136 GRAND ILLUSION [FrenCH: LA GRANDE ILLUSION]
The 54th began organ izing in February 1863, not three months earlier. In
his brief cameo role, black leader Frederick Douglass is presented as a vener-
able sage whose screen appearance is modeled on a photo graph taken a quar-
ter century later, when Douglass was in his 70s instead of the vigorous 45 he
was in 1863. The real Robert Gould Shaw received the offer of command of
the 54th by letter from Governor Andrew, borne by his father to Shaw in win-
ter camp with his regiment (the 2nd Mas sa chu setts) in Virginia. Rob discussed
it earnestly with his father, wrestled with his conscience overnight, declined,
then changed his mind a day later and accepted. In the movie, Shaw is [shown]
attending an elegant drawing- room party in Boston while on furlough when
Andrews offers the command; without a pause, Shaw accepts. Literal history
in this case would seem to have offered greater dramatic possibilities for get-
ting at a deeper truth than the cinematic version. (p. 27)McPherson goes on to observe that, except for Shaw, the principal characters in
the film are all fictional. Furthermore, the movie gives the impression that most of
the 54th’s soldiers were former slaves. In actuality most were recruited from the
North and had always been free men. For McPherson these distortions amount to
a missed opportunity: “A dramatic and impor tant story about the relationship of
Northern blacks to slavery and the war, and about the war time ideals of New
England culture, could have been constructed from a cast of real, historical figures.”
McPherson could have cited other inaccuracies or omissions as well. Col. Shaw
married Anna Kneeland Haggerty 11 weeks before his death, but the movie makes
no mention of this. The 54th’s refusal to accept pay because of unequal rates took
place long after it had left South Carolina. The movie’s depiction of Gen. Harker as a
middle- aged officer who condoned plunder and corruption among his subordinates
is a complete fabrication. The real Harker, who died a Civil War hero at age 26 at the
Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (27 June 1864), was an exemplary officer and not in
the least corrupt. Yet, in spite of all these issues, James McPherson finds the story
the filmmakers chose to tell “equally true” because it served to dramatize the Afri-
can American “transformation from an oppressed people to a proud people.”GRAND ILLUSION [FRENCH: LA GRANDE
ILLUSION] (1937)
Synopsis
Grand Illusion is a French war film directed by Jean Renoir, who co- wrote the screen-
play with Charles Spaak, based on the actual experiences of a number of French
aviators during the First World War. The story focuses on the relationship between
a German prisoner of war (POW) camp commandant and a small group of captive
French officers who are plotting their escape.Background
During the First World War, Jean Renoir (son of Auguste Renoir, the great painter)
became close friends with Armand Pinsard (1887–1953), another pi lot in France’s