As many of the other students surely will, I chose the movie "Glory" as the film that had the greatest impact on me. Even though the documentary on the Civil War was very graphic and "real", it didn't grab my attention the same way as a movie could. "Glory" was able to bring me directly into the time period and capture my emotions because I was right there amongst the 54th Massachusetts Regiment from the beginning to the tragic end.
The movie "Glory" displayed the tensions that existed between the people of our country during that time period. Racial conflicts as well as conflicts among those of the same race gave the war a very strong foundation. In my opinion, "Glory" did an excellent job of pointing out these conflicts through the individual characters in the movie. Colonel Shaw, the protagonist of the movie, starts off leading his troops into battle at Anteitem. His entire unit is slaughtered and luckily he survives and recovers in an army hospital. After he recovers he finds out that he will be placed as Colonel and commander of the first ever colored regiment. Shaw turns out to be the perfect man for the job because his devotion to the war is unrivaled. Shaw truly felt that all men were equal no matter their race, color, or creed. He displays a perfect representation of what the Union was fighting for. The problem in the beginning though was that most of the black soldiers were fighting for their own race rather than the union as a whole. Shaw needed to earn the respect of the black soldiers which proved very difficult at first. This is where the true brilliance of the movie comes into play. The movie had the capability to show many different points of view through different characters. One of the most memorable conflicts was between Shaw and Trip. Trip was representing the black soldiers who like I said previously were fighting for themselves rather than the union.