Why is glory a good movie

I have no idea why battles like this were ever deemed to be practical in the first place. I would think fighting guerrilla style would have a lot more merit if your objective is to actually kill the enemy and win without getting killed yourself. Aside from whatever historical inaccuracies might be present, I thought this was an effective story. Criticisms of Matthew Broderick in the lead role are somewhat misplaced in my view, once one gets past the fact that he's Matthew Broderick.

About the same age as the character he portrays, I think he grows into the role of a Union Colonel over the course of the story, with each humanistic stand he takes for his troops showing the growth of his stature. The confrontation with the quartermaster was particularly impressive, while his bribery of General Harker Bob Gunton was instructive in the way leaders get their way when all reasonable attempts fail.

Denzel Washington won his first Oscar in a break-out role here, but to my mind, any of his fellow actors could have been honored just as well. Morgan Freeman Rawlins and Andre Braugher Thomas Searles were equally impressive, and except for somewhat less screen time, Jihmi Kennedy Sharts was also quite effective. Colonel Shaw's mission was to turn this rag-tag band into an effective fighting regiment, and when he won them over by tearing up his own pay voucher, you knew that he had finally won their trust.

What I admire about the film is the way it places in context the black man's struggle for freedom and identity, while showing how white men of courage and conviction helped achieve that goal.

It's easy to decry a film as racist when it's telling a story about racism, and that's a beef I have with critics who are fixated on only one side of the story.

Together, white and black men have been able to stand side by side over the course of history to right the wrongs of the past, and failure to recognize this is what stands in the way of a truly color blind society.

I really don't want to give this film 8 of 10, but I must. And I'll explain why. My initial impression is that I don't care for Civil War films. And I think Cary Elwes, as much as I love him, was an odd casting choice. And Matthew Broderick in particular seemed odd. However, here Broderick played a spoiled rich kid, who was playing at being a colonel.

But I was not finding it successful, I was waiting for the mustache to come off and Ferris to be revealed. Now, once I got over these things, I saw a great film. Morgan Freeman is always great. Denzel Washington was spectacular, especially during the whipping scene which was quite emotional.

The whole struggle of the ex-slaves was presented in a very moving way. With the exception of one actor or character that seemed to be playing a very modern stereotype. The story is of Robert Shaw, a real Civil War soldier, and his struggle to get the 54th an almost all-black regiment into battle and respected as equals. This is met with a series of successes and failures, as one might expect.

I have nothing to say. It's a period piece. If you want to watch an emotional film about the war, check it out. Or even if you life human interest stories, you might find something inspiring in this movie the war is actually more background than anything. I wasn't expecting to be wowed, but feel better for having this film in my life now.

Maybe that means something to you. This past weekend has mostly seen people remembering the th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking, but the past year has been another anniversary: the Civil War. One of the best movies about that war is Edward Zwick's "Glory", about the first all-black regiment in the Union army. While I was watching it, I got the feeling that there might be criticism of the movie since the main focus is Col. Robert Gould Shaw Matthew Broderick , who led the platoon into battle.

Even so, the movie devotes ample time to the recruits and the discrimination that they face even from their own side. I found Trip Denzel Washington to be the most effective character in the movie, especially in the scene where he has his least pleasant experience.

The point is that the movie does a great job showing how the 54th Regiment fought for what was probably the most important issue of the era, with fine performances from all cast members who also include Morgan Freeman and Cary Elwes. Very much one that I recommend. From Golden Globe nominated director Edward Zwick Legends of the Fall, Blood Diamond , this is a terrific war film that I mainly knew for the title, three of the actors, and the fact that one of them won an Oscar.

Based on the letters of the lead character, Col. In this company included Shaw's right hand, Maj. Cabot Forbes Cary Elwes , Sgt. John Rawlins Morgan Freeman , Pvt. Jupiter Sharts Jihmi Kennedy , and of course, Pvt. Shaw was forced to deal with prejudices from both the enemy who had orders to kill commanding officers of blacks , and of his own fellow officers. Also starring Andre Braugher as Cpl.

Thomas Searles, John Finn as Sgt. Mulcahy, Donovan Leitch as Capt. James M. Montgomery, Bob Gunton as Gen. Broderick's performance may be slightly woody, but its still substantial, Freeman and Washington obviously have no problem proving themselves worthy actors, and Washington certainly deserved his Oscar.

