You're an idiot. Would you have preferred them branding a "D" on his forehead? They chose flogging because of the history of slaves being whipped. Shaw then punishes him in that way to show that he would treat his soldiers the same he would treat any other soldier even though he didn't personally believe that the punishment was right or not.
Also, I would point out that while his family were abolitionists, Col Shaw was an opportunist who take the job in order to rise in rank and didn't completely believe what his family did, at least not at the beginning.

I can't believe what I'm reading in this thread, the whipping scene is awful, it would only have been powerful if it had taken place in real history. Now the movie wrongly shows Shaw accepting the flogging of an escaped slave, something that he never ever would have done. Shaw's descendants should have sued the director.

That scene is a Master Class in acting. Plus they were to,d it wa going To be a couple of lashes it he didn't yell "Cut" so it kept rolling

Well it worked, it was very effective
Steve

At that time flogging was no longer a punishment in the Army. That scene was done for the obvious effect.

So you're saying that you didn't watch the movie.
Or that you're an idiot.

This message has been deleted.

That whipping scene was bull.
Nobody whipped like that would take it like that.
Doing a model pose gimme a break.

"That scene where Denzel has a tear run down his face is one of the most powerful in cinematic history! Absolutely brilliant and it secured his Oscar!"
Well, that is exactly what I was going to say, so thanks Mini, you saved me some keystrokes. I'll just steal yours! That scene is so extraordinary. If I were teaching an acting class, I would start with that, and repeat it until every student fully understood its depth and the intense beauty of its horror.
I have seen enough to know I have seen too much.
ALOTO

Exactly right..The prior whippings he had as scars had come unjustly when Tripp was a slave..but this whipping was given not because he was a slave, but because he was viewed as a deserter like any soldier would have been given White of Black..

Here's the thing. The point of the scene was that Shaw was treating his soldiers like he would sny other set of soldiers. So for the sake of the story, they made the punishment for desertion to be flogging. To make it even more powerful, Trip has a lot of whip marks already on his back. Shaw then says to proceed even though he doesn't really want to and even the Irish Sergeant has a hesitation about it after seeing his back. Again, it was to illustrate that Shaw was going to treat his men, and expected other people to treat his men, like any other soldier.

OP. did you watch the movie at all???
"insert corny quote here"

Whipping scene was not true, Union Army banned flogging in 1861, two years before this supposely happened. Col. Shaw was also a staunch abolitionist and would have never approved such a punishmnet.

That scene where Denzel has a tear run down his face is one of the most powerful in cinematic history! Absolutely brilliant and it secured his Oscar!

That was a powerful scene. It's almost like Trip began to have a grudging respect for Shaw here, because Shaw didn't let him get away with something. And Shaw-he had his eyes opened, all right, to the terrible responsibility he had taken on. I always think that the feeling that made Trip pick up the flag in the last battle had its genesis in that moment.
http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/

old habits die hard

Here is the thing though. At that time, going AWOL. which is exactly what he was doing, was considered desertion. They are separate now but at the time they were the same thing. They didn't have time to figure out why he left. All that was important was that he left without permission. So they treated him like any other soldier.

he wasn't trying to escape, he was trying to get shoes because the ones he was marching in tore the skin off his feet (reference the scene in the medic tent when they are dressing his back wounds they are dressing his ulcerated feet at the same time). He snuck off and got caught and they thought he was trying to desert the army but he wasn't. The punishment for desertion was flogging.
"That Barney Rubble, what an actor!!" -Night Shift

They caught him trying to escape.
Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.