mdtinney's Movie Review of Glory (1989)

Civil War at its best!
mdtinney - wrote on 08/26/09

Every time I see Glory a tear drops from my eye as it is such a tearjerker, especially for a war film. It's like Dead Poets Society but with guns and it's set in the Civil War. It's not everyday you'll see Matthew Broderick in a good film, well actually any film come to think of it, but in the 80's he was hot property after Ferris Buller's Day Off, War Games and Project X but Glory was by far his best performance of his career. Let's remind ourselves though that it just wasn't Broderick who got praise out of this, there was also Morgan freeman, Denzel Washington who thanks to this got his first look at Oscar glory and Cary Elwes. The music is soaring and the battle scene at the end is one of the most emotional and patriotic scenes I have ever seen and I'm not an American but I don't think it should matter because it makes you feel strong and sucks you into the battle as you are cheering on the soldiers to prove everyone wrong and take the fort. The only complaint I can say about Glory is that it wasn't long enough. It did everything to make it as compelling as any other war film but for it to be a real epic I could have done with it being longer but on the DVD there is this deleted scene where the troops are out on patrol one night and they see the enemy on the other side and Red decides to take a shot at one of the soldiers and when he does he gets him in one clean shot. Red is really happy that he has finally killed an enemy soldier but it turns out to be another soldier in the same regiment. The only thing telling them apart was he was a white soldier not a black one, but this scene is really important as it shows how Red becomes more emotional and attached the more he spends in the 54. Throughout the film we see his macho performances and when they go into battle and Thomas saves his life he begins to change his act but the scene where he accidentally kills the soldier is very relevant to the story and should have stayed but the damage has been done, but it still makes Glory the best Civil War film I have ever seen except maybe for The Blue and the Grey miniseries.