Reporter's Notebook

‘Gods and Generals’

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Civil War buffs and film fans alike revere Ron Maxwell for his masterpieces, “Gettysburg” and “Gods and Generals.” The GI Film Festival managed to get Maxwell to show his extended director’s cut of the latter, the first ever such showing in a theater. Here’s my hour-by-hour recap of the film in all its leg-numbing experiential glory.

Hour One: Director Ron Maxwell opened the screening by explaining the trying process of slimming an epic movie on an epic topic like the Civil War into a commercially marketable motion picture. The final debate among the producers of “Gods and Generals,” Maxwell said, was whether to present it as one film or two. In the end, Maxwell said, it was his personal decision to go with one film, which hit theaters at a length of three hours, 40 minutes.

The director’s cut comes in over five hours (a specific time was not announced). The organizers are gracing us with two intermissions during the screening.

The scenes in the director’s cut which didn’t make the theatrical release did not go through the final editing process.

“I beg your indulgence, please don’t laugh if you see something that looks ludicrously unfinished,” Maxwell asked of the audience – which, by the way, is close to 100. This screening has at least a half-capacity crowd, boding well for the rest of the weekend. It does not, however, appear the many of the viewers are active military.

There have been only a few glaringly obvious unpolished scenes. In general, the first hour has been incredibly moving, especially considering it is almost entirely character development.

Hour Two: We had our first intermission after the Battle of First Manassas. The Civil War reenactors spent the time posing for pictures, or smoking in groups outside. It is no small hilarity to see one talking on a cell phone. It is an even greater treat to try to watch a woman in an enormous hoop skirt try to sit in a theater seat.

The movie is still moving at an engaging pace, with tension building as the characters become more familiar and battle looming larger. The accents in this movie are spot-on, which actually makes the Virginians pretty tough to understand, but makes the Mainers all the more endearing. Somehow I don’t think that’s going to be a focal point when guys resume bayoneting each other into Swiss cheese, but it’s incredibly impressive.

Hour Three: OK, I’m officially a little bit tired now. And I’m not alone: The audience is down to about half its original population. But the action of the Battle of First Fredericksburg is absolutely engrossing – a masterful representation of the incomprehensible violence of 19^th-century warfare.

By far, the scene of the battle between the Irish Brigades of each side has been the most poignant yet.

The battle rages on onscreen, and the battle to see who will stick out the leg-numbing feat of watching ‘til the end is just heating up.

Intermission Two: I don’t know how anyone can watch this without the word “insanity” passing through their mind.

The crowd isn’t applauding at the start of the second intermission as they did at the first. It’s after 10 p.m. These people are clearly exhausted already, having watched three solid hours of film, longer than most box-office offerings today. (We could have watched “The Marine” twice by now. I vastly prefer this, though. Just saying.)

The second major battle scene is getting pretty repetitive, to the point that it makes you wonder, why do they keep doing this? The Union is trying to break a Confederate line that’s hunkered in behind a 3-foot stone wall. Do you know what it takes to kill someone behind a stone wall? You have to wait for them to shoot you, and then be a better and faster shot. Line after line of Union brigades crosses an enormous field , tries to kill the defenders, then falls back defeated. It’s a maddening blend of insanity and inanity. But, then you realize, that’s pretty much a good description of the lion’s share of the Civil War.

Hour Four: Crowd down to 40 or so. It’s almost 11 p.m. But we’re in the final stretch.

A series of quick interviews in the intermission turned up four people out of four in favor of the 5-hour movie. Two were self-described film buffs, and two were Civil War reenactors, who claimed to have been extras in the movie. So, those two are probably a little biased; not only are they willing to sit for a 5-hour movie, they’re willing to do it in itchy cotton period costumes. True to form, though, they pointed out to me a list of parts they wish had been left in the director’s cut, attention spans be damned.

The End: You’ll note I didn’t write “Hour Five.” That’s because when a movie runs five hours, 43 mins., I generally classify that as a six-hour movie. In most cases, I would also classify that as directorial self-indulgence bordering on sadism. But, truly, not here.

Yes, the last hour-and-three-quarters felt pretty long. It didn’t help that this screening started at 6:45 p.m., so the final credits weren’t rolling until… you do the math. I can’t at this hour.

But the film was gripping throughout, and that’s just a layman’s opinion. After the movie, Maxwell took a few questions from the audience, after telling us that, “I just want to congratulate this group for hanging in.”

(I would say 35 or so people finished the whole thing, not including two whom Maxwell kicked out within the final hour for loud chatting.)

One woman dressed in hoop skirts asked if the director’s cut would ever make it to TV, perhaps even as a miniseries, a prospect she clearly desired deeply.

“I like it so much more than the shorter version,” she said.

Excuse me? That has to be the first time anyone anywhere has referred to a three-hour, 40-minute movie as the “shorter” version.

Anyway, I have to say, anyone who has a chance to see this director’s cut should. And it would almost be silly to see it outside of a movie theater if that option is ever available again. But, I would definitely recommend a 3 p.m. showing.

The bottom line: Maxwell committed 10 years to the making of this film. It’s worth committing five hours any day.