Why Gods and Generals is Neo-Confederate Propaganda (and Objectively Sucks)

Gods and Generals is the most offensive civil war movie since the birth of a nation it's also objectively terrible the extended edition is nearly 5 hours long and frankly I'd rather face a firing squad than put myself through it again it's exhausting and sanctimonious and if you're not a huge Civil War buff like me you'll just get nothing out of it but oddly enough this dull flaccid utterly inane excuse for entertainment is an extremely effective piece of propaganda watching this I get the creepy sense that the entire reason Gods and Generals exists is to convince Civil War buffs that the Confederacy wasn't really all that bad that it was about states rights after all and that the antebellum south was just a porch sittin lemonade sipping paradise here it still the sultry balmy as we'll see the truth was otherwise before we proceed I'd like to get one thing absolutely clear the Confederate States of America existed primarily to preserve and expand the institution of slavery Confederate soldiers were fighting for slavery and they knew it that's not an opinion it's a fact as the saying goes facts don't care about your feelings if you disagree I encourage you to watch on and have your beliefs challenged in a healthy way because if you truly know that the Civil War wasn't about slavery then surely one YouTube video by a confirmed Farb isn't going to change your mind right [Music] as early as 1922 Vladimir Lenin recognized film as an important tool for spreading political propaganda in his case he was trying to reinforce Marxist principles in the minds of the Russian people but even before Lenin and certainly ever since film has been used to further the spread of pretty much every ideology Under the Sun there's fascism anti-fascism classical liberalism militarism anti-militarism leftism nationalism anti nationalism theism antitheism anti-colonialism and so on but just because these films advocate a certain point of view doesn't automatically make them manipulative or bad some propaganda pieces are more insidious than others and often a film with a bias can be thought provoking in a positive and enlightening way even if I disagree with the message I can still take a good propaganda film if it's well made or entertaining but whether benignly thought provoking or blatantly ideological these movies have one thing in common the filmmakers are trying to sell you something in the case of Gods and Generals director Ron Maxwell is pushing the tired old thoroughly debunked right wing talking points of The Lost Cause myth but Andy I hear you thinking you've made several videos criticizing Confederate apologists your position on this issue is clear surely you have a bias of your own in a way this video is a piece of propaganda - whoa meta dude and for that matter doesn't every filmmaker have their own biases that filter into their work consciously or not well know for example let's briefly look at a film that many consider to be right-wing propaganda but which actually isn't as Kraig dollars dragged across concrete it's about to a gene old school cops who get suspended because they use excessive force while arresting a Latino man in the scene where their boss breaks the bad news the cops voice their frustration with political correctness and the liberal distrust of police officers which they feel inhibits their ability properly do their job some audiences saw this scene as an implicit endorsement of this conservative anti PC viewpoint but nothing could be further from the truth if you actually watch the movie which is pretty damn good by the way it's clear that the characters played by Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn are not winking at the audience it's just that they're aging old school cops they've been doxed by the Twitter outrage machine so of course they would express those views in that situation there's a big difference between fictional characters in a movie expressing certain opinions figure a man's only good for one oath at a time I took mine to the Confederate States of America and a filmmaker trying to indoctrinate his or her audience with a specific political agenda [Music] [Applause] I'm about to explain in detail why Gods and Generals fits into the latter category and in so doing spits historical accuracy right in the face godson generals is a stupid movie it's not paul blart mall cop kind of stupid but because it completely lacks depth and nuance it has to Telegraph to the audience what they should be feeling at any given moment the principal way it does this is through the use of its score take this scene where the Virginia House of Delegates declares that state's intention to secede from the union how could there be union with a section of the country that wants to impose it will throw coercion oh you mean like slavery does never mind we'll get to that so at this point Robert Ely has gotten up in front of everybody and accepts the position as commander of the Confederate Army watch this and listen carefully [Applause] did you notice that the soaring triumphant John Williams II music what might have motivated that shorts what does the director Ron Maxwell want us to feel in this moment either he's a complete [ __ ] and thinks that every rousing speech needs triumphant music or he wants us to feel inspired and uplifted that the south is seceding from the