10 / 10
Glory is the best American Civil War film and one of the great American war films of any era. Edward Zwick directed it. Matthew Broderick plays Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the twenty-five-year-old Boston abolitionist who commanded the 54th Massachusetts, the first official African-American regiment in the Union Army. Denzel Washington won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar playing Private Trip, a runaway slave with no patience for white officers. Morgan Freeman plays Sergeant Major Rawlins. Cary Elwes plays Major Forbes. Andre Braugher made his film debut as Corporal Thomas.
The film ends with the regiment’s frontal assault on Fort Wagner outside Charleston Harbor on July 18, 1863. Most of them die, including Shaw. The Confederates dumped their bodies into a mass grave together, which Shaw’s father later said was the burial he would have wanted for his son. The film respects all of this and earns the right to depict it.
What Works
The structure is patient. The first hour follows the regiment’s training. The men are not idealized. They argue. They steal shoes from the supply officer. They learn drill. The script does not pretend the regiment was uniformly heroic from day one. The men become soldiers across the runtime, which means the audience watches them earn what the final assault costs them.
Denzel Washington’s Trip is one of the great supporting performances in American cinema. The whipping scene is the moment the film became a classic. Trip is being punished for desertion. The army strips him to the waist. He stares at Shaw the entire time the whipping happens. His back has older scars. The audience and Shaw both realize at the same moment that Trip has been whipped before, and not by the army. The scene is shot in long takes on Washington’s face. He says almost nothing. Nothing more is needed.
For Writers
A scene’s emotional payload often arrives through what is not said. Denzel Washington’s whipping scene contains almost no dialogue. The information the scene needs to convey lands through his face, the response on the officers’ faces, and the camera’s refusal to look away. The lesson is that emotional climax does not require speeches. A character’s restraint, when the audience knows what is being restrained, is more powerful than any line of dialogue could be. Trust the silence.
The Camp Fire Scene
The night before Fort Wagner, the regiment sings around a campfire. Each soldier offers a moment. Trip says he has never been an American. Sergeant Rawlins talks about being a gravedigger. Other men offer prayers, songs, and acknowledgements. The scene is the emotional spine of the film. Every character has earned the right to speak. Every speech matters because the audience knows where they are going in the morning.
The film ends with the camp fire promise. The next day’s assault is filmed at distance until it is not. Shaw rides ahead of his men into the parapet. The film cuts to black. The mass grave appears. The score by James Horner closes the film. The audience understands what just happened without being told.
For Writers
Pre-battle scenes are dangerous. They invite cliché. The campfire sequence in Glory works because it does not announce itself as a final reckoning. The men do not give speeches about what they have learned. They share moments. The audience supplies the meaning. The lesson is that the most powerful pre-climax scenes do not name themselves. They are casual on the surface. The reader brings the weight to the scene because the reader knows what comes next.
The Fort Wagner Assault
The assault sequence is one of the best Civil War battle scenes ever filmed. Shaw rides ahead. The regiment follows. The Confederate gunners on the parapet fire grape and canister. The Union troops climb the rampart. Most are killed. A handful, including Shaw, briefly reach the top. The Confederates kill them. The remnants of the regiment retreat.
The film does not show the assault succeeding in any sense, because historically it did not. The 54th Massachusetts lost almost forty percent casualties in the attack. The fort did not fall. The strategic outcome was Union failure. The film treats this honestly. The achievement is not victory. The achievement is that the men attacked at all, and that the attack made it impossible for the rest of the country to deny that Black soldiers could fight.
For Writers
A historical defeat can be a satisfying ending if the film names what the defeat accomplished. Fort Wagner was a Union failure. The 54th Massachusetts was destroyed. Glory shows this without flinching. The meaning of the attack is not in the tactical result. It is in what the attack proved about the men attacking. The lesson is that endings do not need to be victories to be earned. A loss that changes the world it occurred in is a stronger ending than a win that changes nothing.
Craft Note
Edward Zwick directed. Kevin Jarre wrote, drawing on Shaw’s letters and Lincoln Kirstein’s Lay This Laurel and Peter Burchard’s One Gallant Rush. Matthew Broderick as Shaw. Denzel Washington as Trip (Oscar, Supporting Actor). Morgan Freeman as Rawlins. Cary Elwes as Forbes. Andre Braugher (film debut) as Thomas. Jihmi Kennedy as Sharts. Freddie Francis won the Cinematography Oscar. James Horner scored. Sound Mixing Oscar. Released December 1989. Approximately eighteen million dollar budget. Twenty-seven million domestic gross. Three Oscars from five nominations.
The Verdict
10/10. The American Civil War film. Patient structure, great performances, historically honest ending. Denzel Washington’s whipping scene is one of the most important moments in 1980s American cinema. The campfire sequence is one of the most quietly devastating. The assault sequence is one of the most expensive in any film of its budget. Watch it.
FAQ
Is it based on a true story?
Yes. The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was real. Shaw was real. The assault on Fort Wagner happened on July 18, 1863. The regimental composition is accurate. The specific characters of Trip, Rawlins, and Thomas are composites or invented.
Did Denzel Washington deserve the Oscar?
Yes. One of the great supporting performances of the period.
Is the whipping scene historically accurate?
The Union Army did not generally whip soldiers as punishment. The scene is symbolically rather than literally accurate, deliberately echoing slavery to make a point about the men’s relationship to military discipline.
What happened to Shaw’s body?
The Confederates buried him in a mass grave with the African-American soldiers who died with him. Confederate officers reportedly meant this as an insult. Shaw’s father wrote that he could not think of a more fitting burial.
How does it compare to other Civil War films?
Better than most. Gettysburg and Lincoln are the other major modern entries. Glory is the most emotionally complete of the three.
Is it appropriate for children?
The film is rated R for violence. The combat sequences and the depiction of slavery are intense. Older teenagers can handle it. Younger viewers should not.
Should I watch this?
Yes. Essential viewing.