The major puzzle for me about this movie is trying to decide whether the title is meant ironically. I don't think so, because that would diss' the African American soldiers whose lives were squandered. On the other hand, the move certainly vividly illustrates the most famous pronouncement of one of the most prominent generals from the war portrayed -- that war is hell. A suicidal charge on an impregnable fort (Wagner) is as good an exemplification as any, but I think we are supposed to admire the gallantry rather than focus on the insanity of the attack.
The novelty in the genre of the army (and a grizzled sergeant) making a fighting machine out of a ragtag collection of undisciplined boys is that the 54th Massachusetts was all-black. Of course, they have a white commander -- the personable and still very-young-for-a-colonel (ca. 1988) Matthew Broderick, who managed to restrain himself and let those playing his subordinates be characters. Somewhat surprisingly, the movie isn't really about the white star (contrast "Cry Freedom," Biko," "Mississippi Burning," or, to a considerable degree, "Amistad"). It is not even suggested that Col. Shaw is more heroic for being more fully aware of the impossibility of the final mission than are his troops who are sacrificed to his cravings for immortality or for proof that he molded them into a disciplined troop. They are proving that their kind can fight and face death. Like the Japanese-American 442nd Division in World War II such a segregated troop was particularly unlikely to challenge being used as cannon fodder.
Morgan Freeman seems a stock figure in the tradition of William Demarest et al. Denzel Washington -- in a break-out performance as a very hunky and edgily stubborn rebel -- also plays a stock figure, providing the resistsance that has to be overcome for unit cohesion. Washington played the part so passionately that it is hard to notice how stock a figure he is playing while watching it. He took home a best-supporting actor Academy Award for his efforts.
One has to root for the quest of dignity by and for the black troops, but the price in blood seems awfully high. Even "just wars" waste so many lives, particularly in vain/delusional decisions like the charge on Fort Wagner. Dying young in battle is not at all romantic to me and dying for the glory of commanders (as in "Thin Red Line") is more appalling. It seems that Col. Shaw volunteers to throw away his life and his troops' rather than being thrown away by higher-level commanders. He and his troops were commemorated not only by this 1989 movie but by a striking bas-relief by Saint-Gaudens that is on Boston Commons with another version in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Call me squeamish: I don't mind. But also call me an admirer of the cinematography -- by Freddie Francis who shot some of the breakthrough British films of the late 1950s and early 60s (Room at the Top, Sons and Lovers, The Innocents, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning) and, later, "The French Lieutenant's Woman." "Glory" may be a film about blacks and whites, but it was filmed in vivid colors (especially greens and blues).
Col. Robert Gould Shaw trains and leads the Civil War's first black regiment. Directed by Edward Zwick. Best supporting Oscar for Washington.More at HotMovieSale.com
The heart-stopping story of the first black regiment to fight for the North in the Civil War, Glory stars Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary E...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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