union I'm leaning toward the latter especially when you see scenes like this [Applause] yeah the village idiot was the one who wanted to prevent a [ __ ] war what an idiot consider also the sequence depicting the Battle of Chancellorsville now this is as close as Gods and Generals comes to a climactic moment and historically it was the Confederacy's greatest victory where Stonewall Jackson brilliantly steamrolled over the federal right flank check out the music in this scene this cue turns the battle scene into nothing less than neo Confederate porn the bellicose chorus turns the Army of Northern Virginia into this unstoppable completely badass avenging force it's meant to get your blood pumping and it succeeds that's a great cue I'm as anti Confederate as they come and this scene has even me going yeah [ __ ] them Yankees up hard and going bars finally let's look at Stonewall Jackson's death scene at the end of the film spoilers by the way this is an incredibly melodramatic scene it's just goofy and all over the place but what's really telling is the heavenly choir singing in the score [Music] it indicates martyrdom and even though Jackson got pointlessly gunned down by his own men by mistake his death is depicted as a pseudo religious sacrifice even has his hand raised in this saintly way and just before he goes this look comes across his face like he's seeing the gates of heaven opening up it's a christ-like demise and the film clearly implies that he gave His life nobly for a good cause the last shot of the extended edition is a slow pushin on Jackson's coffin and the stainless banner draped over it the camera settles on the top left section of the flag to the Confederate cross that we all know and love this is what Jackson died for the film is saying he gave his life to defend what this flag represents Gettysburg Maxwell's previous civil war film is not a masterpiece by any means but it does do a pretty good job of maintaining a neutral point of view in the immortal words of George Lucas there are heroes on both sides it works in Gettysburg because that film focuses on military history and apart from one little scene unthoughtful my rat's obviously that's what we're fighting for for you what for are rats it doesn't really delve into the social or political history of the 1860s not so with Gods and Generals the first 45 minutes or so are filled with tedious speech after speech about the virtues of the Southern cause just as we would not say many of our soldiers to march in other states and tieran as other people so will we never allow the armies of others to march into our state nevertheless maxwell pretends that this film is a no-spin zone and pretty much spells it out for us in this scene toward the end where Colonel Chamberlain and his wife go to see a production of Julius Caesar starring John Wilkes Booth it's for the audience to decide who is a hero and who is villain whoa meta dude it's frankly insulting that after four and a half hours of shoving me Oh Confederate revisionism down our throats Maxwell tells us please make up your own mind especially since lots of that propaganda is pretty convincing take these words that Maxwell puts in Stonewall Jackson's mouth if Virginia adheres to the United States idea her determination must control mine this is my understanding of patriotism and though I love the Union I love Virginia more that sounds reasonable right as an American I value individualism and self-reliance I love my country but I do love my family friends and local community more and I would fight for those things if I had to the north triumph city is not alone the destruction mouths property it is the prelude to anarchy infidelity the ultimate loss of free and responsible government on this continent it is the triumph of Commerce the banks factories yeah I hate banks too if the Republicans lose their little war they are voted out in the next election and they return to their homes in New York or Massachusetts or Illinois fact with their war profits if we lose we lose our country war profiteers are awful maybe this whole secession thing isn't as bad as some folks say maybe it wasn't just all about so look it's Alexander Stevens the vice president of the Confederacy I wonder what he has to say the prevailing ideas entertained by the old Constitution were that the enslavement of the African was a violation of the laws of nature that it was wrong principle socially morally those ideas however were fundamentally wrong they rested upon the assumption of the Equality of races this was our error our Newell government is founded upon exactly the opposite handles its foundations are laid its cornerstone rests upon a great truth men that Negroes that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and moral condition this now in government is the first in the history of the court based upon his great physical philosopher [Applause] see how easy it is to fall for this lost cause [ __ ] and if Gods and Generals is a neutral examination of Civil War history as Maxwell claims then shouldn't the Yankees get just as much plays the Confederates well yeah they should but they don't not even close with the exception of the Chamberlain brothers Buster Kilrain and Winfield Scott Hancock all of whom are minor incidental characters Yankees in this film are either portrayed as [ __ ] bureaucrats I trust you're not being too hasty yourself colonel this is a