Glory, a civil war
Matthew Broderick as Colenel Robert Goud Shaw, Denzel Washington
as Private Silas Trip, Cary Elwes as Major Cabot Forbes, and Morgan
Freeman as Sergeant Major John Rawlins, was released in 1989.
For the most part, the movie received positive reviews,
although not everyone liked Broderick in the lead role,
especially considering he was white and the story was
mostly about black people during the Civil War.
The movie was not a huge financial success at the box
office, but did turn a moderate profit.
This movie is about
the combat contribution made by the 54th regiment of
Massachusetts during the Civil War. The 54th was a
volunteer colored regiment, commanded by Robert Gould
Shaw (Broderick), whose bravery at Fort Wagner, in South
Carolina, demonstrated the regiment's military merit.
Shaw agreed to lead a volunteer regiment of black people
after having spent some time with Frederick Douglas.
The rest of the film is about the
prejudicial hardships encountered by the regiment, such
as not being given provisions, being paid half what a
white man was paid, and being threatened with death on
site by the Confederacy for any captured black soldier.
At the Fort Wagner battle, Shaw is killed, as is a great
number of the regiment, however their sacrifice
encouraged the Union to recruit more colored soldiers.