I was stationed at Ft. Campbell KY during my time in the army, but lived off post in Clarksville. A very short walk from our house was a confederate cemetery. It was sobering, to say the least. The headstones revealed 16-17 year old Lts, 19 year old company commanders, and 23-25 year old battalion commanders. Each was chiseled with “killed at Spotsylvania” or “killed at Gettysburg” and so on. I’d always been a student of the civil war, but seeing it in person in this fashion really drove it home. It went from dusty history to a very tangible reality on the spot.
My 7th grade history teacher drove the point home on the first day of the US Civil War instruction. He reviewed the number of US dead in Vietnam, then Korea, then WWII, then WWI, then the US Civil War. That statistic alone showed how important the war was.
I live in Spotsylvania and those cemeteries are everywhere as are the actual battle ground monuments. So much history and spilled blood on these lands.
I was also stationed at Ft. Campbell. I do remember seeing the Civil War headstones as well. I do also remember seeing old pioneer headstones in the back 40 during field ops. As a Rakkasan we were in the field quite often.
Actually it often is incredibly boring. Standing/sitting around for hours waiting for the scene your needed in. Then having to do the scene over and over because the light wasn't right, the director wants change something, etc. We generally have to be dressed and ready to go at 7 AM and sometimes aren't really needed until late afternoon. Once you've done this once or twice, and used up vacation time to do it, you hesitate to do it again. However the catered food is usually very good and plenty of it. Yes you are paid per diem but if you divide that pay by the hours on set it is less than minimum wage. And all the travel expenses are not reimbursed. We have learned to join SAG/AFTRA so you get the union pay rate.
@@roynajecki1100judges in the January 6th cases could offer lower prison sentences to trumplodyte confederates if they agree to be filmed in reenactments as community service.
@@michalsoukup1021no! The flu pandemic in 1918 killed more than 20-50 million people.. Covid 19, 30 thousand died… and yet people still don’t believe in the pandemic of the early 1900s…. Luckily it was only 30thousand this time… and then HIV/AIDS, 35 million from 2005-2012.. don’t really know how many more there are!😊
If Matthew Broderick seemed too young to be in this movie playing a Civil War regimental colonel, that's because the real-life Robert Gould Shaw was himself in his mid twenties.
My Father taught US history, economics, and civics to high school students over thirty years. We watched this movie in the theatre. He mentioned the same thing that Broderick played him the way he was.
@@davester1970 The literacy rates were so low back then... But when you read the letters of young people from that era, those who could write could really write. My niece is an inspiring 21-year-old writer who shakes her head constantly about how so many of her friends thinking tweeting makes them writers.
I wasn't even alive yet when this film came out, but I feel it is one of the better Civil War films. Movies like Gettysburg and Gods and Generals get a lot of things accurate, but focus far too much on the Lost Cause Myth, promoting the misconception that the war was about states' rights, not slavery. Yes, states' rights did play a significant role, but that was mostly an excuse for secession. The true cause of the war was slavery, specifically the political debate over whether to permit new slave states in territories controlled by the United States Congress or to keep it contained in states that already legalized it.
I love the quick shot of Broderick looking up into the sky to check and see if the sun is still there, because everything is so dark because of the smoke/dirt exploding around them. A terrifying ordeal to go through while under fire, such an excellent detail.
It's pretty cool that James Albert Hard, Union soldier, nearly 20 at the time, fought at this battle and would live until 1953, seeing most of the Korean War and outliving Stalin.
111 years old thereabout. Just imagine one of the nameless extras around Shaw, one of those men would be Hard (though he was in a different regiment, but the sentiment remains... the guy fight was a rifle, actually IN the war, and lived to see the H-bomb and outlived Stalin!) @@annedejong1040
I don't think people understand how brilliant Glory was. The last battle, he looks at the sea and birds, knowing he will die tonite. His character was 23 years old.
@@zachhelton9293 my great grand uncle, 13th New York Cavalry, was 16 when he died at Andersonville. You are very right. We should be great full and proud.
@@bobapbob5812 he died @ 16 in that hell hole?? That's awful!!! Man, people today just don't realize the horrors many had to endure for us to live the way we do!!
@@zachhelton9293 there are 13k graves. My wife and I drove into the cemetery, she stopped and I got out to get my bearings. I was standing in front of his grave. His last name is my middle name. He was from upstate on the Canadian border. I’m sure he was watching. In 1959 I was in the 6th grade on Long Island. The teacher asked how many of us had family in World War 2. Every hand went up. One of my uncles served stateside. My dad had three Purple Hearts. My other paternal uncle was wounded. My mom’s brother was wounded in the USN at Okinawa. Good thing we had men to step up.
4:03 and thats when my wife walked out of the movie theatre, she also got up and walked out watching saving private ryan when the dude was carrying his own arm, I watch a lot of movies by myself these days lol
Man I made the mistake of showing my girlfriend the saving private Ryan D-day scene while we were discussing history. She was not happy with me I felt bad lmao
War is hell and movies like this and Saving Private Ryan only show a fraction of how violent they really are. That’s why I wish the news media and US government didn’t censor the pictures and videos so much. If more ppl saw how awful it really was, ppl would think twice about saying “Let’s invade Iraq” or “Bomb the hell outta them!” Same goes for other countries.
in fact Europeans who witnessed the American Civil War commented that they were surprised at how rarely the Americans charged with bayonets, because in densely-populated Europe, a few rapid charges can easily push through to a big city and end the war immediately
Also a great example on how devastating the defensive advantage could get with the weapons and tactics of the time. Having to march through fire to get to soldiers that were already under cover.
In terms of technology, the Civil War was not that far away from the Napoleonic Wars. Most soldiers fighting in it, unlike in the Franco-Prussian War, still used muzzle-loading muskets, which were slower to fire and far less accurate. That is what allows these men to march towards the enemy without being torn to pieces. The real leaps in development happened between 1870 and 1914, with ever increasing numbers of machine guns, as well the use of high-explosive shells, fragmentation grenades, bolt-action rifles and so on. By 1914, a unit standing in the open in full view of the enemy was as good as dead.
@@jirkazalabak1514 the Technology advancement while not quite as high had some pretty devastating effects. For example: Minnie balls. Minnie balls allowed rifles to fire accurately to several hundred yards as opposed to 80-100 which was the effective range of muskets while also making the weapon reload faster than a musket. This made tactics such as the one above from standard practice to basically suicidal. Industrialization had also allowed for both deadlier,more accurate and more importantly mass produced artillery in numbers unseen before. This also made similar tactics basically suicidal. Sure the changes aren't anywhere near as grand as those in WW1 compared to pre WW1 but they were still pretty damn big and since a lot of Civil war generals were Amateurs,and the changes weren't big enough to be obvious it lead to devastating outcomes such as this one. At least in WW1 one would know not to advance in formation while facing machine guns. But a Civil war general may not realise why this cone shaped bullet is such a big deal, until half his unit is torn to pieces before he gets into range
I've stood in the middle of the cornfield and sat down in Bloody Lane just trying to imagine. It's very humbling. Every student should visit that battlefield.
My wife and I have visited most of the major eastern battlefields and a few of the western ones. Doesn't matter if it's Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, or any other. I always get that very same feeling. Many of those guys knew full well what was about to happen to them, but they marched in anyway. I can't help but wonder if anyone live today would have that kind of courage and determination...
COMPLETELY agree, Markus! Horner's score is extremely emotive and a perfect backdrop for the story. God, this entire movie down to the music was so well done.
This scene can’t be underestimated. I grew up watching 50’s and 60’s movies about the Civil War and of course Gone With the Wind. Those movies were so romanticized, so bloodless, so delightful and palatable for a 20th century audience. This scene shattered all of that and brought me back to reality of what the war really was. And journalists accounts of the time, like Frank Leslie, attest to the carnage. As the 19th century’s trauma subsided the 20th century sought a revised romanticism and it stuck until 1990 when Glory was released.
When was the last time you've seen Gone With The Wind ? Nothing in GWTW pertaining to the fighting or situation in and around Atlanta is romanticized. It is downright gut wrenching and heartbreaking. Glory doesn't even come close. I think another watch is in order.
Agreed, the scene at the train station that gradually pulls back to reveal more and more wounded soldiers in the town square really hit me when I was young.
@@ranica47 The point of Gone With the Wind was that the South foolishly thought war was romantic. And then the war came to Atlanta. A Confederate veteran watching the train station scene remarked "If we'd had that many men, we wouldn't have lost the war!"
Most of the Federal regiments who participated in the fighting around the vicinity of the cornfield were green regiments, regiments that were brand new and were just formed three weeks before the battle. They came toe-to-toe against Stonewall Jackson's veteran troops who fought in the Shenandoah Valley and suffered heavy casualties contesting the cornfield.
One of the last wars where waves of soldiers or Napoleonic column attacks could work to overwhelm strong positions as well. It really is telling that the end of the Civil War devolved into trench warfare. The Franco-Prussian war happened not long after the US Civil War and really helped lay more of the groundwork for World War 1. You could really see the weapons technology accelerating there as well. Over 400,000 dead and wounded in a little over six months, and the war devolved into sieges and trench warfare even faster.
My dad bought this movie on laser disk and I instantly fell in love with it! Loved it so much that when my teacher gave us a history fair assignment, there was no other subject I wanted to cover but the 54th Massachusetts colored regiment!
@@abouttime5000 Not really. It was just the most efficient way of fighting till that point. I mean Napoleon fought the same way and he dominated every army he came across fighting him in different ways. The civil war is when everyone started to be equipped with rifles and stuff so this kinda line fighting ended because technology finally caught up.
@@mikesmnell414 What cannot be denied is that the grunts in those infantry lines were eminently expendable; the brass didn't care one iota about their lives.
James Horner's death was a devastating loss for the film industry. One can only imagine how many more incredible pieces of music he would have added to the world. It's bittersweet to watch Avatar 2 without his music.
