American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

I rewatched Gods and Generals and had forgotten there was supposed to be a 3rd movie, titled "Last Full Measure". Since GAG lost so much money at the box office, they shelved the last movie of the trilogy.
Does any one know what it would have been about?

I know Grant was never as exciting/dashing as ole Lee, but is there any movies about Grant? Thanks for any info.

Major Gen. Seger
Cdr, 1st Div, VIII Corp
AoS

It probably would have been based on Shaara's third book of the same name. Your mentioning it got me interested in rereading it since I remember little of the book. Glancing through the chapter headings it obvious it's central characters are Lee and Grant through the last years of the war, after Gettysburg to the surrender. As such it would have made a much better character study of the two men and how they handled victory and defeat. It is a shame it wasn't made but it would have required much better actors (and/or writters for the dialog) than those who played Lee in the first two.

LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)

<i>The Last Full Measure</i> would also have had a good deal more for Chamberlain to do than <i>Gods and Generals</i> did.

To be honest, I didn't like <i>Gods and Generals</i> much at all, although I enjoyed the book. <i>Gettysburg</i>, on the other hand, is one of my favorite movies. I think that film requires more focus than <i>Gods and Generals</i> really offered. That and the writing and dialogue were pretty terrible.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">It is a shame it wasn't made but it would have required much better actors (and/or writters for the dialog) than those who played Lee in the first two.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I liked Martin Sheen's Lee. <i>Gettysburg</i> just had better casting all around, I feel. Stephan Lang did fine as Jackson, but there was too much of him in <i>Gods and Generals</i>. They could have renamed the movie <i>Stonewall Jackson</i>.

Lt. Dylan McCartney
IV Brigade/ I Division
XIV Corps
Army of the Cumberland
Union Army

AS for Gods and Generals, I would have renamed it Stonewall and the little girl. They just ignored the Peninsula Campaign which the book did fairly well. As great as Gettysburg the movie was, the prequel was very disappointing.

As for movies with General Grant in them, a great resource is the movie database at this website
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0029461/

It's just like shooting squirrels, only these squirrels have guns

I thought the battle scenes were good. Hollywood does their usual and has to put a love scene of some sort in there. In real life, many of the generals/both presidents lost a child during the war. I think Grant was one of the few who didn't. I thought GaG did a good job of portraying what both sides were thinking in the beginning of the war and how they started changing their minds after seeing the bloody consequences of combat.
Hopefully, some day they will make Last Full Measure, I think it would be a good story and surprised Hollywood has never tackled that one before.

Major Gen. Seger
Cdr, 1st Div, VIII Corp
AoS

I found Sheen's portrayal of Lee highly insulting.....It made him look like a deluded idiot.....I far prefered the G and Gens version of Lee....I enjoyed both movies though.....

BG Hank Smith
Army of Georgia
Smith's Corp Commanding

Gettysburg was a good movie but it was basically a Longstreet propaganda film. Since it is told from Longstreet's prespective Sheen's Lee comes off as an idiot. As far as a portrayal of Lee, Sheen was just to short. Or to quote one site I found that discussed this:

<font color="yellow">It depicts the South’s greatest general—and arguably the greatest military leader who ever lived—as a dwarf-like creature astride a diminutive, clumsy horse. As movie critic Martin Treu has put it, “In scene after scene, General Robert E. Lee, a man of erect bearing just over 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing 170 pounds is shown among men who tower over him, both on foot and on horseback. If this were the case, the entire Confederate army would have to have been over 6 feet 4 inches tall. The only people obviously shorter than Robert E. Lee, in this film, are the 12-year-old drummer boys.â€

<i>Gods and Generals</i> suffered from attempting to do too much, I think. Both the book and the movie left out good deal, and important parts were cut from the movie in particular. I think that a miniseries would be a better way to tell <i>Gods and Generals</i> and <i>The Last Full Measure</i> simply because it offers more room to do it.

Gettysburg was focused on Longstreet, but it also includes enough of Armistead and Chamberlaine to avoid being what <i>Gods and Generals</i> was. Martin Sheen's Lee may have come across as not incredibly intelligent, but that is more the fault of the script and the book than Sheen himself. I couldn't take Duval seriously as Lee, even if he did look more like him. Duval, if I remember correctly, seemed to be grinning all the time like a clown of some sort.

The only things I found better in <i>Gods and Generals</i> were the battle scenes, which just seemed more like war, and the music, which was phenomenal.

Lt. Dylan McCartney
IV Brigade/ I Division
XIV Corps
Army of the Cumberland
Union Army