In the Das Boot director's cut, there's a depth charge scene that goes on for over half an hour. At the 20 minute mark or so, we began rooting for the British Destroyer.
There was no one to root for in Gettysburg's portrayal of The Battle of Little Roundtop. There's a faded montage that's unnecessary, and they needed to trim a few of these pushes up the hill. It becomes mind numbing after a while. Whatever the battle scene's merits, it's just too damn long. If we hear, 'Here they come again!' one more time...
Moving on to Pickett's Charge, we were impressed by the massing of regiments, giving one a real sense of what things must have been like. Well done, sirs and reenactors. But for some reason, the actual charge just didn't work for us and we can't put our finger on it.
The end of the charge is actually anti-climatic. One minute were up on the ridge, then next we see battered Confederates limping back to their lines. There's a hell of a lot of buildup toward a battle that just peters out at the end.
And the Yankee lines don't look full enough. There's not enough men and guns, there's not enough going on. A strange failure for a film that does this right at every other stage.
What director Robert Maxwell needed to do was have a scene where the Rebs are real close, about to surmount the wall, and then line after line of Yankee soldier pops up, and opens fire at point blank range while behind him the guns blaze. Ahistorical we know, but it would have worked.
Fun fact the unervisty greys a unit made of the Ole Miss student body company a 13th Mississippi made the farthest breach during Pickett's charge but paid the ultimate price 100 percent loses
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