A long film filled with magnificent fake beards, some truly terrible accents, and tons of loud period battle sequences. No, that's not all there is to it. It's a perfectly decent film, filled with perfectly adequate - and a few very, very good - acting performances, and a stirring, beautiful score. It just doesn't quite capture the intensity of its source material: "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara, and overall, feels a tad bit amateurish.

This is not a perfect film, yet while watching it, it somehow feels as though it is. The acting performances are subtle and understated, the direction deft and light-handed. In the wrong hands, this adaptation of a Stephen King novella could have been a disaster, but Frank Darabont acquits himself well and gives us a film that quite rightly, is a masterful piece of American film making.

For me, the film's highly stylized visuals more than made up for any lacking in other areas it may have had. It doesn't try to tell a story that hasn't already been told before, but it does take that old story and execute it in a way that looks and feels completely original. Over all, it's a lot of fun, imaginative, and pretty damn gorgeous.