Cary Elwes Movie:

		List Price: $28.95		Label: Sony Pictures Salesrank: 1836 Released: June 2, 2009
		Our Price: $12.94
		Used Price: $12.98
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
The heart-stopping story of the first black regiment to fight for the North in the Civil War, Glory stars Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman. Broderick and Elwes are the idealistic young Bostonians who lead the regiment; Freeman is the inspirational sergeant who unites the troops; and Denzel Washington, in an Oscar® - winning performance (1989, Best Supporting Actor), is the runaway slave who embodies the indomitable spirit of the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts.

Description of Glory [Blu-ray]:
One of the very best films about the Civil War, this instant classic from 1989 is also one of the few films to depict the participation of African American soldiers in Civil War combat. Based in part on the books Lay This Laurel by Lincoln Kirstein and One Gallant Rush by Peter Burchard, the film also draws from the letters of Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick), the 25-year-old son of Boston abolitionists who volunteered to command the all-black 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Their training and battle experience leads them to their final assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina, where their heroic bravery turned bitter defeat into a symbolic victory that brought recognition to black soldiers and turned the tide of the war. With painstaking attention to historical detail and richness of character, the film boasts superior performances by Denzel Washington (who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes, and Andre Braugher. Directed by Edward Zwick (cocreator of the TV series thirtysomething), this unforgettable drama is as important as Schindler's List in its treatment of a noble yet little-known episode of history. --Jeff Shannon

Glory [Blu-ray] Reviews:
"If I should fall remember what you see here"
2009-08-10 - 'Glory' is a extremely well made and moving film about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Matthew Broderick pretty much plays his role of a lifetime in the film and is a great Robert Gould Shaw. The other actors also do fine work. Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, and Cary Elwes are all very excellent also. The battle scenes are done in a very gritty manner and bring some of the brutality of the Civil War to life.

I wish some real historical characters besides Shaw could have been depicted in the movie. Sgt. William Carney comes to mind. He won the Medal of Honor for bringing off the 54th's flag from Fort Wagner. I wish this could have been depicted in some way.

The beginning and ending of the film are very well made and really anchor the movie in greatness. The music is also excellent and worthy of mention.

The Special Edition DVD brings very good picture and sound plus good commentary tracks, documentaries on the real 54th, and deleted scenes. Really a great disc overall.

Highly recommended!

A must own
2009-07-04 - I cannot help but laugh at those who feel that this movie is "historically inaccurate" because they combined characters and changed minor events for the sake of drama. It's a movie, not a history lesson, and those people are sadly missing the point. The laughable notion is that this somehow how to do with a liberal viewpoint, as if the notion that black men fought and died for something they believed in didn't actually happen.

The movie is relatively flawless, it avoids melodrama when it could've fell into it, and despite being twenty years old, it doesn't look nearly as dated as other war movies. The movie, despite it's slight changing of minor facts for the sake of telling a true story, captures the spirit and courage required of them to overcome both adversity and their own limitations.

glory-blu ray disc
2009-07-04 - Great movie . Sad that other video places do not carry the older titles on blu ray when they come out.

One of the all time best movies
2009-06-12 - Absolutely one of the best movies of all time. Too bad the Blu-ray version is so new it won't work on my Samsung BD-1600 yet. :( Samsung needs to hurry up with the firmware upgrades.

Blu-ray: Wonderful on Blu-ray. Missing the picture-in-picture commentary from the DVD version but overall fantastic!
2009-06-11 - In 1989, "GLORY" would become an important movie that introduced many Americans unfamiliar to Civil War history but most of all, to show viewers the impact African Americans had in the role of fighting for the Union.

The film would focus on Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the letters he sent to his family and him leading a group of African American men who volunteered to fight against the Confederate Army. This group is known as the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The film is also adapted from Lincoln Kirstein's book "Lay this Laurel" and Peter Burchard's book "One Gallant Rush".

"GLORY" was directed by Edward Zwick ("DEFIANCE", "Blood Diamond", "The Last Samurai" and "The Siege"), screenplay by Kevin Jarre ("The Mummy"and "Rambo: First Blood Part II"), music by James Horner "Enemy at the Gates", "A Beautiful Mind" and "Troy") and cinematography by Freddie Francis ("Dune", "Clara's Heart" and "Cape Fear").

The film would star major talents Matthew Broderick ("WarGames", "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", "Godzilla" and "Inspector Gadget"), Denzel Washington ("American Gangster", "Training Day", "Man on Fire" and "Remember the Titans"), Morgan Freeman ("The Dark Knight", "Wanted", "Million Dollar Baby" and "Deep Impact"), Cary Elwes ("The Princess Bride", "Twister", "Liar Liar" and "Days of Thunder") and Andre Braugher ("Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer", "Poseidon", "Frequency" and "Primal Fear").

The film would receive five Academy Award nominations and win three for "Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Denzel Washington", "Best Cinematography - Freddie Francis" and "Best Sound Mixing".

"GLORY" is powerful!

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"GLORY" is presented on 1080p High Definition (aspect ratio of 1:85:1). The film manages to capture the haziness of war due to the smoke in the battlefield and the colors are not featured as vibrant as most of the settings are in blues and browns but you will see reds on the flag and the flares, amber colors from the gunfire and the greens of the grass and tress, but I believe that the limit of color was the Director Edward Zwick's purpose. Zwick is director that has made several films to capture the dreariness of war as he did nearly a decade later with "ENEMY AT THE GATES", he manages to capture the look of the battlefield in 1989 with "GLORY".