The battle scenes are all very watchable, and the premise of the film is very appealing to see the history of who was allowed to fight in future wars change. Very good! Here's another one of those films I really, really liked on the first go-round and was very disappointed on the second look years later. Maybe, by the second viewing after I had watched thousands of movies since first seeing this, I just got tired of the "race issue.

We get the point earlier on and it doesn't need to hammered over and over and over. Denzel Washington, as great an actor as he is, seems to specialize in race-issue movies. He and Spike Lee need to move on. In this movie, every Caucasion but one played by Matthew Broderick is a racist bad-guy.

Enough said. The action scenes in here are good. The last one is brutal and memorable. This is a tough film in many spots and will leave you emotionally worn out by the end. And - yes - it is a great tribute to the black soldiers in the Civil War. There were complaints that Mathew Broderick was too short and unimposing to play Robert Gould Shaw, the Colonel who led the 54th Massachussetts into battle and dismemberment.

I don't think I agree. Why should a courageous and even heroic man be made to look like Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses? As far as I can discern, from what little grasp of historical events I have, the general outline of the plot sticks pretty close to the facts. I don't know that Frederick Douglass was still as prominent in as he had been earlier. Maybe he was. As the events unfold, though, they ring fairly true. The narration by Broderick is lifted directly from Shaw's letters to his family and they reveal a self-doubt, a contrarian conviction, a dignity, an objectivity, and a humility that all the rest of us must envy.

Shaw was educated, white, and socially prominent so we get to know a lot about him and the milieu in which he was raised. The Colored Troops, as they were called at the time, are only sketched in by the writers, and only sketchily sketched. There is the angry ex-slave, the wise old man, the good-natured but dumb squirrel shooter, and the poetry-reading New Englander who gets the crap beaten out of him by a racist Mick Sergeant -- for a lofty cause, naturally, as all sadistic drill sergeants are quick to point out.

They look a little too much like the crew of the original Memphis Belle. If they were white, there would be a street-wise tough guy from Brooklyn and a braggart farm boy from Texas.

The stereotypes are functional, though. Most stereotypes are. The structure shows us that not all "blacks" were the same. Nor were all "Northern whites" the same. Cliff DeYoung is a Jayhawker, an ex-slave owner, now an abolitionist, who believes his men must be treated like children. There was a lot of that going around. Darwinism was still a radical idea, less than ten years old.

Nobody had the slightest idea of how humans had evolved and in the absence of DNA and other biological evidence of racial relationships, judgments were made on the basis of traits that have been shown to be superficial -- hair texture, skin color, the shape of the soft parts of the face. African-Americans were easy targets for displaced aggression just because they looked so different and there were so many of them around.

Irishmen stepping off the boats were faced with being drafted into what was thought wrongly to be a rich man's war and a poor man's fight. The draft riots of New York City killed more than a hundred people, most of them black, including some in an orphanage. There were some monumental historical dynamics at work at the time, but no space to go into them, and they're most irrelevant to the movie anyway. Broderick does pretty well by his role. Add your rating See all 41 kid reviews. Progressive-minded Col.

Robert Gould Shaw Matthew Broderick is their leader. Shaw's college friend Thomas Searles Andre Braugher , a free-born African-American, eagerly joins the regiment, but most of the soldiers are proud but illiterate ex-slaves, some consumed with hatred toward the South. Troublemaker Trip Denzel Washington and the other blacks are kept in line, barely, by John Rawlins Morgan Freeman , who understands the need for obedience if they all are to be soldiers worthy of the name.

Shaw imports a trash-talking sergeant to whip the recruits into shape. Feeling they're being treated as inferior, ill-equipped and destined for only boring, non-combat missions, Shaw demands the 54th be allowed to prove themselves in battle.

Finally, in an assault on a well-defended Confederate fortress, the African-American regiment gets its moment of "glory," but at a horrific cost. Their ultimate sacrifice earned the honor that opened the doors for free African-American men to serve. This powerful and complex movie is best for mature teens and up; it may be too intense for younger kids, even those who are Civil War buffs. Rigorous, even pitiless codes of military behavior is something worth talking about with kids, especially in military families.

The movie is important, because, during a time when white Americans generally accepted the idea that African-Americans were an inferior race and incapable of serving with pride and dignity in the military, Robert Gould Shaw believed otherwise. He fought tirelessly against a corrupt bureaucracy and reluctant military establishment to prove that his all-African-American regiment would display valor and courage in the heat of battle.

In the midst of intense racial prejudice from many in the North as well as the South -- and a lifetime of suffering the bitterness, anger, and frustration such prejudice engendered -- the African-American soldiers who composed the 54th Massachusetts Regiment overcame the false assumptions of many, resulting in President Lincoln ordering the recruitment of many more all-African-American regiments, which he believed helped turn the tide in the Civil War.

