philipa

As a child I spent the summers with my grandparents in northern New Jersey. In the summer of 1959 the parents of a friend of mine were taking him to see a movie at a drive-in and I was invited,which movie didn't matter to me, just a chance to see a movie was great. The movie was Space Master X-7 and as child of 11 it scared the heck out of me (my mental film vault still has a has a clip of the scientist being absorbed by the fungus). That was the 1950's, cold war, Castro and all, traveling to outerspace was still a dream. A child of 11 today would find the movie laughable and the effects lame, but in the dark of a summer night in 1959 the movie had its effect.

Glory was the first movie to portray the lives of the common Civil War soldiers and civilians in a realistic mannor. At the same time the movie showed the contribution of black Americans to the war, something that had so sadly been overlooked. Until Glory the Civil War was often used as a backdrop to the story line and history suffered. As a retired soldier of 24 years I was most impressed with Jim Finn's portral of Sergeant Major Mulcahy, that is what a Regular army NCO of the 1860's was like. The movie may have it minor flaws, any movie will, but Glory raised the bar for all following historical movies.