Glory

Overall, “Glory” is a decent visual representation of the life of African Americans in the army. What surprised me the most was that, after being put through extensive harsh training, the soldiers did not argue or talk badly about the drill sergeant of Colonel Shaw. They took the training and did not complain. The event that made me think the most was when all of the soldiers stayed after the announcement. Sure, they really wanted to get rid of slavery, but there was still a lot of prejudice against blacks, even free blacks. Also, at least some of them, like Thomas, have never been slaves, not feeling the anger that Trip does. I also expected more characters that had the tough-boy attitude that Trip had, and I was also surprised that Shaw even let Rawlings have a position in the regiment.

The movie was most realistic in showing the prejudice that existed between the black soldiers and the white soldiers. They got into a fight really easily, though that isn’t surprising given Trip’s attitude. The regiment also didn't get shoes, which is another example of the discrimination of blacks. Shaw had to go crazy in order for them to just get shoes. The same is with the 54^th not going into real battle. Again, Shaw had to use blackmail just to get them in a battle. As for Fort Wagner, I think the soldiers really were all out, and didn’t care if they died or not at that point. After all, they were singing the night before and praying, saying what should happen if they should die. I think seeing this movie really helped us better understand the life of black soldiers.