Glory (film)

Glory

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Edward Zwick
Produced by Freddie Fields
Written by Kevin Jarre
Starring Matthew Broderick
Denzel Washington
Cary Elwes
Morgan Freeman
Andre Braugher
Jihmi Kennedy
John Finn
Cliff DeYoung
Music by James Horner
Cinematography Freddie Francis
Editing by Steven Rosenblum
Distributed by TriStar Pictures
Release date(s) December 15, 1989 (1989-12-15)
Running time 122 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $18,000,000 (est.)
Gross revenue $26,828,365[1]

Glory is a 1989 American drama war film based on the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as told from the point of view of its commanding officer, Robert Gould Shaw during the American Civil War. The 54th was one of the first formal units of the U.S. Army to be made up entirely of African-American men (apart from the officers).

Contents

Plot

Captain Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) leads his company of a Massachusetts Infantry regiment in an attack on Confederates posted along the Hagerstown Pike at the Battle of Antietam, on September 17, 1862. The regiment's Lieutenant Colonel (Dwight Wilder) is killed, and the attack is beaten back with heavy losses. Shaw is wounded slightly, and passes out. He is awakened by a black gravedigger named John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman). While receiving medical attention, Shaw is told that President Lincoln is on the verge of passing the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in rebel held territory. While on leave in Boston, Shaw is offered promotion to the rank of Colonel and command of the first all-black regiment authorized to be raised as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation, the 54th Massachusetts. He agrees, and asks his childhood friend, Cabot Forbes (Cary Elwes), to be his second in command. Their first volunteer is another one of Shaw's friends, an educated, free black man named Thomas Searles (Andre Braugher).

They soon have hundreds of men joining the regiment, including John Rawlins the gravedigger, an escaped slave named Trip (Denzel Washington), and a shy free black man named Jupiter Sharts (Jihmi Kennedy). Once at camp, Thomas, Rawlins, Trip, and Sharts all share one tent along with a mute drummer boy. Immediately, Thomas's and Trip's relationship gets off to a rocky start when Trip ridicules Thomas's educated and refined manner and, subsequently, Thomas mistakenly patronizes Trip, setting off a pattern of animosity between the two.

At camp, the 54th passes through many hardships and discriminations. The senior instructor, Sergeant Major Mulcahy's cruelty. Their lack of proper equipment (even though their supplier had such things in stock), and the camp's racism and revulsion of the 54th was just some of the problems Shaw faced.

After spending time doing menial tasks Shaw quickly realizes that his unit is to be used only for manual labor and threatens his commanding officer that he will report his war profiteering to the War Department if the 54th is not allowed to fight. Shaw is granted his request and the 54th participates in a skirmish on St. James Island where the 54th successfully repulses a Confederate attack. Soon after that, Shaw volunteers the 54th Massachusetts to lead an assault on Fort Wagner. The next day, the 54th Massachusetts is honored by white soldiers and officers on the march toward the heavily defended position. At sunset, the regiment charges up the beach toward the fort under heavy enemy small arms and cannon fire, and takes shelter in the sand dunes beneath the guns. After nightfall, Shaw leads the men in a charge upon the fort itself. With the enemy firing down on them, Shaw guides his men through the abatis and across the moat. Shaw attempts to rally the men forward but is shot and killed. The men are frozen in shock until Trip (Denzel Washington) springs forward, lifts the flag, and rallies the men. He too is shot and killed, but his example spurs the remaining men, led by Forbes and Rawlins, to charge up the parapet and fight the rebels in hand-to-hand combat. Thomas is stabbed, but Jupiter carries him into the fort. Forbes and Rawlins lead the men onward. The surge forward pauses upon reaching a second line of defense; the scene ends in the smoke from blast of Confederate cannon fire.

The next scene opens the following morning with the Confederate flag being raised over the fort. Confederate burial parties gather the slain men of the 54th Massachusetts. Their corpses, including those of Shaw and Trip, are thrown into a mass grave.

A series of text states that the 54th lost half its men in the attack on Fort Wagner and that the fort was never taken. News of the regiment's courage spurred the creation of many more black regiments. By the end of the war, there were more than 180,000 African-American men in uniform, a fact which President Lincoln considered instrumental in securing victory.

The credits roll against the background of Augustus Saint-Gaudens's memorial to Shaw and his men that stands today on Boston Common.

Cast

Minor appearances

Soundtrack

Featuring the Boys Choir of Harlem, the underscore for the film was composed by James Horner. Critics have remarked upon hearing echoes of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in the score, especially in regard to the cue "Charging Fort Wagner";[2][3] in fact, the score exhibits the influence of works by a number of composers, many of them British: Aaron Copland Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis in "The Whipping", William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast in "Preparation for Battle", and Benjamin Britten's War Requiem and, indeed, Orff's Carmina Burana in "Charging Fort Wagner". One of the main themes of the score ("Blow the horn / Play the fife") betrays the influence of Britten's Owen Wingrave, an opera that, not inconsequentially, engages the concept of pacifism. Another theme borrows noticeably from Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible. A track listing of the soundtrack CD follows:

  1. A Call To Arms
  2. After Antietam
  3. Lonely Christmas
  4. Forming the Regiment
  5. The Whipping
  6. Burning The Town of Darien
  7. Brave Words, Braver Deeds
  8. The Year of Jubilee
  9. Preparation For Battle
  10. Charging Fort Wagner
  11. Epitaph To War
  12. Closing Credits

Home media

The film was first released on VHS in 1990. It was later released on DVD in 2003 and Blu-ray in 2009.

Academy Awards

The film was nominated in five categories, of which it won three:

References

Cited references

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ Andreas Lindahl (2008), "Glory Soundtrack (James Horner)", http://www.filmmusicsite.com/soundtracks.cgi?id=1004&lang=en
  3. ↑ Christian Clemmensen, (1997, rev. 2006), "Filmtracks: Glory (James Horner)", http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/glory.html

External links

Films directed by Edward Zwick
1980s
About Last Night... (1986) · Glory (1989)
1990s
Leaving Normal (1992) · Legends of the Fall (1994) · Courage Under Fire (1996) · The Siege (1998)
2000s
The Last Samurai (2003) · Blood Diamond (2006) · Defiance (2008)
2010s
Love and Other Drugs (2010)