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The Hallmark of True Virtue
| Article
# : |
17948 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1990 |
1,740 Words |
| Author
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Alan L. Keyes
Alan Keyes is currently a resident scholar at the American
Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. He was assistant
secretary of state for international organizational affairs
from 1985-87. |
If a moviegoer saw only the first few moments of Glory, he might be forgiven for believing that it is a film about war. The opening scenes from the Civil War's bloodiest single day of battle at Antietam are presented in the shockingly graphic idiom of contemporary tastes. Yet, they are reminiscent of the epics that Hollywood produced when both war and the movies still basked in the sunshine of America's romantic imagination.
It is a juxtaposition of taste and feeling that announces the special quality of this film - one that, while faithfully reproducing time, place, and circumstance, dares look into the somber heart of war for the essential human qualities that transcend them. Like the Laocoon, the film captures and episode of infinite pathos and perishable nobility in a form that deserves to last forever.
Glory is the story of a people's heroism, as seen in the life of one individual. It is a story of individual heroism drawn from a historic moment in the life of an enslaved people. But unlike films that merely etch the surface of courage, it allows us to catch a glimpse of the immortal spirit that makes it possible.
That glimpse is part of what allows Glory to transcend the harsh realities of racial oppression and prejudice it must inevitably portray. Though blacks have served and died honorably in all of America's wars - stating with the Revolution - in each one racism has demanded fresh proof that they could offer a worthy sacrifice. During the Civil War, this was especially important, since one of the premises that allowed the defenders of slavery to claim that they were nonetheless true Americans was the idea that blacks could,
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