Synopsis
The film centers mostly around the personal and professional life of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, a brilliant if eccentric Confederate general, from the outbreak of the American Civil War until its halfway point.
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Cast
- Stephen LangLt. Gen. Thomas Stonewall Jackson
- Jeff DanielsLt. Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
- Robert DuvallGen. Robert E. Lee
- Kevin ConwaySgt. Buster Kilrain
- C. Thomas HowellSgt. Thomas Chamberlain
- Jeremy LondonCapt. Alexander 'Sandie' Pendleton
- Matt LetscherCol. Adelbert Ames
- Brian MallonMaj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock
- Bo BrinkmanMaj. Walter Taylor
- Bruce BoxleitnerLt. Gen. James Longstreet
Recommendations
- 50
Chicago Reader
Maxwell continues his textbook emphasis on military maneuvers, but despite literally thousands of Civil War reenactors recruited for the film, the wide-screen canvas fails to map the tactics or evoke the terror of battle. - 40
Variety
Gods and Generals is American history transformed into a museum movie, consistently making the flawed human characters at the heart of the Civil War into flawless figures Olympian in their statuesque remoteness. - 38
Chicago Sun-Times
The kind of movie beloved by people who never go to the movies, because they are primarily interested in something else--the Civil War, for example--and think historical accuracy is a virtue instead of an attribute. - 38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
General Boredom meets Major Tedium on the Civil War fields of Virginia. - 33
Entertainment Weekly
Bloodless and false. - 30
The New York Times
A lumpy three-and-a-half-hour glob of Civil War history. - 25
Rolling Stone
What the filmmakers fail to recognize is that history on the page is quite different from what it needs to be onscreen, namely alive and visceral. - 25
San Francisco Chronicle
It's a plodding, episodic film, reverent and sanctimonious, and its pro-Southern viewpoint -- a time-honored Hollywood tendency -- makes "Gone With the Wind" look like a Northern polemic.