It's strange, right? I live in Germany, near the battlefield of Lutter am Baremberge, where Tilly and his imperial german army defeated the lower saxon princes and their armies, and their ally the danish king and his forces. I can't drive there without thinking about them. My ancestors were in the defeated army.
4:40 - "Mother help me!" Chills, man. You know whoever yelled that was scared out of his mind, most likely bleeding out on the ground, knowing that he was about to die.
it doesnt matter if its the civil war or world war two, vietnam, korea or iraq...i cant imagine the incredible kind of courage that was involved in any of them...thank all of you so much!
Except that they shot you if you decided this was stupid and wanted to leave, all the way up to WWII. Courage is not the game here, it's indoctrination, mind control, and peer pressure in order to keep the rich getting richer. Jingoism is the tool of the deep state.
@@tomusic8887 It's called history and learning from it and how they fought back in the day. Call it whatever you want. You spelled cannons wrong. Have some respect. If you don't like this country, then leave.
Will ALWAYS love Broderick, who was masterful in this film. But this film also gave us Washington and Freemen in the same film as well. Can't get any better than that!!!
Greatest number of casualties in a single day’s battle, almost 23,000 (dead, wounded & missing). Battle lasted roughly twelve hours. Not as many casualties as Gettysburg, but that was over three days. Unbelievable death and carnage. 😢
There were battles in WWII where the Red Army lost entire army-corps equivalents in a very short amount of time. It seems extremely unlikely the Antietam-record survived WWII, or even WWI.
@Larry Farris I see. It gets even more interesting if you consider Civil War casualties in terms of the proportion of the population. I've seen estimates ranging from 5-10 million casualties if you apply the same casualty rates to modern population levels.
And that's without considering the lethality of modern weapons. Civil War weapons were very crude by modern standards, but they had much higher rates of disease, not to mention unspeakably bad medical care.
The ideals and shocking realities of war in under 6 minutes, but it captures the feelings of the times so well. The honor, the mayhem, the death, and the glory.
There's no fucking glory in war kiddo. Get that out of your head. That's all lies and propaganda. Honor in dying for your friends and family but not for bankers, oligarchs, war profiteers, and politicians. Get smart and stay smart.
There are a few things a film will never portray. Wounded have piercing screams, some for their mom. The smell of gunpowder, arterial blood and decomp can never be conveyed. It is something that fewer and fewer men can attest to, thank God. The price of war is greater than most know, but the ever quiet vet does.
Are are actually some really good ones who do just that. There by no means the majority but I distinctly remember one that had a woundeds please go on for so long ypi eventually just hopped he'd die so you wouldn't hear it anymore
I remember seeing this at the movies when it came out, as an 18 year old soldier at the time i could only imagine what it was like to make the charge on Fort Wagner. Epic movie Denzel deserved the Oscar.
There are movies that are good, there are movies that are great. This movie is important. This story is one that NEEDS to be told and continues to remain an important topic today
@@JM7284 The beginning of SPR is definitely the best WW2 opening sequence, but it's not a Civil War film. It's unfortunate that this clip didn't carry all the way through to Shaw in the field hospital. At the beginning of the Civil War neither side had ANY idea of what they were really getting into, and the way "Glory" contrasts that early naivete ("you mustn't think that any of us will be killed" in Shaw's letter home) with the hospital's brutal reality of an amputation taking place right before his eyes is brilliant visual storytelling.
@@PBurns-ng3gw the opening scene is just Union soldiers blowing a hole in the Confederate works at Petersburg. The battle is no longer part of the opening scene because it's way past that point. It even cuts to a scene where Ada first meets Inman before it cuts back to when the actual battle begins. But I guess the underground mine explosion scene is great opening scene in itself. I just find Glory's opening more meaningful since it depicts the mood of the soldiers, still green but high spirited that everything will be okay, until they are sent into combat and Shaw's regiment takes a horrible beating.
Every major and minor actor gives a great performance and every major and minor character in the movie with so much as one line is full of life and feels like a real person with a backstory. Like the White soldier who Heckles the 54th but later says "Give em Hell!". That's what makes it such a loveable movie.
I was in the production crew of "Glory " as a grip. Our responsibilities put us close to scenes as they were filming. More than one scene had to be "shot " repeatedly as the actors were overwhelmed by the emotional impact of the scene. It's been over 30yrs and I remember. ICH
Lol that's the Dominick Cruz mentality (UFC), he was a commentator for a fight and one guy was getting blasted with heavy punches. Cruz says "Smart strategy to tire his opponent out!", and FYI he was being dead serious.
This movie is absolutely incredible. The opening scene is most likely the closest thing we get to experiencing what these guys would do. The chaos, the horror. Extremely well done. Obviously the 2nd Massachusetts was in the famous Cornfield at Antietam. The Regiment fought in the Federal XII Corps attack at the northern part of the battlefield on 17 September: through the Cornfield, and between the East and West Woods. Still I think that this scene captures the utter chaos of the day.
And the foolishness of sending men walking in a line with no cover against fortified troops on a ridge. I don't know if it was arrogance or incompetency, or both, that drove the Union to mange the war so poorly for so long. They're lucky they had the advantage in numbers and supplies or the country would look vastly different today.
@@avenger1212 For most of the past few centuries, war had looked like that - lines of men walking slowly. Muskets were too short ranged to be more effective than that, and smoke obscured things easily. On the American continent, wars had also been relatively small. America had only a tiny standing army, and even the largest battles of the Mexican American War were miniscule compared to the largest in Europe. But the Civil War was different. Rifles were commonplace for the first time, making infantry far deadlier. Artillery got better too, and armies were getting better at preparing defences. Everything favoured the defense. Armies were MUCH larger, and that made the battles bloodier AND made them harder to use with finesse. Many Union generals weren't incompetent, they were just out of their depth. McClellan had been a Captain in the Mexican American War. He went from commanding a company of 87000 at Antietam.
" But this time we must make it a whole country so that this time, all can speak. We fight for men and women whose poetry has not yet been written... Then and now, we still do the same... Give em hell 54th!!
What most Americans don't know is the Union had General Lee's full battle plan for this battle. And refused to act on it. Lee split his army into pieces. One piece being 20 miles away from the Union. It could of easily been picked apart. Instead nothing was done. And lead to the bloodiest day in American history.
@@morammofilmsph1540 I'm almost convinced that McClellan was some sort of double agent because he couldn't have been any worse at waging war if he was actively trying not to win.
Worse yet, the day AFTER the battle the rest of the Yankee Army of the Potomac was on the field (they had arrived during the night). McClellan had virtually a brand new army the size of the one he had on the morning of the battle. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was exhausted, wounded, out of ammunition and his artillery had been decimated (the Yankee artillery for the most part was rifled and thus outranged the Rebel guns). Many Confederate Regiments were the size of Battalions. Had McClellan attacked with this fresh new army, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia would have been destroyed, R. E. Lee captured (if not killed) and the war would have been over. McClellan could have taken Richmond and there would have been nothing to stop him. McClellan would have been a hero - “The Savior of the Union,” “The man who crushed the Rebellion.” Instead McClellan did nothing. And Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia escaped and lived to fight another day.
I can never get through this movie as it just unnerves me because it's so realistic. The terrifying reality of what these soldiers went through. Marching to battle, what must have going through their minds...marching straight towards enemy artillery...war really was and is hell.
I've read that green troops would be scared out of their minds going into their first fight while veterans would be ice calm going in and have PTSD episodes after the battle. The veterans were quite harsh to green troops until they'd 'seen the elephant'.
Anti-war? I'd say the movie is an argument that some wars are worth fighting, even if you have to die. Do you think Shaw was mistaken in putting himself at risk to inspire his troops in a losing battle? The movie shows this as bittersweet and noble, nothing like a film like Platoon for instance.
@@bcgonynor I wouldn't say that it's necessarily anti-war in the conventional sense but the movie makes you question if dying in a war is really a glorious outcome in the end. This opening scene is a great example, it starts out so triumphant and idealistic from the main character of what war is, but then it's struck down by the battle scene right after which shows the absurd reality of combat where people are just dying by the hundreds. The movie also ends with Shaw being tossed in a hole with the rest of his men
@@bcgonynorAny war that you didn't start isn't worth fighting, and even then you could reconsider. What were they fighting and dying for? Honour? Glory? A better future for everybody? Against slavery? And what were they others fighting for? Evil? Slavery? Cotton fields? Glorious death?.... It's all so unreal to see that so many men just died for ideals of men who never picked up weapons to defend the ideals they want others to fight for. And I'm sure many of them just died because they wanted to have five dollar to join or something completely stupid enough to get shot or blown to bits for. There is not one flag, not one leader, not one nation worth your energy, left alone dying for it or being disabled.
This movie isnt anti war. Its pretty pro war if anything lol. A lot of values of the movie are grounded in the honor of service. Not just that, but also (wait for it) the GLORY of having fought the right battles. There is a literal monologue in the film about how Denzels character (although justified in his rage) is essentially called a “swamp n****r” by Morgan Freemans character because he wont commit to the unit. Not that it makes the movie bad by any means, but if you thought it was anti war, we mustve been watching two different movies.
Especially with technological advancements with guns and artillery, really set the tone that the day of massed ranks and glorious charges was coming to an end.
TBH the civil war happened just as technology reached an odd mid point. Sure we had early machine gun type weapons, evolving artillery and accurate rifles were slowly becoming mass produced but not on any effective scale and cavalry was still a problem so infantry still had to stay packed for that reason. Going in deep on certain battles in the civil war is an interesting look into seeing how warfare was changing. Between the trench warfare at Vicksburg and the slaughter at say Fredricksburg, Antietam and Cemetery Ridge. Everything really just came together to make this war as tragic as possible.
Warfare in these times was crazy. Marching towards enemy on a plane field, without cover, under heavy fire, with your fellow soldiers getting killed around you, until you reach the point where you can shoot back, if you reach this point...that shit is just crazy.