great opportunity for you to serve your country as all politicians I congratulate the army that the numbers of casualties have been comparatively so small compared to what to you the Scots at Columbia or [ __ ] generals who don't listen to good advice from their subordinates general Hancock I certainly appreciate your efforts at reconnaissance but this possibility has been considered and rejected and of course plunderin thievin violators of our homes and far SADS this is an old lost cause stereotype of the Union Army that it was an aggressive invading force that attacked southern civilians burned their homes and confiscated their property while this sort of thing did occasionally happen the worst offenses weren't committed by the regular federal army but by Pro Union paramilitaries particularly out west in Kansas and Missouri the hell is this red leg doing here you said regular federal authorities would be handling this captain Terrill is the regular federal authority now captain Terrill is a bloodthirsty son-of-a-bitch he is a looter and a pillager so Maxwell goes out of his way to portray the Confederates as plucky rebels fighting against an evil Federal Empire and with a couple notable exceptions that wasn't the case historically secession was orchestrated by an aristocratic planter class that correctly anticipated the imminent end of American slavery that was so vital to the southern economy even white Southerners who advocated conditional abolitionism such as facing slavery out over a long period of time knew that without millions of free laborers the agrarian economy the cotton states would suffer maybe even collapse so the planters who had enormous political influence ultimately decided that they would rather rip the country in half than risk their bottom line most of the famous Confederate soldiers came from the planter class robert e lee was born rich the son of a dynastic political family his father was governor of virginia and his uncle served in the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War Jeb Stuart's father was a plantation owner and career politician Nathan Bedford Forrest though born poor amassed a huge fortune before the war through speculation and slave trading my boy James Longstreet grew up on a plantation PT Beauregard was from a stinking rich family into parish George Pickett came from old Virginia money and got most of his career opportunities through nepotism Thomas J Jackson well Stonewall was a bit different but we'll get more into that later yet and Gods and Generals we see privileged elitist Yankees in a Carla with their whiskey and cigars while the Confederates huddle around a simple campfire with their men you all need to stop pretending that these guys were men of the people they weren't they were men of privilege dedicated to preserving the status quo and just what was that status quo it is the systematic coercion of one group of men over another well said Chamberlain you overhyped hack strong Vincent rolls in his grave every time the history books mention you by the way this scene with the Chamberlain brothers is interesting freeing the slaves wasn't a war rain when this all began but war changes things sorts things out not everybody feels the way we do about the dakis especially when it comes to fightin and die this is the only racial slur used by anyone in the entire movie this neutral nonpartisan Civil War film features one racial slur and it comes out of the mouth of a Union soldier and how did the Confederate characters treat black people why lack members of the family of course there are three black characters and Gods and Generals and they're either super down with the Confederacy or they want to be free despite the fact that they love their masters I love them papers you don't chase from this house that's not the most oh my laughs this is how the actors described their characters in the film if I was born in that time period I would have been subservient yes a video near yoselin knows them and you know trying to survive but I think that because of Who I am in the back of my mind is like I'm only you gonna take me only so far and then at one point I'm gonna say no it's easy for somebody say oh well honey I just get on out of there well maybe you would but where are you going you know you might run to that North Star but mother had three little children what are you gonna do these are fair points in the Louisiana slave revolt of 1811 a quarter of the slaves at the German Coast region joined the rebellion but three-quarters remained loyal was this because they had genuine love for their masters in certain cases yes but for the vast majority they decided not to take up arms because they calculated the risks of revolt and decided that it was likely to fail sadly they were right you see the same calculation and revolts and revolutions all throughout history and the Jewish revolt against the Romans in the first century AD much of the violence was between competing Jewish sects some pro revolt others Pro Grohmann the Romans eventually won Judean people's front for the people's front of Judea in King Philip's War the Mohegan Tribe among others sided with the English colonists against the native confederation that opposed them the English eventually won and in the American Revolution Tories across the colonies clashed with rebels both politically and militarily the rebels eventually won against all odds the