Gettysburg (1993) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	War	Menu Animation & Audio Biographies-Cast & Crew Audio Commentary-Ronald F. Maxwell (Dir/Screenwriter),Kees Van Oostrum et al Featurette-The Battle Of Gettysburg Featurette-Making Of Featurette-On Location Interviews-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer TV Spots-4 Gallery-Maps Of The Battlefield
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	253:56
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (67:21) FLIPPER (141:48)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,4	Directed By	Ronald F. Maxwell
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Tom Berenger Jeff Daniels Martin Sheen Maxwell Caulfield C. Thomas Howell Richard Jordan James Lancaster Stephen Lang Sam Elliott
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$31.95	Music	Randy Edelman

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.0 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

   There aren't too many generals throughout history that can claim to have lost a major battle and still retained not only control of their army but gone on to become one of the most revered generals of all time. This is the fate of General Robert E. Lee, who lead the Confederate Army at the battle of Gettysburg, a small town in Pennsylvania that saw the most conclusive and destructive battle of the American Civil War. The time is 1863 and war between the states has been waged for a little over 2 years. To this time it has been the Confederate Army that has held the ascendancy over the Union Army both in victories and in being the aggressor on the battlefield. General Lee has his orders; find the Army of the Potomac and destroy it. Upon doing so, a letter will be sent to Abraham Lincoln with terms of surrender. It is believed that one more defeat, one more setback and the Union, which has the resources and manpower, but not the generalship, will collapse and sue for a peace settlement.

   To this end then, Gettysburg becomes the ground upon which the most decisive battle of the Civil War is fought. Its location, as the terminus of a road network, made it a logical gathering point but not ideally suited to the Confederate cause. Its ground, made up of small rolling hills, cherry orchards and long open paddocks, made it an ideal defensive position. The Union army, if entrenched would be harder to defeat on such ground and Lee was seeking to catch the Union army in the open and soundly defeat them. Unfortunately, as in most wars, luck was not on his side and on 1st July, 1863, the lead elements of General A.P. Hill's corps made contact with dismounted cavalry under the command of General Buford and commenced hostilities on the hills west of Gettysburg. Although General Lee had ordered that no major confrontation was to be undertaken until the entire army was concentrated, General Hill's troops continued to engage the enemy.

   Realising he couldn't easily disengage, Lee then ordered Hill to continue his attack, finally dislodging the Union soldiers and sending them back towards the town. Then for the next three days, until the 3rd of July, both sides would engage in the most bloody combat ever seen on American soil, and nearly 53,000 men would be killed or wounded on both sides, more than all of the 10 years of the Vietnam War. In addition, General Lee will have suffered his first ever defeat and be forced to concede the battlefield to the opposing army. Gettysburg will also mark the last time the Confederacy maintains an offensive posture in enemy territory and although the civil war will last another two more years and claim over 400,000 more casualties, most historians point to this battle as the turning point of the entire conflict.

   The movie itself covers the three days of battle; the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of July, but instead of trying to show the entire battlefield concentrates on one individual action per day which affected the eventual outcome. It is easy to understand this since there were literally dozens of separate actions on all three days of the battle over a front several miles wide and showing them all would have severely compromised the consistency of the movie. The movie itself is quite magnificent both for its size and scope. Director and writer Ronald F. Maxwell has combined a sense of realism with an elegantly woven storyline that captures both the look and feel of the original event, plus gives a little of the background as to why the civil war was being waged.

   For me, the stars of this movie are the Civil War re-enactors, all 5,000 of them, who took part in every aspect of the movie and added a level of authenticity that just smacks of verisimilitude. Also, the inclusion of Tom Berenger as General Longstreet, Sam Elliot as General Buford, and Jeff Daniels as Col Chamberlain were inspired choices as they impart real character to the battlefield itself as well as looking the part. Maxwell's deft hand at controlling massed extras as well as all the other members of the cast and crew was also excellent. As an epic movie, this stands toe-to-toe with the best and the culmination of Pickett's Charge at the end of the movie is one of the most magnificently staged battle scenes ever committed to celluloid. Gettysburg was a turning point of the Civil War. It was also a profligate waste of human lives, similar to that of World War I, and stands head and shoulders over so many other war movies both in form and execution. It is a classic of its genre.

Video

    This disc is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced, compared to the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio.

