History Film / Gettysburg

* BloodBrothers: Armistead and Hancock both reflect on the tragedy of having raised their hands in anger against each other.
--> '''Hancock''' ''(to Chamberlain)'': Tell me, Professor. In your studies have you come across a story from antiquity of two men who are like brothers facing each other on the field of battle? ...Lewis Armistead was my closest friend before the war. I'd like to see him again: but not here, not like this. What do you say, Colonel, what do the books tell you?
** One scene has Armistead tearfully revealing to Longstreet that the last time he'd met Hancock, he'd sworn, "May God strike me dead!" if he should raise a hand against his friend. [[spoiler:He's mortally wounded in Pickett's Charge, only to break down in shock and tears when he's told that Hancock was also struck: "''Not the both of us!''"]] The Picket's Charge sequence underscores how alike they are by having each calm his men during the artillery exchange using [[MeaningfulEcho the exact same words]].
** While the Armistead/Hancock relationship was the most famous of these sorts of conflict, it was actually fairly common occurrence among professional officers (though it was much less common among citizen volunteers like Chamberlain), as many of them were West Point classmates who gained their fighting credentials in the war with Mexico. The movie itself notes the fact that Longstreet was good friends with UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant. And enlistment records of the units that fought at Gettysburg reveal that four brothers fought at Gettysburg. Three for the Confederacy, one for the Union. In a particularly famous footnote, (not mentioned in the movie) Confederate private John Wesley Culp died during one of the assaults on Culp's Hill — a part of his uncle's farm — on the third day.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The DVD cover is Longstreet and Chamberlain staring at each other over a field of clashing soldiers. Longstreet and Chamberlain didn't actually know each other, and while Longstreet was one of the top generals in the Army of Northern Virginia, Chamberlain was a lieutenant colonel who had no part in determining overall strategy.

** Buford, Chamberlain, and Hancock in the sense that, though their actions aren't really upgraded in any significant way, they ''are'' brought to the forefront of the audience's attention in a manner that plays up their importance to the detriment of dozens of equally heroic and important actions elsewhere on the field . Ironic given that the book and film are what pulled ''them'' out of historical obscurity.[[note]]Col. David Ireland and the 137th New York deserve special mention for doing on Culp's Hill ''precisely'' what Chamberlain and the 20th Maine did on Little Round Top.[[/note]]

---> '''Buford:''' You know whats going to happen here in the morning? The whole damn reb army is going to be here. They'll move through this town, occupy these hills on the other side and when our people get here Lee will have the high ground. There'll be the devil to pay! The high ground! [...] Devin, I've led a soldier's life, and I've never seen anything as brutally clear as this.

* CoolGuns: Many examples, but most notably are the Sharps carbines wielded by John Buford's cavalry. The Sharps was a breech loading rifle that gave user a significant firepower advantage over troops armed with the standard muzzle loaders of the day. It had a much faster rate of fire, it was much easier to clear jams, and was much easier to reload from a prone or kneeling position. Though not mentioned in the film, the superior weapons of Buford's cavalry troops contributed greatly to their effectiveness in holding their position against repeated attacks by Confederate infantry.

* AllThereInTheManual: Many details about the personality and backstory of the characters aren't carried over from the original novel. In particular, the reason for General Garnett's determination to participate in Pickett's Charge on horseback is hinted at but never actually revealed, while the novel explains that Stonewall Jackson accused Garnett of cowardice shortly before his own death.

** John Bell Hood was barely 32 during the battle, but actor Patrick Gorman looks considerably older.

* AndStarring: The opening cast roll ends with "and Stephen Lang as Pickett."

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: The film's tunnel focus on the battle neglects the fact that before and after the battle, the Confederates captured African-Americans (runaway slaves, ex-slaves, and freedmen) [[http://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-should-know-about-the-battle-of-gettysburg and sent them back to Virginia as slaves]].

The film also stars Creator/MaxwellCaulfield as Col. Strong Vincent, Creator/CThomasHowell as Lt. Thomas Chamberlain, Richard Jordan as Brig. Gen. Lewis Armistead, James Lancaster as Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle and Creator/StephenLang as Maj. Gen. George Pickett.

The movie focuses on four main participants in the battle: Generals [[UsefulNotes/RobertELee Robert E. Lee]] (Creator/MartinSheen) and James Longstreet (Creator/TomBerenger) on the Confederate side and Brig. Gen. John Buford (Creator/SamElliott) and Lt. Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Creator/JeffDaniels) on the Union side, though Buford's part ends about a third of the way through the movie. All of the characters in the movie are [[HistoricalDomainCharacter based on real people]] with the sole exception of Chamberlain's {{Lancer}}, Sgt. Buster Kilrain.

