Discovering a Universal Truth...All Men are Equally Men

Rating: 8/10 (29 May 2013)

The Civil War, or the War Between the States if you prefer, is an Emotional affair with a Capital E. Brother against Brother. Americans against Americans. The "fight" for Freedom and Unifacation. It was a valiant exercise, if among other things, and was a turning point in Consciousness, and Enlightenment if you will.
At the time it was erroneously thought that Blacks would not fight, at least not like their betters, the White Soldiers. It was common to think that they would be undisciplined and hard to manage. Of course this was all racists nonsense. A mindset that some Humans were Superior to others.
This mostly True account of one of the first Black regiments to be put to the test of Battle is, predictably, a situation rife with radical Beliefs coming in direct conflict with a very different reality, and the Film is charged with something akin to Spirituality. On screen this can be at times a heavy handed display with Angelic Choirs and somewhat simplistic Stereotypes.
But the Cinematography, Acting, and landscape does its best to keep things from becoming overwhelmingly sentimental. It almost works, but it is just too ardent an affair and touches those parts of the Soul that Lincoln called "The Better Angels of Our Nature". Similarly, it is both sides that marched their Sons abreast into the grinder with little regard, and it is this Universal Truth, that makes this Conflict so persuasively passionate, regardless of Race, Creed, or Color.