Difference between revisions of "Glory (1989)"
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| − | '''Glory''' '''(1989)''', an | + | '''Glory''' '''(1989)''', an American war film coordinated by Edward Zwick, the film is about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment which the Union Army's first dark regiment in the American Civil War. The film portrays the warriors of the 54th from the arrangement of their regiment to their courageous activities at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863.<ref name=":0">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(1989_film)</ref> |
[[File:Glory (1989 film) poster.jpg|alt=Glory (1989 film) poster|thumb|Glory (1989 film) poster]] | [[File:Glory (1989 film) poster.jpg|alt=Glory (1989 film) poster|thumb|Glory (1989 film) poster]] | ||
| − | |||
| − | ==Plot== | + | == Plot == |
| − | The | + | The tale of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, told for the most part through the eyes of their leader, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick). Shaped during the American Civil War, the 54th Massachusetts was the principal African-American unit in the US Army. |It shows the development of the regiment, its first volunteers, their preparation, questions with chairmen, their first activities in South Carolina and, at last, their snapshot of magnificence - the assault on Fort Wagner.<ref>https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097441/</ref> |
==Controversy== | ==Controversy== | ||
| − | The | + | The film fame arose out of its ability to handle agitating issues, for example, the segregation and bigotry that black warriors looked from inside the military and from their own administration.<ref>https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/how-the-men-of-glory-stood-up-to-the-us-government/253410/</ref> The movie shows how black soldiers are treated differently where black soldiers will only be paid $10, whole the white soldiers are paid $13 per month.<ref name=":0" /> |
For such heroic movies, there are many slurs thrown into the black soldier : | For such heroic movies, there are many slurs thrown into the black soldier : | ||
Revision as of 14:07, 1 March 2021
Glory (1989), an American war film coordinated by Edward Zwick, the film is about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment which the Union Army's first dark regiment in the American Civil War. The film portrays the warriors of the 54th from the arrangement of their regiment to their courageous activities at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863.[1]
Plot
The tale of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, told for the most part through the eyes of their leader, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick). Shaped during the American Civil War, the 54th Massachusetts was the principal African-American unit in the US Army. |It shows the development of the regiment, its first volunteers, their preparation, questions with chairmen, their first activities in South Carolina and, at last, their snapshot of magnificence - the assault on Fort Wagner.[2]
Controversy
The film fame arose out of its ability to handle agitating issues, for example, the segregation and bigotry that black warriors looked from inside the military and from their own administration.[3] The movie shows how black soldiers are treated differently where black soldiers will only be paid $10, whole the white soldiers are paid $13 per month.[1]
For such heroic movies, there are many slurs thrown into the black soldier :
Rawlins: Look, goddamn it! The whole world gotta stomp on your face?
Trip: Nigger, you better get your hands off me!
Rawlins: Ain't no niggers around here! Understand?
Trip: Oh, I see, so the white man give you a couple a stripes, and suddenly you start hollerin' and orderin' everybody around, like you the massa himself! Nigger, you ain't nothin' but the white man's dog!
[He starts to walk away, Rawlins stops him and slaps him]
Rawlins: And what are you? So full of hate you want to go out and fight everybody! Because you've been whipped and chased by hounds. Well that might not be living, but it sure as hell ain't dying. And dying's been what these white boys have been doing for going on three years now! Dying by the thousands! Dying for *you*, fool! I know, 'cause I dug the graves. And all this time I keep askin' myself, when, O Lord, when it's gonna be our time? Gonna come a time when we all gonna hafta ante up. Ante up and kick in like men. LIKE MEN! You watch who you call a nigger! If there's any niggers around here, it's YOU. Just a smart-mouthed, stupid-ass, swamp-runnin' nigger! And if you not careful, that's all you ever gonna be!
Trip: Hey, yo, nigger, that's my spot, see.
Cpl. Thomas Searles: If you don't mind, there's more sufficient reading light here.
Trip: Oooh, I like it when niggers talk good as white folks!
Cpl. Thomas Searles: I'd be happy to teach you. It would be my pleasure
Trip: Now, listen here, snowflake. I ain't got nothin' to learn from no house nigger, you hear?
Cpl. Thomas Searles: I am a free man! As was my father before me.
Trip: Oh, really? You free? Then why don't you move your free black ass out my spot, see!
As many racism rampant through these portrayals, the audience is told that the more a character embraces the trappings of white culture and becomes, in the words of Tripp, a “house Negro,” the “better” they are. Thus, the men of the regiment are not fighting merely to liberate themselves or their families; they are fighting for their personhood. By the movie’s standards though, this must be white personhood, even if contained within a racialized body. This again punishes black characters for exercising agency on their own terms, thus reinforcing white supremacy. This is especially harmful in a film meant to demonstrate the evils of the white supremacist Confederacy and the bravery of black men fighting for freedom.[4]
Reference
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(1989_film)
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097441/
- ↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/how-the-men-of-glory-stood-up-to-the-us-government/253410/
- ↑ https://blogs.mcgill.ca/hist-399-2014/2014/03/20/glory-film-review-by-alex-langer/#_ftnref3