** Lee's "teaches my fingers to fight" narration is from Literature/TheBible, Psalm 144.

* HollywoodTactics: While ''today'' we would call frontal assaults like Pickett's Charge ludicrous, and the film goes out of its way to put this sentiment into several characters' mouths, the fact is that in this era massive frontal assaults were an entirely acceptable tactical doctrine used by even the most cautious commanders on ''both'' sides, and remained so really until the invention of reliable wireless communication. Pickett's Charge was far from the first or the last such assault of the war, and not even the largest or bloodiest, just the most famous (ironically because it ''almost'' worked). Moreover, Lee and his men had seen such attacks work at Gaines's Mill, Second Bull Run, and Chancellorsville, and Pickett's Charge actually had fairly good odds of success had the Confederate artillery not overshot the bulk of the Union forces hunkered down tight to the line on the ridge, making it far more of a ForWantOfANail than a ForegoneConclusion. Another part of the difficulty, which is implicit but not directly pointed out, is that most of the commanding generals mostly received the same education and were personally familiar enough with each other. This helped them get into bloody stalemates because of the way they predicted their foes and were predictably countered, and so on and so forth.

* OfficerAndAGentleman: General Lee and General Pickett are probably the most prominent examples.

* TakeAThirdOption: Have exhausted their ammunition, Chamberlain realizes, "We can't run away. If we stay here, we can't shoot." Given the choice between the unfeasible options of holding and retreating, Chamberlain decides to [[RefugeInAudacity charge]] ([[BayonetYa with bayonets]]).

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Pickett's desire for his men to see action is fulfilled when his division is decimated on Day 3.

The movie focuses on four main participants in the battle: Generals Robert E. Lee (Creator/MartinSheen) and James Longstreet (Creator/TomBerenger) on the Confederate side and Brig. Gen. John Buford (Creator/SamElliott) and Lt. Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Creator/JeffDaniels) on the Union side, though Buford's part ends about a third of the way through the movie. All of the characters in the movie are [[HistoricalDomainCharacter based on real people]] with the sole exception of Chamberlain's {{Lancer}}, Sgt. Buster Kilrain.

** Pickett generally receives the TragicHero treatment, noticeably downplaying the fact that historically he was at best a mediocre commander and wasn't really tragic in any sense beyond the bare fact of leading one third of the charge. Also, he would go on to become infamous for executing 22 Union prisoners of war for desertion after he found out they were Southerners who had been previously serving in North Carolina militia units, even though the NC militia was not part of the Confederate army and deserting it was not a crime under North Carolina's laws.

** Pickett generally receives the TragicHero treatment, noticeably downplaying the fact that historically he was at best a mediocre commander and wasn't really tragic in any sense beyond the bare fact of leading one third of the charge. Also, he would go on to become infamous for executing Union prisoners of war after he found out they were Southerners who had been previously serving in North Carolina militia units, even though the NC militia was not part of the Confederate army and deserting it was not a crime under North Carolina's laws.

* TheAce: General Hancock is viewed as this by both the Union side and the Confederates. Armistead may be a little biased when he says that "God don't make 'em any better," but Hancock's corps being on top of Cemetery Ridge is another blow to Longstreet when he considers the cost of the forthcoming charge. This one is TruthInTelevision. Winfield Hancock was one of the best Union corps commanders, especially in the Army of the Potomac. The fact that he was never promoted again is still considered by many to be a political decision since he was a known Democrat, though this overlooks [[IllBoy the debilitating nature of his chronic wounds]] and the fact that his II Corps ''was'' nearly tripled in size, meaning any ostensible promotion to command an Army would entail either ousting fellow Democrats like George Meade or William Sherman, moving to a comparative backwater like the Army of the Gulf, or accepting a far ''smaller'' command like the 10,000-man Army of the James.

** While Robert Lee gets plenty of dialog and screentime, his counterpart General George Meade, the overall commander of the Army of the Potomac, gets only a single scene so brief that it serves only to save him from being TheGhost entirely. In reality, after his arrival late on the first night, Meade was far more active in surveying his lines and coordinating his forces on the second and third days than Lee, who spent most of his time sitting outside A.P. Hill's headquarters waiting for his commanders to carry out their orders.

* ReCut: In 2011, a "Director's Cut" was released which added about 20 minutes of previously-cut footage to the film. This includes Buford's interactions with local civilians, Harrison's explanation of the "character" he uses to spy on Union positions, and more footage of John Reynolds, along with some extensions of previous scenes.

** Union General George Meade, the overall commander of the Army of the Potomac, is only shown on screen for a few minutes and then never even mentioned again. In real life, Meade was hailed as a hero for leading the army to victory at Gettysburg, but earned Lincoln's ire for not being aggressive enough in his pursuit of Lee after the battle, enabling the Army of Northern Virginia to escape back to Richmond and fight on. Meade remained in command of the AOTP for the rest of the war, but once Ulysses Grant was promoted to commander of all Union armies in March of 1864, Meade's role was largely secondary, as Grant would take personal charge of the Eastern theater of operations. Meade spent the rest of his life in the army and died in 1872 at the age of 56.

