Preview

[Amish John]

Hancock the Superb wrote:

Congrats to AJ for his promotion to REGIMENTAL COMMANDER! Number 5 (excluding JC)

Again, thanks for the congratulations on the promotion. Hopefully, soon there will be many of us.

[Amish John]

ironsight wrote:

As probably many of us here i've seen the Gburg movie so many times i lost count. Although i really like most of the music in that movie...IT WAS TOO DAM LOUD during the battle scenes!

No music during the battle scenes, just the melodious sounds of gunfire and cannon woulda suited me fine.

I'll bet there was NO 100 piece orchestra playing music during Pickett's charge!:blink:
That dam music detracted from the realism of that charge!

IMO that is!:dry:

As far as Pickett's Charge in the movie Gettysburg, I can guarantee there was no orchestra on the field as we marched across toward the Union lines. I was in a color guard of a regiment in Kemper's Brigade as we advanced over the ground of the Spangler farm and up to the Emmitsburg Road. The sounds we heard were the shouts of the officers' commands, the explosions of planted artillery rounds, thousands of feet pushing through the tall grass, and the rattle of equipment. I'll carry that memory with me forever.

[Chamberlain]

Here, Here,

Congrats AJ on your Battlefield Promotion !!!!

Chamberlain

[Hancock the Superb]

I never made it to the charge. Had to turn it off before that.

[ironsight]

AJ Wrote:As far as Pickett's Charge in the movie Gettysburg, I can guarantee there was no orchestra on the field as we marched across toward the Union lines. I was in a color guard of a regiment in Kemper's Brigade as we advanced over the ground of the Spangler farm and up to the Emmitsburg Road. The sounds we heard were the shouts of the officers' commands, the explosions of planted artillery rounds, thousands of feet pushing through the tall grass, and the rattle of equipment. I'll carry that memory with me forever.

Amish, by any chance was this the largest GBurg reenactment..the 135th anniversary one or were you in the movie itself?
I was at that 135th reenactment as a spectator behind the Union line during the charge and i'll tell you what seeing those thousands of Confederates approaching that line is something i'll never forget! Just plain awesome!
Took a whole bunch of pics but dammit all with a 35mm!:(

[Amish John]

Chamberlain wrote:

Here, Here,

Congrats AJ on your Battlefield Promotion !!!!

Chamberlain

Thanks, Pard. Extra hardtack for the troops.

[Amish John]

ironsight wrote:

AJ Wrote:As far as Pickett's Charge in the movie Gettysburg, I can guarantee there was no orchestra on the field as we marched across toward the Union lines. I was in a color guard of a regiment in Kemper's Brigade as we advanced over the ground of the Spangler farm and up to the Emmitsburg Road. The sounds we heard were the shouts of the officers' commands, the explosions of planted artillery rounds, thousands of feet pushing through the tall grass, and the rattle of equipment. I'll carry that memory with me forever.

Amish, by any chance was this the largest GBurg reenactment..the 135th anniversary one or were you in the movie itself?
I was at that 135th reenactment as a spectator behind the Union line during the charge and i'll tell you what seeing those thousands of Confederates approaching that line is something i'll never forget! Just plain awesome!
Took a whole bunch of pics but dammit all with a 35mm!:(

This was for the movie "Gettysburg". We came across the same actual ground covered by the Confederates in 1863. A once in a lifetime experience. I was in the 1988 (125th) Gettysburg reenactment and the 1997 (135th) Antietam reeanactment (and dozens of others between 1981 and 2005). Two truly amazing reenactments.

[ironsight]

AJ Wrote:This was for the movie "Gettysburg". We came across the same actual ground covered by the Confederates in 1863. A once in a lifetime experience. I was in the 1988 (125th) Gettysburg reenactment and the 1997 (135th) Antietam reeanactment (and dozens of others between 1981 and 2005). Two truly amazing reenactments.

WoW! You were actually in the movie...way cool!

It'd be really interesting to a lot of us here if you could come up with a brief narration of the filming of that movie like:
Did you meet any of the primary actors?
How long did it take to film?
Were you in any of the other battle scenes?
Were there any battle scenes cut from the final version?
Did all those cannons really go off at the same time?
etc. etc.

[Hancock the Superb]

Tell me where they can see you and I'll watch the movie again.

How many actors did they use?

[Amish John]

ironsight wrote:

AJ Wrote:This was for the movie "Gettysburg". We came across the same actual ground covered by the Confederates in 1863. A once in a lifetime experience. I was in the 1988 (125th) Gettysburg reenactment and the 1997 (135th) Antietam reeanactment (and dozens of others between 1981 and 2005). Two truly amazing reenactments.

WoW! You were actually in the movie...way cool!

It'd be really interesting to a lot of us here if you could come up with a brief narration of the filming of that movie like:
Did you meet any of the primary actors?
How long did it take to film?
Were you in any of the other battle scenes?
Were there any battle scenes cut from the final version?
Did all those cannons really go off at the same time?
etc. etc.

I got to see Martin Sheen close up. He came on the set one day when he wasn't shooting scenes and just talked to some of us. We were probably around some of the primary actors during the filming but at the time we didn't realize who they were. I remember Tom Berenger rehearsing his lines with the actor who played E. Porter Alexander,Longstreet's chief of artillery, but it wasn't until after I saw the film I realized it was Berenger.

I was just involved in the Pickett's Charge fliming. The charge was filmed on both the actual land and a farm several miles away. The National Park Service won't allow simulated combat on NPS land, so the actual combat scenes were at the farm. All the scenes you see with the thousands of Confederates coming out of the woods on Seminary Ridge and marching towards the Union lines were on the actual historic ground on the Gettysburg Battlefield. We were down there about five days for the Pickett's Charge filming.

Actually, besides playing a Confederate for Pickett's Charge (I reenact as a Union soldier) I was also in the filming of the Union side of the charge where you see all the Union troops behind the stone wall as the Confederates approached. That was filmed on the farm becasue of all the modern intrusions on the actual battlefield site. So I ended up charging against myself you might say.

There are probably more hours of the movie on the cutting room floor than made it to the final cut. We redid many scenes several times. We got used to the directors shouting "Back to One", which means go back to where you started; we're going to reshoot it. There is an extended version of "Gettysburg" that adds about 1/2 hour to the theatrical release, but this extended version didn't make it to DVD sales as far as I know.

Yes, all the artillery you see for the pre-Pickett's Charge Confederate bombardment was actually on Seminary Ridge (or slightly ahead of it) and were all firing for the filming. I don't remember for sure, but there must have been 30 or 40 guns. It was amazing. People have told me the charge portrayed in the movie is about 1/3 the size (number of Confederates charging) of the real charge. That is quite amazing. Remember, there were no computer graphics used for the charge scenes to artifically multiply the number of troops or the number of guns. What you see on the screen actually happened.

Hope this was interesting to you. Also, I was in the filming of "Gods and Generals".