Today's warfare is far more brutal. The toll on the mind is harsher than anything a bullet can produce. To be hundreds of yards from the battlefield, but yet still get vaporized by an artillery shell, a sniper, an air-strike, make the horrors of war inescapable aside from being removed from it altogether. At least back then, being half a mile away gave you some reprieve, and up until after the US Civil War, most Armies would rest for the winter. During WW2, the average infantryman saw around 45 days of combat throughout the entirety of war. During Viet-Nam, that increased to 240 days in just 1 year. I'm not saying any war is easier than the other (just imagine getting ready to bayonet someone who is pleading for their life in your own language and the PTSD associated with that) but what I am saying is, it is beyond measurably difficult for young soldiers today to be mandated to kill their enemy today, then love them tomorrow.
@@IronBrig4 That's ironic, we watched it in Civil War class in Missouri - but nothing is banned from the classroom compared to other States in Missouri. We still read Huck Finn, at least last I knew.
I was a reenactor hired to be in this film. I remember when they did the cannonball head shot. Scull sized balloon filled with red jello on a dummy and then super imposed on the live soldier in editing. Looked real though in the film.
My Great Great Grandfather was specifically in this battle with the 2nd Vermont Regiment part of the Vermont Brigade. He survived but it got worse as his next engagement was a butchery at Fredericksburg.
Excellent movie from beginning to end...A friend and I saw this at the theatre when it was released in 1989...at the end of the movie nobody moved out of their seats during the credits...many were crying and stayed to listen more to it's wonderful and moving soundtrack.
It should be kept in mind that the memorial to the Massachusetts 54th which is in Boston -- the Black regiment portrayed in this movie that proved to the country that Black soldiers could be just as good fighters and as brave as White soldiers -- was vandalized by Antifa anarchists during the 2020 George Floyd riots. Nothing is good enough for them. Not even Lincoln. Rioters pulled down statues of Lincoln, Grant in other cities, and even incredibly Frederick Douglass -- key figures in American history who fought hard to end slavery and the oppression of Black Americans. That's Antifa for you. And the woke mob.
The movie got one major error. The enlisted men of the 54th Massachusetts were not runaway slaves from the South! They were free well to do Black men from the North! That is a real injustice to the memory of the men from the 54th Massachusetts.
@@jody6851 How do you know it was Antifa? Did they have T-shirts that said Antifa on them? Did they show you Antifa ID cards? How do we even know what you claim is true? Come on, man. One more. Woke is a slur used by people who can't come up with a good argument against people who are not afraid to own up to the truth about some of the things done in the past that were wrong. It's like calling somebody a 'queer' because it makes you feel good if you can say something you think is hurtful. Congratulations for showing your inabilities.
@@benadam7753 "Glory" does have it's moments of historical inaccuracy. I think the reason for this may be that the film (like so many other Hollywood "histories") uses the base history as a framework to tell a larger story. Not everything in the movie actually happened to the 54th, but DID happen to other Black units during the war, and in those scenes it tells the wider story of the experiences of Black soldiers in the Union army and not just those of the 54th.
I saw this in the theaters and I was so used to people just falling down and dying when they were shot in the movies. 4:07 was the first time ever I saw that kind of gore in a Civil War film. It’s one thing to see it in a Vietnam War film which were huge back then but when the realism we were used to in those films came to the films depicting wars going further back that was a game changer.
Gettysburg gets a lot more attention than Antietam does, but Antietam was the largest loss of life in American history and included over 30,000 total deaths+injuries. The injuries alone were so numerous that a front line Union nurse named Clara Barton, embedded with the General Joseph Hooker's 1st Corps, ran out of bandages and went into the James family corn field (north of Dunker Church) and brought back loads of corn husks to use instead. Under direct fire from Confederate General Stonewall Jackson's units, she returned again and again to the front lines, and the Union soldiers later referred to her as the "Angel of the Battlefield." You may recognize her name as the founder of the American Red Cross.
Brave men indeed but they just followed orders like today. While the battlefield does not look like this anymore, you still certainly can say the people that fight our wars today are still brave. Modern War can bring death from anywere. Ukraine and Russia war is a great example for todays conflicts. The sheer destruction of modern warfare makes you wonder how these people in both armies are really willing to fight this much. During the first World War a new term emerged, Shelled Shocked just because of the destructive power of the attillery shelling. Today known as PTSD and certainly something that always existed but only today accepted and really treated. So people in all generation of war was brave and devoted, because of their willing to cast away their safety of life for a cause.
I don’t think that will happen. Lots of ppl talk tough behind their keyboards but very few are going to actually leave their couch and Netflix and Instagram and go out and actually get shot at. Most Americans aren’t even in good enough shape to fight a battle.
There are some great Civil War movies, but in my opinion. This is the best. Obviously, I'm African Americans so this movie resonates very deeply with me. But, how the movie was filmed and the overall accuracy of the movie is what really makes it compelling.
Agreed, it is the best with Gettysburg being 2nd. I think any American, not just African-American, this movie resonates very deeply though. In my opinion, one of the all time great movies exemplifying what it means to be an American and the American experience that we all have a kinship to. I have a great grandfather that fought for the 2nd Maine, and died of a gunshot wound in a field hospital outside DC in 1864. He is buried at Arlington national cemetery. I would like to think he was the ultimate patriotic hero fighting for freedom and everything good/righteous, but as the real characters in Glory he was mostly likely an imperfect, God fearing man, doing a soldier's duty in impossible circumstances...
My great grandfather fought for the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee and was at Antietam. But no unit is more deserving of a monument in their honor than the 54th Massachusetts at Fort Wagner.
Absolutely brilliant scene from a timeless movie!! It’s almost hard to fathom how many died during that horrific war! Military and civilian the numbers are horrific!
I always loved this movie. I lived right near Sharpsburg/Antietam. The first attack on the sunken road was repulsed. Then as more Union troops and artillery started to get involved those Confederate bodies filled that road.
There were many instances where men were seen with shoulders hunched, heads down, bodies half turned as if walking into a hailstorm-except this storm was iron and lead. What possessed them to get cut to pieces, fall back, reform, and attack multiple times is mindboggling.
This movie was fantastic. Memorable names and faces like Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick, Cary Elwes. But this movie put Denzel Washington on the map as an actor.
The established Civil War battle tactic of advancing in well-ordered lines (at a walk) until close enough to the enemy firing line to facilitate self-annihilation, is well portrayed. It didn't seem to work too well anywhere. However, even by the closing stages of the war, it was still the preferred method.
The civil war was the beginning of the rifle. A musket by itself isn't very accurate but alot of them are going to hit something. That's why the line formation stayed so long and was so bloody when firearm technology improved. By the end, both sides dug in trench lines like WW1.
The Civil War was not finalised by a Waterloo-style giant battle (always the first choice of generals, field marshalls and politicians) but rather degenerated after Gettysburg into an extended and very costly attrition which the South had no hope of winning, or even forcing to stalemate. Towards the end, the stalled Union campaign at Petersburg gave a clue to where warfare was heading to in the next century but the lesson was soon forgotten.@@gabrielrodriguez821
How else to do it? The line formation presented the most firepower and kept the ranks together. If all those men were not in formation, they would be even less effective.
Matthew Broaderick nailed the acting in this scene. The shock and the loud noise of gun fire, especially artillery fire causes any experienced soldier to cower during the advancement. At this point, with the death of his commanding officer, and with his formation losing discipline and losing men to grapeshot gun fire, he had no choice but to look to his own safety
i just got back a week ago, from the national ART gallery in Washington DC , and there you can see a plaster restored. in GOLD and PLASTER , of the actual monument in Boston dedicated to the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, its amazing to see how talented of a sculpture was MASTER Augustus Saint-Gaudens,
My great great great grandfather fought by that church, they we were at some point only 30 yards away from the confederate forces. There line held but took great casualties he came home from the war without a scratch
I live in Charleston, SC. The scene of the final battle was on Morris Island, which is at the mouth of the Charleston Harbor…what an amazing, and solemn place.
I WISH I was an extra in this movie...Sadly born way too late...I wish I was an extra in any of these Civil War films...Gettysburg and this were among the inspirations to be a Civil War Reenactor, I never regretted it and love it today, I wish to be gray bearded when I retire the hobby. Nothing like the smell of blackpowder!! And the roar of musket and cannon!!!
I can't think of no word other than cannon fodder to describe these tactics of warfare. This is probably the best movie that captures the madness and utter brutality of marching into battle in the 19th century.
It really is madness. Weapons technology was rapidly outpacing tactics as it often does. Still, it doesn't take a tactical genius to see how reckless this was.
@@andrewb325 One can only imagine what those men were thinking in the frontline. Possibly a loved one or just a bullet hitting them flush for a quick death. I agree. This era began a transitional phase in warfare. After WW1, human wave attacks fell out of favor for obvious reasons. At least in the west.
I LOVE the attention to detail in this movie. @1:05 the man behind him has an 1816 springfield (Belgian Type) conversion and the guy behind him a P53 Enfield. mixed use second line weapons as front line in the early part of the war. Fantastic!!!
This is one of the many benefits of using reenactors as extras. Thousands of historians They'd put out a notice that they need a particular prop like a canteen and within minutes they'd have several, some original! They also manufactured 200 1851 Enfield repros.
@@Peter-ji5pk As a historian and collector I would have loved to been there for the making of this! I one hundred thousand percent would have taken my original 1855 Harpers Ferry rifle musket, my 1858 new model army and cartridge boxes and shoulder buckle! My good friend Mike Bergman was an extra in Gettysburg. He can be seen after the final cannonade at the end as the Union approach the wall to re assume position he's in glasses at the far left for a brief second. I was a kid, and so jealous!
this movie still makes me very emotional it's hard to forget it, it is so nostalgic and impressive the people whom I recommended it to watch it had experienced the same feelings as mine...I believe the music, setting, ambient, color, overall sounds makes you feel like if you are inside the movie in real life
I think that is because the movie does such a great job of putting you in the shoes/moment of the characters with their very human emotions and flaws. From Col. Shaw's letters home and realizing his inevitable self sacrifice for the greater good "GLORY", Maj Forbes the self doubting drunkard not fit for command yet rising to the final charge in heroic fashion, PV Trip (Denzel) complicated patriotism as a former slave with an unknown future, and Sgt Maj Rawlins (Freeman) role as the 54th MA father figure and the wisest of them all the movie has unforgettable characters with the most haunting perfectly synched soundtrack of any movie. In my top 5 greatest movies of all time and top for Civil War flicks with the incredible Gettysburg being 2nd...
