FILM
REVIEW – GLORY.
Terrific, understated true story of the 54th Regiment Of Massachusetts, the first all Black division to serve the North in the American Civil war, despite prejudice and hostility.
Matthew Broderick is the young, idealistic Colonel Gould Shaw, a man given command of a body of men older than himself (Broderick was criticised as being too young for the role, but the character himself faced similar scorn in history). Who is given the task of raising the army? His impatience for getting results gets his regiment into serious danger, and his decision to lead them on a suicide mission to capture a Confederate fortification, (Fort Wagner) proves to be both heroic and reckless. It was however to inspire the North, through Lincoln, to raise more black divisions, which helped to swing the course of the war in favour of greater freedom and liberty for all.
Morgan Freeman is an old, wise farmhand, who enlists after working on burial detail to many in the army he has envied for fighting for his freedom. Given a chance to fight and die for the same cause has given him a new purpose in life.
Denzel Washington, (who got a best supporting actor award for his role) is a former runaway slave who sees the intrinsic racism even in the North. His defiance and obstinacy threatens to alienate him from all. In one astonishing scene, he is arrested for desertion when he breaks out of the training camp to steal some provisions, and his punishment is to be lashed in front of the entire regiment. As his shirt is removed for the lashing, his back shows the scars of all the brutal lashings he had received as a slave. Though the man administering the punishment has no choice but to proceed, the sense of the new liberal bosses having the attitudes of their predecessors inherent in them is overpowering. Washington stares in accusation and hate throughout his ordeal, crying a single tear as the whipping comes to its end.
After their training has made them as efficient as any soldier, the men find that they are being kept out of military engagement, and forced to help in menial labour tasks bordering on slavery for them. They are also given inadequate footwear, causing many to suffer from foot-rot (the root cause of Washington’s crimes). Broderick eventually forces the army to give them men proper boots and uniforms.
The 54th finally get into action, and are forced, against their will, under orders, to participate in a senseless massacre, burning down a small village that had served the South. Eventually however, they are given true duties, and Broderick volunteers them for the doomed 1863 assault on Fort Wagner, which would claim many lives even after the assault by the 54th and which would never fall by force. The battle scenes throughout the film are well staged but low key up to the final battle which takes on the look and sweep of a classical painting. The march of the men, finally gaining respect from those who have scorned and ridiculed for their willingness to spearhead an attack most know they will never return from, and the assault itself, in a spray of grapeshot and sand-dirt, through pickets, uphill against formidable fire-power, is breath-taking. As men bearing the flag fall, others step forward to take their place. When Colonel Gould Shaw dies, suddenly and without a long rousing speech to his men, they carry on with the charge anyway. They break through the line they are struggling to take, and capture only a glimpse of the rows of cannon and musket that form the remaining lines they can never hope to beat. Their march has the air of doom associated with the British Light Brigade of the Crimean War. The blast of the cannons blots out the screen and when it clears, we see only the bodies being heaped into a mass grave, offers indistinguishable from privates, black indistinguishable from white, as the credits roll. More than half of the 54th regiment died in that single engagement.
One of the most humane of all war films, with realistically developed characters, and many fine moments, such as the hymn and prayer singing session by the 54th, when Denzel Washington finally accepts his place in the cause and recognises his brothers as a true family. It is the lashing sequence which truly stands out as a defining moment however, showing that while the 54th would help bring down slavery, the legacy of prejudice and anti-black sentiment would continue despite their achievements.
Glory belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made.
Arthur Chappell
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