Gettysburg (1993): 25 Shocking Facts Hidden for Decades

For this movie, it took fifteen years to reach the screen, and the production behind it was as improbable as the delay suggests. This video covers 25 behind-the-scenes stories from Ronald F. Maxwell's four-hour adaptation of Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Killer Angels, including the first film shoot ever permitted on the Gettysburg battlefield itself, the casting carousel that saw William Hurt, Robert Duvall, Albert Finney, and George C. Scott all attached to or offered the role of Robert E. Lee before Martin Sheen stepped in, and the more than 5,000 volunteer Civil War reenactors who filled the battle scenes with their own uniforms, muskets, and training. Also covered: Sam Elliott turning down Lee for John Buford, Russell Crowe's near-miss casting as Joshua Chamberlain, Richard Jordan's final performance as Lewis Armistead, Stephen Lang's real fall from a horse during Pickett's Charge that stayed in the film, Ted Turner's uncredited cameo, Ken Burns's role in rescuing the financing, the fake beards, the title change forced by confused test audiences, and how a theatrical flop became a record-setting cable premiere, a home video bestseller, and a fixture of American history classrooms.