instinct of self-preservation is biological and deeply ingrained in all human beings but loyal American slaves weren't like this [Music] they were like this I'll grant you that loyal slaves existed but I question Ron Maxwell's choice to feature these slave characters specifically in his film and no others this is a whitewashed hugely historically inaccurate portrayal of American slavery it wasn't like this it was like this [Music] [Applause] the way I see it if you're a filmmaker and you want to portray American slavery you have an obligation to depict it accurately this pg-13 kid-friendly cotton-candy [ __ ] leads the general movie-going public to think that slavery wasn't all that bad and that has dangerous real-world ramifications now this might strike some of my longtime viewers as somewhat hypocritical in the past I've defended movies like Braveheart against those who obsess over historical inaccuracy but ultimately it doesn't matter whether the general public thinks William Wallace were a kilt it does matter that they think that slaves were happy and loved their masters like family I loved him but you don't chase from this house [ __ ] you Ron this movie is basically a dry chronicle of the events of the first two years of the war in the Eastern theater I'm sure a huge amount of research was done on troop movements battle tactics and the lives of the soldiers portrayed thousands of Civil War reenactors took part in this film men deeply concerned with getting minut historical details absolutely correct so it's deeply ironic that Gods and Generals is one of the least historically accurate movies ever made for the simple reason that it deliberately omits the true horror of slavery gentlemen let us lift our glasses to our southern women without whose bravery and Florida cubed whose love is enjoying some sacrifice on a man among us stay the course [Applause] in the car so that might seem like a good place to stop on this topic but I'm not done yet there are two black characters who helped out the Confederate Army there's Jim Lewis who's Stonewall Jackson's free cook and this guy in the Confederate hat was also a free man of color who only appears in the extended edition of the film here is his deal where's your master Knight I ain't got no master no more now him my boss see I was sold at auction of the Fredericksburg once and he bought me for $1,200 then the walk up then I said right when I'm soaked he gave me my freedom papers man he pays my wages you know black people had it pretty good before those goddamn Yankees came along then the Yankees come and burned down his house and the next thing you know the mayor who's paying me wages is in the Confederate Army and so am i he's not really in the Confederate Army black men were forbidden by law to enlist in the Confederate Army Jim and the guy with the hat that's an impeccable handsome thank you so represent a tiny minority of african-americans who aided the Confederate war effort the vast majority yeah you guessed it were slaves who were forced to work manual labor in support of the army Confederate apologists will often point to the first Louisiana native guard a unit raised in my own city of New Orleans as definitive proof that black Confederate soldiers existed an actual fact the native guard was made up of mixed-race Creole free people of color who were themselves part of the aristocratic planter class yeah we've always done things a little differently down in New Orleans and they never seemed to mention the fact that the native guard promptly switched sides when the Union Army captured the city in 1862 anyway later on in the film hat guys master dies in battle this is what he has to say this give me my freedom language for Christ's sake can we have one black person in this movie who doesn't regard white people with unconditional loyalty and affection just one but perhaps Gods and Generals greatest crimes against history are the lines put in the mouths of Jim Lewis Lexington is my home general same Jean if I could do my share and defend in my home I'd be doing the same as you oh my god this movie hurts my brain the tragedy here is that Jim had some potential to be a really interesting character a free black man decided to support the Confederacy to earn a wage and survive but who has families still enslaved and is struggling with conflicting loyalties I'd like to watch that movie it could have been original and ballsy and something that really would have taken audiences out of their comfort zone but remember this movie is incredibly dumb and Maxwell barely skims the surface of that potential in this scene Stonewall and Jim share a prayer and Jim essentially challenges the general about the Confederates defense of slavery how is it Lord how is it good Kristen rain like some folks I know in tolerate the black brothers in bondage in a smarter movie this remark would maybe cause some tension in Jim's relationship with Jackson maybe it would cause Jackson to have doubts about the righteousness of the Confederate cause and questioned whether the preservation of slavery really is part of God's plan instead he says this him you must know what some officers in his army who are of the opinion that you should be enlisting Negroes as a condition for freedom that's what they say is around the camera I doubt anyone's been saying that round the camp this was a fringe belief in the Confederate Army and if certain