Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara
I don’t know about you, but I can’t begin to count the times that I’ve read a book, and then, upon seeing the movie, felt disappointed because they left out so much detail and, often, plot. Well, if you’ve read Killer Angels and then seen the accompanying movie, Gettysburg, you won’t have any such feelings. You might be feeling a bit of de ja vu, however.
The 4 hour 15 minute movie and the 368 page book are so similar, at times I wondered if I was reading the script. The dialog is the same, often times word for word. I remarked to Shannon that the book is what you’d get if someone watching the movie were to describe it to you as they were watching, and they have a good vocabulary.
There are, of course, minor differences. The book has a few more maps that make it easier to understand the tactics of the whole situation, and the movie has a lot more explosions.
(I just found out the book was written in 1974. I hadn't figured it was that old.)
3 comments:
I thought that movies was great, but I think I've only seen it twice, just because it's such a time commitment. Did the book seem gory? It was a very bloody war and they depicted that in the movie. And to me, gore always seems gorier in print. Was it bad?
I think the book and the movie are both great. I read the book last winter and also noticed the exactitude of the adaptation.
It's fun to read all of the General Lee parts in Martin Sheen's voice. Elliott and I were talking about the movie the other day (he's a big Civil War nerd and has the books and the movies for this series) and we both agreed that Robert E. Lee will always be Martin Sheen as far as we are concerned.
The book is low gore.
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