The film does have quite a bit of grain that comes clear due to its High Definition transfer but I would rather have grain than overly used digital noise reduction that would make the characters look waxy and the picture quality as soft. In fact, one thing you will notice with "GLORY" is you see quite a bit of detail of the actors, their surroundings but also objects such as shovels, rifles, clothing, etc. But overall, the picture quality is solid.

As for the audio, the film is featured in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (also in French, Portuguese in Dolby True HD 5.1 and Spanish 5.1) and the lossless soundtrack manages to capture the many explosions on the battlefield. But what captures your attention when it comes to sound is James Horner's musical score. The music sets the tone of the film especially during the final battle. Dialogue is clear and very clean and many of the scenes during the battles where artillery, gun fire and people yelling (even those yelling from a far distance) can be heard. There were scenes that do utilize the rear channels effectively and I believe there were some scenes where explosions took advantage of some low frequency booms on the subwoofer. Overall, "GLORY" receives its best audio presentation compared to its original DVD counterpart.

As for subtitles, the film is presented in English, English SDH, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"GLORY" comes with the following special features:

* Audio Commentary by Director Edward Zwick - Edward Zwick is known for his war films from "GLORY", "Enemy at the Gates" and "The Last Samurai" and one thing that I enjoy about his commentaries is that he really gets into the technical goals and explain the difficult scenes. "GLORY" features just that as he really goes into detail of the filming techniques used on the film. Such as trying to drown out the blue skies with smoke, working with the talent, the staff, James Horner for the music and tidbits such as not having enough money to hire more stuntmen, so the stuntmen trained the extras on several scenes. Also, how challenging it was for Morgan Freeman to have to run countless times especially uphill to having horses that were trained to fall. A very informative commentary.
* Virtual Battlefield - Civil War Guide Map - This was actually pretty good. By using your remote, you can learn about certain battles from the Civil War with photography and text information. But some have video commentary by Civil War historians which was quite informative.
* The Voices of Glory - (11:16) This features letters from the Civil War written by actual soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and giving a voice to the men who fought in the various battles including the battle at Fort Wagner. Featured in Standard Definition.
* Documentary: The True Story of Glory Continues Narrated by Morgan Freeman - (45:18) A documentary featuring the factual information of the soldiers that fought during the war and were members of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry with additional detail on Col. Robert Gould Shaw. Also, the coverage on the Civil War re-enactments that are ongoing today and an actual re-burial of soldiers. A documentary that is very informative and you learn about other names that were instrumental during the battle against the Confederate Army at Fort Wagner. Featured in Standard Definition.
* Original Theatrical Making-of Featurette - (7:35) Featured in Standard Definition, this is the original featurette with interviews with the talent and Director Edward Zwick. The featurette has a few behind-the-scenes footage from the film.
* Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary - There is commentary by Director Edward Zwick on two scenes. For The Applepicker (3:03), a scene which revolves around Pvt. Trip making his first kill. The second and final deleted scene is one that Zwick calls one of his worst and glad it was cut from the film. The scene is titled "Crisis of Conscience" (2:35) which is a scene involving both Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) and Major Cabot Forbes (Cary Elwes).

For those who owned the two-disc special edition DVD release of "GLORY", you may not want to ditch your DVD just yet as the "Picture-in-Picture Video Commentary featuring Ed Zwick, Morgan Freeman & Matthew Broderick" is not included on this Blu-ray disc. Nor are the scene selections on the Blu-ray sporting any motion.

JUDGMENT CALL:

"GLORY" is a powerful war film that shows an epic depiction of the battles that have taken place at that time. Powerful performances from Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington and Andre Braugher, I was in awe of how epicly enormous this film was from start to finish.

I really enjoyed "GLORY" for its storyline but also being educated about a part of Civil War that many people are probably not familiar with.

In fact, Director Edward Zwick talked about in the commentary of going to Harvard University and living in Boston and never knowing the significance of the Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment on the Boston Common. And how he felt that this film not only was a positive for the people who worked on the film, great for his career but mostly for how significant the film is used by teachers using "Glory" as a tool to teach about the Civil War.

The film definitely made me interested in learning more about the war but also key figures which include Colonel Shaw and American abolitionist Frederick Douglass. But the film also opened my eyes at the time of how soldier placement truly was. This is very interesting because these people stood probably less than a hundred yards from each other before they shot at each other. Where forts had the use of cannonballs and artillery for long distance destruction, foot soldiers were just really close to each other and had to constantly reload their rifles. And watching the final battle and in a way, oncoming military groups were like sitting ducks. The military tactics of the time made me realize why the Civil War had the most number of deaths compared to Americans killed in World War I, II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined.

Of course, the film and the actual history have some differences and its important to note that the only major character from the film's regiment that truly existed was Col. Robert Gould Shaw but the challenges that the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry faced during that time was quite real. The combat role that African-Americans played in Civil War very much real. The factual events, especially details that have come out right after the film was released is documented on "The True Story Continues" documentary which is included on the Blu-ray.

Again, for those who own the 2-disc DVD Special Edition released back in 2007 and wonder if its worth the double dip. For picture and audio quality, my answer is yes but I highly recommend not to get rid of the DVD as the "Picture-in-Picture Video Commentary featuring Ed Zwick, Morgan Freeman & Matthew Broderick" is not included on this Blu-ray release. Personally, I think people would have loved to hear insight from both Freeman and Broderick about working on this film. So, I'm a bit surprised it was not included on this Blu-ray release.

But nevertheless, "GLORY" is still a solid Blu-ray release. The HD transfer definitely gives the viewer more detail and makes the battlefield come alive. It's a powerful film and definitely worth owning and having in your Blu-ray collection.