Glory and Birth of a Nation

The film Glory does an outstanding job of depicting the hardships that soldiers go through in war, and legitimizes the black experience during the Civil War by, through fictitious characters, giving depth and complexity to black characters in the film. By legitimizing the black experience and confronting the dehumanizing attacks that blacks had to face due to the color of their skin, the film provides direct commentary on films such as Birth of a Nation.
As we read for class in Galtthar’s text, “’Glory,’ the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, and Black Soldiers in the Civil War,” there were some flaws in historical representation – such as the whipping of Trip, which would never have happened since whipping had already become illegal in August of 1861 (Glatthar, 483). However, despite this, it does a wonderful job of illuminating the discrimination that blacks were still subject to even as slavery was ending. They were considered unfit to fight because they were not “real” men, making it much harder not only for them to be put into action, but also for them to reach the ranks and or respect of their white peers. The entire plot of the film is centered on countering the racial bias against blacks, and proving that black soldiers fought just as valiantly as white soldiers.
Glory can also be understood as a commentary to Birth of a Nation. Unlike Birth of a Nation, the black characters in the film are actually black, not in blackface – a small but vital difference in that Glory’s producer went into the film giving black and white actors equal footing rather than considering them only as part of the background or undeserving of actual roles as the producer of Birth of a Nation obviously did. Casting aside, the actual plots of the films are almost in direct opposition: Birth of a Nation depicts African Americans as either being “faithful souls” – ex-slaves loyal to their oppressor – or savage, bestial beings who need to be controlled. This image is synonymous to the one that the film Glory is trying to deconstruct. By the time of the Civil War, despite the fact that slavery was coming to an end, many white Americans still believed in the negative view of blacks that Birth of a Nation portrayed. But what Glory does is to depict its African American characters with such humanity that this view is thrown out the window.
Perhaps most important are Thomas, Trip, and the Sergeant Major to the deconstruction of the image of African Americans as bestial, incompetent, and in need of control. In Birth of a Nation, we see the black characters as violent, power-hungry, and savage beings who are sexual predators, dangers to white women. The scene in Glory in which Colonel Montgomery’s African American troop is juxtaposed to Colonel Shaw’s is key in combating these assumptions. While Montgomery’s men seem to fulfill this dehumanized prescription for African Americans when they sack a town, burning it to the ground and beating innocent women, Shaw’s men are disgusted by the scene, obviously ashamed that people of their color would perpetuate white, American fears and assumptions about blacks. Furthermore, it is made quite clear that Shaw’s men would never commit such crimes as Montgomery’s men. Ultimately, the image of the savage black man is made to be completely out of place and looked down upon not only by whites but, more importantly, by other African Americans themselves. By doing so, the film allows African Americans to legitimize their own experience and re-humanize their characters in film rather than adhering to prescribed roles such as “the Mammy” or the “faithful souls.”