Glory

The movie Glory is based on Colonel Robert Shaw leading the first group of black soldiers into war. Shaw, who is played by Matthew Broderick, goes against all of his orders and against all odds to lead his soldiers into war. The soldiers, who were all former slaves, and all of them never been to war, and most of them illiterate had to learn to fight before they were prepared to go to war. As the war goes on the north decides that they want to make an experiment out of the newly acquired black volunteer soldiers. So, they hire an all white officer corps to train the men. The platoon has many issues that they have to deal with throughout the movie that include not having supplies, and not getting the respect they deserve to go into war. They want to prove that they can fight just as good as the white soldiers can, and they are out to prove that point.
This goes back to Chapter 8 of Zinn. It goes towards the point that Shaw is saying he is one of the good ones. He is special because he is the leader of the blacks, so he isn’t bad. He is one of the good guys, so he is different. Although it is not directly stated in the movie I feel that it is strongly implied. He and his officers lead a group of all black troops, and the troops are made up as a joke to northern army. They never expected anything out of the 54th, but they were in for a big surprise.
This was an outstanding movie, another one of my favorites. Matthew Broderick does a great job in this movie portraying his character. I also think that it displays a sense of truth. I was not around during the time of the Civil War, but I bet that there was something like this really going on during this time. The people of the war found volunteer blacks to create a platoon that needs to get ready for the war. It raises eyebrows seeing what people can do when they are faced with adversity, and when they have their backs against a wall.