31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Recalling sacrifices of forgotten soldiers, February 5, 2010
This review is from: For Love of Liberty (DVD)
February 5, 2010
BY MIRIAM DI NUNZIO Staff Reporter, Chicago Sun-Times
At the beginning of "For Love of Liberty," an onscreen title card bears a simple yet potent statement: "Let it be said that the Negro soldier did his duty under the flag, whether that flag protected him or not."
Thus begins the four-hour journey of Frank Martin's milestone documentary, covering every U.S. military conflict, from the Revolutionary War to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Through historical documents, letters, diaries, paintings, photographs, telegrams, re-enactments and dramatizations, Hollywood lends its voices to the stories and anecdotes of the African-American men and women of the U.S. armed services. Among the voiceover talent: Morgan Freeman, Sam Elliott, Kris Kristofferson, Ruby Dee, Robert Duvall and James Garner.
The history lesson imparted here is brutal and eye-opening, starting with the very first African-American war casualty: Crispus Attucks in 1770, an escaped slave who was shot during the Boston Massacre, among the outbreaks leading to the Revolutionary War. We learn of the colonial Minutemen, black and white enlistees who fought side by side for the foundling nation's independence, even though blacks would not share the same freedoms in the aftermath.
We learn, too, of the earliest rumblings of racism that declared blacks were too cowardly to serve in the colonial forces, a danger to their masters if given weapons -- all this from Gen. George Washington's dispatches.
The film moves on to the War of 1812, "the war over the seas," where British forces recruited Negroes, promising freedom if they fought against the United States, which still denied them their freedom. There were few takers. Later, in the Civil War, as Negroes pleaded to enlist, they were rebuked, though most chose to fight "unofficially" for the Northern cause. Later, when the Southern forces needed troops -- of any color -- as heavy casualties demanded replacements, Southern slave owners were quick to allow their "property" to enlist because a dead slave could easily be replaced.
And so the documentary, hosted by Halle Berry and narrated by Avery Brooks, moves from war to war as blacks fought for a country that still denied them equal rights under the law. As another voiceover relates, in 1965, during the Vietnam War, black soldiers marched in Indochina, while in Selma, Ala., black civil-rights protesters also marched.
We learn of Pvt. William Carney of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor -- in 1863. We learn of the men of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, the first black troops in WWII allowed to engage in battle, specifically the D-Day invasion, where they launched hundreds of dirigibles to shield Allied ground forces from the German Luftwaffe. We learn of the Buffalo Soldiers, among the first of 30 all-black combat units to arrive on Korean soil as that war began.
There are the faces of the all-black WAC units; the Tuskegee Airmen; the men of the U.S.S. Mason, the first commissioned Navy destroyer manned predominantly by blacks. The faces spill past on the screen, their stories at times horrific, at times appalling, at other times filled with hope and courage and honor.
They say history speaks for itself, and this part of our military history has never been so eloquently voiced, so searingly brought to our consciousness. If there is one DVD that can help shed meaningful light on Black History Month, this is it.
Note: "For Love of Liberty" also will air at 8 p.m. Sunday and Feb. 14 on WYCC-Channel 20.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must See Video, January 23, 2010
This review is from: For Love of Liberty (DVD)
I just finished viewing an advance copy of Frank Martin's extraordinary movie.
I am emotionally drained.
I am both sad and mad:
at myself, for not having a better command of our history
at America, for allowing this treatment of our citizens and Armed Forces members and their families to happen over and over again.
What a shame that this story, won't make the front page of the paper or TV/website news!
Jim Rice
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