One of the first Black regiments in the Civil War, and a sergeant who carries its dignity on his shoulders — Morgan Freeman is unforgettable in Glory.
Released in 1989, Glory tells the story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first African American regiments in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Freeman plays Sergeant Major John Rawlins, a former gravedigger who becomes a moral centre for the regiment.
Rawlins is calm, proud and wise, a man who has seen slavery and war and refuses to be broken by either. Freeman plays him with a stillness that makes his scenes with Matthew Broderick, as Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, and Denzel Washington, as Private Trip, feel like history itself.
It is a signature role because it shows Freeman’s gift for embodying history: not a speech, but a presence, a man whose dignity speaks for a whole regiment.