officers advocated enlisting slaves as a condition for freedom they would not have been talking about it publicly in 1862 it would have seemed insane the Confederacy was still doing well it was holding its own against the federal juggernaut the first Confederate officer to seriously proposed this was General Patrick Claiborne in 1864 after the tide of war had turned firmly against the South early in 1865 General Lee came out in support of the idea but the Confederate Congress didn't authorize the use of black soldiers until March 1865 when things were getting really desperate in any event it was too little too late and Lee surrendered to grant a month later no people will be freed one way of telling the best lies flerp at the truth and Jackson's stated position on slavery is no exception we actually know very little about Jackson's actual opinions on this and much of what we do know comes from the memoirs of his wife Anna written 30 years after the war Stonewall was somewhat unique among high-ranking Confederates and then he came from a working-class background and spent much of his childhood and adolescence working his uncle's mill he probably worked alongside slaves every day it's entirely possible that due to this experience the young Jackson considered slaves more as people than his property in the 1850s Jackson ran a Sunday school for slaves and free people of color lost causes will claim that such a school was illegal and that Jackson was some sort of early civil rights pioneer but in truth there were many other schools like that in Virginia at the time so was Jackson one of the good Confederates like Longstreet and Mosby it's hard to say because he was taken from us so young but it's important to note that before the war he was a fairly typical upper middle class slave owner in Gods and Generals Jackson's own slaves are notably absent even in scenes taking place at his house in Lexington where they would have lived Stonewall owned at least six slaves and according to Anna he was a very strict but conned master given his servants that which is just and equal but exact him from the proper obedience his trainin maid the colored servants as polite and punctual as that race is capable of being and his system soon showed his good effects they realized that if they did their duty they would receive the best of treatment from him at Christmas he was generous in presence and frequently gave them small sums of money as for Jackson's political views on slavery Anna says I have heard him say that he would prefer to see the Negroes free but he believed that the Bible taught that slavery was sanctioned by the Creator himself who maketh men to differ and he instituted laws for the bomb and the free he therefore accepted slavery as it existed in the southern states not as a thing desirable in itself but as allowed by Providence for ends which it was not his business to determine at the same time the Negroes had no true a friend no greater benefactor this seems to jive with what we know of Jackson's intense religious belief but as Ana had a vested interest in keeping Jackson's legacy as squeaky clean as possible I find it hard to believe that black Americans had no truer friend than Stonewall Jackson but what does slavery and the Confederacy mean - Ron Maxwell our director well I'm sorry to say he's almost certainly one of those it's heritage not hate don't take the statue down its history type of people how do I know this if you're watching this Ron set your facebook posts to private so that was a heavy topic these past few minutes of the video may have made you angry or uncomfortable some of you might be taking to the comment section now to call me a virtue signaler or a white knight or a soy boy trust me I've heard them all but I just want you to know that the reason I often talk about American slavery and criticize the lost cause isn't because I have white guilt or because I want to feel validated with fake internet points it's mainly because when I was a young impressionable history buff making civil war movies in the woods near my parents house bad history from biased lost causes and propaganda films like Gods and Generals convinced me that the or wasn't all about slavery and that the Confederacy fought for a noble cause and that the antebellum South wasn't all that bad when I started to learn the truth I felt like such a fool how could I have been taken in by this nonsense if I can provide a solid resource with good history if I can reach just one young person who might be entertaining these ideas and convince them otherwise then this video will have done its job if you still don't believe me at this point I'm not sure that anything that I can say can change your mind so I won't try I'll let you hear it straight from the horse's mouth did you know that we actually have audio recordings from the 30s and 40s of former slaves talking about their experiences Yeah right now in the 21st century you can listen to the voices of American slaves and I gotta warn you the picture they paint is not pretty but I think that a woman total woman's head in the peach orchard and flip them and you know just title and this way you know around the peach or the tree I remember that this is well look like to me I can't and now the tree and flip them and what she couldn't do them but just keep a future new discography but it just had a close all down so a tional it didn't have a plum