When Ron Maxwell was a boy growing up in New Jersey in the 1950s, his father John F. Maxwell often read books to him and his younger brother dealing with American history.
 Ron Maxwell |
To make the stories come alive, the father would also take his sons to various Colonial sites and Revolutionary War sites in the New Jersey area.
“It was so thrilling to be young and discover these places,” Maxwell said.
Then, in 1978, Maxwell visited Gettysburg for the first time with “The Killer Angels” author Michael Shaara as his tour guide. The two retraced the battle day-by-day, giving Maxwell a strong sense of the feelings involved on both sides of the conflict between the North and the South.
Maxwell later parlayed his visit to the site of the battle – often called the turning point of the Civil Warr – to the silver screen when he directed the movie “Gettysburg” in 1993.
In 2003, he followed up with “Gods and Generals,” a prequel to “Gettysburg,” featuring many of the same actors.
On July 22, Maxwell will be in Manassas at a premiere of a new director’s cut of “Gods and Generals” that Warner Brothers is partnering with the Journey Through Hallowed Ground to host.
Several of the movie’s actors will also be at the July 22 premiere and will participate in a forum before the screening of the film.
According to Maxwell, the director’s cut features an hour of footage added to the film. The extra footage was shot between September and Christmas of last year.
Warner Brothers decided to release director’s cuts of both “Gettysburg” and “Gods and Generals,” to commemorate this year’s sesquicentennial of Civil War.
Then Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, came up with the idea of premiering the new release of “Gods and Generals” in a theater close to where much of the Civil War’s action took place 150 years ago.
Maxwell, who is on the National Advisory Council for the Journey, thought it was a great idea, and so did Warner Brothers.
The film will be shown July 22 and July 23 at Hylton Center for the Performing Arts; however, only the July 22 screening will feature the forum with the actors.
Warner Brothers is also including information about the Journey Through Hallowed Ground in the box set containing the new director’s cuts of both films. Each film also shows Maxwell encouraging viewers to come take the Journey from Gettysburg in the North to Monticello in the South.
According to Maxwell, the best way to learn about American history is to actually visit the places we read about in school.
The Journey Through Hallowed Ground has the itinerary all laid out for visitors. Maxwell himself has pointed friends from around the country to the Journey’s website (http://www.hallowedground.org) when they’ve asked him where to visit when they come to the eastern part of the country.
Maxwell moved to Rappahannock County to be in the midst of one of the country’s most historical corridors and live near people who appreciate that heritage.
“I like to live in a place where so many people share this consciousness and respect for the land, the open space and its relationship to our development as a people and as a country,” he said.
The aspect of both “Gods and Generals” and “Gettysburg” that he’s most proud of is what he said was sometimes criticized when the films came out – they don’t take sides.
“With me, it’s about commemoration, and understanding, and compassion,” Maxwell said. “If I can claim any hallmark for these films, it’s compassion.”
The films “showed the entire generation with compassion because that generation suffered,” he said.
Maxwell added that he hopes that viewers of “Gettysburg” and “Gods and Generals,” view them with a sense of humility.
“You have to let go of your own pride to be with” the characters, he said.
“We need to know about the sacrifices of our ancestors so that we don’t take them for granted,” Maxwell said, calling every American’s learning about and subsequent dealing with the Civil War as a “right of passage” as a citizen.
“You can’t really know America unless you spend some time visiting the Civil War,” he said.
You can order the director’s cuts of “Gettysburg” and “Gods and Generals” at http://www.hallowedground.org. For more on Ron Maxwell, visit http://www.ronmaxwell.com.
Details
Premiere of ‘Gods and Generals Extended Director’s Cut’
Hylton Center for the Performing Arts
10960 George Mason Circle
Manassas, VA 20110
3 p.m. July 22, $61 and includes a panel discussion with actors from the film and director Ron Maxwell
6 p.m July 23, $35 and does not include the panel discussion
Tickets are available by typing Gods & Generals into the search function at http://www.tickets.com. Discounts can be obtained for the following groups for the July 22 screening by using the coupon codes provided (Identification will be required when entering the movie):
Military members and their families: military
Students: student
Renactors: reenactor
Killer Angels and Confederates in the Attic. Two great books to provide a foundation for discussion on the Civil War.
Don’t forget to read Confederates in the Attic, by Tony Horowitz.
civil warr, haha
That was great! Good to hear the story.
In all honesty, Gettysburg is better than Gods and Generals.
FTA: ““We need to know about the sacrifices of our ancestors so that we don’t take them for granted,” Maxwell said, calling every American’s learning about and subsequent dealing with the Civil War as a “right of passage” as a citizen. “You can’t really know America unless you spend some time visiting the Civil War,” he said.”
After I finished the 9th grade, with some Civil War history, my family traveled out East (from MN) and one of the places we visited was Gettysburg. I was very affected by the experience, even at 15 years of age, partly, I think, because of all the photographs from so long ago (actually at the time it was just a little over one hundred years since the War’s end). The human interest stories were of particular interest and greatly affected me as well.
As I have gotten older, I am able to better understand why people are still affected by this war. The devastation (much of it so unnecessary, IMO) has left deep scars to this day, even for a Northern girl like myself.
I also read Michael Shaara’s “The Killer Angels”. It was an emotional and painful read, with its intimate portraits of the commanders on both sides. Reading about the battle at Gettysburg, Iu could almost feel the stifling heat of a July day, the hungry soldiers getting sick from eating too many cherries off the trees.
When I watched “Gods and Generals” for the first time, I immediately began to cry at the beginning of the film, when all the flags from the different regiments were shown. These were real people, human beings. We paid a terrible price for slavery and secession. Don’t ever let anyone mislead you with historical revisionism and tell you otherwise. I believe the Civil War was, in fact, God’s judgment on this nation for the terrible sin of slavery. And that’s exactly what it was: sin. We paid a terrible price for it.
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