John Diehl about filming "Gettysburg"


Ell.a

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BTW' date=' I just saw a few clips of Gettysburg (1993) with Larry Zito. (The scenes with the Maine soldiers joining a different company.) I need to see the rest. Great chance to ask him about his experiences filming it! Hint, hint.[/quote']Here's John's answer (mainly):
The director' date=' Ron Maxwell put together a great show. He had people like Ken Burns, who were authorities on the Civil War. And we shot it in Gettysburg, which was great.The only problem was: He didn't have good beards. I'm astounded again and again about the cheap beards that he used. He spent so much money on all the stuff, he got great actors like Tom Berenger, Martin Sheen, Stephen Lang … and they had lousy beards. Fortunately I had a beard at that time. It was probably the only real beard on the show, except for the rein actors.Jeff Daniels was good to work with – mostly in that one scene: I'm the leader of the hunger strike, me and my guys were on. We were already enlisted three times, in the time we should quit. That's why we're on hunger strike. That's where the scene comes with Jeff Daniel. It was good![/quote']The complete answer will be on the DVD of course.:cool:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw8Tm550SJ0

Had to study this scene and surrounding scenes in a recent class I took. Jeff Daniels, the Union colonel, receives a detachment of several very recalcitrant soldiers from Maine (led by Diehl) prior to an important battle and is not sure how to handle them at first, but he makes sure their basic hierarchy of needs are cared for. I'm afraid that in this scene, we don't see some of the early,and tense interaction between Diehl and Daniels when the soldier leading the det from their previous location presents them to the colonel and treats them with very little humanity. On the eve of what could be a grave conflict, Daniels has inherited a possibly bad situation at the worst possible time.They thought they were going to be treated as prisoners, but the first thing the colonel did was to feed the Maine soldiers and promise to address their failure to be paid, etc., which took them aback and actually began to earn their trust. They were veteran soldiers who had seen maybe two or three times of time in the field as Daniels' command. Daniels showed humility and compassion as a leader, and by starting with the little things that other commands had been unable or unwilling to address, he rallied them to fight after a humble yet profound speech. Not a fan of war movies but I'd really like to see the rest. John Diehl's acting that I saw (so far) was fantastic. I had wondered where it was really filmed, thanks for answering that question. Gettysburg is also a terrific place to visit, I was deeply moved to have walked on that land, and thank high Heaven that Disney nor Wal-Mart have been able to secure building permits nearby. Thank Heaven. Appreciate it, Ella. I am thrilled to hear about your interaction with Zito and I'm sure he enjoyed the interest and the opportunity to reflect on his role in what looks to be a superb film.
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