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 - Widescreen?"Glory" is one of my favorite films and I expected great things from this "Special Edition." It still is a great film and one of the best ever about the Civil War and the introduction of Black troups into that contflict. What I really wanted to see was the black bars at the botton and top of the screen; the true widescreen version. But buyers beware. This is a glorified full screen version (know your screen ratios, folks) and I got burned. Is there a true widescreen version of this film? It deserves a better transfer than this. Rating:  - A Giant among filmsMatthew Broderick and Denzel Washington share the spotlight in a great film. Full of heroes and villains, glory and tragedy, it is alternately violent (realistically - in terms of bloodshed) and tender, brutal and compassionate, emotionally charged and peaceful. I have never seen a film that shows the maturation of so many excellent characters amid so many struggles and battles - physical, emotional, civil, personal, all the great elements of film are there. I only wish they had shown a little more of the enemy (the South). The confederates are left out of it. Broderick's character, Robert Gould Shaw, starts out as a miraculously lucky tenderfoot, wrestles with his commitment to the war and to justice on social, civil, and human levels (that's what is so great about this film, the complexity and tightness of the plot). The development of Shaw's regiment, the 54th, is what occupies the film and emerges as its triumphant glory. Rating:  - Close, But No CigarI saw this film twice when it first came out. I have a hard time understanding why the producers don't realize that truth is much more interesting than fiction. Numerous factual problems exist with the film although the teaching points are excellent in many regards. Why the final assault on Battery Wagner is filmed being conducted in the completely wrong direction begs for an explanation. The burning of the town of Darien provides an excellent study in war crimes that I use in lectures today. Good film that could have been much, much better with little effort. It is good entertainment but needs to be augmented with written accounts to learn the actual history. Rating: - Glorious!Truly one of the top ten war movies of all time, Glory is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit over the forces of ignorance and hatred. Even in today's military (and I am a veteran of two branches of service) morally inferior, dishonorable people in positions of power, arrogantly abuse their "authority" to suppress and marginalize others. Although it is now severely illegal to oppress people along racial and cultural lines, they merely find other people and other means to inflict their petty and egotistical behavior on fellow veterans. This is the emotionally powerful story how one group of oppressed men overcame such obstacles, with the guidance of a leader who believed in them and trusted them. Despite negative presumptions, Colonel Shaw and the soldiers of the 54th Regiment proved their point. You can not judge those whom you disparage and condescend, until they have been given a chance to prove themselves. Rating: - A very good special editionI can't add anything about the movie itself as it is well known. My old VHS version was dying and I wanted to upgrade so I chose the special edition. The only reason to buy these special editions is for the extra features. Behind the scenes stuff, how the movie came about, interviews with actors, ect. If you care about those things, this is a great set. If you don't, there is no reason to upgrade if you already own the DVD.
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