“We fight for men and women whose poetry is not yet written but which will presently be as enviable and renowned as any of them.”
“Their innocence. Their heritage. Their lives. Nothing would be spared in the fight for their freedom.”
After Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) comes through a horrifying battle during the Civil War, he’s tendered a position to lead one of the 1st all African American units in the U.S. Army. He accepts that duty despite his questions that the soldiers have the capability to become beneficial fighters. Over time, the soldiers which include a gravedigger named John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman) and a runaway slave named Trip (Denzel Washington),start to establish they’re worthiness of fighting for the Union States. The soldiers are a proud group of men and really patriotic in spite of the racial discrimination they come across.
Initially, members of the Fifty-fourth are used for nothing more than manual labor until Shaw convinces his commanding officer through the use of blackmail that they should be changed to a combat command. When they finally are transferred, they’re involved in their first real battle at James Island, South Carolina on July 16, 1863 to be followed by the attack on Fort Wagner two days later.
A letter written home from Colonel Robert G. Shaw was a particularly inspiring moment: Dear Mother, They learn, learn quickly, quicker than white troops it appears to me. They’re almost grave and sedate under command and they restrain themselves. But the moment they’re dismissed from drill every tongue is relaxed and every ivory tooth is visible and you wouldn’t know from the sound of it that this is an army camp. They must have acquired this from long hours of non- meaningful, inhuman work too set them free so fast. It gives them capital energy. And there’s no doubt we’ll leave this state as fine a regiment as any that as marched. As ever, your son, Robert.
The white officers and the black soldiers do have a potently exhibited bonding moment when the soldiers rip up their paychecks because they were paid less than what they were promised and likewise less than the white soldiers. Shaw and his commanding officer rip up their paychecks likewise in protest of this unfairness.
This movie has a moving closing scene as the soldiers storm an uphill Confederate fort while being targeted by gun and artillery fire. The movie had multiple award nominations and won three Oscars. Denzel took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor award.
In May of 1900, Sergeant William H. Carney became the 1st black to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroic actions he’d executed while a member of Company C of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment during the assault on Fort Wagner
