Episode 8: The Killer Angels and Gettysburg "a.k.a. The Movie" - Part One
The Battle of Gettysburg Podcast
Jim Hessler and Eric Lindblade
4.8 • 950 Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2019
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 8 of The Battle of Gettysburg Podcast, Eric and Jim delve into the background of the 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning historical novel "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara and the 1993 film adaptation "Gettysburg."
To many students of the battle the novel and "the movie" bring out strong emotions in how they depict the Battle of Gettysburg and a number of the participants. Part One of the two-part series will focus on the background of the novel and the movie. Details on how the novel moved to the big screen, the original plans for the movie, when it was filmed, and the reception it had in 1993, will all be covered in this episode.
Part Two will be a deep dive on the movie Gettysburg itself as Eric and Jim discuss what the film gets right, what they got wrong, bad beards, and the impact it had on the Civil War community and the interpretation of the battle to visitors at the Gettysburg National Military Park. If you would like to donate to the show, you can do so via the following:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome everyone to the Battle of Gettysburg Podcast |
| 0:02.0 | Poddcast Studios, the world famous Reliance Mind Saloon in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. |
| 0:09.0 | I am your co-host, licensed battlefield guide Eric Lindblade, |
| 0:12.0 | and I am as always joined by my co-host, licensed battlefield |
| 0:14.0 | guide Eric Lindblade and I am as always joined by my co-hosts |
| 0:15.0 | licensed battlefield guide Jim Hesseler. Jim what do we have on tap today for the episode? |
| 0:19.0 | Well Eric and welcome to all the listeners once again. |
| 0:21.0 | After doing a couple of serious weighty episodes the life of |
| 0:26.0 | of Lewis Armstead, multi-part episode on the Peach Orchard, what was Lee thinking. |
| 0:31.4 | We're gonna step back and lighten up a little bit this week and talk about the killer angels and more specifically its motion picture |
| 0:39.2 | incarnation Gettysburg or as many of our audience knows it the movie. |
| 0:44.8 | Eric I can't think of a better way to engage millennials in a cool younger audience |
| 0:51.0 | than to dissect a four and a half hour Ted Turner historical epic from 1993. |
| 0:58.0 | But to our core audience you either love the movie and you can recite every line by heart or you hate the movie and |
| 1:05.2 | you can still recite every line by heart or you are the type of civil war enthusiast |
| 1:10.0 | who never watches movies because you only read books. |
| 1:14.7 | But hopefully you have read the Killer Angels because Eric and I think between the |
| 1:18.3 | Killer Angels and the motion picture. |
| 1:20.8 | This classic story of historical fiction has had a greater impact on Gettysburg |
| 1:27.0 | interpretation than any other medium. It has introduced millions of people to Gettysburg, |
| 1:32.8 | and that makes the Killer Angels the most important book ever written. |
| 1:37.0 | So my friends, sit back with Eric and I |
... |
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