Glory Movie Analysis

Glory: Directed by Edward Zwick, Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, 1989. 122 Minutes

Reviewed by Mike

Edward Zwick’s Glory is a movie in which the balance between entertainment and history was perfectly managed. He uses the letters sent by contemporary Col. Robert G. Shaw to his wealthy family back in Massachusetts as the historical foundation of the movie while imagining conversations between characters. Through Col. Shaw’s eye, we are able to uncover the birth, the development, and the end of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first colored regiment fought in Civil War. Just like any other war movie, Glory has several battle scenes that were unpleasantly bloody, yet they managed to stay authentic. In the last battle, almost half

For example, Shaw could easily write a letter to his father, telling him that these colored soldiers need shoes and everything necessary for the war so that his father would talk to the President about it and solve the problem. Instead, Shaw directly went to the logistics with a few soldiers after the logistic officer postponed their demand several times. He walked into the office, and these soldiers stood in front of the door like bodyguards, which reminded me of some mob movies. He then questioned the officer, lashed out at him, and threw everything he could get his hands on. Eventually, the officer caved and sent them the supply. Now, Zwick made this change, because it helps bridge the transaction of how black soldiers feel toward Col. Shaw from doubt and anger to respect and

Before the battle, black soldiers were facing discrimination everywhere. Shaw’s friend, as one of the commanding officer, didn’t train them as soldiers, because he saw them as inferior and incapable of fighting wars. One of the white private defied the order given by the black sergeant to whom he showed disrespect. I honestly don’t think any soldier is dumb enough to disobey and insult his commanding officer unless he wants to see what a martial court looks like, which gives us a pretty good idea of how much the white soldiers despised the black ones. In the end, the 54th regiment volunteered to be the first wave of attack on Fort Wagner, which was basically a suicide mission. The white soldiers saluted to them. They began to see them not as some jokes, but as brothers and peers.

In a nutshell, Glory is a movie that put in tons of efforts to illustrate authentic battle scenes and relationship between black soldiers and white soldiers during the Civil War, a truly sophisticated film with depth of thoughts and an excellent source for studying one of the major topics in the history of United