Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army, and the Confederates.
Director:
Edward Zwick
Stars:
Matthew Broderick,
Denzel Washington,
Cary Elwes
The Fredericksburg street battle scenes were shot on the streets of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. See more »
Goofs
Although it is well concealed for the open field fighting shots, the Fredericksburg street-fighting scenes show the historical re-enactors shooting over the heads of the enemy, for safety reasons. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Title Card:
A human life, I think, should be well rooted in some spot of a native land, where it may get the love of tender kinship for the face of the earth, for the labors men go forth to, for the sounds and accents that haunt it, for whatever will give that early home a familiar unmistakable difference amidst the future widening of knowledge. The best introduction to astronomy is to think of the nightly heavens as a little lot of stars belonging to one's own homestead. - George Eliot
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Crazy Credits
The movie was dedicated to the memory of John F. Maxwell and Royce D. Applegate. See more »
Alternate Versions
The Director's Cut of the film includes additional action scenes from the Battle of Antietam. The battle scenes are shown from the perspectives of Jackson and Chamberlain, and mostly focus on the fighting in Miller's Cornfield which was a major deciding point of the battle. See more »
Since this film is supposed to tell the story of Stonewall Jackson, I think the filmmakers made a mistake here. We see Jackson at First Manassas, and then the movie skips on ahead to Fredericksburg. This completely ignores the campaigns which made Jackson's career: The Valley Campaign, The Seven Days Campaign, Second Manassas and Antietam. Perhaps the filmmakers figured that anyone who came to see this movie would already know all about Jackson, so they could skip all the dramatic stuff of most of 1862 and go straight to Fredericksburg so they could introduce Colonel Chamberlain right away. As much as I admire Mr. Daniels' portrayal of this soldier, he doesn't really get much to do at Fredericksburg. The battle of Chancellorsville is necessary, since it leads to Jackson's death, but aside from getting to show us Chamberlain, Fredericksburg doesn't seem to be truly necessary. It also wasn't much of a battle, except for the casualty lists: No maneuver, no imagination, and, for the Federals, no chance. If the aim of the film was to give us Jackson's story (And I thought that Stephen Lang was a better Jackson than he was a Pickett) I think they should have broken it into two movies. The first could have shown just HOW Jackson made his reputation. The Valley Campaign is still studied by military men today, and Antietam had a lot more drama to it than Fredericksburg. Which reminds me...was the actor playing A. P. Hill the same one who played "Larry" on the old "Newhart" show? Every time he spoke, I half expected him to introduce Darryl and Darryl to General Lee.
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Since this film is supposed to tell the story of Stonewall Jackson, I think the filmmakers made a mistake here. We see Jackson at First Manassas, and then the movie skips on ahead to Fredericksburg. This completely ignores the campaigns which made Jackson's career: The Valley Campaign, The Seven Days Campaign, Second Manassas and Antietam. Perhaps the filmmakers figured that anyone who came to see this movie would already know all about Jackson, so they could skip all the dramatic stuff of most of 1862 and go straight to Fredericksburg so they could introduce Colonel Chamberlain right away. As much as I admire Mr. Daniels' portrayal of this soldier, he doesn't really get much to do at Fredericksburg. The battle of Chancellorsville is necessary, since it leads to Jackson's death, but aside from getting to show us Chamberlain, Fredericksburg doesn't seem to be truly necessary. It also wasn't much of a battle, except for the casualty lists: No maneuver, no imagination, and, for the Federals, no chance. If the aim of the film was to give us Jackson's story (And I thought that Stephen Lang was a better Jackson than he was a Pickett) I think they should have broken it into two movies. The first could have shown just HOW Jackson made his reputation. The Valley Campaign is still studied by military men today, and Antietam had a lot more drama to it than Fredericksburg. Which reminds me...was the actor playing A. P. Hill the same one who played "Larry" on the old "Newhart" show? Every time he spoke, I half expected him to introduce Darryl and Darryl to General Lee.