a battlefield that has been hallowed ground since President Abraham Lincoln dedicated it with an address for and to the ages. In committing their story to film, Maxwell has fashioned the compelling and wrenching screen memorial they deserve.”
Desmond Ryan, The Philadelphia Inquirer
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“Harrowing…Gettysburg avoids all of those war movie clichés… sequences so desperate, bloody and protracted that for once we sense the sheer physical exhaustion of combat, the combination of fear, fatigue and determination…we experience the horrifying reality of battle itself…Maxwell deserves credit for not hedging his bets…I began watching with comparative indifference, and slowly got caught up in the majestic advance of the enterprise. And I understood the civil war in a more immediate way than ever before.”
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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“Impressive filmmaking…solid, stirring…The film deftly sorts out the mix of chance and planning, guts and luck, that shapes battlefield destiny…Prowling the green Pennsylvania countryside the camera shuttles gravely and gracefully between armies…A triumph…the film balances vast cannonades against hasty skirmishes as the original, near accidental encounter swells toward Armageddon…flashes of idiosyncratic acting keep the movie vibrant…a movie landmark.”
Bob Campbell, The Star Ledger (NJ)
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“…meticulous attention to historical detail…Its battle scenes are impressively choreographed. In their sweep and grandeur these scenes convey a strong visceral sense of what fighting a war used to be like…The film offers a rich and detailed picture of how the Civil War was fought…Thefilm does a wonderful job of conveying the physical dimensions of the conflict.(and)..Gettysburg succeeds as human drama…Mr. Daniel’s luminous performance.”
Stephen Holden, The New York Times
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“At its frequent literally awesome best, Gettysburg recalls Woodrow Wilson’s apt description of D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” as ‘History writ with lightning’…At once epic in its scale and intimate in its detail, writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell has risen to the massive logistical challenges of this enterprise with all the resolute inventiveness of a military strategist. His battle scenes, actually filmed on the hallowed ground of Gettysburg thunder with the savage tumult of thousands pitched against thousands…(They) give us a horrifying sense of the bloody chaos, the screaming panic and the adrenaline-pumped audacity of desperate men in life-or-death moments…Gettysburg marks the first time a film maker has dramatized this bloody battle of America’s bloodiest war. Maxwell, no doubt mindful of his responsibility to the thousands who fought and died during those three terrible days in July 1863, has succeeded to a remarkable degree in painting an all-encompassing panorama that is worthy of its subject. While doing so, however, Maxwell has not neglected the delicate brushstrokes of individual character shadings. He encourages his fine actors to give us heart and soul to balance the sound and fury.”
Joe Leydon, Houston Post
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“That cinematic rarity, an intelligent epic…the four hour epic speaks well for writer-director Ronald Maxwell’s sober intentions and very creditable achievements in this film – the acuity of the film’s best characterizations, the vaulting scale of its design and, above all, its belief that history, besides being instructive in itself, can and should be a great movie subject.”
Richard Schickel, Time Magazine
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“Impassioned…You feel the exhaustion and the heat, as if you lived through the engagement as a forward observer, as if the smoke from the thousands of cannonades might billow in when you exit the theatre doors…Like the best war pictures that seek authenticity in actual battles, Gettysburg succeeds in convincing us that this is the way soldiers were and looked, this is how they talked and reacted and fought and died…Certainly this is the best performance that Jeff Daniels has ever given in movies…Maxwell made Gettysburg for a reported twenty million, which is rather paltry for the effects he achieved. Special mention should be made of the cinematography by Kees Van Oostrum, which captures the epic scope of the affair in an unostentatious manner.”
Jerry Roberts, (LA) Daily Breeze
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“Battle scenes of stunning spectacle and power…poetic camera work…Gettysburg manages to make us reflect on concepts like duty, honor, loyalty and friendship – even God – almost lost to memory in our cynical age. It manages to evoke history itself, reminding a generation that once proclaimed the irrelevance of the past how inescapable the past remains…Gettysburg, in the end, is about the tragic cost of national division and the hope of reconciliation. There are worse subjects these days to make us think about for four hours.”
Ken Ringle, The Washington Post
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“…notes of courage and sacrifice so piercing they make your heart break…The movie reaches the pitch of great war poetry in its evocation of the defense of Little Round Top…an American Iliad on a pile of Pennsylvania granite…unbelievably intense and desperate.”
