In any conflict, there are winners and losers, this cannot be helped of course as that generally is how conflicts tend to resolve themselves. Whether you were right or wrong doesn’t really matter, or may not even be truly knowable, but the debates will echo on long after the cession of any hostilities, long after any surviving member can rebuke the argument. In 2003 to follow up on the cinematic epic of Gettysburg over a decade ago, Ted Turner and others chronicled some of the tacticians of the losing side in Gods and Generals.

Following the life of Civil War belligerent, Stonewall Jackson, Gods and Generals focuses on the Civil War largely from the Confederate’s perspective. Almost immediately after the initial attack of Fort Sumner, we learn how he got the name Stonewall and his actions up until his death after the Battle of Chancellorsville. Gods and Generals threw a spotlight on General Lee, and selected few tacticians of the Civil War.

Focusing almost exclusively on the runners-up of the Civil War, Gods and Generals feels like the call and response to the other Civil War epic Gettysburg a decade earlier. Attempting to show the South’s Secession solely from their eyes. While, there have been many factors offered towards why the South did try to break away a century and change ago. The film has characters with the almost flowery poetic language used to justify their actions, it might be a tough pill to swallow as the causes and motivations of the war are heavily debated to this day. Yet if you want to see some of the greats of cinema take on these characters, Gods and Generals gives you another chance.

Sans the great Martin Sheen, a lot of the cast of Gettysburg do return, albeit playing new roles. General Robert E. Lee is Robert Duvall, but among him are such titans acting like W. Morgan Sheppard. Stonewall himself is Stephen Lang, who has recently risen in ranks after playing Pickett in Gettysburg. He is a capable actor, from his time as Freddie in Manhunter to his recent appearances in the Avatar films as the Colonel. Depending on what version you watch, you might also get extended footage of one John Wilks Booth, a valued player on Sondheim’s musical, and noted hater of quote-unquote tyrants. Rounding out the cast of characters in this Civil War play.

You don’t get many epics like Gods and Generals, certainly not ones clocking in at over three and a half hours. However, attempting to match up with the impressive might of Gettysburg might have forced Ted Turner et al down this path. It goes without saying that now is your chance if you watched Gettysburg and developed more of a taste for more epics based around the time. Although there were three books in this trilogy, Gods and Generals couldn’t muster up that much of a demand for the final instalment to be filmed. Although the South’s flirtation with independence lasted officially for only a few years. The efforts to compile the saga to film have gone on a lot longer.

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