* CoolHat: Longstreet wears one.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The DVD cover is Longstreet and Chamberlain staring at each other over a field of clashing soldiers. Longstreet and Chamberlain didn't actually know each other, and while Longstreet was one of the top generals in the Army of Northern Virginia, Chamberlain was a lieutenant colonel who had no part in determining overall stratgy.

* PoorCommunicationKills: J.E.B Stuart's adventure deprives Lee of vital information and cavalry support during his march north, for which he is [[DisappointedInYou calmly reprimanded]] by Lee when he finally arrives on Day 2.[[note]]This was later overplayed by ex-Confederate writers seeking scapegoats, since the first day was a serendipitous triumph for the Confederates and Stuart's absence didn't really force Lee's hand on Day 2 or Day 3, but Stuart's absence with the cream of his cavalry ''did'' leave Lee's army with less-than-optimal reconnaissance that resulted in Heth's infantry lumbering into Buford's cavalry at Gettysburg rather than allowing Lee to concentrate his forces before engaging the Federals.[[/note]]

* FunnyForeigner: Col. Fremantle probably isn't meant to be funny, but the filmmakers accentuated his Englishness so much by having him wear a bright red dress uniform (which the historical character certainly didn't do), stroll around the Confederate camp daintily drinking tea from a china cup and saucer, and generally have some of the only comic-relief in the entire film that it has this effect.
** In the book it's even more pronounced with the description of the Austrian and Prussian officers accompanying Lee's headquarters on the morning of the second day of the battle. Captain Ross, "the fat Austrian with the Scottish name" (the real Fitzgerald Ross was born in Surrey and probably would have spoken to Fremantle in English, not French) is dressed in [[TruthInTelevision his hussar (light cavalry) uniform]], but also wears an incongruous [[BlingOfWar helmet (only heavy cavalry wore helmets),]] [[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch which is described as a "shiny silver chamber-pot", i.e. is of a type not used in Austria]]. The Prussian officer, Scheibert, is dressed all in white (presumably a civilian get-up; Justus Scheibert was an engineer, his uniform would have been dark blue and black) and wears an "[[HighClassGlass inevitable glittering monocle]]" (monocles did not really come into fashion with Prussian officers until later that century).

* BloodlessCarnage: Most people who get shot on camera just clutch a part of their body and fall over (if from a gun), or get tossed in the air (if from a cannon -- even at ranges that should've reduced them to [[LudicrousGibs chunky salsa]] on the spot). This is probably because the film was originally intended to be a mainstream TV miniseries and thus couldn't show the more gory aspects of war. However, the wounded often do sport bloody bandages afterward, most notably Buster Kilrain and John Bell Hood.
** The extras (thousands of volunteer Civil War reenactors) are more likely to fall down without blood when shot, since few if any of them would have had any experience with [[{{Squib}}blood squibs]].

* CavalryOfficer: The film features two of them as characters: John Buford for the Union and J. E. B. Stuart for the Confederates.

* ColonelBadass: (Lt.) Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. The badass comes out when he thinks he's been shot (the shot really [[PocketProtector bounced off his sword]], but it clearly left him in shock and he has a limp for the rest of the movie). As they're dragging him back he sits up and shoots a charging man with his revolver. The historical Chamberlain was also a badass in that he was wounded six times during the war and survived in an era when just one was usually enough to kill you.[[note]]While those wounds did eventually kill him, it took until '''1914''' for them to do so, possibly making him the last Civil War veteran to die of battle wounds.[[/note]] In fact, his penchant for not only surviving wounds that would kill or cripple other men but continuing to fight led to his earning the nickname(on both sides) of 'Bloody Chamberlain'--literally, as he was often covered in his own blood. He later became Governor of Maine and Ambassador to France.

* DisorganizedOutlineSpeech: Chamberlain, who "didn't mean to preach".

* FightingIrish: Buster Kilrain, as well as a cameo of the famous Irish Brigade receiving absolution before battle.

** Shortly before the war started, Armistead told his old friend Hancock "If I should ever raise my hand against you, may God strike me dead!". For two years, Armistead and Hancock occasionally end up on the same battlefield, but their respective units never actually end up fighting each other. Until Pickett's Charge, when Armistead's brigade is sent as part of a force ordered to take a ridge held by Hancock's Corps. Armistead is mortally wounded during the fight.

