At the Movies - 'Gods and Generals'

The Associated Press

Turgid, textureless and endless, "Gods and Generals" will alienate all but the most dogged Civil War buffs. It's history as punishment, casting the men and women who made it as deities on Earth -- their actions inscrutable, their flaws smoothed over.

Ten years after director Ronald F. Maxwell brought his exhaustive, exhausting vision of the Civil War to the screen with "Gettysburg," he's finally gotten another chance to inflict the conflict on audiences. When we're told at the end that "Gods and Generals" is not just a prequel to "Gettysburg" but the first part of a trilogy to include "The Last Full Measure," it's an ominous threat.

Here's how Maxwell understands the Civil War: Impossibly brave, articulate, larger-than-life men do battle, then sit around and talk, in long, measured, sanctimonious speeches, about What It All Means. There's no nitty-gritty, no sense of the horror for those staring at the cannons; it's all neatly packaged and ultimately inhuman. Ken Burns' documentary "The Civil War," without a single frame of recreated action, had 10 times more life.

Maxwell, who based his screenplay on Jeff Shaara's book, opens with Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall) declining an offer of a generalship in the Union army. Meanwhile, Gen. Thomas Jackson (Stephen Lang) is teaching at Virginia Military Institute and canoodling with his new wife, Anna (Kali Rocha).

The secession of Virginia draws Lee and Jackson into war, and "Gods and Generals" follows them through the first two years of the conflict, starting at the first battle of Manassas -- where Jackson picked up the nickname "Stonewall" -- and continuing through their decisive victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. The latter resulted in Jackson's death, but still emboldened Lee to invade the north.

Since this period consisted essentially of one Confederate triumph after another, they are the heroes. Maxwell tries to make it as easy as possible for those who feel uncomfortable rooting for the secessionists by smoothing out the moral ambiguities of their effort. Jackson expresses the view, also espoused by Gen. James Longstreet in "Gettysburg," that the Southern states should have freed the slaves themselves, to make clear that wasn't why they were fighting.

No one nearly as gallant or smart as Jackson or Lee was leading the Union army in the first two years of the war, so in his attempt to present a balanced view Maxwell is stuck with his forgotten hero of "Gettysburg," Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels). An educated, liberal college professor, Chamberlain becomes Maxwell's mouthpiece, lecturing the audience about the moral necessity of freeing the slaves and preserving the Union.

Maxwell retains his devotion to showing battles as comprehensively as possible, and the action has a bit more vigor than in "Gettysburg," which was produced for television and had a TV-sized frame and budget.

But he still keeps his aesthetic distance, staging what looks more like a Civil War re-enactment than the Civil War. He's afraid to stare down the barrel of the gun, to see battle from the grunt's point of view, sticking instead to classically framed images of soldiers in straight lines, either shooting or getting shot. Nobody looks afraid; death is noble and instantaneous.

In the lulls between the action, Maxwell dramatizes one lugubrious episode after another. He stops the movie in its tracks for 20 minutes to observe the absurd "friendship" that develops between Jackson and a 5-year-old girl (Lydia Jordan) while the Confederate leaders are holed up with a wealthy family over Christmas. When the girl dies of scarlet fever, Jackson breaks down and weeps, with his officers standing around watching from a respectful distance. They solemnly explain that Jackson is crying for everyone he's lost -- Maxwell can't trust the audience to understand a simple outpouring of grief.

There are moments of pleasure in watching Duvall, who plays Lee as wary and deliberate; he's a great deal more authentic than Martin Sheen in "Gettysburg." But in Lang, Maxwell has placed the burden of carrying the movie on an actor without any swagger. Lang's delivery is stilted and wooden, dripping in lame pieties.

That pretty much describes the entirety of "Gods and Generals."

"Gods and Generals," a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 for sustained battle sequences. Running time: 216 min. (not including a 12-minute intermission).

One and a half stars out of four.