Glorious

Rating: 10/10 (14 November 2014)

Glory came out of nowhere for me. I was looking for something good to watch on Netflix and I decided to try this as it was meant to be good. What followed was sheer perfection. Glory is a breath-taking, heroic, almost super human juggernaut of a historical epic which is an incredibly moving and brilliantly acted movie which somehow wasn't nominated for best picture in a year when the winner was a film about Morgan Freeman driving an old woman around. This is the story of the first all black army regiment in the American civil war. It's a true story which hasn't been focused on enough and it tells it superbly. Matthew Broderick ditches all traces of Ferris Bueller and delivers a surprisingly mature and strong performance as the leader of the regiment. Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington are both outstanding and Edward Zwick's direction is fantastic. Not only is the cinematography stunning but the battle sequences are incredibly intense and truly capture the hellishness of war.
The script is skilfully handled; covering a lot of stuff without excess exposition and without sentimentality and manipulation. You grow to care about all of the characters and ultimately it is a very sad and emotional movie. The deaths of 2 of the main characters at the end is genuinely upsetting. Glory is also a very useful film for history and always feels accurate and honest. There aren't many flaws with Glory and it had me hooked for the entirety of its 2 hour run time. Glory is definitely one of the best historical drama movies of all time and shows that they are certainly not boring. With its fine direction, acting and writing Glory renders an important true story in sublime detail and turns it into a moving, masterful epic. It's not the most well known movie out there but it deserves far more attention than it gets. This is absolutely monumental filmmaking and is a testament both to the talents of Washington and Freeman and the power, relevance and importance of history.
10/10