Stephen Hunter, The Baltimore Sun
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“Astounding, spellbinding… meticulous in its history, Gettysburg captures the agony (of war) thanks to its fine script and excellent performances…Jeff Daniels has the part and performance of his career…a microcosm is created of all the suffering which gripped this nation 130 years ago…What they did at Gettysburg is, of course, long remenmbered, and tragically detailed in arguably the most important war film since Platoon. Just as audiences sat numb, unable to speak at its conclusion, so too will be a similar response to Gettysburg. This is film making of the highest order and Gettysburg gets an A+ on my movie report card.”
Sherman Kaplan, WBBM
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“Solemn, eloquent…Gettysburg is overwhelming…truly moving.”
James Vowell, LA Reader
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“The grand-scale Gettysburg is a dramatic victory…massive, epic… great acting…generous in its vision…There are simply no modern- day correlatives for moviemaking on this scale.”
James Vemiere, The Boston Herald
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“A great epic…Unless you are utterly devoid of imagination and spirit this movie’s four hour running time will seem like less than half that.”
The Santa Barbara Independent
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“A stirring epic…The movie sustains a remarkable combination of character intimacy and battlefield excitement…Gettysburg excels at creating a sense of intimacy with men about to play fateful roles in history. Mr.Maxwell has also appreciated the expressive potential in the period idiom evoked by the late Mr. Shaara. This film incorporates the best speeches from “The Killer Angels” as effectively as Kennth Branagh adapted Shakespeare’s martial idiom in Henry V. The recurrent triumph of the movie is that it provides so many effective, rousing speeches and revealing, privileged moments. The superior sequences evoke lasting admiration. The illusion of sharing pivital moments of history is reinforced time and again. This is the rare war epic that earns its martial pathos.”
Gary Arnold, The Washington Times
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“A stirring film with an impressive cast that poignantly presents both sides…incredible performances by Berenger, Sheen and Daniels.”
Holly McClure, Orange County Register
“Maxwell films it all with the respect and horror it deserves, and with Jeff Daniels does a wonderful job of portraying not just grace, but genius, under fire.”
Bob Strauss, LA Daily News
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“Transcendant moments…that most inwardly rupturing war in America comes through powerfully. The hours whizz by. Writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell, who adapted Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Killer Angels,” runs things with assured competence and adroitly manipuilates the emotions on both sides. You feel empathy for both sides, no matter what their political agendas.”
Desson Howe, (Virginia/Maryland)
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This epic has few contemporary peers in its filmmaking and storytelling accomplishments. It is haunting, monumental, breathtaking, and unforgettable – nothing comparable is anywhere in sight. Few who brave this excellent motion-picture experience will come away feeling unmoved or unclear about the war.”
D. H. , LA Village View
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“By far the best account since The Red Badge of Courage of the most bloody war ever fought on American soil…War scenes have never before been so presented. Direction and screenplay by Ronald F. Maxwell are creative triumphs…One of the most powerful films in the history of the cinema.”
Larry Jonas, Entertainment Today
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“…lavish re-creation of the battle…impressive in its quest for detailed accuracy…a difficult military action full of terror and valor, seen with dramatic clarity through the eyes of vividly sketched individuals.”
Pat Dowell, Army Times
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“Penetrating…moving…thrilling.”
Hal Hinson, Washington Post
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“Ronald Maxwell’s Gettysburg is the film against which all subsequent films about the civil war will now be measured. This handsome and involving epic (is) complete, comprehensive and stirring. This is the first large-scale film treatment of a collision so central to our history, and it’s gratifying to see it done so well. Lavish and meticulously detailed, the scope and span of the film make it a natural for the big screen. If you wait for its inevitable passage to TV, you’ll lose something. Effortlessly mustering the you-are-there quality it’s after, it draws you into the thick of the fighting and into both camps, admiring the bravery and nobility even as it questions by implication the massive carnage. Gettysburg makes you realize how ruled the combatants were by codes of honor and morality. But the film is a lot more than historically accurate uniforms and firearms. Battle scenes and logistics tend to overwhelm characterizations in large-scale war movies, but the performances here, Martin Sheen’s mesmerizing Robert E. Lee and Jeff Daniel’s extraordinary Union colonel Chamberlain are Oscar-worthy…This is the kind of film where seriousness of purpose counts for a lot. You can feel everybody really trying to get it right, and it matters. Gettysburg is an obvious labor of love, and there’s quality up there onscreen beyond those definitive battle scenes. Civil War buffs and devotees of war movies will find it indispensible, but Gettysburg has much to offer anybody.”
