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  • Essay / Gettysburg: Three Perspectives on the Film

    Table of Contents Personal PerspectiveHistorical PerspectiveEthical PerspectiveCultural PerspectiveCritical PerspectiveImagine a suspenseful, historical, action-packed film. In 1863, an epic event occurred in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which was made into a film in 1992. This place is now visited by thousands of visitors and is considered a historical landmark. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay “Gettysburg,” the film, featured an all-star cast who delivered impeccable performances depicting a horrific event that changed the course of the Civil War. War. Six different perspectives describing the visual communication of the film will be analyzed. Perspectives by David Lodge gives an analytical critique on how the film should be interpreted by the audience. The analysis of perspectives will allow us to account in detail for what the director wanted to accomplish. These different perspectives give the film a “flavor” in how it is sampled by the audience. Personal Perspective My gut reaction to this film is that it was a failed attempt by the Confederates to send a message to the Union forces. Communication was poor and each side relied on messengers to obtain information about each other. The battle was more of a political program for Robert Lee to prove that he could beat the Union forces, although his second in command, James Longstreet, strongly disagreed. “Lee sought to achieve politically significant victories, end the war on Virginia's ravaged farmlands, and gather supplies for his army” (“Gettysburg,” n.d.). As a result of Lee's failure, 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, etc. As Union forces unknowingly received reinforcements, the Confederates believed they had an advantage. “Lee attacked the Federals on the high ground, but failed to dislodge the defenders” (“Gettysburg,” n.d.). The Heights were two hills where the Union was gaining ground and the Confederates needed this area to achieve victory, unfortunately fighting up a hill proved difficult. The hills were called Little Round Top and Big Round Top. The reason the Confederates wanted to take the hills is so they could have flanked the entire Union army, causing even more bloodshed. “Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain rushed into history, leading his 20th Maine Regiment in perhaps the most famous counterattack of the Civil War” (Brann, 2014). Lawrence, Maine's regiment fought the Confederates until they ran out of ammunition. The famous counterattack was famous because of the ingenuity of Colonel Chamberlain; attacked with bayonets. The enemy, very tired and overheated, surrendered. This act of bravery earned Colonel Chamberlain the Congressional Medal of Honor. Historical Perspective The Civil War was based on many economic perspectives. “In the mid-19th century, when the United States was experiencing a time of tremendous growth, a fundamental economic difference existed between the northern and southern regions of the country” (“American Civil,” n.d.). In the North, manufacturing and agriculture flourished. The South's economy depended on the cultivation of cotton and tobacco, picked by African-American slaves. The South feared that its “workers” would disappear because the Northern states encouraged freedom. The creation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 by President Lincoln made the southern half of theUnited States very nervous. “On September 22, shortly after the Union victory at Antietam, he issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation, declaring that effective January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebel states “shall then, henceforth, and forever be free.” ("Emancipation Proclamation", nd). The film was exactly what the history books had written. The film followed the timeline as well as a narrative to explain how the film would begin. According to (Ebert, 1993), " It's a straight-up movie about the Battle of Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, about the strategies, calculations, mistakes and heroism that decisively turned the tide of the Civil War against the South. delved into how servicemen lived their lives, left friends behind, and accepted death. The film provided realism by providing many scenes that seemed realistic to me of smoke, wounded bodies, and uniforms that bore witness to the death. Adding to the realism of the conflict, many charitable organizations participated in the “Gettysburg” reenactments. “Each year, the Gettysburg Anniversary Committee (GAC), local organizer of the annual Gettysburg reenactment, chooses several community and preservation causes and supports these organizations with a portion of the event's proceeds” (“Preservation,” nd). The technical success of the film lies in the participation of thousands of people from different organizations to recreate the Confederate march into conflict. Each participant has their own uniform, musket, etc. Bringing together all these participants paid tribute to the courageous men who gave their lives during this conflict. According to (Egan, 2012), “I have never had a more intimate experience of history than the one I had. the day we filmed this scene on the real battlefield. Brian Egan was one of the actors in the film and he depicted the final march across the battlefield toward the final battle with Union troops. This technical perspective gave insight into walking in the heat, through tall grass, and not seeing the enemy until it was too late. Ethical Perspective Morality indicates that the war was considered insignificant to one side and the other side was fighting to retain its values ​​and land. intact. According to (Weigel, 2016), “If Gettysburg was the pivot of the Civil War, and if the Civil War moved the country from “the United States is…” to “the United States is… then the United States as we know them. was filmed July 1–3, 1863, outside a small crossroads town in Pennsylvania. » The ethical perception of the film illustrates that although many people were killed, it demonstrated how the country should be shaped. How soldiers on opposing sides felt they had “wronged” each other, two veterans of the event itself met at Gettysburg in 1913. “Two veterans of the Civil War, the one from the South and the other from the North, went through the town of Gettysburg together, bought a hatchet together in a matter of gear, went up Cemetery Ridge together, and buried the hatchet together at the Bloody Angle. Weigel, 2016). It was a sign that they had done the wrong thing ethically, but instead forgot about it and decided to reconcile. Cultural Perspective Inherent symbols of the culture of this era were the destroyed properties of the residents of Gettysburg. “The battle devastated the people of Gettysburg. Every farm field or garden was a cemetery. Churches, public buildings, and even private homes were hospitals filled with wounded soldiers” (“History and Culture,” nd). The setting of the film.