naked but they had a total down so late and they were not in it football you know and snuff the pipe out on you know snuff pipe out on me go damaging the paper well you'll see the pipe smoking all hours [Music] we've seen how Gods and Generals fails to accurately depict the realities of the Civil War now let's examine how the movie fails utterly on a cinematic level the biggest problem with Gods and Generals is that the film has no discernable story this was the case with Gettysburg - but at the very least Gettysburg had characters that you liked and Gods and Generals the characters were all boring bran Maxwell's intention here seems to have been to create a visual record of certain key events in the Civil War but in so doing he sacrifices narrative and story structure they go right down the toilet you might argue that traditional story structure can be constraining and isn't necessarily applicable to all types of movies and you'd be right but Gods and Generals wasn't directed by David Lynch it was directed by Ron Maxwell and Ron's not that intelligent or thoughtful a filmmaker he should be directing paul blart mall cop not civil war epics the trouble with both this movie and Gettysburg is that Maxwell confuses drama with story every once in a while something really dramatic will happen like Stonewall Jackson's little girlfriend dying of fever or the Confederate Irish Brigade being forced to fire on the federal Irish Brigade or Jackson having to oversee the execution of deserters from his beloved Stonewall Brigade but these overwrought dramatic moments ultimately have no impact on the story doing nothing to drive the narrative forward they don't even provide insights into the characters involved we already know Jackson's a hard-ass so when he executes the deserters he becomes even more of a hard-ass that's a generous interpretation because Jackson has no character arc whatsoever his scenes are watchable because of Steven Lange's great performance but ultimately his character is not that interesting at the beginning of the movie he's a devout fiercely patriotic soldier at the end he's a devout fiercely patriotic soldier there's no change in no growth but at least Jackson has a personality unlike some other Confederate generals I know Lee so this is the first shot of gods and Generals thrilling stuff why not have Li do something anything to showcase a bit of his personality here I get that the historical Lee was a soft-spoken somewhat stoic old aristocrat but does that mean he has to be a block of wood god I'm having season 8 flashbacks you know brands characterized a lot of development I remember and this seemed particularly I pulled branch size that hit bran maybe a little less birch you know maybe a little more Oh at least in Gettysburg Martin Sheen's Lee had emotions you know he fretted about the outcome of the battle and he got pissed off at his subordinates when they screwed up told you there is no time for that there is no time and he felt like a real person yes Robert Duvall's performance is too understated but no one can doubt his acting ability I place the blame squarely on the script and the direction I'm sure Ron Maxwell would be the first to admit that he's not exactly an actor's director your spirit is faster than quick an I can whip up shouldn't we make some attempt to occupy Fredericksburg and possibly the heights beyond now while we have it for the taking your spirit is faster than oceans I'm so sorry Jeff Daniels what can you do with a line like that I know the 19th century was a sentimental time and everything but geez Louise it's like this movie was written by Tommy Wiseau but at the same time we know that Maxwell isn't a complete dum-dum he's an extremely effective propagandist yes but he also understood that he needed to cash in on the success of Gettysburg by far the best scene of that film is the 20th Maine's desperate defense of Little Round Top throughout that sequence depicting the second day of the battle the audience emotionally connects with three characters Colonel Chamberlain his brother Tom and Buster Kilrain so of course they get shoved into this movie this is the Ron Maxwell Cinematic Universe equivalent of putting c-3po and r2d2 into a scene at the rebel base for no reason why just no he never tell me anything Otto you could have cut the Yankee characters out of this movie completely and you barely noticed their absence I say if you're gonna make a movie about Stonewall Jackson make a movie about Stonewall Jackson if you want to make a movie that's a dry dull chronicle of the first two years of the Civil War just don't when I made my video about battle scenes my subscribers Zachary Kelly said that he was surprised I didn't mention Gettysburg told you there's no time for that I replied that I thought the battle scenes are pretty lackluster and I threw in a little bit about how much I hate it oh I guess I'm doing that yeah the battle scenes suck both in Gettysburg and Gods and Generals as many of you know this is a topic I have a lot to say about but I'll try to keep it short there are four battles in the extended edition of Gods and Generals first Manassas or Bull Run if you're a Midland Yankee Antietam Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville and because this movie stretches its resources across four major battle scenes it doesn't manage to do justice to any of them first off we need to be told the