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(i feel like my moms favorite movie deserves a review) i haven’t seen many civil war movies, but i believe it when people say this is one of the most accurate. i also believe it when people say this movie also contains some of the best acting from freeman, washington, and braugher. (this movie also gave washington his first well-deserved Oscar win!) i’ve found most of its themes to carry over well, but i can’t deny i can see some points of this film’s “white savior” critics. i do think this film is very self aware, but i also think it slips into some common hollywood tropes. to its worst critics, it is a pandering, self-congratulatory piece — best case scenario, it takes a progressive, truthful stance on the complexities of racial progress and simply didn’t make its message clear enough, leaving the audience to walk away from the movie content and unwilling to confront any painful truths or real-world implications. either way, i feel like some messages could have been more moving had the movie been more bold (but would it have been too preachy? idk) there was a level of resentment felt by the black regiment towards their white commanders that i felt like was resolved too quickly (for a two hour runtime that’s hard to do, but still). maybe a white director can only do so much to capture the fact that every sense of pride had to be fought for for black people. it did however, do a great job in constructing excellent individual character arcs for several characters; they just weren’t ones that proved wholly satisfying to me — a difficult topic to tackle for sure, but one that i appreciate nonetheless. another point i thought of as i was writing: historically, the 54th advancement on Ft. Wagner was seen not as a tactical victory, but rather brought more publicity to the benefits of black regiments. thematically, the movie seems to be doing the same thing — bringing some points to the surface, but not claiming to have a perfect, multi-faceted perspective on race in the 19th century; wars can’t be fought in a day, and neither can the problems of race, i guess.