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The following articles are excerpts from the book Gods and Generals: The Illustrated Story of the Epic Civil War Film.

Painting The Scene The Parallel Visions of Artist and Director

When director Ron Maxwell sought ideas for staging several key scenes in Gods and Generals, he went to a reliable source: the highly detailed and evocative Civil War paintings of artist Mort Künstler. Renowned for his renderings of subjects from American history, Künstler has focused on Civil War imagery since the early 1980s. Maxwell knew that the paintings were carefully researched for historical fidelity - a quality both artists insisted on.

 

The filmed scene (above) echoes Künstler's painting War Is So Terrible (below).

Künstler and Maxwell met in 1992 when the Gettysburg film was in progress, and Turner Publishing issued a book of the artist's prints in conjunction with that film's release. They discovered they shared a passion for Civil War history and have kept in touch every since. "Ron told me that he was planning to film the prequel to Gettysburg eventually," says Künstler, "so I wasn't surprised to hear from him about Gods and Generals."

The illustrations on this page reveal the cross-fertilization of these collaborators' visions. Künstler's 1995 painting War Is So Terrible (left,bottom) depicts the victorious Generals Lee and Longstreet overlooking the devastation of the Fredericksburg battlefield on the morning of December 13, 1862, after the failed Union assault on Marye's Heights. Production stills from the film (left, top) show the two mounted generals in virtually the same pose, with background figures also arranged much as in the painting.

 

	His Supreme Moment by Mort Künstler and the inset production photo both depict victorious Confederate soldiers cheering General Lee at Chancellorsville.

Similarly, Maxwell's shot of Generals Lee and Jackson riding through cheering troops after their triumph at Chancellorsville in May 1863, with the still-burning Chancellor house in the background, drew inspiration from Künstler's 2001 painting His Supreme Moment. Again Künstler tracked down the telling details: the house is based on pre-war drawings and the flags are those of the regiments present that day.

Turnabout is fair play, and Künstler was given an early look at still photos from Gods and Generals - which he used as inspiration to create some of his most recent paintings. Along with historian James I. Robertson, Jr., who has consulted on many of Künstler's words, he saw an early cut of the film and provided feedback at the director's request.

 

The Trains

The Civil War was the first major conflict anywhere in the world in which railroads played an important role. Hanan felt it was crucial that trains and train stations be depicted accurately in Gods and Generals - especially, he says, because "they're usually not done right in motion pictures." So he had them built as scenery - of wood, fiberglass, and plastic - right down to the water towers and part of the Harpers Ferry arsenal.

For the Baltimore train station, where Thomas and Anna Jackson are reunited after a long separation, Hanan found an authentic period train at the B&O Railroad Museum that he modified slightly. He also located a portion of some historical track in the middle of downtown Baltimore. The downside: the modern Baltimore skyline. Hanan started from a Mort Künstler drawing of Guiney Station circa 1863, and designed to set to mask the contemporary skyline. The result looks so authentic that most viewers will assume it's an actual train station. And that's the way it should be, says Hanan. "Our job is to support the actors in the picture. If we do our job seamlessly, no one notices what we've done."

 

	Production photo of the Guiney Station set, with a camera dolly paralleling the railroad tracks.		Production drawing of the station by Tim Braniff, from a drawing by Mort Künstler

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