* WarIsHell: Depicting a battle in which over 50,000 men were killed or wounded over three days. The 20th Maine started the war with 1,000 men but has been cut down to 250 by the time of the battle, plus the 2nd brings them back up to 360 for their fight on Day 2, but casualties on Little Round Top drop the unit down to 120 by Day 3) because the Union is just using them until there's no one left. Bodies carpet the battlefield and medical treatment is almost as dangerous as going into battle in the first place. Old friends who are like brothers are forced to fight each other, and Pickett's Charge is a hideous mistake that leaves six thousand men dead or wounded on the field.

* WorthyOpponent: From the North, the Chamberlain brothers admit they admire their Southern counterparts. From the South, the fact that they are going up against Hancock is enough to cause Longstreet and Armistead apprehension.
--> '''Armistead''' [''about Hancock'']: "The Lord don't make 'em any better, and that's a fact!"[[note]]And by many historical metrics, Hancock genuinely ''was'' the finest Union general never to receive an independent command -- something he was denied due to a combination of politics and his wounding (there were plenty of Democratic generals, but Hancock's wound from Gettysburg nicked his urethra and kept his wounds infected for the rest of his life.[[/note]]

* YouShallNotPass: The whole Battle of Little Round Top, from viewpoint of the North.

* HonorBeforeReason: The South in general. Discussed more thoroughly in the book when Longstreet privately thinks that "honor without intelligence" could lose the war for the Confederacy, but the movie contains some of it, such as the line, "We should have freed the slaves, ''then'' fired on Fort Sumter." (Difficult when slavery ''was'' their casus belli, as a scan of S.C.'s StronglyWordedLetter demonstrates.) Fremantle views it in a more positive light and sees it as something the South and Britain have in common.

* SingleIssueWonk: Some of the Confederates express this view of the Northern focus on slavery as a reason for the war, saying they honestly don't care about it either way and see themselves as fighting for their "[[FunetikAksent rahts]]". Longstreet even muses that they'd have won their independence already if they'd freed the slaves ''before'' firing on Fort Sumter, removing emancipation as a motive for the other side and keeping in Britain and France's good graces.
** Of course, this is largely ArtisticLicenseHistory because millions in the North vehemently ''opposed'' emancipation and supported the war ''only'' as an effort to force the South to stay in the Union (not the other way around), and because freeing all the slaves was never a realistic option for the South since as far as its leaders were concerned [[https://www.bluffton.edu/~bergerd/essays/trclark.htm slavery really was the essential cause]] and many among even the poorest white men (while they often expressed it differently) were interested in maintaining their racial dominance, hence why they struggled so hard to end Reconstruction and institute segregation after the war. Even Robert E. Lee called the Emancipation Proclamation a "savage and brutal policy … which leaves us no alternative but success or [[FateWorseThanDeath degradation worse than death]]."
** In fairness, Longstreet’s BizarroUniverse “We should’ve freed the slaves, then fired on Fort Sumter!” is original to the movie. The book has him think that the war was about slavery, not why he fought, but there it was. When various characters defend the cause, such as the prisoners asserting they fought for their [[FunetikAksent rahts]] without being able to name them, or [[TheDitz Pickett’s]] idea that it’s all like quitting from a club and the club thinks it can make you stay, the impression is that, no matter what the individual honestly feels, the engine behind secession is slavery, and the wonks are right. Which is still to an extent DatedHistory, as it seems even the enlisted were conscious of it at the time.

* FunnyForeigner: Col. Fremantle probably isn't meant to be funny, but the filmmakers accentuated his Englishness so much by having him wear a bright red dress uniform (which the historical character certainly didn't do), stroll around the Confederate camp [[SpotOfTea daintily drinking tea from a china cup and saucer]], and generally have some of the only comic-relief in the entire film that it has this effect.

** The real Col. Fremantle was more of a tourist than an official representative of the British government (though he traveled in the company of official representatives of ''other'' countries and did ''not'' wear his scarlet tunic, though he did write a book about his travels in which he predicted the Confederacy was sure to win -- which was published about three months before they lost.

** Of course, this is largely ArtisticLicenseHistory because millions in the North vehemently ''opposed'' emancipation and supported the war ''only'' as an effort to force the South to stay in the Union (not the other way around), and because freeing all the slaves was never a realistic option for the South since as far as its leaders were concerned [[https://www.bluffton.edu/~bergerd/essays/trclark.htm slavery really was the essential cause]] and even the poorest white men (while they often expressed it differently) were interested in maintaining their racial dominance, hence why they struggled so hard to end Reconstruction and institute segregation after the war. Even Robert E. Lee called the Emancipation Proclamation a "savage and brutal policy … which leaves us no alternative but success or [[FateWorseThanDeath degradation worse than death]]."

* TakeAThirdOption: Have exhausted their ammunition, Chamberlain realizes, "We can't run away. If we stay here, we can't shoot." Given the choice between holding and retreating, Chamberlain decides to [[RefugeInAudacity charge]] ([[BayonetYa with bayonets]]).