You come out of a 1940s bomb shelter yesterday or something? 16 year olds used to lie to join the military, 17 year olds could get drafted. We have an all volunteer army now with abysmal retention or interest from the public to join. Tell me when we sent kids to die in the past 40 years.
@@DynamicDurge Well in the last world war it was common for underage people to lie about their age to join the military in Canada and the States. It was also common for draft age people to hide out in the sticks for the duration of the war to avoid military service, family bringing them food, etc., in both countries. Also met folks from Europe who told me stories of people in some countries who said they where older than what they where to avoid their countries draft. There where also large demonstrations, anti war in Canada and the States. Canada created special military units called "Zombies" for those who would fight to defend Canada on Canadian soil but would not go overseas. They where generally despised. I used to watch this on TV as a kid talked to veterans. They don't make movies on these things.
Man they really don’t make movies how they used to /: everything is so crammed into 2 hours. These movies were written and filmed masterfully. Old cinema is quickly becoming a gem we can all start to truly appreciate.
"Old cinema is quickly becoming a gem we can all start to truly appreciate."...until it all gets banned, cancelled, censored for being "Hate Speech"/Disinformation/Misinformation/Malinformation or "Problematic"
About how armies fought here, there were four main points: - The rifled muskets were more accurate and longer-ranged than smoothbore flintlocks, but were still muzzleloading, demanding mass to increase volume. - Command and control limitations also demanded massed disciplined formations in a pre-radio era. - Neither army had time and facilities to train wartime volunteers to exploit the new superiority of the rifle. European armies generally did that. In Crimea a few british line companies even engaged russian artillery with musketry, not to mention prussian developments in column tactics. - People in the past weren't stupid and mustn't be judged according to the warfare methods of our age.
Watched it in my history class back in the 1990s. The teacher even brought the rifle and demonstrated shooting, no bullet of course, just gunpowder and percussion cap.
How long ago was this? Today te teacher woukd executed on 5he football field for bringing a gun to school, and creating a noise that gave the students PTSD.
@Zach Omara - yes. I know. But that was before Democrats. Democrats have spread their hate all across this country for many years. I am surprised democrats had not taken over this school by the time this movie had come out. Today, Democrats will only allowcriminals to have guns.
I had a history professor who pulled out a cap and ball revolver from his podium and shot it off in class. It didn't have a ball, but it had the powder. Guy in the front shit his pants. Good times.
@@benadam7753 Yes but the difference was the rifled musket. The old smooth bores were very inaccurate, while the rifled bores were much more accurate and far deadlier at much longer ranges - and the mini ball was an absolute killer invention. The technology far out paced the tactics, to quote Shelby Foote.
Both sides are just incompetend fools playing soldiers. Nothing but “two armed-mobs” running around the countryside and beating each other up, from which very little of military utility could be learned.
They weren't actually that stupid - The leader's from the south knew they couldn't win because they didn't the resources so they turned it into a slug fest hoping the north would get tired of the losses - And we know how it ended don't we Much like Russia and Ukraine now so long as the west keeps supplying Ukraine will win because Russia doesn't' have the manpower Ukraine can match Russia numerically in manpower
Loved this movie. Whilst this method of battle was used to utilise massive firepower from single shot muskets, the same frontal attacks were used in WW1 despite the advent of the machine gun. Insane!.
This war was also fought with technology not too distant from WW1 tech, yet in both wars they continued to use Napoleonic tactics against weaponry that had 3 or 4 times the range and faster fire rates, plus better explosive artillery shells.
I was stationed at Ft. Campbell KY during my time in the army, but lived off post in Clarksville. A very short walk from our house was a confederate cemetery. It was sobering, to say the least. The headstones revealed 16-17 year old Lts, 19 year old company commanders, and 23-25 year old battalion commanders. Each was chiseled with “killed at Spotsylvania” or “killed at Gettysburg” and so on. I’d always been a student of the civil war, but seeing it in person in this fashion really drove it home. It went from dusty history to a very tangible reality on the spot.
My 7th grade history teacher drove the point home on the first day of the US Civil War instruction. He reviewed the number of US dead in Vietnam, then Korea, then WWII, then WWI, then the US Civil War. That statistic alone showed how important the war was.
No more brother wars.
I live in Spotsylvania and those cemeteries are everywhere as are the actual battle ground monuments. So much history and spilled blood on these lands.
War is always old men talking and young men dying.
I was also stationed at Ft. Campbell. I do remember seeing the Civil War headstones as well. I do also remember seeing old pioneer headstones in the back 40 during field ops. As a Rakkasan we were in the field quite often.
You just know the reenactors they brought in for this movie were having the time of their lives.
I can't imagine how awesome this would be to be apart of
Actually it often is incredibly boring. Standing/sitting around for hours waiting for the scene your needed in. Then having to do the scene over and over because the light wasn't right, the director wants change something, etc. We generally have to be dressed and ready to go at 7 AM and sometimes aren't really needed until late afternoon. Once you've done this once or twice, and used up vacation time to do it, you hesitate to do it again. However the catered food is usually very good and plenty of it. Yes you are paid per diem but if you divide that pay by the hours on set it is less than minimum wage. And all the travel expenses are not reimbursed. We have learned to join SAG/AFTRA so you get the union pay rate.
ya
@@roynajecki1100 Thanks for the info.
@@roynajecki1100judges in the January 6th cases could offer lower prison sentences to trumplodyte confederates if they agree to be filmed in reenactments as community service.
The battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862. the bloodiest day in American history. 22,727 dead, wounded, or missing on both sides.
Until Covid that was the worst day
@@michalsoukup1021😂😂😂 shut up
@@michalsoukup1021no! The flu pandemic in 1918 killed more than 20-50 million people.. Covid 19, 30 thousand died… and yet people still don’t believe in the pandemic of the early 1900s…. Luckily it was only 30thousand this time… and then HIV/AIDS, 35 million from 2005-2012.. don’t really know how many more there are!😊
@michalsoukup1021 we found us a Harris voter
Thank you for mentioning those vital fact's.
If Matthew Broderick seemed too young to be in this movie playing a Civil War regimental colonel, that's because the real-life Robert Gould Shaw was himself in his mid twenties.
My Father taught US history, economics, and civics to high school students over thirty years. We watched this movie in the theatre. He mentioned the same thing that Broderick played him the way he was.
Shaw basically bought his rank.
@@rpcyclist8807 most senior officers did
If you could read and write, they made you an NCO.
@@davester1970 The literacy rates were so low back then... But when you read the letters of young people from that era, those who could write could really write. My niece is an inspiring 21-year-old writer who shakes her head constantly about how so many of her friends thinking tweeting makes them writers.
The scene of the dudes head being blown off with a cannon will stay with me forever. I still remember seeing it at like 12 years old.
inr how did they film that wo actually killing an actor, which is morally wrong...unless they used a str8 wite guy
Think I was 10 or 11. We were watching it for in school for history class.
@@thesame4076 A str8 white guy..LOL!
I wasn't even alive yet when this film came out, but I feel it is one of the better Civil War films. Movies like Gettysburg and Gods and Generals get a lot of things accurate, but focus far too much on the Lost Cause Myth, promoting the misconception that the war was about states' rights, not slavery. Yes, states' rights did play a significant role, but that was mostly an excuse for secession. The true cause of the war was slavery, specifically the political debate over whether to permit new slave states in territories controlled by the United States Congress or to keep it contained in states that already legalized it.
@@melite78 I am surprised that it was thought suitable for children.
I love the quick shot of Broderick looking up into the sky to check and see if the sun is still there, because everything is so dark because of the smoke/dirt exploding around them. A terrifying ordeal to go through while under fire, such an excellent detail.
It's pretty cool that James Albert Hard, Union soldier, nearly 20 at the time, fought at this battle and would live until 1953, seeing most of the Korean War and outliving Stalin.
@@SStupendous so he got to be like 120?
Sorry out by ten
111 years old thereabout.
Just imagine one of the nameless extras around Shaw, one of those men would be Hard (though he was in a different regiment, but the sentiment remains... the guy fight was a rifle, actually IN the war, and lived to see the H-bomb and outlived Stalin!) @@annedejong1040
They do that in this film to reflect what one soldier remembered afterwards that there was so much blood that the entire landscape appeared red.
I don't think people understand how brilliant Glory was. The last battle, he looks at the sea and birds, knowing he will die tonite. His character was 23 years old.
My father was 23 when he landed on Omaha Beach. We forget how young these men were.
@@bobapbob5812 my Grandaddy was 18... Thank God for men like them!!! Be VERY proud..
@@zachhelton9293 my great grand uncle, 13th New York Cavalry, was 16 when he died at Andersonville. You are very right. We should be great full and proud.
@@bobapbob5812 he died @ 16 in that hell hole?? That's awful!!! Man, people today just don't realize the horrors many had to endure for us to live the way we do!!
@@zachhelton9293 there are 13k graves. My wife and I drove into the cemetery, she stopped and I got out to get my bearings. I was standing in front of his grave. His last name is my middle name. He was from upstate on the Canadian border. I’m sure he was watching. In 1959 I was in the 6th grade on Long Island. The teacher asked how many of us had family in World War 2. Every hand went up. One of my uncles served stateside. My dad had three Purple Hearts. My other paternal uncle was wounded. My mom’s brother was wounded in the USN at Okinawa. Good thing we had men to step up.
