Review of Iced Earth - Gettysburg (1863) (DVD)

I am going to start out by saying that if you are not an American history buff or a person that lives and dies by Iced Earth then this DVD is not for you. It is very, very, very surprising that Jon Schaffer got the label to even stand behind this release. While watching this behemoth I felt like I was back in ‘American History’ class being forced to watch some old war movie. I had the deep urge to covertly cover my face so I could grab a few Z’s in the darkness. BORING.

This is essentially an educational piece, and if looked at that way, and used in that type of setting it will work to bring more awareness to the bloody battle at Gettysburg, where in just 3 days over 13,000 men from our country fought and died alone on the battlefield. There were brothers, best friends, fathers and sons fighting against each other in their own backyards. Ha-I learned that from the video.

Mr. Schaffer’s passion for history could be also called an obsession. He owns and operates the Spirit of ’76 military miniatures store and makes no bones about his love and knowledge of the subject. But is there really a need for him to share it with us? Don’t bother “buzzing in”, the answer is NO.

So what the hell do we have on this DVD then? Disc One is the song “Gettysburg” set to video. But it is not like the videos you see “on the MTV”, which is one of its downfalls. I am guessing that Schaffer just didn’t have the budget to do this with real people in real time so it is basically the audio track played along with computer generated flames, maps, flags, and portraits of soldiers, for over 30 nauseating minutes, UGH! For me it was very hard to sit through the whole thing and at about 17 minutes in I hit the FF button. I think I saw some real human life once, but only for a millisecond. Next is a real time tour of the Gettysburg battlefield by Jon and some fellow who is a “Battlefield Expert”. The expert does a much better job of explaining things than Jon does but this turns out to be another FF moment. Then there is a segment on the Spirit of ’76 store, uh oh I feel myself having the urge to vomit. Can you say fast forward? The ego on this guy is absolutely amazing. I mean he comes across mellow and is just sharing his hobby with us but I say, who really gives a shit? Not many and that is what surprises me about SPV actually releasing this monster.

Disc 2 is a little less painful, but not much. It includes the videos for “The Reckoning” and “When the Eagle Flies.” Which are hot new things that no one has ever seen before-NOT. And then as if we haven’t had enough Jon Schaffer already there is “The Jon Schaffer Interview”. WOW, can you say “EGO”.

I’m gonna come right at ya with my next sentence…I hated this DVD and would never watch it again. I am an Iced Earth fan. I was crazy for this band up until the Horror Show release and while I still listened during and after that time I just didn’t care as much.

As I said in the beginning, if you are into history, this is a winner. If you really, really like Iced Earth, this is also a winner. If you love American history-AND- Iced Earth, you 4 people out there have a reason to live. For the rest of us my message is AVOID at all costs. How do you spell relief? E-J-E-C-T.

Release Details

Iced Earth

Gettysburg (1863) (DVD)

Comments

Related