During the American Civil War, Captain Robert Shaw is injured at Antietam and returns home to Boston on medical leave. Shaw accepts promotion to Colonel commanding the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first Black regiments in the Union Army. He asks his friend, Cabot Forbes, to serve as his second in command. Their first volunteer is a mutual friend, Thomas Searles, a bookish, free African-American. Other recruits include John Rawlins, Jupiter Sharts, Trip, and a mute boy drummer.
After the Emancipation Proclamation, the men of the 54th are told the Confederacy will execute any black soldiers captured in Union uniform along with their white officers. Despite this threat, the 54th's recruits turn down an offer to be honorably discharged and undergo rigorous training under Sergeant-Major Mulcahy.
Trip is arrested while AWOL. After having him flogged, Shaw learns Trip left camp to replace his worn out shoes. Shaw confronts the base's racist quartermaster, who is holding back their supplies. When the men realize the Federal government pays Black soldiers about three-quarters the salary of white soldiers, Trip encourages the men to refuse their pay. Shaw tears up his pay stub in solidarity. In recognition of his mentorship of the younger soldiers, and his advice to Shaw regarding the thoughts and morale of the men, Rawlins is promoted to Sergeant-Major.
Once trained, the 54th comes under the command of General Charles Harker and is ordered by Colonel James Montgomery to sack and burn Darien, Georgia. Shaw initially refuses, but agrees under threat of being relieved. Tired of seeing his men used for manual labor and raids on civilians he advises Harker and Montgomery he will report their profiteering to the war department unless the 54th is given a combat assignment.
The regiment goes into battle at James Island, South Carolina and repels a Confederate attack. Thomas is wounded in the action but saves Trip's life. Shaw offers Trip the honor of bearing the regimental flag in battle. He declines, not believing the war will result in a better life for slaves.
General George Strong informs his regimental commanders of a major campaign to secure a foothold at Charleston Harbor, and describes the initial attack at Morris Island which requires a frontal assault on Fort Wagner, whose only landward approach is a strip of open beach. Shaw volunteers the 54th. The night before the battle, the Black soldiers conduct a religious service, give thanks and seek God's help. The next morning the 54th deploys for the assault to the cheers of Union troops who had scorned them earlier.
The 54th suffers heavy losses in a daytime assault, and takes cover in the dunes until sundown. Attempting to rally his stalled men, Shaw is killed. Trip lifts the flag, and leads survivors toward the fort, brandishing the flag until he is mortally wounded. Forbes leads a party into the fort's outer defenses where Charlie Morse is killed, and Thomas is wounded. A small number of survivors, including Forbes, Rawlins, Thomas, and Jupiter, come face to face with a Confederate gun and the screen fades to black, implying their death by canister shot.
After sun up the next day, Confederate soldiers remove the bodies of Union soldiers from the beach, raise the Confederate flag over the fort, and bury the corpses in a mass grave. Shaw's body slides into the excavation and comes to rest next to Trip's.
An epilogue reveals that although Fort Wagner was never captured, the courage displayed by the 54th led to the Union Army accepting thousands of Black men for combat—a move that President Abraham Lincoln credited with helping to turn the tide of the war.
The title of the film recalls the "glory" for which the July 28, 1863, edition of the weekly Columbus Enquirer reported that First-SergeantRobert John Simmons, mortally wounded at Battery Wagner, came to fight (Simmons himself wrote, in an account of the Battle of Grimball's Landing that was published in the New York Tribune on December 23, 1863: "God has protected me through this, my first fiery, leaden trial, and I do give Him the glory").[3][4]
Lincoln Kirstein had first approached Lloyd Fonvielle to write the script. Fonvielle was too in awe of Kirstein to collaborate effectively with him and introduced Kirstein to his friend, Kevin Jarre, who had worked on Rambo: First Blood Part II; they were originally going to write the script together, but Fonvielle got tied up in another project, leaving Jarre to write the script on his own.[5]
A Civil War buff since he was a child, Jarre met with Kirstein and talked about the 54th. As Jarre stated: "Lincoln’s interest was deeper. It related to his whole philosophy about surrendering yourself to something bigger, some larger cause. He’d always wanted to make a movie about the 54th".[6]
Jarre moved into Room 421 at the Gramercy Park Hotel and worked around the clock, writing the script in a few weeks on spec.[6][5]
Kirstein showed the script to producer James Ivory of Merchant Ivory Productions.[6] Ivory liked the script but wanted Ruth Prawer Jhabvala to give it a rewrite. According to Fonvielle, Kirstein then got up, shook Ivory’s hand warmly, pulled him to his feet, said, “Jim, thanks so much for coming down,” and ushered him out the front door.[5]
The script was then sent to director Bruce Beresford, who committed to do it and brought in producer Freddie Fields, who then set up a deal at Columbia Pictures,[6] but when David Puttnam left Columbia, pre-production had stopped. Beresford left the project, and Fields then took the script to Tri-Star. The studio agreed to do the film and hired Edward Zwick as director.[10][6]
