Customer Reviews

Gettysburg: The Battle and the Address [Blu-ray]

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This seemed really cool... A gettysburg doc. in HD...what could be better right??? Well jokingly i have said before that the only thing they got right with this film was the spelling of Gettysburg. I was discusted after 8 minutes of watching it. The HD was great dont get me wrong on that but the mis-facts were terrible. The film depicted the potential of taking culps hill in the middle of the day when the order was presented late at night in very dark pennsylvania. And the screwed with the names of the Generals during the first day of the battle... Overall it was terrible but I would not suggest buying it even though it is listed very cheap for blu-ray.

I picked this disc up a couple of months ago at Best Buy, and I can't begin to describe how disappointed I was.

First and most importantly, there's more than one glaring inaccuracy. If you're going to do a documentary about Gettysburg, shouldn't you at least check the basic facts? It was frustrating, to say the least.

So frustrating, in fact, that I've yet to watch the portion detailing Lincoln's post-battle visit to Gettysburg. If the battle portion was any indication, the Gettysburg Address segment was going to be as bad ... or worse.

The ONLY decent feature were the battle maps. When viewed in high definition, they're fairly cool. However, a few maps here and there isn't nearly enough to warrant a purchase. Go with something else ... anything else.

This documentary is total BS. The facts and opinions are totally wrong. I doubt that whoever was responsible for this have even read a single book on Gettysburg.

Heth's troops opened the battle, not Early's.
Little Roundtop was the most important battle feature on the second day, not Culp's hill.
Custer did not "Save the Union". Indeed Grant's victory in Vicksburg did more to end the Civil War than the battle at Gettysburg. Had Meade lost there he would have retreated into Washington's inpenetrable defenses and waited for Grant's army to push Lee away from the district.
I have read in many books about Gettysburg that Lincoln was livid that Meade did not follow up the battle by persuing Lee. Their statements as to a 'discovery' of a hand written telegram regarding this and subsequent opinions was absurd.
Indeed these four "facts" are only the beginning.

Even the material regarding the address was silly.

Avoid this garbage.

I never thought that people designing a documentary would get basic facts incorrect but these people did. There were several inaccuracies regarding the Battle of Gettysburg. Probably too many to list and most wouldn't be appreciated except by Civil War buffs. The historical actors were stilted, especially in their dialogue. Oh and they used some questionable sources arguing the American Civil War was fought because of slavery. While that was certainly a sub factor there's a bigger scope as to how this war came about and anyone uninformed who chooses to watch this documentary will be severely misled. Don't buy it. WHEN WATCHED: mid December 2011; OVERALL GRADE: D to D plus.