People often ask me if I was in the movie Gettysburg, which just goes to show how much of an impact this movie had and still seems to have on the non-Civil War reenacting public.  Released in 1993, Gettysburg brought attention to the Civil War reenactment community in a way that has not been replicated, and pretty much was responsible for the reenacting boom we all saw in the 1990’s and hope to see again soon (the movie Saving Private Ryan and the mini-series Band of Brothers has now caused a similar stir in the World War II reenacting community, which has unfortunately taken away many of our own reenactors - though no hard feelings are shared between the two).  

Sometimes classified as the ultimate reenactment, Gettysburg was somewhat unique in the fact that it pretty much relied on Civil War reenactors to fill the ranks, only using Hollywood stars for the major military figures (something which they again tried to do with Gods and Generals but without the same success) and may be similar to what one would see if we did do a nice job scripting out our national events and then rehearsing them over and over again before the actual battles were carried out (something which would never happen unless reenactors were compensated for their time).  

Like the movie Gods and Generals, this one has a lot  of talking in it, which can get pretty dull, but at the same time it seems different and more focused, and for the most part helps move the movie along, whereas the talking in Gods and Generals seems more random, like snippets from a home movie that would only be appealing to those in it.  This talking also helps to paint a nice picture of the days leading up to the battle and the confusion that was present on both sides as to what the other side was going to do and where this major battle everyone knew was coming would be fought, and then further goes to show the interesting relationship between General Longstreet and General Lee, and the relationships between the generals both North and South reminding everyone that these guys all knew each other and had been brothers in arms at one point.

The best parts of the movie, of course, are the battles, which I personally feel do a nice job in showing the scale and the destruction of these engagements, though if I were to change anything it would be to add some special effects into these battles so they could be more like the beach landing in Saving Private Ryan, one which graphically depicts what a .58 caliber bullet and canister round will do to the human body.  I would also make sure the reenactors took real hits as apposed to reenactor hits (a reenactor hit is a hit where someone grabs the part of the body that was shot and cries out and flies backward -- if you have ever seen someone get shot for real, they rarely grab the area and rarely cry out right away and never fly backwards; instead one sees more of a stunned expression on their face, one that slowly turns to pain, and then a sudden weakness as the body falls to the ground, almost as if the bullet has cut away all the leg muscles, ones that come back quickly as the pain and terror register in the brain).  

NOTE: Much of this movie was filmed on the actual battlefield of Gettysburg and some say that if you look close enough you can sometimes see monuments that were missed in the editing.  I personally have never seen any, but haven’t really looked for them.  Also, many say this movie is responsible for the rise in ghost sightings on the battlefield due to the disturbance recreating these large scale battles had on the hallowed ground.  I don’t know if such claims are true, but they are interesting.