    A movie this long is going to have a fair amount of scenic variation and the sharpness varies as a consequence. For the most part it is excellent, with very clean and delineated lines that meld seamlessly into the backgrounds, with only occasional edge enhancement noted. Once or twice though, there is some blurriness to the picture. One instance is at 89:10 inside Lee's temporary headquarters where the quality of the picture softens noticeably. Also, at this point you'll notice excessive grain, almost as if the source material had degraded somewhat. Normally grain is light and relatively insignificant except on occasions like this. Low level noise is again only seen during a couple of rare moments during the movie and overall the print is well presented and very watchable, but there is the odd moment where the quality drops.

    The colour is excellent for the most part with a splendid palette in use. Since the vast majority of the picture takes place outdoors, the colours are vibrant and bright with excellent flesh tones and no bleed or chroma noise noticed.

    There are quite a few 3:2 pulldown artefacts noticeable during the running of the movie (eg: 32:30 as the flag passes on side 1 and 84:28 during Pickett's Charge on side 2) which isn't surprising given the NTSC nature of the disc. Small flecks and little nicks on the print can be seen throughout (15:37, 16:35, 41:47, 88:52, 92:00, 92:30, 95:11, 99:15 on side 1 and similar can be found on side 2). Some very slight shimmering can be seen from time to time but nothing to worry about. Some pixelization (Side 2, 23:45 along Longstreet's hat) is visible but only if you look hard.

    Subtitles are easy to read but do interfere somewhat with the picture, being slightly higher than normal from the bottom of the screen.

    There are two layer changes on this disc but the side 1 change eluded me. The change occurs at 67:21 on side 2 mid-speech but isn't too disruptive. If anyone knows the time of the side 1 change, clue me in.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on this disc in addition to the audio commentary track. The first is an English Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack at a bitrate of 384 kilobits per second. The alternate is a French Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at a bitrate of 192 kilobits per second. Not speaking French I stuck exclusively to the English track. The first thing you notice about the soundtrack is the cleanness of the sound with lots of separation across the front channels, especially during the battle scenes.

    The audio sync and dialogue are excellent with no detectable errors noted.

    Randy Edelman's musical score is superb with a real emotional core to it. Used magnificently to support the visual fabric being created, this is an instantly recognisable piece of music that is wonderfully crafted and presented. An isolated musical score of this wouldn't have gone astray.

    The surrounds are well-used to support the music and add to the overall feel of the movie. The occasional sound effect can be heard zinging by, but this isn't an outstanding feature of their usage with special effects being more heavily emphasised by the fronts. They do add substantially, though, to the immersiveness of the soundtrack.

    Although there was a fair amount of redirection of the bass to my subwoofer, the nature of the 5.0 soundtrack meant a lot of the deep bass sounds sounded a little hollow. Turning off the subwoofer and allowing the main speakers to channel the bass was actually slightly better, so if you don't have a .1 channel you won't miss that much. It's a great pity though, because the massed cannon fire before Pickett's Charge should be something to be heard.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu Animation & Audio

Biographies-Cast & Crew

Audio Commentary

Featurette

Featurette-Making Of

Featurette

Interviews-Cast & Crew

• Ted Turner - 0:27
• Ronald F. Maxwell - 0:34
• Tom Berenger - 0:46
• Sam Elliot - 0:35
• C. Thomas Howell - 0:28
• Richard Jordan - 0:38
• Stephen Lang - 0:48
• Martin Sheen - 0:44
• Civil War re-enactors - 0:52

Theatrical Trailer

TV Spots

• Heroes - 1:03
• Brothers - 0:34
• Courage - 0:34
• Coward - 0:34

Gallery

    Since we are presented with the NTSC version, this is precisely the same as the Region 1 disc with one minor difference. In Region 4 you get an Amaray case and in Region 1 you get the much despised Snapper case. Even this slight difference is enough to recommend the R4 product over the R1 in my opinion. Naturally you may not care and in that case, look for the best deal.

    The most famous of battles from the American Civil War, this movie doesn't attempt to take sides but simply presents the battle for what it was; bloody and futile. Excellent cast and superbly presented.

    The video is very decent even if it is an NTSC disc.

    A stirring soundtrack is well presented but missing the subwoofer somewhat.

    The extras package is worth the price of admission.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall