After many months of anticipation
the wait is at last over as I have finally received my copy of Iced Earth’s
much talked about Gettysburg DVD. After hearing so much rumor and
speculation I was very eager to check out the final product. Unfortunately my
expectations obviously ran a tad bit high as this presentation left me feeling
extremely disappointed and somewhat disillusioned. When I first heard that Iced
Earth mainman Jon Schaffer planned to shoot a
video for his epic musical trilogy, Gettysburg, I was beyond excitement at the
possibilities. Being that the songs of Gettysburg paint such a vivid picture of
accuracy and encompass astonishing amounts of deep- seated emotion I knew that
Schaffer had a tremendous opportunity to create a bonafide masterpiece. Due to
reasons beyond my understanding this did not happen and what was created falls
daftly short of meeting my expectations.
The 32 minute epic video, Gettysburg, is a series of still shot photos
taken of the individuals being described in the songs accompanied with visually
depicted maps of the area, battle strategies, re-enacted scenes of engagement
set to look as authentic as possible, and the occasional added special effects
of fire burning through the documentation. The band does not appear in the video
at any time and much of the content is repeated throughout the length of the piece.
Truthfully, I found myself nodding off at points and determined that I found
greater joy in just listening to the songs by themselves without the visual
counterpart. In addition to the Gettysburg concept there is a
documentary tour of the area in which the historic battle took place, an
interview with Jon Schaffer discussing his Spirit of ’76 collectables store and
two additional videos, “The Reckoning”, and When The Eagle Cries” taken from the album the Glorious Burden.
No doubt the Iced Earth Gettysburg
DVD will be viewed in different ways by different fans, some who will embrace
it wholeheartedly and some who will feel the way I do in that it had the
potential to be so much more. The documentary portion of the DVD is interesting
but a bit dry in it’s delivery, as for the additional videos I’m glad to have
them all together on one disc. “The Reckoning” is probably my favorite overall
but I do believe “When The Eagle Cries” has the most impact. Ultimately this
offering is a cool addition to the collection but hardly worth the price.
-Priest