Jay Carr, The Boston Globe
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“You might be tempted to wait and catch this picture when it is broadcast on television, or to give it a miss. This is to advise you to see it in a theater as soon as possible…I was hooked…Ronald F. Maxwell is a master storyteller…one is simply swept away by a narrative tidalwave…The glory of the performances in Gettysburg is in the way they take us beyond abstact platitudes into realms where duty, honor, justice and friendship are plausible motives for action.”
Gerald Carpenter, Santa Barbara
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“Filmgoers should be captivated…The battle of Little Round Top as depicted here could have made a movie all by itself. Credit has to go to writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell for capturing the madness of the battle scenes…Gettysburg succeeds as a motion picture event. After a summer of flash and sizzle, audiences may be ready for a healthy dose of substance.”
Daniel M. Kimmel, Variety
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“Gettysburg deserves exposure on the high screen…a terrific viewing experience…Gettysburg brilliantly recreates the horrific battle…A stellar lineup of actors digs in for some of the best performances of the year. The battle scenes are amazing…Equally awe-inspiring is Chamberlain’s defense of Little Round Top, a forest battle that is possibly the most riveting movie sequence so far this year. Writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell achieves authenticity in the fighting scenes and great emotion in the quieter moments.”
David Hunter, Hollywood Reporter
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“Stirring…Martin Sheen’s performance is altogether inspired, highlighting the vulnerable, deeply spiritual, almost mystical cast of mind behind the great man’s stoic mask. Tom Berenger as Lee’s skeptical lieutenant James Longstreet and Jeff Daniels, as college professor turned Union hero, Colonel Camberlain, are also outstanding – utterly convincing and unfailingly passionate.”
Michael Medved, NY
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“If you aren’t moved by the film Gettysburg get some CPR. Maxwell’s film could provide a greater understanding and appreciation for what happened at this special place. There may be a profound effect on how locals see the battle”
B.J. Small, Gettysburg Times
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“They don’t make movies like this anymore…frightful moments from the past, brought painfully and powerfully to vivid life on screen.”
Doug Brode, Syracuse Herald American
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“Right up there with Das Boot and Platoon as one of the best war pictures ever made…A powerful and touching study of the most costly battle ever fought on American soil…At times it left me in tears… If you have any interest in American History, in the raw emotion of combat, in the human conflicts between military command, and courage and pants-wetting fear, he finality of death and, ultimately, in the high art of film-making…well, Gettysburg is a 10-plus…a great American work of film art.”
Gary Franklin, KCOP-TV
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“It’s recreation of 19th Century combat on the battlefield of Gettysburg is one of the most moving, even shocking reminders ever filmed to depict the folly of war.”
Harry Kloman, Pittsburg
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“Gettysburg’s achievement goes far beyond the replication of the battle, although that is managed on a momentous scale. The in-fighting behind the real fighting, the muddled decisions, the personalities and army politics and the sheer luck – good and bad- are dramatized effectively…Turner originally intended Gettysburg as a mini-series for his cable network, but thought so highly of Maxwell’s work that he decided to release it theatrically. There will be very few who do not share his esteem for Gettysburg, a film that brings back to vivid, heartbreaking life those who died and those who lived to tell the tale.”
Desmond Ryan, Philadelphia Inquirer
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“Breathtaking…astonishing…One of the most exciting, involving war films ever made. In one spectacular scene after another, the battle that raged for three history-making days comes to life… Writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell has succeeded in balancing the personal stories with the spectacle of the three day confrontation to create an epic on the grandscale that never ignores the cost to the characters involved…there are extended sequences that will capture your attention and your imagination, your mind and heart…also performances you’re not likely to forget…Gettysburg is an achievement that should not be overlooked. You don’t have to be a student of American History to appreciate this movie. But you’re likely to become one after you’ve seen it.”
Sharon Johnson, The Patriot (Harrisburg, Pa)