Perhaps the real Best Picture of 1989!

Rating: 10/10 (13 July 2009)

How in the heck did GLORY not get nominated for Best Picture! A travesty! Note to Academy: Do SOMETHING right! GLORY is the engrossingly powerful re-enactment of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, a command of entirely African-American MEN during the Civil War, whose services were needed due to heavy losses by the Union Army. President Lincoln ordered the induction of black men into the Union to help turn the tide of the war. These men are freed slaves, escaped slaves, or already free men from the North. Just saw this film again recently and it holds up amazingly well 20 years later.
GLORY stars Matthew Broderick in the role of a lifetime as Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the leader of this regiment. At first hesitant due to projected backlash of commanding a Negro regiment, Shaw agrees to do it. Broderick relays a real humanity in Shaw that helps carry the film to its inevitable conclusion. A vastly underrated performance where a bunch of so-called film critics complained that the film should have been about the soldiers more. But it was! While Shaw narrates the story, it manages not to make him the focus and allows the viewer to see the men through Shaw's eyes, which are non-prejudicial and objective eyes indeed! This is the genius of Broderick's performance: no sentimentality, but perfect doses of empathy, toughness, and clarity. Make no mistake: Broderick is not the star of GLORY, but without his performance, the film would not work as well as it does!
Now to the soldiers: The great Morgan Freeman plays Rawlings a proud gravedigger who has seen just as much carnage as Shaw and meets him early in the film at Antietam. Both men sadly know what war is really all about. Freeman is underrated, too, as he emanates quiet dignity, but here I'm more impressed than by some of his bigger roles like in DRIVING MISS DAISY and SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. Rawlings is a man's man in every sense.
Then newcomer Andre Braugher is excellent as Thomas, the dignified friend of Col. Shaw, a free Bostonian black man who volunteers to be in Shaw's regiment. Jihmi Kennedy is heartbreakingly good as Jupiter, a sweet, yet slow man who is looking for dignity in a racist world himself.
And of course Best Supporting Oscar winner Denzel Washington as runaway slave Tripp, all bluster and full of anger, hatred, and remorse. Washington's Oscar was well-deserved. As great as Washington is though, the rest of these actors are just as exceptional and should not be overshadowed.
Additionally, Cary Elwes is extremely fine as Shaw's second in command and best friend Major Forbes.
GLORY is one of the most emotional films that one will ever have the joy of seeing. And while the outcome is dire for these brave soldiers, the film is monumentally uplifting and never strays or gets plodding or sentimental. The building up of these men into real soldiers is powerful and at the end you see what war (sadly) is all about.
Director Edward Zwick should forever be remembered for this triumph. It won 5 Oscars, but wasn't even nominated for Best Picture. Absurd!