“Glory”

The primary resource that I am going to discuss is a movie trailer of Glory, which is made by Edward Zwick in 1989. This movie was based on the true story of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and the film was affected by Colonel Shaw’s letters and two books. Indeed, I have been wondering why this movie would have come out in 1989, and although I was thinking that the contemporary Civil Rights movement is not relevant—because it predated the movie by a few decades—there might be an interesting connection between them. The civil rights prompts to make between the violence towards and the sacrifices of the black community in the Civil Rights movement and the violence and sacrifice of the black community in the Civil War. The movie trailer is not just glorifying war, or talking about the part that the black community played in the Civil War as an isolated anecdote, but the movie trailer presents the war story as part of the ongoing fight for the black community looking for ‘honor’ and hoping to find ‘glory.

‘ To begin with, the movie trailer of Glory is about North Anti-slavery versus South. It begins with soldiers marching as a unit. Since no one knows what will happen during the war, soldiers have very serious faces. Once general takes out his sword and points it up, brutal war begins. There are so many shooting scenes, which make audiences get a sense of narrative thread.

In addition, soldiers are killed and a wagon is on fire, which indicates how the war is dangerous and unexpected. The scene changes to make the trailer more interesting. The sun is shaded by the clouds, which shows the time has passed so fast. Middle in the trailer, two words shows up two times with capital letters to make the climax, which are “THEY JOINED FOR FREEDOM.” Black people are smiling and cheering just as they already win the battle.

One person celebrates by shooting a bottle of wine. He only had one shot and the bottle crashes. I believe this scene indicates that the black people have good aiming and how much they are ready for the war. Then, another two touchy texts appears which are “THEY FOUGHT FOR HONOR.” The term “THEY FOUGHT FOR HONOR,” audiences can feel how much black people wished and waited for the honor.

Then, both black and a white person rip off a certain paper, which they were holding individually. Lastly, the words “THEY FOUND GLORY” come in sight. Who are “THEY” in these phrases? It is supposed to be questionable because there are Northern army and Southern army. It is very interesting that even though the word “they” isunspecific, audiences can comprehend that it represents the black community. It is because when you see this part, black people are marching as a group and all people in the town are celebrating them by shaking American flags.

In addition, while the soldiers are marching, their faces turn right and the general salutes them, which show the respect to each other. When you see this movie trailer, some people are wearing uniforms, while some are wearing civilian clothes. Uniforms represent a person’s social standings. Because soldiers, who are white people, are well dressed, they seem more gentle and powerful. On the other hand, what black people are wearing look very free, which make them very shabby and disorganized. However, once they are marching as a unit for the battle, they are well organized.

Indeed oppression has always taken the center stage in the activities that were undertaken in the United States. Skin color was a vital factor in order to be considered in any activity or opportunity in the society. Although discrimination had been incumbent in the society, revenue generation and economic growth was subjected to the black individuals. The movie denotes that inequality was evidence among the soldiers. Some of them were treated unequally.

However, when it came to defending the nation, demonstrated by the marching unit, the issue of inequality was forfeited. Although racial discrimination have been rampant even in U.S. military forces, some of the issues in the society requires unity among the differing races. Besides its supposed historical authenticity, the film offers a greater variety of black characters. It differs from earlier films on Civil War, as it shows black individuals as heroic fighter and as realistic individuals who develops and grows rather than being static stereotypes, and docile of comic servants.

Although racism has taken the center stage in the whole scenes of the movie, it purports for positive treatment of the black color through employment and marketing of the products. Critiques argue that the main intent of the movie in inclining to racism was to enhance the marketing of the film. During that period, individuals were focused on racial discrimination that had been reported to be rampant. The Non-governmental organizations and human rights movement wanted to ascertain the existence of racial discrimination in the United States. Glory has portrayed black Americans in a substantially less stereotyped and much more humane light than other films in the society. The anti-black ideology links in so many ways to so much oof white thought and behavior that individuals and scholars might speak of it as a broad worldview.

Seen comprehensively, all the mental images, prejudiced attitudes, stereotypes, fictions, racist explanations, and rationalizations that link to systematic racism make up a white racist worldview, one deeply imbedded in the dominant culture and institutions. The U.S. system of racism is not just something that affects black Americans and other Americans of color, for its central to the lives of white Americans as well. The movie demonstrates how white think about themselves, about their ideals, and about their nation.

Almost at the end scene, soldiers are running in the beach, forest, and the hill. The director attempts to convey that the war is very brutal by showing so many scenes, such as horses are falling down or soldiers are being killed. Finally, while the war is progressing, firework is appearing. In the book “Wars in the Midst of Peace,” the author mentions, “In any event, there are some limited exceptions. I believe no one could accept firework will show up at that scene. When I saw it first time, I thought soldiers are shooting fire arrows in the air, but I realized that it really is firework.

I believe firework represents that black anti-slavery won the battle and they finally found glory because mostly, firework is for celebrating something (Carment and Patrick 42).Throughout the whole scene, the background music sets a state of tension for the viewers. It is played by James Horner, an American composer, who made a lot of interesting film music by leading his orchestra. This terrific orchestra, the power of the sounds makes viewers to concentrate more on the scenes. The use of the famous American composer to convey the sound track aims at shifting the attention of the audience to focus on the movie scenes.

This is perfect for American culture at that time because it makes destructive sounds just like real war. During that period, the Americans focused on the Civil War, as they wanted to maintain the superiority to other nations. Indeed, the Americans are known to articulate to their culture. In the colonial era, the Americans appreciated the use of orchestra as one of their vital musical group. This ensured that the viewers were made to ‘feel at home’ and appreciate the culture that the film endows.

I believe that the tension set by the music denotes the war between the whites and black Americans. The whites are fighting for their superiority over the black Americans while the blacks aim at achieving glory in their fight for equality.