Families can talk about the history of racism in this country. How have things changed and how have they stayed the same since the Civil War? What parts of the movie seem to be an accurate reflection of what actually transpired, and what parts seem to be heightened or exaggerated for the purposes of a Hollywood movie? Families can research the reasons why the U. Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

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Corona Column 3 Use these free activities to help kids explore our planet, learn about global challenges, think of solutions, and take action. Movie review by Charles Cassady Jr. The attack was almost suicidal, particularly given the battlefield strategies of the day, which involved disciplining troops to keep on marching into withering fire. The 54th suffered a bloodbath. But its members remained disciplined soldiers to the end, and their performance on that day - July 18, - encouraged the North to recruit other blacks to its ranks, , in all, and may have been decisive in turning the tide of the war.

Returned home to recover from wounds, he is recruited to lead a newly formed black regiment and takes the job even though his own enlightened abolitionist opinions still leave room for doubts about the capability of black troops. It is up to the troops themselves to convince him they can fight - and along the way they also gently provide him with some insights into race and into human nature, a century before the flowering of the civil rights movement.

Among the men who turn into the natural leaders of the 54th are Trip Denzel Washington , an escaped slave, and John Rawlins Morgan Freeman , first seen in the film as a gravedigger who encounters the wounded Shaw on the field of battle. These men are proud to be soldiers, proud to wear the uniform and also too proud to accept the racism they see all around them, as when a decision is made to pay black troops less than white. Blacks march as far, bleed as much and die as soon, they argue. Why should they be paid less for the same work?

Shaw and his second in command, Cabot Forbes Cary Elwes , eventually see the logic in this argument and join their men in refusing their paychecks. That action is a turning point for the 54th, fusing the officers and men together into a unit with mutual trust. But there are countless smaller scenes that do the same thing, including one in which Shaw is pointedly told by one of his men that when the war is over, nothing much will have changed: "You'll go back to your big house.

With HBO's Watchmen having recently drawn attention to the Tulsa Race Massacre , Glory offers another indelible screen depiction of an important episode in American history. Rewatching it on its thirtieth anniversary, here at the tail end of the s, is an emotional experience: at once humbling and cathartic and inspiring all over again. Hollywood has a long history of pitting John Wayne types against foreign villains.

From a commercial perspective, it's easier to appeal to the lowest common denominator of moviegoers that way. Yet the same jingoistic spirit that thrived in '80s and '90s action cinema may have kept Tinseltown from truthfully confronting America's own divided past and present—in war movies, or even in modern superhero films, some of which have been made under Pentagon supervision, with scripts approved by the U.

Whatever the reason, Hollywood has shied away from the Civil War enough in favor of wars abroad — "us" versus "them" — that it feels like Glory simultaneously invented and broke the sub-genre wheel.

We've seen the brother-against-brother, blue-versus-gray plot play out in other Civil War movies, made before and after , of course. Likewise, we've seen the sweeping, sanitized, Southern romantic vision of Gone with the Wind, which predates Glory by half a century and is regularly ranked among the greatest American movies. But how often have we seen African-American characters take such an active part in the narrative of their own emancipation? If battlefield action can be regarded as a defining aspect of the war movie, then irrespective of its stereotypes, Gone with the Wind registers as more of a sideline historical epic.

It uses the Civil War as a backdrop for the story of a fiercely determined woman named Scarlet O'Hara, whose concluding cry of, "As God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again! Director Edward Zwick spoke with EW this year about how he tried to re-shape the narrative of Glory to reduce its studio-preferred white-savior components. Granted, some of those components are still there, such as when the good white Union officer storms into an office and demands shoes for the black soldiers in his regiment.

Moments like these position Glory somewhere between the extremes of Do the Right Thing and Driving Miss Daisy , two films that hit theaters the same year and offered very different treatments of race. Zwick would later go on to helm the The Last Samurai Tom Cruise in Japan and help conceive the story for The Great Wall Matt Damon in China , so it's worth noting that there's a pattern in his work of anchoring a narrative around white protagonists, even when the setting is Asian countries.

Broderick plays Robert Gould Shaw, identified as "the son of wealthy Boston abolitionists. Down here, ready to fight for their country, as the old fellows did in the revolution. The real Shaw's letters serve as the source material for this movie, along with the historical novels One Gallant Rush and Lay This Laurel.