Glory

1989's GLORY is a widely celebrated Civil War drama and deservedly so...in some respects.  Director Edward Zwick mounts an impressive production.  Kevin Jarre's screenplay, based on Lay This Laurel by Lincoln Kirstein and One Gallant Rush by Peter Burchard, brings characters real and fictional to life vividly.  The battle scenes are potent and very well choreographed.  Most of the actors own their roles.  Freddie Francis lends some beautiful cinematography.  The subject - at the time of filming - had been neglected in previous films. 

But, the screenplay is rife with inaccuracies.  The kind that may undermine the very intent of the film.  In a film as earnest as GLORY, this can be a problem.  Hollywood loves to milk even the smallest event for high drama, like when Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) tears up his pay voucher in solidarity with his regiment, whose salaries were decreased.  It happened a bit differently in real life.  But anything for a crowd pleasing moment, I guess.

Broderick never convinced me as Shaw, the son of abolitionists in Boston who leads the 54th Volunteer Infantry, one of the first to have Black soldiers in the Union Army.  His voice is too flat.  His expressions too blank.  He just seems too contemporary to convince as a 19th century figure at all, much less as military brass.  His performance is hesitant.  I kept wondering if it was intentional, an attempt to portrayal Shaw's uncertainty in his new role.  

And I echo the complaint many others have voiced of having this story told largely through the eyes of an upper class white boy.  Yes, I'm aware the screenplay is also based on the actual Shaw's personal letters.  But maybe they could've been excised, or at least minimized.  This story belongs to the grunts, former slaves who dared to wear the blue uniforms and risked execution should they be captured by the Confederacy.  I agree with Roger Ebert; a very different movie would've come from their point of view.  It makes me wonder if a remake is in order.  Not a pat, conventional drama from the likes of Lee Daniels et al.  Either way, a certain contingent in society would undoubtedly call it "woke". 

Denzel Washington is excellent as Private Trip, a firebrand and activist spirit who cares dearly for his comrades.  A deserving Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor.  Morgan Freeman is again a quiet tower of strength as Sergeant Major John Rawlins, who successfully lobbies Shaw for some decent pairs of shoes.  Andre Braugher brings real poignancy to his role as Corporal Thomas Searles, a volunteer and friend of Shaw's from Boston who has trouble reconciling the rank and file protocol and the rigors of training. 

James Horner's score is powerful, majestic, and overbearing.  So patriotic it's often too much for what is essentially a somber tale.  Spare, more elegiac music would've been appropriate.  

Carps aside, GLORY is still a solid, historical drama.  One would hope, as with so many other films based on real events, that viewers would seek out texts recounting how it really was.  I imagine many more exist these days.