What would your very own Civil war movie be like?

The origin of this history forum is tied up at least in part with the debates on other sections of the BB (about who was right the North or the South) surrounding the release of the film Gods and Generals.

Now imagine for a moment you've got the combined budget of Gettysburg and Gods and Generals and carte blanche to create this huge film about the American civil war just the way you like.
What would your American civil war epic be like?

Personally, I'd focus on 1 guy from each side and their personal vendetta. And I wouldn't worry at all about historical accuracy.
I'd go for Lee and Grant.

Lee is this greater than life hero, the perfect battlefield general and he has impeccable personal ethics. He's a great swordsman and a sharpshooter and he always appears impeccably dressed.
His only flaws are a strong attitude of: "Right or wrong, my country!" and a strong contempt for those in his professional field who do not live up to his standards (especially Grant).

Grant is no soldiering material, his true dream in life was to become a poet, or maybe a veterenarian. He's a crying heart liberal type, who was most certainly bullied by Lee at West Point. He always seems to have his sabre and firearms misplaced somewhere and he never succeeds in wearing more than half of his uniform at any single time. Grant is however a gifted horseman, much better than anybody else in the movie, this quality serves him well all those times he has to flee.
He is a confirmed loser at the moment the war begins, working behind the counter of his dad's little shop.

At the start of the war everybody with any hero potential whatsoever joins the side of the Confederacy, so Grant receives a second chanche in the military.
As the film progresses Grant's own peculiar strengths as a military leader start showing.
He turns out to be a perfect manager/movie evil mastermind.
He starts to proof a thesis he was ridiculed for early in the film: "Wars are won not by heroics, but by logistics.".
He transforms the Union army into a huge mass of wellorganized 'stormtroopers' all with first rate equipment, that can be moved around relatively quickly. They are led by folks picked by Grant that do know how to be generals.
While Lee's efforts are being crippled by his own government (portrayed as racist slime of the worst kind), Grant massages the politicians on his side (shown as less evil than the confederates, but far from noble) in giving him carte blanche for his operations.
While Lee rages against the dying of the light, Grant calmly produces proof that the ways of chivalry are indeed dead.

Last line of the film spoken by Grant to Lee at the surrender at Gettysburg: "Wars aren't won by men like you Robert, wars are won by supply sergeants."

 

"Hmmm...I am not so sure Grant was a great General."
I have no idea about real life.

In my film Grant would be portrayed as a lousy battlefield commander, but a very gifted organizer who turns the potential advantages of the Union, (a large industrial base and huge numbers) into reality (a large well equipped army with generals that know how to effectively exploit these advantages against a more heroic adversary).
The Southerners are the guys who get to do all the cool stuff in the movie, with the exception of the horse chase sequences.
They are tragic heroes because it doesn't matter that they are complete bad asses (I can't believe I just typed that ), their opponents just keep on coming, efficiently and doggedly wearing them down.
They are tragic because all of their coolness and bravery comes up short against an enemy that fights them relentlessly in a very prosaic fashion and tragic because they are noble, idealistic and forthright, but their political backers are utter swine.

"A Good Civil War (Fantasy) movie would be the defeat of the Union at Gettysburg and the Siege of Washighton D.C. with Lincoln surrendering to C.S.A. President Jefferson Davis."
Last shot of that movie has to be Booker T. Washington, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Abe Lincoln being part of the same chaingang.

 

"Naw The Southern Government never owned slaves."
They are prisonlaborers not slaves.

There are many literary critics who consider being the writer of Uncle Tom's cabin a warcrime.

Anyhow, Kiffin&LadyEagle a description with a bit more depth than: 'DIXIE wins!!!!' would be nice.

 

rsr, we are talking film, not reality.
My cinematic version of Grant would for instance never in his entire life abuse a horse.

It's all about the struggle between, noble (in both meanings of the word), Hollywoodstyle, chivalrous, semi-loner, American heroes (think Rambo meets sir Lancelot) and relatively normal, non-chivalrous, unheroic, people who defeat the heroes by using common sense, cooperation, sheer numbers and a special kind of determination coming from envy (how dare they be so much cooler than us).