Director Ron Maxwell follows up “Gettysburg” with “Gods and Generals,” an epic-sized fiasco of a prequel. Weighing in at just under four hours, the film is a repulsive combination of dry textbook history and pandering melodrama.

“Gods and Generals” is a revisionist’s tale of Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson (a mediocre Stephen Lang, who played Maj. Gen. George Pickett in “Gettysburg”). The film follows Jackson from Virginia’s secession from the Union through his death. If one is to believe the overly gentle portrait the picture paints of this historical monster, he was the best friend a slave could ever have. Of course, this is consistent with the movie’s premise of the Confederacy fighting over states’ rights, not slavery.

As for the North, its soldiers seem particularly uninspired as they sigh at the words of Lincoln. A maverick few are fighting the noble fight against slavery, including Lt. Col. Joshua Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels, “Terms of Endearment”), but in four hours the film cannot find the time to properly develop these or, for that matter, nearly any other, characters. The result is a picture full of noble quotes from forgettable characters.

Even Stonewall Jackson comes up flat in the end. The majority of his scenes are plagued by Maxwell’s apparent uncertainty. On one hand, the film has lengthy battle reenactments that, although perhaps not interesting to the average moviegoer, do have merit as artifacts for students of the Civil War. However, Maxwell uses frequently mawkish and cloying devices in a failed attempt to make the film suitable for moviegoers. As the two motives intersect, the poor cinematic elements detract from the integrity of the history, and the textbook elements work to destroy the necessary components of a quality film — like proper character development.

On the bright side of things, Robert Duvall portrays Robert E. Lee, taking over for Martin Sheen from “Gettysburg.” A direct descendant of the famed general, Duvall creates the only well-developed character in the film. When offered command of the Union in one of the picture’s opening scenes, Lee responds, “I never thought I’d live to see the day a president of the United States would raise an army to invade his own country … I have no greater duty than to my home, than to Virginia.”

This is the stuff of good cinema. As the film proceeds, Lee acts as a master tactician organizing human chess boards and, in doing so, claims responsibility for the film’s only worthwhile scenes.

The movie draws voluntary comparisons between the Confederacy and Caesarian Rome. Through the lens of any remotely informed moviegoer, these are unfounded. However, the picture also takes several more subtle cues from George C. Scott’s masterful “Patton” as it leaves Jackson alone on empty battlefields pondering matters of war and religion. These would perhaps have merit if the Jackson character weren’t so painfully flat.

“Gettysburg,” now a decade old, has found a niche in the high school history classrooms of America. “Gods and Generals” will have difficulty discovering a similar destiny.

Too many of Jackson’s scenes are concerned with fictional or speculative interactions for a student of history to make the necessary discriminations between what is real and what is not. This only serves to further aggravate what is already a very pro-Confederacy version of history. The film may, however, join its predecessor as a staple of afternoon cable television. Despite lengthy battle scenes, blood is all but absent, making the picture censor-friendly. Of course, the film’s producer, Ted Turner, now out of the television business, will first have to find a network foolish enough to pollute its airwaves with this trash.

“Gods and Generals” is distributed by Warner Bros. Legend has it that Jack Warner, one of the founders of the studio, used to judge movies based on his infamously weak bladder. If he had to excuse himself during the movie, it wasn’t good. If he had to do so two or three times, it was a fiasco. “Gods and Generals” would doubtlessly have led Mr. Warner into double digits.

Grade: D