Glory

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Recommended: Racism during the civil war

Glory

The movie I have chosen for extra-credit is Glory. It released on December 13, 1989. Glory is a full-out celebration of a little-known act of mass courage during the Civil War. Simply put, the heroes involved have been ignored by history due to racism. Those heroes were the all-black members of the 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, headed by Col. Shaw, the son of an influential abolitionist. Despite the fact that the Civil War is ostensibly being fought on their behalf, the black soldiers are denied virtually every privilege and amenity that is matter of course for their white counterparts; as in armies past and future, they are given the most menial and demeaning of tasks. Still, none of the soldiers quit the regiment when given the chance. Slaves/Blacks during that period were consider by many whites as inferior. As it turns out, due to the 54th Regiment bravery on the battlefield, this notion of inferiority diminish.

In the movie Col. Robert Shaw, a union army officer, volunteer to lead the Civil War first all-black regiment. However, his task was not easy. He experienced prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates. Even with little support from his fellow peers, Shaw was able to train a regiment into a well discipline and cohesive team. Later on in the film, Shaw discovered that his regiment was not allowed to fight for their liberties, but later on in the movie, they were allowed to fight.

In my opinion, the director is telling the story from both sides, meaning from the blacks and whites perception. Certain parts of the movie, I can see that the director is focusing on the living and training conditions of the black soldiers. This shows what the blacks were seeing. They are seeing the discrimination and the unfair treatment of their people in the union army. The part when union officers were leading a group of all black regiments to a raid at some house shows that the director is focusing on what the white soldiers think of blacks as soldiers. In that particular part of the movie, it shows blacks soldiers acting like little kids in a candy store. After watching the movie I think the director did a fined job, it was persuasive because from my reading and listening to people about how it was like for blacks during that period and how the director projects those images in your mind out and make it a movie is unbelievable.

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