An inspiring film with many good performances.

I'm not sure why a movie about black soldiers in the Civil War is told through the eyes of a white guy, but it's not a bad film, with some fine actors. Denzel is great as always, Morgan Freeman plays Morgan Freeman back when "Morgan Freeman" wasn't quite yet a character type, and Andre Brougher has his film debut. They don't really play humans as much as they play standard characters, but, as Kael said, "the actors perform these roles as if they've never been played before," which helps a lot.

My favorite Civil War movie. Denzel and Freeman are so awesome.

Tells the story and presents some of the dilemmas quite well, and it's mostly interesting. On the other side the ending is too long, and the music was horribly sappy. Also Broderick is an awful bore.

moving story, fantastic acting. Broderick at his best.

Ferris NOOOOOO

Fantastic movie of courage and adversity... one of my favorite movies

Possibly the greatest Civil War epic committed to film. All of the lead actors are very strong in this one, and the campfire scene goes down as one of my favorite of all time.

Overrated.

okay, it's a little feel-good in places, but it's still my favorite. made with love and shows it in the detail work. and what an awesome score! i say, unabashedly and without hyperbole, this film actually changed my life.

Powerful stuff, although it perhaps feels a bit too much like a network TV movie. Denzel is amazing, as always.

Guaranteed to both uplift and depress you - a great film.

Really good movie with some touching moments, great acting and interesting history. Feels a little repetitve at times in the middle but the beginning and especially the end are near perfect.

The only Edward Zwick film that works because the historical facts are accurate enough and well depicted. The drama also doesn't seem ham fisted like his other pics. Even the usual insulting "white man leads minorities to victory" angle that Zwick likes to use in his movies was factual this time and necessary to show the obvious inequality during the civil war. The acting is all around solid and the story is heart wrenching stuff.

I haven't seen any interesting Civil War films until I saw Edward Zwick's '89 war drama. This film had a good cast, especially actors at a young age before where they are now. The film presented real and detailed scenes of how black soldiers in the 19th century trained and fought for their freedom. What interested me the most was in the scene where Denzel Washington's character asking his colonel "will we be free after the war". The movie was gripping, powerful, and overall great.