Well this was a war epic and no mistake. It took nearly as long to watch as the battle took to fight. Halfway through the Civil War, Confederate General Robert E. Lee (Martin Sheen) marched his army through Maryland and up into Pennsylvania in order to draw out the Federal Army. With a decisive enough victory, Lee would then be able to march straight to Washington D.C. The army is spotted by General Buford (Sam Elliott) near the town of Gettysburg, who rallies his Union troops to hold the high ground until reinforcements can arrive.
The movie follows several leading figures of the war including General Longstreet (Tom Berenger), one of Lee's top strategists, General Pickett (Stephen Lang), a Virginia firebrand, and for the Union side Colonel Lawrence Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels) of the 20th Maine and his brother and aide-de-camp Tom (C. Thomas Howell). Their stories are told sympathetically, with no agenda from either side. Historian Ken Burns worked with the filmmakers to provide his unique insight. The result is a very human portrayal of one of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War.
Obviously, there's no real happy ending with this since it's a war movie, but if you have any interest in the history it's worth a watch. Everybody looks as close to the historical photographs as they can get, which means a metric ton of fake facial hair. Some of the more famous ones are damn near unrecognizable, which is all to the good since you shouldn't be focusing on who people are as much as who they're supposed to be.
It's not really my cup of tea and the score is so saccharine it made my teeth hurt but not bad.
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