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The Battle of Gettysburg is a 1955 American documentary film about the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards.

The documentary was filmed in Cinemascope and Eastmancolor entirely on location at the Gettysburg National Military Park in south-central Pennsylvania. Leslie Nielsen provides narration, while songs from the Civil War era are played in the background with the sound effects of battle. At the end of the film, Nielsen reads the Gettysburg Address.

No actors appear onscreen. Memorial statues and bas-reliefs already present on the battlefield were photographed from various angles and distances, then the footage was juxtaposed to suggest that the static images were actual characters taking part in a dramatic re-enactment of the battle. In some scenes, the turbulence created by an off-screen helicopter is used to press down tall grasses, suggesting the passage of invisible soldiers.

In 1956, the film was nominated for Oscars for Best Documentary, Short Subject (Dore Schary) and Best Short Subject, Two-reel (also for Dore Schary).

See also

• List of American films of 1955

References

1. "The 28th Academy Awards (1956) Nominees and Winners". Oscars.org (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). 19 February 2015. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
2. "NY Times: The Battle of Gettysburg". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2012-10-15. Retrieved 2008-11-25.

External links

• The Battle of Gettysburg at IMDb

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• 1955 films
• American short documentary films
• Documentary films about the American Civil War
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer short films
• 1955 short documentary films
• Battle of Gettysburg
• Films directed by Herman Hoffman
• 1950s English-language films
• 1950s American films
• English-language documentary films
• American Civil War film stubs
• War documentary film stubs