Filming
Exterior filming took place primarily in Massachusetts and Georgia. The culminating battle scene of Fort Wagner was filmed on the beaches of Jekyll Island, Georgia. Opening scenes meant to portray the Battle of Antietam show volunteer military reenactors filmed at a major engagement at the Gettysburg battlefield. The scenes depicting the Battle of Grimball's Landing were filmed at Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park.[11] Later in the war, the 54th Massachusetts did fight at the Battle of Olustee, but it is not depicted in the movie. Zwick did not want to turn Glory "into a black story with a more commercially convenient white hero".[12] Actor Morgan Freeman noted: "We didn't want this film to fall under that shadow. This is a picture about the 54th Regiment, not Colonel Shaw, but at the same time the two are inseparable".[12] Zwick hired the writer Shelby Foote as a technical adviser. Foote later became widely known for his contributions to Ken Burns' PBS nine-episode documentary, The Civil War (1990).[12]
On February 16, 1989, the body of a middle-aged man was discovered on the film's set in Savannah, about a day after his death. Described as having a Middle Eastern appearance, with no apparent signs of suffering a violent death, he was never positively identified.[13]
Glory's original motion picture soundtrack was released by Virgin Records on January 11, 1990. The score for the film was composed and orchestrated by James Horner in association with the Boys Choir of Harlem.[14][15] Jim Henrikson edited the film's music, while Shawn Murphy mixed the score.[16]
Historical sources
Monograph
A nonfiction study of the regiment first appeared in 1965 and was republished in paperback in January 1990 by St. Martin's Press under the title One Gallant Rush: Robert Gould Shaw and His Brave Black Regiment. The book, by Peter Burchard, expands on how the 54th Massachusetts developed as battle-ready soldiers.[17] Summarizing the historical events, the book provides events surrounding the aftermath of the first Black Union regiment and how it influenced the outcome of the war.[17]
Release
Critical response
Denzel Washington's performance was widely acclaimed, and he won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95%, based on 57 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's consensus states: "Bolstered by exceptional cinematography, powerful storytelling, and an Oscar-winning performance by Denzel Washington, Glory remains one of the finest Civil War movies ever made."[18] On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film holds a score of 78/100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[19]
Film critic Vincent Canby's review in The New York Times stated, "[Broderick] gives his most mature and controlled performance to date... [Washington is] an actor clearly on his way to a major screen career... The movie unfolds in a succession of often brilliantly realized vignettes tracing the 54th's organization, training and first experiences below the Mason-Dixon line. The characters' idiosyncrasies emerge".[7]Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, calling it "a strong and valuable film no matter whose eyes it is seen through".[8] He believed the production design credited to Norman Garwood and the cinematography of Freddie Francis paid "enormous attention to period detail".[8]
Watching "Glory," I had one recurring problem. I didn't understand why it had to be told so often from the point of view of the 54th's white commanding officer. Why did we see the black troops through his eyes — instead of seeing him through theirs? To put it another way, why does the top billing in this movie go to a white actor?
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone was not impressed at all with the overall acting, calling Broderick "catastrophically miscast as Shaw".[20] Alternatively, Richard Schickel of Time described the picture by saying, "the movie's often awesome imagery and a bravely soaring choral score by James Horner that transfigure the reality, granting it the status of necessary myth".[21]Desson Howe of The Washington Post, pointed out some flaws that included mentioning Broderick as "an amiable non-presence, creating unintentionally the notion that the 54th earned their stripes despite wimpy leadership".[22]
James Berardinelli writing for ReelViews, called the film "without question, one of the best movies ever made about the American Civil War", noting that it "has important things to say, yet it does so without becoming pedantic".[23] Rating the film four stars, critic Leonard Maltin wrote that it was "grand, moving, breathtakingly filmed (by veteran cinematographer Freddie Francis) and faultlessly performed", calling it "one of the finest historical dramas ever made".[24]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film a thumbs up review, saying, "like Driving Miss Daisy, this is another admirable film that turns out to be surprisingly entertaining". He thought the film took on "some true social significance" and felt the actors portrayed the characters as "more than simply black men". He explained: "They're so different, that they become not merely standard Hollywood blacks, but true individuals".[25]
American Civil War historian James M. McPherson stated the film "accomplished a remarkable feat in sensitizing a lot of today's black students to the role that their ancestors played in the Civil War in winning their own freedom".[26]
Accolades
The film was nominated and won several awards in 1989–90.[27][28] A complete list of awards the film won or was nominated for are listed below.
