Gods And Generals / Gettysburg Civil War Box Set

Gettysburg is a first rate account of the American Civil War, an horrific and bloody conflict,brother fighting and killing brother under different flags ,the movie is an epic war movie and has a very fine cast wich draws you right in and you get to know the people as real,flesh and blood human beings not just cannon fodder,wich is sadly what quite a few of them become,because this film does not glorify battle it shows what a waste it all is,two sides fighting for what they believe and their very existence.'Gods and Generals' is a prequel to Gettysburg but none the less powerfull and if you are not feeling emotional at the end of these movies with the powerfull acting and music score then you have no soul.You feel for both sides in the war and the terrible loss, I did hear a third movie was being planned to make a trilogy ,but this is an excellent box set with loads of extras and a great price,if you havnt seen either movie then buy this,you won't be dissapointed.

Not actually watched Gods and Generals but Gettysburg is easily worth the asking price alone :) (The reviewer above seems to think theyre both superb movies so not sure what the 1 star is about!)

Prior to getting these dvd's my all time favourite films like this wer 'They Died With Their Boots On' and 'The Horse Soldiers' Watched both sets and you need to watch 'Gods and Generals' as well to thoroughly enjoy Gettysburg. Gettysburg is way up with the top war films. Well worth the money and would recommend to anyone who likes military history.

Gettysburg is superb with great screenplay, direction and acting and though the battle scenes are excelent they are a little clinically bloodless. This is obviously to enable a 12 certificate and because of the limited budget, but it at some level fails to communicate the absolute visceral horror of napoleonic stratergy against the first use of mechanised warfare (European generals still hadn't learnt the lessons 50 years later, hence the slaughter of WW1). However, its still a superb film.
Gods and Generals is a much weaker film, perhaps because of the subject matter. "Stonewall" Jackson was a bible thumping religious zelot of the Old testement kind, and in trying to portray Jackson, the religious element of his persona dominated the film, becoming at times like sitting in church with a rather tedious sermon droning on. Whereas Gettysburg was about many varied characters but only a relatively limited number of events, G and G's attempt to explore Jackson but only lightly sketch in the other characters led to quite a dull film at times. I know that the memory of Jackson is revered in the US, particularly in the south, but perhaps because the film tries so much to portray only jackson and therefore cannot escape the limitations of his character, the film is bogged down in the biography of one man, and a man who, though brave and at times charismatic, was also callous, brutal and dull.
As for the DVD's themselves, the extras seam a little limited, though considering the length of the films you couldn't fit much extrea on the DVD's anyway. The subtitles are good and very useful if you've got to limit the volume because the kids are asleep!
At the price Play.com is offering this pair of films, BUY THEM, because though G & G's is flawed, the boxed set is still worth every penny.
And as someone else has commented, there was supposed to be a third film to complete the trilogy, but after the flop of G & G's, he couldn't get the financial backing, though he's still trying and I personally wish him good luck.