Copyright by Arthur Hu Jan 15, 1989 Hu's on First Two Tales of Dreams Realized Glory and Flower Drum Song I: Glory Many Americans are familiar with the famous Japanese-American 442nd Infantry of THE SECOND WORLD WAR. It was the story of ethnic minority allowed to enlist in an experimental all-minority infantry group to prove its value and worth to a skeptical system. Many volunteered fully knowing that they were fighting for a nation which treated their families no better than second-class citizens, yet they all know why they are there. In combat, they proved to be not only capable, but among the best units, and tackled the toughest assignments, suffering some of the highest casualty rates of the war. The movie "Glory" tells a similar tale, but fifty years earlier, with Black soldiers, and the Civil War. It is based on the notes of Robert Gould Shaw, the son of a Boston abolitionist who was chosen to lead the all-black 54th Massachusetts Infantry. Many times in Boston, I have wondered about the little-noted bronze sculpture mural across from the Massachusetts statehouse depicting a white officer leading an infantry of Black men. But not until I saw this movie did I fully appreciate what an extraordinary human achievement and accomplishment it represented. "Glory" is not just a "socially responsible" documentary movie about black soldiers. It's the best war of the Civil War I've ever seen. No, make that the best war movie of any kind I've seen, Vietnam and THE SECOND WORLD WAR included. And I've seen a lot of war movies. It's also the best movie with a predominantly black cast that I've seen, and one of the best treatments of war and civil rights. "Do the Right Thing" was good, but it was basically a series of skits as a vehicle for playing with ideas. "Platoon" was a gory fairy tale. Glory is based on a true story, and features some serious actors, including Matthew Broderick (War Games), Denzel Washington (St. Elsewhere, Cry Freedom) and Morgan Freeman (Driving Miss Daisy). Most movies with predominantly black casts are directed by Blacks these days, and not even these are uniformly good. But for a movie directed by a white guy (the same guy who did the controversial TV series Thirty-Something), he does very well. Ghostbuster's character sole black character seems to only fill an affirmative action quota. Mississippi Burning featured rather passive Black victims who are first victimized by bad white men, and then saved by good white men. Glory features full blooded, and full-bodied men with fully fleshed characters and aspirations that anyone can identify with, much as "The Last Emperor" gave audiences a taste of what life as a Chinese emperor might be like, instead of presenting hordes of noble savages. The white-run Army is very leery of giving guns to the "coloreds", and Shaw's command of colored troops is widely viewed as worse than no command at all. Yet he accepts the challenge. Shaw is serious about training his men, and he is tough, very tough. He must fight perceptions that they will never be called to do anything other than hard labor, and must fight tooth and nail just to get his men basic supplies like shoes and uniforms, which are reserved for the "combat ready" white troops. He must resort to blackmail, threatening to reveal high-level corruption, before his men are allowed to prove themselves in combat. Denzel's character tells the educated/assimilated Thomas that "You can walk and talk like them, and even dress like them, but no matter what you do, you'll never be more than a black-assed monkey n*gers to those whites". But the father figure tells them that they are Union soldiers, not n*gers. Those white boys are dying for your black asses, and he tells the poor black children on the street "No, we're not ghosts, we're escaped slaves returned as soldiers, and you can tell you parents to be proud of us". Assimilation or no, there is no need to carry around the stigma of being black, only pride in their being the first black men to wear the same uniforms and bear the same rifles of the Union army. Shaw volunteers his troops to lead the suicidal charge on the fort, fully knowing the risks to him and his men, and in their own pep rally, the men tell each other that they are not afraid to die. At least, they will have died in the cause of freedom, and died standing for their beliefs. Indeed, Shaw himself dies in the charge, as do half his troops. Symbolically, his body is dumped in a mass grave along with his enlisted men, no different than all the other black bodies. The fort was never taken, yet another tragic military mistake. But word of their heroism soon spread, and because of Shaw's sacrifice, and the courage and determination of his men, 180,000 other Negroes also volunteered to fight for the North, and help in their final victory. That was some 100 years ago, and their tale is now all but forgotten to most of us. But in their bravery, there is a message we can heed today, a message nearly made extinct by a generation of activists, and here is where Glory stands head and shoulders above the more highly acclaimed "Born on the Fourth of July". It is noble to be patriotic, even to a nation that is less than perfect. There are things that are worth fighting and dying for. No matter what the obstacles, strive to be the best that you can be, and don't be bound those who say you will never be better than what you are today. These men accomplished what no one seriously thought they could, breaking all manner of stereotypes, both Black and White. All they had to do was believe themselves, and be led by a man, not necessarily of the same race, who believed with them II: Forbidden City and Flower Drum Song So what do a band of aspiring Asian singers and dancers have to do with a battalion of Black soldiers? They both aspired to do what previously only whites were thought able to do. PBS recently aired the story of San Francisco's most famous all-Asian nightclub as a part of its series "The American Experience". Maybe the anti-assimilationists don't like the idea of Asians trying to imitate whites. But most of these people grew up in predominantly white settings. If you've got your sights on dancing like the likes of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, why the heck not? I can identify with the problem of growing up like an American, with American-sized dreams and aspirations, only to find out that no matter how well you've assimilated, you're always going to be Asian, and planning accordingly. The Americans said that Asians had no rhythm. The Chinese said it was shameful for women to show off their legs. Tony Wing said his father wanted him to go to Stanford. But they wanted to dance and sing. Just one problem -- no one would hire an Asian, except perhaps in Asian parts. So one might say that the corollary to the American saying "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" would be "If you can't join 'em, do it yourself". And Forbidden City was exactly that -- a club that was exclusively Asian, and marketed itself on the novelty. I suspect that Forbidden City was the inspiration for the nightclub portrayed in the movie and musical "Flower Drum Song" of the early 60's. This was an American musical which was unique in its nearly all-Asian cast, and all-Asian dancers, many of whom may well have worked in Forbidden City. It says something when the only white part is that of a mugger. Where "Oaklahoma" had the farmers and the ranchers, and "South Pacific" had the islanders and the sailors, "Flower Drum Song" was about conflicts between the old and the new. If you haven't seen it, "Flower Drum Song" was one of the last, and unfortunately least popular of the Rogers and Hammerstein musicals, but the soundtrack is still available on CD, Blockbuster Video still carries it in their rental catalog, and it still makes the old-movie rounds on TV. A group at Tufts University prided itself on putting on an all-Asian cast production of "A Chorus Line". But why doesn't someone try to revive the "Flower Drum Song", which is an honest-to-goodness Asian story that came at a bad time, just when stereotypical ethnicity, romance, and musicals where going out of style. Colleges like MIT do musicals like "Guys and Dolls" and "Anything Goes" all the time, and almost always with next to no Asian cast members. Why not, in the spirit of "Forbidden City", take another look at this dusty old gem?