matthew broderick too young looking
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twhiteson — 11 years ago(March 31, 2015 09:05 AM)
As another poster stated, Matthew Broderick was the appropriate age for this part.
Despite so many Civil War films and documentaries portraying the war being fought by middle-aged men (due to an over-reliance on the volunteer services of re-enactors), Civil War armies consisted mostly of very young men- teens and early 20's.
The war saw a number of very young men promoted to high rank. By war's end, the Union had a number of 20-something year old generals including a 20 yr old brigadier general (Galusha Pennypacker) and a 25 yr old major general (George A. Custer.) The Confederacy, likewise, had its share of "boy" generals. Thus, a 20-something year old colonel, like 25 yr old Robert Gould Shaw, was not exceptionally unusual for the Civil War. -
dannieboy20906 — 9 years ago(May 29, 2016 07:37 PM)
To clarify things for you, Matthew Broderick was 26 years old during filming. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw was 25 years old when he died at Fort Wagner. He wasn't only young looking, he was actually younger than the actor.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank. -
crypticanomaly73 — 10 years ago(January 30, 2016 02:38 PM)
The real Col. Shaw also was young and they do resemble each other
https://blogs.harvard.edu/houghtonmodern/2011/08/25/if-i-should-fall-remember-what-you-see-here-robert-gould-shaws-letters-digitized/comment-page-1/
Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it. -
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rkhen — 9 years ago(February 04, 2017 01:01 PM)
On the contrary. The casting (and the performance) were perfect. In real life, military personnel are very young, on average, a fact that movies almost always hide behind middle-aged actors, in part, I'm convinced, to avoid informing the audience that warfare is horrific and not glorious or fun. And it's already been pointed out here that Matthew was more or less exactly the age of the man he portrayed in this film, so the whole situation is extremely authentic from that perspective.
Further, Shaw was the product of a comfortable, well-to-do Boston family, pumped into senior rank by his family's connections, wartime attrition, and political circumstance. He was literally a freshly ex-adolescent handed a giant scary job that his life to date had nowhere near prepared him to do, but that he was determined to do right. Matthew did an outstanding job portraying that quandary, from having to learn the difference between regulations and effective practice, to dealing with older officers who looked down on and ignored him.
The telling scene is when Undertaker, having just been made sergeant major, quietly tells Shaw, "Thank you sir, but I'm not sure I want it", and Shaw immediately responds, "I know just what you mean!"
Now that I'm old, I see myself at Shaw's age in every Broderick scene. The actor and director were both geniuses.