Glory

In the 1989 historical war epic Glory, the devastating and deeply complex reality of the American Civil War is told through the eyes of the Union’s first all-Black volunteer regiment. Following the bloody Battle of Antietam, the idealistic young Captain Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick), the son of wealthy Boston abolitionists, is promoted to Colonel and given command of the newly formed 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Eager to fight for their freedom and dignity, a diverse group of Black men enlist, including Trip (Denzel Washington), a fiercely cynical escaped slave, and John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman), a wise and grounded former gravedigger. As they undergo rigorous military training, Shaw and his men are forced to confront severe institutional racism from their own Union army—facing systemic discrimination in the form of substandard equipment, withheld uniforms, and lower pay than white soldiers. Despite these oppressive hurdles and a terrifying Confederate decree stating that any captured Black soldiers will be executed or enslaved, the men of the 54th forge an unbreakable bond, ultimately volunteering to lead a suicidal, heroic frontal assault against the heavily fortified Fort Wagner in South Carolina.