4:03 and thats when my wife walked out of the movie theatre, she also got up and walked out watching saving private ryan when the dude was carrying his own arm,
I watch a lot of movies by myself these days lol
Man I made the mistake of showing my girlfriend the saving private Ryan D-day scene while we were discussing history. She was not happy with me I felt bad lmao
Same here My wife will not watch them with me.
War is hell and movies like this and Saving Private Ryan only show a fraction of how violent they really are. That’s why I wish the news media and US government didn’t censor the pictures and videos so much. If more ppl saw how awful it really was, ppl would think twice about saying “Let’s invade Iraq” or “Bomb the hell outta them!” Same goes for other countries.
Not many can stomach the cost of freedom.
@@R281 not many can conceive it
This is a great example of a war when technology had surpassed the old traditional ways of combat.
tactics will always lag behind technology, it's a fact of warfighting
in fact Europeans who witnessed the American Civil War commented that they were surprised at how rarely the Americans charged with bayonets, because in densely-populated Europe, a few rapid charges can easily push through to a big city and end the war immediately
Also a great example on how devastating the defensive advantage could get with the weapons and tactics of the time. Having to march through fire to get to soldiers that were already under cover.
In terms of technology, the Civil War was not that far away from the Napoleonic Wars. Most soldiers fighting in it, unlike in the Franco-Prussian War, still used muzzle-loading muskets, which were slower to fire and far less accurate. That is what allows these men to march towards the enemy without being torn to pieces. The real leaps in development happened between 1870 and 1914, with ever increasing numbers of machine guns, as well the use of high-explosive shells, fragmentation grenades, bolt-action rifles and so on. By 1914, a unit standing in the open in full view of the enemy was as good as dead.
@@jirkazalabak1514 the Technology advancement while not quite as high had some pretty devastating effects.
For example: Minnie balls. Minnie balls allowed rifles to fire accurately to several hundred yards as opposed to 80-100 which was the effective range of muskets while also making the weapon reload faster than a musket. This made tactics such as the one above from standard practice to basically suicidal.
Industrialization had also allowed for both deadlier,more accurate and more importantly mass produced artillery in numbers unseen before. This also made similar tactics basically suicidal.
Sure the changes aren't anywhere near as grand as those in WW1 compared to pre WW1 but they were still pretty damn big and since a lot of Civil war generals were Amateurs,and the changes weren't big enough to be obvious it lead to devastating outcomes such as this one. At least in WW1 one would know not to advance in formation while facing machine guns. But a Civil war general may not realise why this cone shaped bullet is such a big deal, until half his unit is torn to pieces before he gets into range
I've stood in the middle of the cornfield and sat down in Bloody Lane just trying to imagine. It's very humbling. Every student should visit that battlefield.
Me and my wife visited Chickamauga Battlefield on the Georgia Tennessee state line in 2009 and we have been to Kennesaw Battlefield in Atlanta.
My wife and I have visited most of the major eastern battlefields and a few of the western ones. Doesn't matter if it's Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, or any other. I always get that very same feeling. Many of those guys knew full well what was about to happen to them, but they marched in anyway. I can't help but wonder if anyone live today would have that kind of courage and determination...
@@paulfly3121Me too, especially at Gettysburg
I've stood at Manassas where Thomas J. Jackson was "like a stone wall". There's a cool statue of him there too.
Antietam is incredibly beautiful, sad and so very haunting. The tranquility and the violence that went on there is baffling.
James Horner's musical score in this movie was magnificent, so emotive and evocative. Never fails to move me.
one of the best scores of all time
Especially at the scenes when they are in a parade proudly marching among the town folks & preparation before charging Fort Wagner.
COMPLETELY agree, Markus! Horner's score is extremely emotive and a perfect backdrop for the story. God, this entire movie down to the music was so well done.
Horner's scores never disappointed.
@@hosswindu166 I miss him. He’d make something banger if he was still alive
That background singing within the first 30 seconds lets you know you're about to witness something truly epic.
That's the Harlem Boys Choir and James Horner, who won a Grammy for this movie's soundtrack.
This scene can’t be underestimated. I grew up watching 50’s and 60’s movies about the Civil War and of course Gone With the Wind. Those movies were so romanticized, so bloodless, so delightful and palatable for a 20th century audience. This scene shattered all of that and brought me back to reality of what the war really was. And journalists accounts of the time, like Frank Leslie, attest to the carnage. As the 19th century’s trauma subsided the 20th century sought a revised romanticism and it stuck until 1990 when Glory was released.
When was the last time you've seen Gone With The Wind ? Nothing in GWTW pertaining to the fighting or situation in and around Atlanta is romanticized. It is downright gut wrenching and heartbreaking. Glory doesn't even come close. I think another watch is in order.
Agreed, the scene at the train station that gradually pulls back to reveal more and more wounded soldiers in the town square really hit me when I was young.
@@ranica47 The point of Gone With the Wind was that the South foolishly thought war was romantic. And then the war came to Atlanta.
A Confederate veteran watching the train station scene remarked "If we'd had that many men, we wouldn't have lost the war!"
Most of the Federal regiments who participated in the fighting around the vicinity of the cornfield were green regiments, regiments that were brand new and were just formed three weeks before the battle. They came toe-to-toe against Stonewall Jackson's veteran troops who fought in the Shenandoah Valley and suffered heavy casualties contesting the cornfield.
Слава конфедератам и южанам ,слава Русским добровольцам на стороне Конфедерации !
@@МобиМоби-с5й Lmao nope
That explains why this charge fell apart 😢😨
One of the last wars where waves of soldiers or Napoleonic column attacks could work to overwhelm strong positions as well. It really is telling that the end of the Civil War devolved into trench warfare. The Franco-Prussian war happened not long after the US Civil War and really helped lay more of the groundwork for World War 1. You could really see the weapons technology accelerating there as well. Over 400,000 dead and wounded in a little over six months, and the war devolved into sieges and trench warfare even faster.
It's not the cornfield though, it's on the sunken road
My dad bought this movie on laser disk and I instantly fell in love with it! Loved it so much that when my teacher gave us a history fair assignment, there was no other subject I wanted to cover but the 54th Massachusetts colored regiment!
The forward advance was a death stroll. Walking complete divisions upright into rifle, musket and cannon fire with no cover. Insane.
Well to their credit that’s usually how that worked back then.
thought they would learn to use more guerrilla tactics, like what won them the revolutionary war.
@@mikesmnell414 Such a waste of men. The Tactics were foolish.
@@abouttime5000 Not really. It was just the most efficient way of fighting till that point. I mean Napoleon fought the same way and he dominated every army he came across fighting him in different ways. The civil war is when everyone started to be equipped with rifles and stuff so this kinda line fighting ended because technology finally caught up.
@@mikesmnell414 What cannot be denied is that the grunts in those infantry lines were eminently expendable; the brass didn't care one iota about their lives.
This was the best Civil War movie I’ve ever seen including the opening battle scene at Antietam !! Movie deserved an Oscar !
James Horner's death was a devastating loss for the film industry. One can only imagine how many more incredible pieces of music he would have added to the world. It's bittersweet to watch Avatar 2 without his music.
We still have Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Randy Edelman and Thomas Bergersen.
@@VersusARCH for now. Williams is getting old
@@jtgd John Williams retired. The Fableman is his last score for Spielberg.
Yeah
No, it was not, and you are 100% wrong! A tragic lost goes to those who didn't do sh**. Horner left us with a lot.
I've been regularly traveling Route 65 on my way home. Every time I pass the Antietam battlefield I feel the misery of these men.
It's strange, right? I live in Germany, near the battlefield of Lutter am Baremberge, where Tilly and his imperial german army defeated the lower saxon princes and their armies, and their ally the danish king and his forces. I can't drive there without thinking about them. My ancestors were in the defeated army.
@@KosherFinance why?
@@calebtslhs487 well deserved place for that white entitled rich filth
They should build a Walmart on that plot of green fertile land
Isn't it interesting how fast those that hate become that which they profess to abhorr.
This film is a classic and Matthew Broderick made it so believable! Such a great cast all round!
He needed a step ladder to get onto his horse.
its also unfortunately very flat and paired with a bunch of hoorah patriotism.
I have not watched the movie in years so I can’t recall much of the movie but God forbid there’s any form of *gasp* patriotism!
Matthew Broderick... killed two people...
I never heard of this movie until it popped up on my UA-cam. Looks like Ferris could really use a day off.
4:40 - "Mother help me!"
Chills, man. You know whoever yelled that was scared out of his mind, most likely bleeding out on the ground, knowing that he was about to die.
Good catch.
Good hearing man!
I had to go back and listen. Truly heartbreaking to know that was screamed out in many of those men's last minutes.
I don't know how I missed that and I have the movie.
Idk how I missed that, and I have this movie good catch.
it doesnt matter if its the civil war or world war two, vietnam, korea or iraq...i cant imagine the incredible kind of courage that was involved in any of them...thank all of you so much!
It is my opinion that the Civil War and WW2 were the actually fair wars. The rest were just pointless imperialist endevours.
Except that they shot you if you decided this was stupid and wanted to leave, all the way up to WWII. Courage is not the game here, it's indoctrination, mind control, and peer pressure in order to keep the rich getting richer.
Jingoism is the tool of the deep state.
@@tomusic8887understand how line battles work and come back when you understand
@@tomusic8887 It's called history and learning from it and how they fought back in the day. Call it whatever you want. You spelled cannons wrong. Have some respect. If you don't like this country, then leave.
@@Turbofest what did he say Im curious now
Will ALWAYS love Broderick, who was masterful in this film. But this film also gave us Washington and Freemen in the same film as well. Can't get any better than that!!!
Yeah it had an amazing cast. I also really liked Cary Elwes as Major Forbes and Andre Braugher as Thomas.
Thanks to the many Civil War reenactors for making Glory possible.
