Movie of the Week: Glory

   

 

    Movie of the Week (7/14/13-7/20/13): On July 18, 1863 the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry regiment charged a fort on the coast of South Carolina, that fort was Fort Wagner. The first all black regiment in the United States Army suffered over fifty percent causalities, including their commander, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. The Union failed to take that fort for another two months after that charge. This Thursday, July 18, is the 150th anniversary of that battle so I thought the movie that showed the formation of this regiment and the charge it led would be suitable. Here is my review of Glory.
    The film opens with the bloody Battle of Antietam in September of 1862, which introduces us to two of the film's main characters, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and John Rawlins. After that we are taken into the life of Shaw as he goes home and is asked if he would be the commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry regiment, which would be the first all black regiment in the history of the United States. We then see the formation of the regiment, the training, and experience the hardships that the all black regiment acquired from both Union and Confederate troops. From the first battle scene to the last climactic battle scene we are told a great story of courage that has yet to be forgotten.
    The cast of this classic Civil War movie is fantastic with Matthew Broderick as Colonel Shaw, probably his best performance, Denzel Washington as Private Trip, who won an supporting Oscar for his performance, Cary Elwes as Major Forbes, Morgan Freeman as Sargent Major John Rawlins, and Andre Braugher as Corporal Thomas Searles. We get wonderful performances from all of these actors despite all there roles being fictional, with the exception of Shaw. With great acting comes great character development and that is what we have in this film. Some develop from being scared and shy to brave and heroic and some from cocky and troublesome to friendly and brave. All the characters in this film develop nicely in some way, which makes the characters that much more interesting and why we grow to love each one.
    The acting and development is great, but what also makes this a great film is the direction, battle choreography, and musical score. Edward Zwick, who gave us more recent classics such as The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, and Defiance, gave us this realistic feeling war film with great camera angles during battles and showing us how rough it was for these black men in such a dividing conflict. Zwick also shot some beautiful scenes in camp during the troops pass time and directed some great dialog scenes that were very powerful and emotional to watch. The film also has one of the greatest scores for a war movie provided by the great James Horner. Most people recognize the famous rhythm when it is heard. From beginning to end, especially in the climax, the score will give you chills and make you cheer.
    This film is one of those that most everybody likes, even historians despite some of the historical inaccuracies because it is such a well done movie. It is well done because it was written very well and had the right actors to play the right parts along with the right director to bring it to life. The film is not the best war movie of all time but it is high on the list because we connect with the characters so much as the film goes on that by the end we are so emotionally distraught by what becomes of them. The ending is so powerful and emotional it is almost anti-climatic, but we know what the formation of 54th Massachusetts led too. Glory is a great acted, intense, emotional, and perfectly scored war film that will be remembered for years to come and should have won Best Picture for the 1989 Oscars.                                                                                     4/4 Stars