"Gettysburg documentary on youtube" Topic

YouTube link

Not sure when this aired on TV originally, but pretty decent.

It sort of picks and chooses certain events, so Bufords cavalry f.x. get basically no time at all, but they tried to tell the story by connecting a handful of specific characters and following their stories.

Re-enactors look great and for change, not everyone looks pristine and clean. Give it a watch.

Thanks Weasel, I'll give it a look when I have time.

Produced by Ridley Scott, he usually does a pretty good job of battle scenes.

Yeah, they do reuse some shots a bit but the action looks great in general.

Yes thanks Weasel. I love recommendations on good solid documentaries.

Queued up – thanks!

I watched it on my wide screen Smart HD TV: excellent.

Some comments: they left bits out (eg Little Round Top) but time constraints made such cuts inevitable.

They placed slavery as the central axis of the war: no revisionism, thank goodness.

Re-enactors looked the part. Where did they find so many Americans with bad teeth.

Pickett's Charge suffered from too few participants.

Graphics & SFX had impact.

And best of all, it structured the battle around the lives of chosen participants.

Great stuff.

Yeah, I liked the grimy look, they looked like soldiers and focusing on specific people was a nice touch.

I dug the part where they talk about Marylanders fighting Marylanders.

One point: where was Lee?

Meade ( or at least a reasonable facsimile) was all over it but Massa Bob was conspicuous by his absence. I wonder why?

These things can all be a matter of personal preference. I bought the DVD. I tried to give it away to my wargaming buddies, but no takers. I finally threw it out.

The actors themselves looked the part, but particularly with reference to the Confederates, the uniforms and equipment were horrible in my opinion. I just spot looked at it on YouTube. One reb with a 20th century back pack that looked like a school bag. They generally wore jackets despite the heat. Many guys in shirt sleeves. I remember there were problems with federal uniforms as well, but did not take the time to look for those.

The one thing I did like was the recreation of the federal entrenchments on Culp's Hill. I thought those were very well done.

So, to each his own. I knew I would never watch it again and threw it out.

Tom

I remember seeing this on History when it came out. If I remember right, it was filmed in South Africa and used local actors, which is why they don't look like normal re-enactors.