Heavy-Handed, Emotional War Story

Rating: 5/10 (27 September 2006)

Here's another one of those films I really, really liked on the first go-round and was very disappointed on the second look years later. Maybe, by the second viewing after I had watched thousands of movies since first seeing this, I just got tired of the "race issue." Yeah, I am sure black people had to get treated with little respect back in the Civil War days, as well as many other days until recent decades, but I don't need to be shown the evil white man for two straight hours. We get the point earlier on and it doesn't need to hammered over and over and over. Denzel Washington, as great an actor as he is, seems to specialize in race-issue movies. He and Spike Lee need to move on. In this movie, every Caucasion but one (played by Matthew Broderick) is a racist bad-guy. Enough said.
The action scenes in here are good. The last one is brutal and memorable. This is a tough film in many spots and will leave you emotionally worn out by the end. And - yes - it is a great tribute to the black soldiers in the Civil War.