The 'real' Birth of a Nation ...

Rating: 9/10 (7 August 2013)

Ever since D.W. Griffith's infamous "Birth of a Nation", a film like "Glory" was long overdue to re-establish the truth and do justice to those who fought for freedom and equality. ,
"Glory" focuses on Afro-Americans like films of the same year such as "Do the Right Thing" or "Driving Miss Daisy" but I disagreed with Ebert's comment that the story needed to be from the soldiers' perspective, because the film is less about race than the triumph of willingness through action. Women didn't vote for instance, but that was because voting has always been a privilege for those who defended the city: men fought in the army, not women. Duties give privileges and black soldiers chose to fight, aware that their blood would trace the road to liberty and equality, under the leadership of Col. Robert Gould Shaw, played by Matthew Broderick in a breakthrough dramatic role.
There's one powerful moment near the end when Shaw is about to give the signal for the historical attack on Fort Wagner. He looks at the sea with sadness in his eyes but a growing exhilaration in his heart. Shaw knows he and the main body of his troops are going to fall, but he also knows that the 54th Massachusetts, the first Regiment of Black soldiers, had to volunteer for what seemed like a suicidal mission. And when the whole unit advances toward the sea, it's a true march to history and the infinite horizon resonates like the invaluable impact their action will have on the course of the war, and on the Destiny of America. And that is the true meaning of the film, men dying in a blaze of "Glory", for one's death can bring so much for the future generations' lives: abolition of slavery, freedom, dignity, in others words: a just cause.
Providing the viewers the capability to understand what goes through a character's mind without any word spoken is certainly the mark of great movies and "Glory", directed by a relatively unknown Edward Zwyck, is one of them. And the credit goes to the cast, beyond Matthew Broderick whose boyish looks convey the insecurity of a young Colonel who is given a heavy share of America's fate on his hands, there are Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington (and God, what fitting names for such a film), in performances that leave no doubt about their future as the most dependable actors of the next decades. And their characters allow us to value the accomplishment of the 54th Massachusetts, that became an inspiration for all the Afro-Americans through its heroism, determination, and resistance to the many obstacles that obstructed the road to glory, like the racism that was also prevailing in the North camp, to start with, and that severely damaged the motivation of the first enlistees.
And recurring moments when they meet in the tent provide the necessary level of intimacy to understand what goes through their hearts and that they will never show to the whites, it also intelligently reinforces the idea that 'black' is not just a generic term or a monolithic group. They're not all wise or good-hearted, gentle or dim-witted, one of them is Thomas, a friend of Shaw, the son of a free man from Boston, highly educated and intelligent, even a bit snobbish. Freeman is a gravedigger, a man of a few words but each resonating like the sound of Black conscience. And the most tormented and filled of anger, but not without wit or humor, is Trip, played by Denzel Washington, in one his greatest performances, which says a lot.
Trip's character blossoms during the film's most defining moment, when he's whipped for having deserted the camp. The slow close-up on Washington, climaxing with the tear running on his face certainly earned him his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, but the tear is not acting, it powerfully captures the vivid wound in colored person's hearts: the repression of their inner feelings, the regulation of their minds so they can serve the whites without hurting their pride, and more than anything, to never speak. Eyes are said to be the tunnels of the soul, and Washington's eyes speak infinite statements about centuries of dehumanization. In a less powerful but no less significant moment, Freeman's characters talks to Shaw, he never makes eye contact, and when their eyes meet, he immediately looks away. It's only by keeping a low profile that he could speak and ask for 'more shoes', explaining that it was the reason Trip left the camp, it wasn't deserting.
But the 'shoes' issue is only one of the several injustices the men had to endure besides the insults during training and the inferior wages that infuriated Trip who rightfully reminded that "Blacks stop bullet as fast as Whites". Shaw, by tearing up his own ticket, sealed with his men the sacred link that would never disappear, and that ultimately turned them into great soldiers. Yet the first baptism of fire is long to come, and even after getting their uniforms, they're still pushed into the background to accomplished menial work and some morally low actions, which the film was honest enough to tackle. I guess the actions some Blacks committed exacerbated the same resentment that inspired some parts of "The Birth of a Nation" except that Griffith's movie forgot that these men followed orders, and that war can turn every man into a savage beast with no distinction of race.
It's for moments like this that the film works, it's because we know that these men are flawed that their sacrifices is even more heroic. The cinematography, the music, the realism of the battle scenes can compete with the greatest epics, but there's more than glory in "Glory": there's the beautiful irony that these men never fought before and they were lead by a youngster who had as much to prove, and the conjunction of these two ironies cemented an extraordinary achievement.