Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17984 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-01-30
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: Chinese, English, French, Indonesian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 122 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
One of the very best films about the Civil War, this instant classic from 1989 is also one of the few films to depict the participation of African American soldiers in Civil War combat. Based in part on the books Lay This Laurel by Lincoln Kirstein and One Gallant Rush by Peter Burchard, the film also draws from the letters of Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick), the 25-year-old son of Boston abolitionists who volunteered to command the all-black 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Their training and battle experience leads them to their final assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina, where their heroic bravery turned bitter defeat into a symbolic victory that brought recognition to black soldiers and turned the tide of the war. With painstaking attention to historical detail and richness of character, the film boasts superior performances by Denzel Washington (who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes, and Andre Braugher. Directed by Edward Zwick (cocreator of the TV series thirtysomething), this unforgettable drama is as important as Schindler's List in its treatment of a noble yet little-known episode of history. --Jeff Shannon

Amazon.com
One of the very best films about the Civil War, this instant classic from 1989 is also one of the few films to depict the participation of African American soldiers in Civil War combat. Based in part on the books Lay This Laurel by Lincoln Kirstein and One Gallant Rush by Peter Burchard, the film also draws from the letters of Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick), the 25-year-old son of Boston abolitionists who volunteered to command the all-black 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Their training and battle experience leads them to their final assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina, where their heroic bravery turned bitter defeat into a symbolic victory that brought recognition to black soldiers and turned the tide of the war. With painstaking attention to historical detail and richness of character, the film boasts superior performances by Denzel Washington (who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes, and Andre Braugher. Directed by Edward Zwick (co-creator of the TV series thirtysomething), this unforgettable drama is as important as Schindler's List in its treatment of a noble yet little-known episode of history. --Jeff Shannon

Additional Features
Director Edward Zwick's commentary is informative and intelligent; and separate picture-in-picture commentaries by costars Matthew Broderick and Morgan Freeman are worthwhile, but segments of Zwick's commentary are needlessly repeated. The 12-minute "Voices of Glory" gives historical context to readings of actual letters from soldiers in the historic 54th Massachusetts Regiment, and a shorter promotional featurette offers behind-the-scenes clips and interviews. "The True Story of Glory Continues"--narrated by Morgan Freeman and directed by legendary Star Wars sound-effects wizard Ben Burtt--is an excellent 45-minute historical overview of the 54th Regiment's illustrious service before, during, and after the events depicted in Glory.--Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

A Giant among films
Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington share the spotlight in a great film. Full of heroes and villains, glory and tragedy, it is alternately violent (realistically - in terms of bloodshed) and tender, brutal and compassionate, emotionally charged and peaceful. I have never seen a film that shows the maturation of so many excellent characters amid so many struggles and battles - physical, emotional, civil, personal, all the great elements of film are there. I only wish they had shown a little more of the enemy (the South). The confederates are left out of it. Broderick's character, Robert Gould Shaw, starts out as a miraculously lucky tenderfoot, wrestles with his commitment to the war and to justice on social, civil, and human levels (that's what is so great about this film, the complexity and tightness of the plot). The development of Shaw's regiment, the 54th, is what occupies the film and emerges as its triumphant glory.

Close, But No Cigar
I saw this film twice when it first came out. I have a hard time understanding why the producers don't realize that truth is much more interesting than fiction. Numerous factual problems exist with the film although the teaching points are excellent in many regards. Why the final assault on Battery Wagner is filmed being conducted in the completely wrong direction begs for an explanation. The burning of the town of Darien provides an excellent study in war crimes that I use in lectures today. Good film that could have been much, much better with little effort. It is good entertainment but needs to be augmented with written accounts to learn the actual history.

Glorious!
Truly one of the top ten war movies of all time, Glory is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit over the forces of ignorance and hatred.

Even in today's military (and I am a veteran of two branches of service) morally inferior, dishonorable people in positions of power, arrogantly abuse their "authority" to suppress and marginalize others. Although it is now severely illegal to oppress people along racial and cultural lines, they merely find other people and other means to inflict their petty and egotistical behavior on fellow veterans.

This is the emotionally powerful story how one group of oppressed men overcame such obstacles, with the guidance of a leader who believed in them and trusted them. Despite negative presumptions, Colonel Shaw and the soldiers of the 54th Regiment proved their point. You can not judge those whom you disparage and condescend, until they have been given a chance to prove themselves.