Greatest number of casualties in a single day’s battle, almost 23,000 (dead, wounded & missing). Battle lasted roughly twelve hours. Not as many casualties as Gettysburg, but that was over three days. Unbelievable death and carnage. 😢
Including the Bulge? Or are you just talking about the Civil War?
@@Life_Is_Torture0000 I was mainly talking about casualties in a single day’s battle. (The Battle of the Bulge lasted for over a month).
There were battles in WWII where the Red Army lost entire army-corps equivalents in a very short amount of time. It seems extremely unlikely the Antietam-record survived WWII, or even WWI.
@Larry Farris I see. It gets even more interesting if you consider Civil War casualties in terms of the proportion of the population. I've seen estimates ranging from 5-10 million casualties if you apply the same casualty rates to modern population levels.
And that's without considering the lethality of modern weapons. Civil War weapons were very crude by modern standards, but they had much higher rates of disease, not to mention unspeakably bad medical care.
The ideals and shocking realities of war in under 6 minutes, but it captures the feelings of the times so well. The honor, the mayhem, the death, and the glory.
There's no fucking glory in war kiddo. Get that out of your head. That's all lies and propaganda. Honor in dying for your friends and family but not for bankers, oligarchs, war profiteers, and politicians. Get smart and stay smart.
Such a brilliant opening, I know exactly what will happen each time but the opening still gets me stirred up. Brilliant music too
Well said
There are a few things a film will never portray. Wounded have piercing screams, some for their mom. The smell of gunpowder, arterial blood and decomp can never be conveyed. It is something that fewer and fewer men can attest to, thank God. The price of war is greater than most know, but the ever quiet vet does.
"ever quiet vet" - beautifully stated. I've never known any vet who talks about wartime experiences. Bless them all, past, present, and future.
Are are actually some really good ones who do just that. There by no means the majority but I distinctly remember one that had a woundeds please go on for so long ypi eventually just hopped he'd die so you wouldn't hear it anymore
This alone should be the warning to the future to avoid war. At all costs.
I remember seeing this at the movies when it came out, as an 18 year old soldier at the time i could only imagine what it was like to make the charge on Fort Wagner. Epic movie Denzel deserved the Oscar.
There are movies that are good, there are movies that are great. This movie is important. This story is one that NEEDS to be told and continues to remain an important topic today
The only racism that is socially acceptable these days is racism against white people.
"We fight for men and women, whose poetry is not yet written..." - Col. Shaw
STILL the best opening sequence to any Civil War movie. 👍
@@JM7284 The beginning of SPR is definitely the best WW2 opening sequence, but it's not a Civil War film.
It's unfortunate that this clip didn't carry all the way through to Shaw in the field hospital. At the beginning of the Civil War neither side had ANY idea of what they were really getting into, and the way "Glory" contrasts that early naivete ("you mustn't think that any of us will be killed" in Shaw's letter home) with the hospital's brutal reality of an amputation taking place right before his eyes is brilliant visual storytelling.
I always like the Gettysburg beginning.
@@chuchulainn9275 That one is well done too.👍
The opening scene of _Cold Mountain_ would like a word with you...
@@PBurns-ng3gw the opening scene is just Union soldiers blowing a hole in the Confederate works at Petersburg. The battle is no longer part of the opening scene because it's way past that point. It even cuts to a scene where Ada first meets Inman before it cuts back to when the actual battle begins.
But I guess the underground mine explosion scene is great opening scene in itself. I just find Glory's opening more meaningful since it depicts the mood of the soldiers, still green but high spirited that everything will be okay, until they are sent into combat and Shaw's regiment takes a horrible beating.
Every major and minor actor gives a great performance and every major and minor character in the movie with so much as one line is full of life and feels like a real person with a backstory. Like the White soldier who Heckles the 54th but later says "Give em Hell!". That's what makes it such a loveable movie.
I was in the production crew of "Glory " as a grip. Our responsibilities put us close to scenes as they were filming.
More than one scene had to be "shot " repeatedly as the actors were overwhelmed by the emotional impact of the scene.
It's been over 30yrs and I remember.
ICH
Brilliant strategy to deplete their ammo!
It worked in Normady
@@facelessman9224 Where?
@@CIMAmotor I said Normandy. That's where.
Lol that's the Dominick Cruz mentality (UFC), he was a commentator for a fight and one guy was getting blasted with heavy punches. Cruz says "Smart strategy to tire his opponent out!", and FYI he was being dead serious.
IKR? At least the Romans advanced behind shields.
I went to the theater when this came out, was blown away by the cast, everyone. Splendid picture
The best scene of Glory begins immediately after the opening credits and ends right before the closing credits.
This movie is absolutely incredible. The opening scene is most likely the closest thing we get to experiencing what these guys would do. The chaos, the horror. Extremely well done.
Obviously the 2nd Massachusetts was in the famous Cornfield at Antietam. The Regiment fought in the Federal XII Corps attack at the northern part of the battlefield on 17 September: through the Cornfield, and between the East and West Woods. Still I think that this scene captures the utter chaos of the day.
Chaos, terror, death. And yet somehow still a victory. Antietam was a good choice.
Thanks Trevor. I’ve visited the cornfield, yet I missed that the 2nd Massachusetts were there.
And the foolishness of sending men walking in a line with no cover against fortified troops on a ridge. I don't know if it was arrogance or incompetency, or both, that drove the Union to mange the war so poorly for so long. They're lucky they had the advantage in numbers and supplies or the country would look vastly different today.
I hope you’ve seen ‘Cold Mountain’s depiction of The Battle of the Crater.
@@avenger1212 For most of the past few centuries, war had looked like that - lines of men walking slowly. Muskets were too short ranged to be more effective than that, and smoke obscured things easily. On the American continent, wars had also been relatively small. America had only a tiny standing army, and even the largest battles of the Mexican American War were miniscule compared to the largest in Europe.
But the Civil War was different. Rifles were commonplace for the first time, making infantry far deadlier. Artillery got better too, and armies were getting better at preparing defences. Everything favoured the defense. Armies were MUCH larger, and that made the battles bloodier AND made them harder to use with finesse. Many Union generals weren't incompetent, they were just out of their depth. McClellan had been a Captain in the Mexican American War. He went from commanding a company of 87000 at Antietam.
I saw this one long ago and recently again. Its a gem. Denzel was very impressive.
" But this time we must make it a whole country so that this time, all can speak.
We fight for men and women whose poetry has not yet been written...
Then and now, we still do the same...
Give em hell 54th!!
Its such a beautiful quote
What most Americans don't know is the Union had General Lee's full battle plan for this battle. And refused to act on it. Lee split his army into pieces. One piece being 20 miles away from the Union. It could of easily been picked apart. Instead nothing was done. And lead to the bloodiest day in American history.
Naturally, the blame will go to none other than George B. McClellan for his reluctance to act decisively and to exploit this advantage.
@@morammofilmsph1540 I'm almost convinced that McClellan was some sort of double agent because he couldn't have been any worse at waging war if he was actively trying not to win.
Worse yet, the day AFTER the battle the rest of the Yankee Army of the Potomac was on the field (they had arrived during the night). McClellan had virtually a brand new army the size of the one he had on the morning of the battle. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was exhausted, wounded, out of ammunition and his artillery had been decimated (the Yankee artillery for the most part was rifled and thus outranged the Rebel guns). Many Confederate Regiments were the size of Battalions. Had McClellan attacked with this fresh new army, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia would have been destroyed, R. E. Lee captured (if not killed) and the war would have been over. McClellan could have taken Richmond and there would have been nothing to stop him. McClellan would have been a hero - “The Savior of the Union,” “The man who crushed the Rebellion.” Instead McClellan did nothing. And Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia escaped and lived to fight another day.
Also the first few Union Generals were borderline traitors. Little Mac especially.
The Cigarre Plan
I was a young man when I first started watching this movie and a grandfather by the time it finished.
thankyou for your sacrifice. not many have watched all the way through to tell us of the end.
It's only a two hour movie?
@@lyfteeng6181 Time is a flat circle.
Is it just me or does every time the boy's choir starts that melody at the 1:00 minute mark bring a tear to my eyes. Great movie!
I can never get through this movie as it just unnerves me because it's so realistic. The terrifying reality of what these soldiers went through. Marching to battle, what must have going through their minds...marching straight towards enemy artillery...war really was and is hell.
I've read that green troops would be scared out of their minds going into their first fight while veterans would be ice calm going in and have PTSD episodes after the battle. The veterans were quite harsh to green troops until they'd 'seen the elephant'.
This is one of the best movies ever made.
One of the most smartly written, good-spirited, and respectful anti-war films.
Anti-war? I'd say the movie is an argument that some wars are worth fighting, even if you have to die. Do you think Shaw was mistaken in putting himself at risk to inspire his troops in a losing battle? The movie shows this as bittersweet and noble, nothing like a film like Platoon for instance.
@@bcgonynor I wouldn't say that it's necessarily anti-war in the conventional sense but the movie makes you question if dying in a war is really a glorious outcome in the end. This opening scene is a great example, it starts out so triumphant and idealistic from the main character of what war is, but then it's struck down by the battle scene right after which shows the absurd reality of combat where people are just dying by the hundreds. The movie also ends with Shaw being tossed in a hole with the rest of his men
@@bcgonynorAny war that you didn't start isn't worth fighting, and even then you could reconsider.
What were they fighting and dying for? Honour? Glory? A better future for everybody? Against slavery? And what were they others fighting for? Evil? Slavery? Cotton fields? Glorious death?....
It's all so unreal to see that so many men just died for ideals of men who never picked up weapons to defend the ideals they want others to fight for. And I'm sure many of them just died because they wanted to have five dollar to join or something completely stupid enough to get shot or blown to bits for. There is not one flag, not one leader, not one nation worth your energy, left alone dying for it or being disabled.
