Reflecting on Ron Maxwell's Movie GETTYSBURG Thirty Years Later

I am in the process of putting together my thoughts to kick off our discussion of the movie GETTYSBURG, which will take place this coming Sunday at 7PM EST. All paid subscribers will received a zoom invitation a few days in advance. There is still time to upgrade if you would like to join in on the discussion.

Somehow I am going to carve out a few hours this week to revisit the movie, but if you don’t have the time, I went ahead and put together a couple clips from YouTube.

Start with the official trailer from 1993. It does a really good job of summing up the main themes of the movie.

If you didn’t know anything about the Civil War and its cause, you would have no idea why ‘brother was fighting against brother’ at Gettysburg or why there was a war at all.

In this scene General James Longstreet and Lt. Col. Arthur J.L. Fremantle reflect on the common bonds and divisions between northerners and southerners. The Confederate army included roughly 10,000 enslaved men, but no one ever seems to reference slavery as relevant to what Confederates were fighting to protect.

Here is one of more absurd moments in which Confederates debate the theory of evolution.

GETTYSBURG helped to transform Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s reputation. In this scene he explains what the United States is fighting to maintain.

General Winfield Scott Hancock reflects on his friendship with Confederate general Lewis Armistead. The climax of “Pickett’s Charge” depicts a wounded Armistead offering his “regrets” to Hancock only to learn that his friend has also been wounded.

The tragedy of war.

I hope this is enough to wet your appetite and always remember, when in doubt…

See you Sunday night.