Free Essay Theme Analysis and Critique of the Movie "Glory"

outcastja · Uploaded by **outcastja** on Dec 19, 2006

Theme Analysis and Critique of the Movie "Glory"

In this movie, it describes how the Free African Americans volunteer or sacrifice their lives to participate in the Civil War between the Union and the Confederates. In the opening of the movie, it shows a part in the Civil War where the Union attacked the Confederates straight on. Into the opening, it showed a Union soldier getting blown in the head like a watermelon would fall on a concrete ground. That part in the movie was amazing because it showed the details of the head being blown up by a cannon ball. It was simply amazing. Anyhow, in the mid-point of the movie, African Americans were training in a boot camp to prepare for the Civil War that lies ahead. It shows how each of them trained and how the generals were pushing them to their limits. After the training, the soldiers were ready for war.

The first battle started in the woods where the Union African soldiers blasted their musket rifles against the Confederates. The shots killed several Confederates; however, it wasn�t the end of the shootout. As the fog was hovering over the soldiers, a row of sparks of explosions blasted at the Union Army. In this tense moment, the Union soldiers quickly reload and fired back. Then suddenly, two sides collide and bayonets started impaling soldiers from both sides. This point in the movie was awesome. You can actually hear piercing sounds of the bayonets into the soldiers!

Later into the last and conclusive part in the movie, the Union soldiers of the 54th volunteer to head towards the Fort where the Confederates were defending. It was dramatic how the TITANIC background music was playing during the preparing for battle at the Fort. The beach waves were crashing and seagulls flying around like a bunch of wanderers. I had a little tear in my eye, but I manage to hold it back for the battle.

Into the battle, the soldiers from both sides were dying everywhere. The main characters in the movie eventually died and the dramatic music starts playing and everybody is getting sad and so on. Finally, the Confederates gave up by waving their white flag. Afterwards, the movie showed corpses of dead soldiers getting piled up. The main characters were being thrown into the pile in a dramatic slow motion like scenario and then the dramatic music came up again.

The way I view this movie is outstanding. The characters were sharp in detail, the story line was enjoyable, the language and the characteristics of each actor were surprisingly realistic, and the battles were unbelievable as well. I give it 2 thumbs up in mid-air.

This movie really helped my understanding of the Civil War and helped me understand how it affected Americans during that time. African Americans were struggling to keep slavery out. North was a Union Free slave State and south was a pro-slavery state. Without compromise, war started. Therefore the movie was made and therefore, made tons of money.