misguided historical drama

Rating: 4/10 (22 November 2010)

The true story of an all-black Union regiment in the Civil War (all but the officers, of course) would like to be a socially aware anti-war epic, but unfortunately there isn't anything in the film to suggest the title might be ironic. Instead, it offers all the usual patriotic myths of noble self-sacrifice, while choosing to ignore the sad fact that the only way an ex-slave could earn a white man's respect was to die fighting his wars for him. Even worse, the impression is left of the regiment being little more than a surrogate plantation, with Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) literally whipping a rabble of black men into fighting shape. Denzel Washington earned a well-deserved Oscar as the only soldier able to face the truth ("no one will win"); by comparison Broderick, while in fact the same age as his character, resembles a high school drama student, chomping down on a mean cigar in a vain attempt to look less immature. Typical of the film's self-congratulatory liberal (white) attitude is the climatic charge into battle, where Broderick is allowed a heroic slow-motion death while his black troops (in the ultimate bid for equality) are simply used as expendable cannon fodder.