Glory (1989) by Edward Zwick

My favorite movie of all time is Glory(1989) by Edward Zwick. The movie appears to be accurate historically because Robert Gould Shaw as indeed a non- African-American which is ironic because he came from an abolitionist family. In the movie it shows Robert Gould Shaw allowing Trip to get whooped right in front of everyones eye, leaving a bad reputation with his men. The movie what accurate when talking about the battles that the 54 infantry had fighted but did not win all because from the movie it shows that in the battle of Antietam over half of the members of 54 Infantry had died in that major battle. In the history book say the same thing about the Battle and that the 54 led the battle even though they were African-American. The actors portray the historical figure really good because we know that Robert Gould Shaw wasn’t pro-slavery since he disliked African-Americans. In the movie, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw let Trips get whooped even though he couldve stopped it from happening.This movie would be useful for APUSH because it shows us as students visually how African-Americans were treated in the military during the civil war because in the books there isn’t much that is told except that there was segregation in the military and blacks arent able to fight in battles, so seeing this is just give us a better understand than the written words.The movie seems to be accurate setting wise because they were close to the South. But, one thing that i am not sure about is the part where the 54 regiment head out to battle as the leading charge and they are near a body of water and i didn’t think Antietam was near a body of water and in the movie it was surrounded by land.What i disliked about the movie is how some of the actors exaggerated some of the scenes. For example, when the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was at its first battle, Trip( the escaped slave) was on the ground getting beat by a confederate soldier, the director portrayed it in my eyes as if the confederate solider wasn’t actually trying to hurt him at all. I think the director couldve at least showed some spirit of fighting in the confederate soldiers because that will at least show the viewer that it wasn’t that easy for the African Americans nor were the Confederate soldiers naive or passive towards the opponent on the battle ground. Another example is towards the end of the movie when the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry were fighting in the battle of Antietam and the Infantry were in a trench shooting at the opponent when Colonel Robert Gould Shaw just came out of nowhere and went to the middle of the battle-field thinking his Desert Eagle is going to kill 100 men that are shooting at him. Honestly, what was the man thinking? This moment is flipped the switch because come on man! What on earth are you thinking? This made me believe that the movie is inaccurate about the whole story about the first all-African-American regiment. What is the director trying to get out from all of that? What i learned from this movies is that African-Americans in war had the same mindset as if they were off the battlefield and they weren’t afraid to die starving or die until they have received full equality. During the movie, the regiment had been waiting for their pay day and everyone one was happy even though they were receiving less than a half of what the other men of white color were receiving and the runaway slave, Trip, denied the money and spoke to the men by telling them if they accept the money it is as if they are accepting slavery altogether. This just shows me how much the word freedom meant to these men and would do anything get it. Like Trip, all of those men face so much discrimination and adversity in the military that they constantly reminded each other where they come from and why they are doing what they are currently doing. This movie taught me that even though there was a high road block for African Americans, there were people who wanted the taste of freedom and could not wait, just like Trip ( Denzel Washingtons character). There were people from the north who didn’t have a good understanding( their mindset was like of those of the south) of the situation the African-Americans but those understood stood for the lives of the African-Americans and reminding their commanding or declining officer that they are people too.

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