Movie Description

This moving story of military glory focuses on the role of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick) and the soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first African American regiments to serve in the Union army. In historical terms, the movie also depicts a major transformation of northern values about the purposes of the Civil War and its impact on U.S. citizenship after the war.

The movie opens with the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, a costly Union victory that emboldened President Abraham Lincoln to announce that he would issue an Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in areas that remained in rebellion against the U.S. government, unless the southern states returned to the Union. [See American Journey document, Emancipation Proclamation.]

The scene then shifts to New England and the creation of the first Northern regiment of black volunteers (who include the characters Trip, played by Denzel Washington, and Rawlins, played by Freeman Morgan) during the winter of 1862-63. The film proceeds to show their rigorous military training and their first experience of battle at Darien, Georgia, and James Island, South Carolina, in 1863. The movie's climax comes with the terrifying and heroic assault against Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina, resulting in about 50 percent casualties.

Glory is distinguished for its overall historical accuracy (with a few exceptions discussed below). Made after the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the emergence of African American studies as an academic field, the movie goes beyond military history to explore issues of African American culture and the significance of the Civil War in reshaping the national identity. It also raises contemporary questions about war as a tool of national policy: Why and when should people fight and die? Indeed, the viewer may ask whether Glory is an anti-war or a pro-war movie?

Glory