For most of the Civil War, one which was fought largely to eliminate the institution of slavery, African-Americans were often restricted from service and given abject tasks instead to aid the war effort. "Glory" tells the story of an all black regiment, highly doubted, underfunded, and still given mostly menial and demeaning tasks who, under the command of young, liberal found exaltation the deadly charge of a Confederate fort. Edward Zwick's "Glory" is an impeccable recreation of a little known historical happening adapted from the letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and featuring some of the most rousing battle sequences ever committed to film. It is also an overly preachy movie rife with histrionics and featuring a miscast Matthew Broderick in the lead role. Denzel Washington is powerful in his Oscar winning role, but it is also a performance which has become his standard one, and is hard to take at face value. I found Morgan Freeman and Cary Elwes to be the real standouts here. "Glory" is a painstaking film of great detail and heart, that feels the need to continually overplay its hand, but still winds up being a stirring historical epic.
