Well, today being July 3rd....as has been my tradition the last few years, I spend the 4th weekend watching Gettysburg in remembrance of those brave souls on both sides who fought and died this week so many years ago. No matter which side you're pullin' for, they gave it all.
We've been talking Sam Elliott a lot lately. His portrayal of General Buford is one of the highlights of his career, and the movie. Nevermind all the bad whiskers; this movie is one to buy and own.
Of course, I no longer watch it in one sitting; the DVD is broken into two halves, the second half which picks up after Little Round Top, so it makes for a couple two hour evenings rather than a four hour marathon!
I will freely confess to watching this movie before with an unloaded BP revolver in hand. It's really hard not to. Plenty of Colt cameos in this one, with Jeff Daniels sporting a '60 Army and his brother C. Thomas Howell putting a '51 Navy to good use.
From what I've heard, the soldiers were all re-enactors who provided their own uniforms, accoutrements, and weapons and marched in their own regiments....either for free or very little reimbursement. Otherwise, there was no way they could have paid extras; the costs would have been staggering. As it was, these guys didn't even require training; they just went out and 'did their thing', and did it damn well!
If you've never seen this one, send the wife and kids out to dinner and a movie, pour a cold one, and grab your unloaded BP revolver and relive the bloodiest four days on American soil.