title cards what regiment or Brigade we're looking at at any given time even if it mattered which it doesn't you know you're in trouble when you have to do this do we really need to know that this is Brigadier General Raleigh Colston's division no their Confederate soldiers advancing that's all we need to know it's ironic that Maxwell feels the need to show us which division is which because when the battles get started we get no sense at all the tactics involved which I would argue is way more important to get across okay so that's not entirely fair two out of the four battles do show us tactics but in a super simplistic dumbed down way at Fredericksburg the Yankees advance uphill against an entrenched Confederate position and a Chancellorsville Stonewall Jackson ambushes the 11th Corps and routes the Union flank at first Manassas we have to be told that the Confederates are losing today is going against us if you think so son you had better not say anything about it come on man show don't tell this is like the first rule of moviemaking I should be able to tell that they're losing by seeing the troop movements and the worried look on the commander's faces so many other filmmakers have done it well Gods and Generals is just lazy it's a similar story with the Battle of Antietam and it's a real shame because Antietam was one of the most consequential battles of the war but all we see is some artillery fire and a handful of middle-aged reenactors facing off in a cornfield that I assume is supposed to be Miller's cornfield you know the site of the most savage fighting of the bloodiest single-day of the entire war Wow look at that carnage oh look the guys water bottle got shot he could be dangerously dehydrated apart from all the Lost Cause stuff the gorlice pg13 battles are Gods and Generals biggest crime against historical authenticity as far as I'm concerned you can't accurately depict the battles of the Civil War without showing rivers of blood this is a first-hand account of the Battle of Antietam from Christoph meter of the 20th New York infantry I had just got myself pretty comfortable when a bomb burst over me and completely definitely I felt a blow on my right children my jacket was covered with white stuff I felt mechanically whether I still had my arm thank God it was still cold at the same time I felt something damp on my face I wiped it off it was blood it's now I first saw that the man next to me Kessler lacked the upper part of his head but almost all his brains had gone into the face of the man next to it Merkel so that he could scarce let's see since any moment the same could happen to anyone no one thought much about it oh no not the water bottle if you don't show the violence as it really was it gives the impression that the Civil War was more like a camping trip than an actual war there's will so terrible we should grow to fondant doesn't seem so terrible lead seems kind of fun actually and confusing my god with the exception of Fredericksburg there's absolutely no sense of geography to these battles we see cannons firing but there's no rhyme or reason to their deployments and targets shells come out of nowhere - bloodlessly land at the feet of stuntmen we see the generals point of view but without understanding fully what we're even looking at who [ __ ] cares that it's Colston's division what's going on with general hood this is the first time we're hearing about him in this entire [ __ ] movie does Ron Maxwell just assume that everybody watching this already knows the intimate details of the tactics of these battles well yes because you've probably already gathered by now that this film has a super limited appeal and my theory is that it was made solely for re-enactors particularly Confederate ones Exhibit A is this bizarre scene where Jeff Stewart sends a nice new coat to Stonewall Jackson and everybody has this like weird American Psycho moment with it look at that subtle off-white coloring a tasteful thickness on that oh my god the only thing that can turn middle-aged men into squealing fashionistas is a brand-new piece of reenacting gear and I say that with love despite having my reservations about the somewhat toxic nature of reenacting culture I really appreciate reenactors passion for history in detail mine Bernie if you're going to be general grant you have to have a drink yeah I'm a recovering alcoholic that said but most people find interesting about the Civil War isn't the minutia of military uniforms and gear it's the incredible stories of the people involved their bravery resilience and all-too-human fali ability I think it's very telling that the costumes and sets of gods and generals are painstakingly accurate but virtually everything else from its kid-friendly violence to its insulting pro-confederate bias is less realistic than paul blart mall cop [Music]

Channel: Atun-Shei Films

Views: 3,355,489

Keywords: gods and generals, american civil war, civil war, review, video essay, gettysburg, ron maxwell, stonewall jackson, robert e lee, stephen lang, robert duvall, jeff daniels, lost cause, confederacy, confederate, union, military history, american history, first manassas, bull run, fredericksburg, chancellorsville, propaganda, slavery, black history, battle, virginia, educational, informative, film, movies, cinema

Id: S3E2FdedPwU

Length: 41min 22sec (2482 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 12 2019