Gettysburg (film)

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Gettysburg

Theatrical poster for Gettysburg
Directed by Ronald F. Maxwell
Produced by Moctesuma Esparza,
Robert Katz
Written by Ronald F. Maxwell
Starring Martin Sheen
Tom Berenger
Jeff Daniels
Sam Elliott
Stephen Lang
Music by Randy Edelman
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Running time 254 min.
Budget $25,000,000 (est.)
IMDb profile

Gettysburg is a 1993 movie that dramatizes the decisive Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. It was directed by Ronald F. Maxwell, who also wrote the screenplay, a close adaptation of Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1974 novel The Killer Angels.

For the first time, the National Park Service allowed the motion picture industry to recreate and film battle scenes directly on the Gettysburg Battlefield, including scenes of Devil's Den and Little Round Top. However, much of the movie was shot at a nearby Adams County farm. Thousands of Civil War reenactors from across the country volunteered their time and expense to come to Gettysburg to participate in the massive battle scenes.

Media mogul Ted Turner helped bankroll the project (originally planned as a miniseries for TNT), but decided to instead release it in theaters. Although not as successful at the box office as Turner and Maxwell had hoped, the movie became a popular seller on VHS and DVD, and has become a staple of classroom history lessons. Civil War buff Ted Turner has a cameo appearance in one of the battle scenes as Colonel Waller T. Patton. During Major General Pickett's (Stephen Lang) charge, some Confederate troops come to a fence that they have to climb over. Turner plays the Confederate officer who leads the charge, then gets shot down.

Another cameo appearance is by Civil War buff Ken Burns, who wrote and directed the epic PBS documentary, The Civil War. He portrays an aide to Major General Hancock (Brian Mallon) during Pickett's Charge. He can be seen saying "General, please get down. We cannot spare you," to Hancock, to which Hancock replies with his famous quotation, "There are times when a corps commander's life does not count."

One of the longest films ever released by a Hollywood studio, Gettysburg runs 254 minutes (4 hours, 14 minutes) on VHS and DVD. A "Director's Cut", with several extended or deleted scenes, was produced and sold as a part of a special VHS boxed "Collector's Edition", which also included Mort Künstler's book of Gettysburg paintings, an original Civil War lead Minié ball, some stock photographs of key officers from the battle, and other items. The editor's cut has not appeared on any DVDs to date. Ron Maxwell's 271-minute (4 hours, 31 minutes) Director's Cut has been shown on Turner's TNT Station regularly. This version is not available on DVD.

A prequel, Gods and Generals, was released in 2003.

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