The film premiered in cinemas on December 14, 1989, in limited release within the US. During its limited opening weekend, the film grossed $63,661 in business showing at three locations. Its official wide release began in theaters on February 16, 1990.[2] Opening in a distant eighth place, the film earned $2,683,350 (~$5.53million in 2023) showing at 801 cinemas. The film Driving Miss Daisy soundly beat its competition during that weekend opening in first place with $9,834,744.[43] The film's revenue dropped by 37% in its second week of release, earning $1,682,720. For that particular weekend, the film remained in 8th place screening in 809 theaters not challenging a top five position. The film Driving Miss Daisy, remained in first place grossing $6,107,836 in box office revenue.[44]Glory went on to top out domestically at $26,828,365 (~$57.4million in 2023) in total ticket sales through a 17-week theatrical run.[2] For 1989 as a whole, the film would cumulatively rank at a box office performance position of 45.[45]
Home media
Following its release in theaters, the film was released on VHS video format on June 22, 1990.[46] The Region 1DVD of the film was released in the United States on January 20, 1998. Special DVD features include: interactive menus, scene selections, 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and 1.33:1 full screen versions, along with subtitles in English, Italian, Spanish and French.[47] A Special Edition DVD of the Film was released on January 30, 2001.
A special repackaged version of Glory was also officially released on DVD on January 2, 2007. It includes two discs featuring: widescreen and full screen versions of the film; Picture-in-Picture video commentary by director Ed Zwick and actors Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick; a director's audio commentary; and a documentary entitled, The True Story of Glory Continues narrated by Morgan Freeman. Also included are: an exclusive featurette entitled, Voices of Glory, an original featurette, deleted scenes, production notes, theatrical trailers, talent files, and scene selections.[48]
The Blu-ray disc version of the film was released on June 2, 2009. Special features include: a virtual civil war battlefield, interactive map, The Voice of Glory feature, The True Story Continues documentary, the making of Glory, director's commentary, and deleted scenes.[49] The film is displayed in widescreen 1.85:1 color format in 1080p screen resolution. The audio is enhanced with Dolby TrueHD sound and is available with subtitles in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.[49] A UMD version of the film for the Sony PlayStation Portable was also released on July 1, 2008. It features dubbed, subtitled, and color widescreen format viewing options.[50]
Lewis Henry Douglass
Retrospective response
In 2019, on the film's 30th anniversary, Glory was re-released in over 600 theaters in the U.S.[51] There were many positive reviews noting its artistic impact. One article noted "the legacy of Zwick’s depiction of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment extends well beyond a 30th anniversary showcase. As a film both about the shared sacrifice of the men of the 54th and the work they left undone .... Glory is a distinctly American story—one so compelling that it has become part of the common curriculum in U.S. history classes across the nation."[52]
Historical accuracy
Aside from Shaw, none of the other members of the regiment seen in the movie are real people.[53]
The film portrays the 54th as having significant numbers of former slaves. In real life, the regiment was composed mostly of freedmen already living in the North, although some came from Canada and the West Indies.[54] Many of these freed men were from prominent families, including two sons of Frederick Douglass, one of whom, Lewis, became the Sergeant Major.[55]
The film portrays Shaw as accepting the commission to command the 54th quickly, when in reality he initially rejected the Governor's commission, not wanting to leave his regiment and questioning whether the position would advance his career in the army.[56]
Although Shaw was an abolitionist, he nevertheless expressed racist viewpoints toward Black people, repeatedly referring to them by racial slurs in his letters.[57][original research?]
The regiment did not struggle with being equipped properly. As a favored project of the Massachusetts governor, the regiment was provided everything it required from the outset.[53]
In the movie a soldier is whipped. Flogging was not permitted in the Union army and no such event ever occurred involving the USCT.[53]
In terms of the unequal pay, Shaw had already been informed that Black soldiers would only receive $10 while in South Carolina, and protested to his father and to the governor, not by tearing up his voucher.[53] This issue was not resolved at the time as shown in the film, and problems arising from the unfair pay continued for the remainder of the war.[58]
Although not depicted in the film, Shaw married Annie Kneeland Haggerty just before the regiment departed for service in South Carolina.[59]
The soldiers are depicted as celebrating Christmas in the snow, however the 54th began recruitment in February 1863, and Shaw died at Fort Wagner in July 1863, meaning there was no possibility of Christmas during that period.[60]
In the final assault on Fort Wagner, the 54th is shown attacking southward, with the ocean on their left. In reality, they attacked northward with the ocean on their right.[53][61]
Although the post-script claims that Fort Wagner never fell to Union troops, this is inaccurate as Confederate troops abandoned the fort after bombardment and shelling from the Union Navy in September 1863.[62]
Although the fictional Cabot Forbes is portrayed as being Shaw's best friend and second-in-command, the real second-in-command was Edward Hallowell, who became commander of the 54th after Shaw's death.[63]
Charles Garrison Harker was ranked Major General in the film. In reality, he never attained that rank nor was involved in the campaigns around Charleston. Additionally, the real life Harker was only 25 in 1863, not in his early 40s as portrayed in the movie.
↑ McPherson, James M.; Lamb, Brian (May 22, 1994). "James McPherson: What They Fought For, 18611865". Booknotes. National Cable Satellite Corporation. Retrieved May 27, 2018. Glory accomplished a remarkable feat in sensitizing a lot of today's black students to the role that their ancestors played in the Civil War in winning their own freedom.
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