@@HanHonHonhe was buried with his brave men, an honor that he would’ve been proud of
This movie isnt anti war. Its pretty pro war if anything lol. A lot of values of the movie are grounded in the honor of service. Not just that, but also (wait for it) the GLORY of having fought the right battles. There is a literal monologue in the film about how Denzels character (although justified in his rage) is essentially called a “swamp n****r” by Morgan Freemans character because he wont commit to the unit. Not that it makes the movie bad by any means, but if you thought it was anti war, we mustve been watching two different movies.
Man… so insane how they just went at one another in that Napoleonic Warfare style. Takes a massive set of balls.
Especially with technological advancements with guns and artillery, really set the tone that the day of massed ranks and glorious charges was coming to an end.
or massive naivety
Agreed!! imagine having to charge at a unit holding a defensive position like that and everyone next to you is getting shot
TBH the civil war happened just as technology reached an odd mid point. Sure we had early machine gun type weapons, evolving artillery and accurate rifles were slowly becoming mass produced but not on any effective scale and cavalry was still a problem so infantry still had to stay packed for that reason. Going in deep on certain battles in the civil war is an interesting look into seeing how warfare was changing. Between the trench warfare at Vicksburg and the slaughter at say Fredricksburg, Antietam and Cemetery Ridge. Everything really just came together to make this war as tragic as possible.
men would stare straight ahead and ignore the musket ball hurdling towards them.
Warfare in these times was crazy. Marching towards enemy on a plane field, without cover, under heavy fire, with your fellow soldiers getting killed around you, until you reach the point where you can shoot back, if you reach this point...that shit is just crazy.
Today's warfare is far more brutal. The toll on the mind is harsher than anything a bullet can produce. To be hundreds of yards from the battlefield, but yet still get vaporized by an artillery shell, a sniper, an air-strike, make the horrors of war inescapable aside from being removed from it altogether. At least back then, being half a mile away gave you some reprieve, and up until after the US Civil War, most Armies would rest for the winter. During WW2, the average infantryman saw around 45 days of combat throughout the entirety of war. During Viet-Nam, that increased to 240 days in just 1 year. I'm not saying any war is easier than the other (just imagine getting ready to bayonet someone who is pleading for their life in your own language and the PTSD associated with that) but what I am saying is, it is beyond measurably difficult for young soldiers today to be mandated to kill their enemy today, then love them tomorrow.
Glory is probably my favorite Civil War movie
Morgan Freeman was excellent & a new actor knocked my socks off. Denzel was here.
Morgan and Denzel were on point, outstanding. same with Andre Braugher and Cary Elwes
This masterpiece should be standard viewing in every American history classroom.
It is commonly viewed in high schools.
It's standard in 8th and 11th grade US history classes, at least in California. I wasn't allowed to show it when I taught at a Texas high school.
I showed it to my eighth graders every year when I taught American history. So much more powerful than just reading about Civil War battles.
@@IronBrig4 That's ironic, we watched it in Civil War class in Missouri - but nothing is banned from the classroom compared to other States in Missouri. We still read Huck Finn, at least last I knew.
I was a reenactor hired to be in this film. I remember when they did the cannonball head shot. Scull sized balloon filled with red jello on a dummy and then super imposed on the live soldier in editing. Looked real though in the film.
who was the actor for the man getting his noggin blown up?
My Great Great Grandfather was specifically in this battle with the 2nd Vermont Regiment part of the Vermont Brigade. He survived but it got worse as his next engagement was a butchery at Fredericksburg.
Excellent movie from beginning to end...A friend and I saw this at the theatre when it was released in 1989...at the end of the movie nobody moved out of their seats during the credits...many were crying and stayed to listen more to it's wonderful and moving soundtrack.
It should be kept in mind that the memorial to the Massachusetts 54th which is in Boston -- the Black regiment portrayed in this movie that proved to the country that Black soldiers could be just as good fighters and as brave as White soldiers -- was vandalized by Antifa anarchists during the 2020 George Floyd riots. Nothing is good enough for them. Not even Lincoln. Rioters pulled down statues of Lincoln, Grant in other cities, and even incredibly Frederick Douglass -- key figures in American history who fought hard to end slavery and the oppression of Black Americans. That's Antifa for you. And the woke mob.
The movie got one major error. The enlisted men of the 54th Massachusetts were not runaway slaves from the South! They were free well to do Black men from the North! That is a real injustice to the memory of the men from the 54th Massachusetts.
@@jody6851 How do you know it was Antifa? Did they have T-shirts that said Antifa on them? Did they show you Antifa ID cards? How do we even know what you claim is true? Come on, man. One more. Woke is a slur used by people who can't come up with a good argument against people who are not afraid to own up to the truth about some of the things done in the past that were wrong. It's like calling somebody a 'queer' because it makes you feel good if you can say something you think is hurtful. Congratulations for showing your inabilities.
@@jody6851 You voted Trump, maybe? LOL!
@@benadam7753 "Glory" does have it's moments of historical inaccuracy. I think the reason for this may be that the film (like so many other Hollywood "histories") uses the base history as a framework to tell a larger story. Not everything in the movie actually happened to the 54th, but DID happen to other Black units during the war, and in those scenes it tells the wider story of the experiences of Black soldiers in the Union army and not just those of the 54th.
That crackling musket volley from the fence line is burned into my memory for all time.
I saw this in the theaters and I was so used to people just falling down and dying when they were shot in the movies. 4:07 was the first time ever I saw that kind of gore in a Civil War film. It’s one thing to see it in a Vietnam War film which were huge back then but when the realism we were used to in those films came to the films depicting wars going further back that was a game changer.
Gettysburg gets a lot more attention than Antietam does, but Antietam was the largest loss of life in American history and included over 30,000 total deaths+injuries. The injuries alone were so numerous that a front line Union nurse named Clara Barton, embedded with the General Joseph Hooker's 1st Corps, ran out of bandages and went into the James family corn field (north of Dunker Church) and brought back loads of corn husks to use instead. Under direct fire from Confederate General Stonewall Jackson's units, she returned again and again to the front lines, and the Union soldiers later referred to her as the "Angel of the Battlefield." You may recognize her name as the founder of the American Red Cross.
peoples in the era were so brave and devoted. Facing death still marched on!
Brave men indeed but they just followed orders like today. While the battlefield does not look like this anymore, you still certainly can say the people that fight our wars today are still brave. Modern War can bring death from anywere. Ukraine and Russia war is a great example for todays conflicts. The sheer destruction of modern warfare makes you wonder how these people in both armies are really willing to fight this much. During the first World War a new term emerged, Shelled Shocked just because of the destructive power of the attillery shelling. Today known as PTSD and certainly something that always existed but only today accepted and really treated. So people in all generation of war was brave and devoted, because of their willing to cast away their safety of life for a cause.
The movie Glory was mandatory in order to pass history class.
The bloodiest day in America history!! but I think the worst is to come!! God help us !! Amen!!!
I don’t think that will happen. Lots of ppl talk tough behind their keyboards but very few are going to actually leave their couch and Netflix and Instagram and go out and actually get shot at. Most Americans aren’t even in good enough shape to fight a battle.
It still gets to me how underrated this movie is. In my opinion it’s one of the greatest movies of all time but nobody i know knows about it
There are some great Civil War movies, but in my opinion. This is the best. Obviously, I'm African Americans so this movie resonates very deeply with me. But, how the movie was filmed and the overall accuracy of the movie is what really makes it compelling.
Agreed, it is the best with Gettysburg being 2nd. I think any American, not just African-American, this movie resonates very deeply though. In my opinion, one of the all time great movies exemplifying what it means to be an American and the American experience that we all have a kinship to. I have a great grandfather that fought for the 2nd Maine, and died of a gunshot wound in a field hospital outside DC in 1864. He is buried at Arlington national cemetery. I would like to think he was the ultimate patriotic hero fighting for freedom and everything good/righteous, but as the real characters in Glory he was mostly likely an imperfect, God fearing man, doing a soldier's duty in impossible circumstances...
But Lincoln's war upon sovereign Southern states was never about ending slavery or freeing the slaves
@@thomasbunner5214 I know
@@thomasbunner5214 Not initially.
My great grandfather fought for the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee and was at Antietam. But no unit is more deserving of a monument in their honor than the 54th Massachusetts at Fort Wagner.
Absolutely brilliant scene from a timeless movie!! It’s almost hard to fathom how many died during that horrific war! Military and civilian the numbers are horrific!
700,000
I always loved this movie. I lived right near Sharpsburg/Antietam. The first attack on the sunken road was repulsed. Then as more Union troops and artillery started to get involved those Confederate bodies filled that road.
"For God's sake, come on!"
Not bad for sudden unexpected last words
There were many instances where men were seen with shoulders hunched, heads down, bodies half turned as if walking into a hailstorm-except this storm was iron and lead. What possessed them to get cut to pieces, fall back, reform, and attack multiple times is mindboggling.
Suffering 😢
This movie was fantastic. Memorable names and faces like Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick, Cary Elwes. But this movie put Denzel Washington on the map as an actor.
He won an Oscar for his role as Pvt. Tripp
St Elsewhere was his start
@@Thunderchild-gz4gcHe said put him on the map he didn’t say it was his start
marching in open field like that is madness
The established Civil War battle tactic of advancing in well-ordered lines (at a walk) until close enough to the enemy firing line to facilitate self-annihilation, is well portrayed. It didn't seem to work too well anywhere. However, even by the closing stages of the war, it was still the preferred method.
The civil war was the beginning of the rifle. A musket by itself isn't very accurate but alot of them are going to hit something. That's why the line formation stayed so long and was so bloody when firearm technology improved. By the end, both sides dug in trench lines like WW1.
The Civil War was not finalised by a Waterloo-style giant battle (always the first choice of generals, field marshalls and politicians) but rather degenerated after Gettysburg into an extended and very costly attrition which the South had no hope of winning, or even forcing to stalemate.
Towards the end, the stalled Union campaign at Petersburg gave a clue to where warfare was heading to in the next century but the lesson was soon forgotten.@@gabrielrodriguez821
How else to do it? The line formation presented the most firepower and kept the ranks together. If all those men were not in formation, they would be even less effective.
