Glory

his terrific Civil War film brims with feelings produced largely without resorting to cheap tricks. Matthew Broderick is Col. Robert Gould Shaw, who led the war’s first volunteer all-black fighting unit, the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts. A young Denzel Washington cuts his teeth on the role of Private Trip, a former slave who doubts Shaw only to later swear allegiance. Morgan Freeman as Sergeant Rawlings, a gravedigger-turned-soldier, gives the story depth and maturity. Director Edward Zwick (“The Last Samurai,” “The Siege”) captures Gould’s near-impossible position — fighting the Confederacy on the battlefield and the in-tent prejudices of the Union Army. Stirring stuff, led by a virtuoso Broderick.