Simply the finest war movie ever made.

Rating: 10/10 (20 August 1999)

Edward Zwick brings us the story of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first regiment of the Civil War comprised entirely of black volunteers. The story centers around a group of black soldiers. There's Trip, a cynical, bitter runaway slave (Denzel Washington); Rawlins, a wise and compassionate grave-digger who can no longer stand aside and watch others die to save his people (Morgan Freeman); Sharts, a devoted and naive young sharpshooter (Jihmi Kennedy); and Thomas, a well-educated free Northerner who in his own way is no less naive than Sharts (Andre Braugher). All will grow and change in the course of the movie. Col. Shaw (Matthew Broderick) is the white commander of the regiment who must win the trust of men who have known nothing but contempt and hatred from whites, while simultaneously putting them through the often-cruel process of training for battle.
There are two movies that, even if I walk into them in the middle, will immediately glue me to the screen until the very end. One is CASABLANCA. The other is GLORY. This movie is pure drama without an ounce of fat on it. There's not a single shot, much less a single scene, that should have been edited out.
Any discussion of GLORY must begin with Denzel Washington. Arguably the greatest American actor living today, Washington has yet to surpass his astonishing performance as Trip. Washington's role calls for a wide variety of emotions, all of which he delivers outstandingly: hatred and sourness that he cannot resist spilling onto his fellow soldiers, defiance and determination in the incredibly powerful scene where he is disciplined for desertion, an embarrassed affection as he realizes, and confesses, that his comrades mean the world to him. Washington's Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor was hardly reward enough; the Academy could have renamed the award in his honor.
Morgan Freeman is dignified and reserved throughout, as he transforms from bystander in the war to the leader-by-acclaim and the surrogate father of the troops. His confrontation with Washington is classic. Andre Braugher evokes great sympathy as, due to his comfortable upbringing, he suffers much worse than his fellows from the hardships of soldiering, yet refuses to give up. Matthew Broderick, normally a mediocre actor at best, gives a sterling performance; one scene, where he takes the regiment in five seconds from the verge of mutiny to being ready to follow him through hell, should be shown in every ROTC course on military leadership.
But GLORY is not a mere feel-good piece of sugar candy like, say, A TIME TO KILL. These characters we come to know and love have to fight a very dirty, nasty, bloody war, and GLORY does not flinch from showing it to us. War does not play favorites with our favorite characters. Nor is the Union side portrayed as angelically just. Indeed, most of the racism that the men of the 54th Mass. must endure comes from their bigoted fellow Union soldiers, and Shaw's superiors are realistically shown as corrupt and indifferent to the welfare of their subordinates.
It is an interesting irony that Washington went on to play Spike Lee's Malcolm X, where he famously declares to his fellow black people, "We are not Americans!" Having seen GLORY, and having gained some understanding of how bitter was the sacrifice, how bloody the price, that the men of the 54th Mass. paid to win themselves and their fellows the rights that Americans today take for granted, one hopes that fewer Americans of any race will agree with the jaded view of the great civil rights leader. As a paean to the courage of those who would rather die free than live as slaves, GLORY surpasses even BRAVEHEART, due to GLORY's superior acting and far greater historical accuracy. Zwick, Washington, Freeman and Broderick have given us a true classic.