My eyes popped yesterday when I read a release from the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group announcing that a FOUR HOUR AND FORTY MINUTE extended cut of Ronald F. Maxwell’s “Gods and Generals” is being released on Blu-ray in May to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War.
This 2003 vanity production funded by Ted Turner — a prequel to “Gettsyburg,” which is also being reissued in a new 271-minute cut that adds 17 minutes — was not exactly short at its original theatrical release, which according to the IMDB clocked in at a butt-numbing 219 minutes. But by adding a full hour’s worth of additional footage, the new 280 minute runtime will apparently make it the longest American film available on home video — dwarfing what appears to be the previous record holder, Peter Jackson’s extended 251-minute DVD cut of “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” also distributed by Warner.
Jackson’s movie won a Best Picture Oscar, grossed $1.1 billion worldwide and was critically acclaimed. “Gods and Generals,” which has a pro-Confederate slint, grossed $12.9 million worldwide ($41,000 overseas) and got scatching reviews, with an eight percent positive ranking at Rotten Tomatoes.
Turner, who at one point was the largest stockholder in Time Warner and has a cameo in “Gods and Generals” (as a Confederate soldier, in the center of the still above) is believed to have personally put up the reported $56 million budget, as well as paying the studio for prints and distribution costs.
I’d guess that Turner, who has been complaining about being down to his last $10 million or so, is paying the bills for the extended cut, which is getting a gala premiere in Virginia, complete with a re-enactment of the Battle of Bull Run. You can read all the remarkable details here.
By way, Warner also apparently has the longest film on Blu-ray in its original theatrical cut. That would be Kenneth Branagh’s all-star 242-minute “Hamlet,” released in 1996 before Warner purchased New Line Cinema from Turner. That baby clocks in at four minutes longer than Warners’ Blu-ray release of “Gone With the Wind,” just in case you were wondering.
Turner’s record seems safe unless somebody releases what is apparently the longest American film on DVD. Several sources identify that as Andy Warhol’s “Empire,” which consists of 24 hours’ worth of footage of the Empire Station Building.
