Product Details

• Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 4
• Studio: Tapeworm Video Dist
• VHS Release Date: April 6, 1999
• Run Time: 240 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000I1MN
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #474,956 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Despite flaws - glorious, December 12, 2000

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Filmmaker's Gettysburg 4-Pack [VHS] (VHS Tape)

GETTYSBURG, a Ted Turner film adaptation of THE KILLER ANGELS first brought to the big screen in 1993, cannot be considered a great film for a few reasons, but can be considered glorious for many reasons.

With a run time just short of 4 hours, it's the one epic film of recent memory that required an intermission when shown in the theaters. It features a stellar cast: Martin Sheen, Tom Berenger, Richard Jordan and Stephen Lang as CSA Generals Lee, Longstreet, Armistead and Pickett, with Sam Elliott as USA General Buford and Jeff Daniels as USA Colonel Chamberlain. (Since there are absolutely no romantic subplots in the film, there are no actresses on the playbill to mush up the storyline. Just men bonding and killing, and otherwise doing guy stuff.) The acting performances are adequate to very good, with the best being those of Daniels and Jordan. The period costuming and armament is beyond reproach. The fake beards on some of the cast, especially Berenger, were cause for snide comment. The photography and music score are everything to be expected of a movie of such scope.

The plot, of course, revolves around events of those three days in July 1863 when General Meade's Army of the Potomac finally defeated General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in the rolling hills of southern Pennsylvania, setting the Confederacy down the road leading to final defeat two years later. The movie was choreographed on the actual battlefield - a battlefield on which 51,000 Federal and Confederate troops were killed, captured or wounded.

The film, like the book on which it was based, suffers from selectivity. The Day 1 battle features the heroic stand of General Buford and his cavalry command - the eventual Union rout is ignored. The Day 2 battle showcases Colonel Chamberlain's heroic defense of Little Round Top with his 20th Maine regiment - other hotspots, like the Wheatfield, Peach Orchard and Devil's Den, are completely left out. The Day 3 battle, almost without having to say it, is Pickett's Charge. As in most accounts of the battle I'm acquainted with, the right extreme of the Union line - Culp's Hill and Spangler's Spring - is hardly mentioned at all, if ever.

On leaving the cinema after my first viewing of the epic, I was in awe. (And I was not then, nor am I now, a fanatic Civil War buff.) Within a year, my wife and I visited the Gettysburg battleground. Of all the battlefield monuments in the United States, this is truly the most hallowed ground. (Possibly only the Little Bighorn - Custer - Battlefield National Monument in Montana resonates with such poignancy, and it's infinitely smaller.) I was able to stand amidst the trees and rocks of Little Round Top on the very place where my personal hero, Colonel Chamberlain, saved the day for the Union. If a movie inspires me to travel 2,000 miles to simply exist in, and breathe the air of, my surroundings, then, I tell you this, it's a glorious achievement.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite Movie, April 14, 2000

By 

"khnoum" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Filmmaker's Gettysburg 4-Pack [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I will admit this is my favorite movie. It is a long movie (over 4 Hrs.) but one I watch over and over again. The battle scenes are fantastic,the equipment of the day accurate and the music stirring. The best part is the actors portrayls of these famous men of the Civil War on both sides. The cast does an excellent job of putting a face and personality on what to most of us is just a name in a history book. It is just a great adaptation to film on the novel"Killer Angels'.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High points of critical Civil War battle, February 2, 2001

By 

Paul Sayles (Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Filmmaker's Gettysburg 4-Pack [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Gettysburg is not the end all and be all of historical movies. Rather, it spotlights a number of key people of both the Union and Confederate armies and looks at their roles. It is a little uneven in treatment; Lee is seen constantly while George Meade, his opponent is seen only as a walk-on. Joshua Chamberlain's role is greatly examined but the efforts of eccentric political general Dan Sickles are given only a glimpse.

Confederate generals Armistead and Pickett are well developed; Union general Hancock could have been better developed as his actions were also critical to the success of the Union forces.

The walk-on roles for Ken Burns and Ted Turner were inspired and actually added to the tenor of the film.

While long, to do it in less time woould have been a travesty.

I highly recommend this film to those with an interest in the Civil War.