I watched a video on why they fought in this way and it actually makes a lot of sense.
@@astrotrek3534 Surely they could afford to move at a light running speed if you really insist on going in face first? :p
Matthew Broaderick nailed the acting in this scene. The shock and the loud noise of gun fire, especially artillery fire causes any experienced soldier to cower during the advancement.
At this point, with the death of his commanding officer, and with his formation losing discipline and losing men to grapeshot gun fire, he had no choice but to look to his own safety
He really was mortified and completely unprepared for the SFX that happened.
@@kellycochran6487 yeah, but as an actor he had to act as if it were cannon shot and grapeshot being lobbed his direction
i just got back a week ago, from the national ART gallery in Washington DC , and there you can see a plaster restored. in GOLD and PLASTER , of the actual monument in Boston dedicated to the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, its amazing to see how talented of a sculpture was MASTER Augustus Saint-Gaudens,
My great great great grandfather fought by that church, they we were at some point only 30 yards away from the confederate forces. There line held but took great casualties he came home from the war without a scratch
I live in Charleston, SC. The scene of the final battle was on Morris Island, which is at the mouth of the Charleston Harbor…what an amazing, and solemn place.
That war tactics where brutal
Those men marching into canon and gun fire is insane. Warfare remained that way into the twentieth century. The weapons surpassed the tactics.
At 03:07, the Master Sergeant to the far left (in red waist sash) is ducking on every blast with intense concern. That's accuracy.
I WISH I was an extra in this movie...Sadly born way too late...I wish I was an extra in any of these Civil War films...Gettysburg and this were among the inspirations to be a Civil War Reenactor, I never regretted it and love it today, I wish to be gray bearded when I retire the hobby.
Nothing like the smell of blackpowder!! And the roar of musket and cannon!!!
I can't think of no word other than cannon fodder to describe these tactics of warfare. This is probably the best movie that captures the madness and utter brutality of marching into battle in the 19th century.
So insane
It really is madness. Weapons technology was rapidly outpacing tactics as it often does. Still, it doesn't take a tactical genius to see how reckless this was.
@@andrewb325 One can only imagine what those men were thinking in the frontline. Possibly a loved one or just a bullet hitting them flush for a quick death. I agree. This era began a transitional phase in warfare. After WW1, human wave attacks fell out of favor for obvious reasons. At least in the west.
On the 1st of july 1916 the British did excactly the same at the battle of the Somme. It ended in a horrid slaughter.
@@andrewb325 And now the geniuses are provoking a bear that can drop nukes on us. Duhhh!
I LOVE the attention to detail in this movie. @1:05 the man behind him has an 1816 springfield (Belgian Type) conversion and the guy behind him a P53 Enfield. mixed use second line weapons as front line in the early part of the war. Fantastic!!!
This is one of the many benefits of using reenactors as extras. Thousands of historians They'd put out a notice that they need a particular prop like a canteen and within minutes they'd have several, some original! They also manufactured 200 1851 Enfield repros.
@@Peter-ji5pk As a historian and collector I would have loved to been there for the making of this! I one hundred thousand percent would have taken my original 1855 Harpers Ferry rifle musket, my 1858 new model army and cartridge boxes and shoulder buckle! My good friend Mike Bergman was an extra in Gettysburg. He can be seen after the final cannonade at the end as the Union approach the wall to re assume position he's in glasses at the far left for a brief second. I was a kid, and so jealous!
The death toll at Antietam averaged 1,000 fatalities every hour. Every HOUR
Battle of Stalingrad had 9-10 people die per minute
@@Juan-qu4oj So 540-600 deaths an hour.
A great and terrible day.
This movie shaped me to become the Civil War buff I am today. It’s so incredibly underrated.
September 17, 1862. The battle was to be the bloodiest day in the war with 22,000 casualties in one day. Truly sad part of American History.
Love this movie! A thought came to me recently: We are as far removed from WW2(80+ yrs) as the civil war is removed from WW2(80+ yrs).
this movie still makes me very emotional it's hard to forget it, it is so nostalgic and impressive the people whom I recommended it to watch it had experienced the same feelings as mine...I believe the music, setting, ambient, color, overall sounds makes you feel like if you are inside the movie in real life
I think that is because the movie does such a great job of putting you in the shoes/moment of the characters with their very human emotions and flaws. From Col. Shaw's letters home and realizing his inevitable self sacrifice for the greater good "GLORY", Maj Forbes the self doubting drunkard not fit for command yet rising to the final charge in heroic fashion, PV Trip (Denzel) complicated patriotism as a former slave with an unknown future, and Sgt Maj Rawlins (Freeman) role as the 54th MA father figure and the wisest of them all the movie has unforgettable characters with the most haunting perfectly synched soundtrack of any movie. In my top 5 greatest movies of all time and top for Civil War flicks with the incredible Gettysburg being 2nd...
@@user-ix4dn6ye4m definitely...also the characters of the movie were among the ones that portrayed a sentimental feeling
@@rggl3438 Definitely, perfectly casted and well written scripts.
Old men make war, young men fight them. Even more so today.
I mean id rather the leaders be old and experienced than some young person.
You come out of a 1940s bomb shelter yesterday or something? 16 year olds used to lie to join the military, 17 year olds could get drafted. We have an all volunteer army now with abysmal retention or interest from the public to join. Tell me when we sent kids to die in the past 40 years.
@@DynamicDurge Well in the last world war it was common for underage people to lie about their age to join the military in Canada and the States. It was also common for draft age people to hide out in the sticks for the duration of the war to avoid military service, family bringing them food, etc., in both countries. Also met folks from Europe who told me stories of people in some countries who said they where older than what they where to avoid their countries draft.
There where also large demonstrations, anti war in Canada and the States. Canada created special military units called "Zombies" for those who would fight to defend Canada on Canadian soil but would not go overseas. They where generally despised. I used to watch this on TV as a kid talked to veterans. They don't make movies on these things.
One of the best civil war movies ever made. Brilliant.
The contrast between the high-energy music and the sound effects of battle is stimulating.
Man they really don’t make movies how they used to /: everything is so crammed into 2 hours. These movies were written and filmed masterfully. Old cinema is quickly becoming a gem we can all start to truly appreciate.
"Old cinema is quickly becoming a gem we can all start to truly appreciate."...until it all gets banned, cancelled, censored for being "Hate Speech"/Disinformation/Misinformation/Malinformation or "Problematic"
The fact we're considering 90s cinema "old" already
About how armies fought here, there were four main points:
- The rifled muskets were more accurate and longer-ranged than smoothbore flintlocks, but were still muzzleloading, demanding mass to increase volume.
- Command and control limitations also demanded massed disciplined formations in a pre-radio era.
- Neither army had time and facilities to train wartime volunteers to exploit the new superiority of the rifle. European armies generally did that. In Crimea a few british line companies even engaged russian artillery with musketry, not to mention prussian developments in column tactics.
- People in the past weren't stupid and mustn't be judged according to the warfare methods of our age.
Watched it in my history class back in the 1990s. The teacher even brought the rifle and demonstrated shooting, no bullet of course, just gunpowder and percussion cap.
It was a different time for sure.
How long ago was this?
Today te teacher woukd executed on 5he football field for bringing a gun to school, and creating a noise that gave the students PTSD.
@@MrYfrank14 Don't forget there used to be ranges at almost every school across the country... with classes on marksmanship on top of it all.
@Zach Omara - yes. I know. But that was before Democrats.
Democrats have spread their hate all across this country for many years. I am surprised democrats had not taken over this school by the time this movie had come out.
Today, Democrats will only allowcriminals to have guns.
I had a history professor who pulled out a cap and ball revolver from his podium and shot it off in class. It didn't have a ball, but it had the powder. Guy in the front shit his pants. Good times.
Not a single phone in sight, just people living in the moment
The single bloodiest battle of the war- 23,000 in one day.
What an insane way to fight a war.
That's how wars were fought for centuries!
@@benadam7753 Yes but the difference was the rifled musket. The old smooth bores were very inaccurate, while the rifled bores were much more accurate and far deadlier at much longer ranges - and the mini ball was an absolute killer invention. The technology far out paced the tactics, to quote Shelby Foote.
Is there a sane way to fight a war?
@@derjaeger3321 Yes, except for the advancement of weapons, the same tactics were used for centuries though.
Other tactics were experimented with in Europe and failed to improve on these. Napoleonic, I believe, is the correct term.
The Union Army was plagued with incompetent generals up to this point of the war, while the Rebs had the benefit of having smart and daring leaders.
Both sides are just incompetend fools playing soldiers.
Nothing but “two armed-mobs” running around the countryside and beating each other up, from which very little of military utility could be learned.
They weren't actually that stupid - The leader's from the south knew they couldn't win because they didn't the resources so they turned it into a slug fest hoping the north would get tired of the losses - And we know how it ended don't we
Much like Russia and Ukraine now so long as the west keeps supplying Ukraine will win because Russia doesn't' have the manpower
Ukraine can match Russia numerically in manpower
4:07 This scene was so well done it literally blew his mind
Loved this movie.
Whilst this method of battle was used to utilise massive firepower from single shot muskets, the same frontal attacks were used in WW1 despite the advent of the machine gun.
Insane!.
This war was also fought with technology not too distant from WW1 tech, yet in both wars they continued to use Napoleonic tactics against weaponry that had 3 or 4 times the range and faster fire rates, plus better explosive artillery shells.
Great movie and remember all my brothers fought to stand we are today.
Like how hardcore! These guys walking to their deaths. That would be so terrifying. I would shit myself.
The Courage Of Achilles
This is still my favorite civil war movie.
It seems insane armies fought this way for as long as they did. Lined up presenting themselves as easy targets for each other.
Is it me or does this theme make you cry 😭
It captures he American spirit
Went to antietam a few years ago. What an amazing place