A good movie

I already saw this movie but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out again. Eventually, like all the other stories dealing with the major milestones in the emancipation of black people, it was a really important story and the potential was huge. Unfortunately, even if it was not bad at all, it was still probably too straightforward, too easy after all. The biggest mistake was probably to tell this story from the point of view of a white commanding officer when it should have been told from the point of view of the black soldiers. Sure, I get that it was based on the letters written by Robert Gould Shaw himself but they could have used some other sources or simply go for some fiction instead. On top of that, it didn’t help that Matthew Broderick was never really convincing here. Seriously, most of the time, it felt like watching Ferris Bueller playing pretend. Broderick also failed to show how the poor scared and disoriented kid at the beginning (Robert Shaw was apparently only 23 years old at the time, more than 5 years younger than Broderick) would then become such a wise and fearless leader at the end but, again, he should have never been the main focus in this movie anyway. It didn’t help that he had to act along Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman who were both incredibly charismatic here. Especially Washington, this movie would provide his really deserved breakthrough and the guy was just so spellbinding to behold. In fact, it was a much darker and complex character than what Washington would play during his illustrious career and he would be rightfully given an Academy Award for his work here. Another thing that bothered me with this movie was that, with its title for example, it focused too much on how awesome war can be and the positive impact it all had on these men. Indeed, at the end, they all became some mighty warriors and got along perfectly fine with each other but this approach pushed aside most of the racial issues going on at the time (and actually still unfortunately going on nowadays) which should have been the main topic of this movie. Anyway, to conclude, even though I wasn’t really blown away by this movie, it was still a really interesting watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject.