GDG- Pickett's charge: various questions

[James Cameron]

<< Second, I wanted to know your opinion of the Pickett's charge scenes in
"Gettysburg" (the movie). From what I've read about the attack, the action
at the wall was a lot more intense and explosive than the movie potrays. Do
you think they could have done better with the movie, or did as well as they
could? I also think the cannonade would have been much more accurate if all
the cannon had fired at once, instead of in a row as in the movie.>>

The Charge scenes in The Movie?  It must be kept in mind this was intended 
to be a made for TV miniseries, so things couldn't be made too graphic.  The 
use of reenactors probably cut both ways.  It allowed accurately 
niformed  - if occassionally overfed - troops on camera, but OTOH, also made 
the scenes look, inevitably, somewhat like film of a reenactment.  Not 
horrible, but still very much a cleaned up Hollywood depiction of the event.

The cannonade?  The guns all firing in a neat row was also very much for 
dramatic effect.  In actuality, the various batteries would have been firing 
under control of their own commanders, not as part of a long line, one after 
the other.  The inaccuracy of much of the fire was more the result of smoke, 
the inherent limitations of gunlaying and sighting, and, the quality of 
ammunition and fuses.

Jim Cameron