(Credits: Far Out / Nathan Congleton)
Fri 17 October 2025 16:15, UK
With over 100 movies to his name, Morgan Freeman has plenty of worthy contenders to choose from when it comes to naming the one that he holds closest to his heart, even if the candidates have been fewer and farther between in recent years.
While it’s admirable for the veteran to remain as booked and busy as possible, he’s started favouring quantity over quality. Having made no bones about the fact that a lot of his roles are dictated entirely by how much he’s getting paid, it’s understandable that the actor would be keen to earn as much money as possible.
The downside is that it’s been a while since he was in a truly great film. In the 1990s, he appeared in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, David Fincher’s Seven, Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption, and Steven Spielberg’s Amistad. The following decade, he lent support in the first two instalments of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby and Invictus, and Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone.
These days, he’s more likely to be found in straight-to-video tosh like Vanquish, The Ritual Killer, 57 Seconds, and Gunner. No offence intended to any of his co-stars, but sharing the screen with Ruby Rose, Luke Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, and Cole Hauser in formulaic genre flicks that never see the inside of a cinema isn’t the best use of his talents.
He’s rich and he’s happy, though, so it’s not as if Freeman gives two fucks about slumming it in the VOD doldrums. Even if he lent his gravitas to another classic, box office smash, or masterpiece, it wouldn’t be able to dislodge the one movie he cherishes the most, seeing as the film in question has held that status for over 35 years.
Sandwiched in between the favourite role of his career, his maiden Oscar-nominated performance in Street Smart, and his first ‘Best Actor’-nominated turn in the ‘Best Picture’-winning Driving Miss Daisy, Edward Zwick’s Glory wasn’t a runaway hit after turning a modest profit, and despite winning three Academy Awards, its only recognition in the major categories was Denzel Washington’s ‘Best Supporting Actor’ victory.
Still, ever since he made it, it’s always been a picture that Freeman holds close to his heart. In fact, he holds it closer than anything else he’s ever made, and he told CNN precisely why. “Because this was history, and it was unknown history,” he said. “And a lot of people saw that movie, and they told me they wept because they were so ignorant of those facts. So that’s a good thing for me.”
Although many of the characters were fictional, Glory nonetheless opened a lot of viewers’ eyes to an overlooked moment in American history, with the story following the trials, tribulations, and exploits of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the second African-American regiment formed during the Civil War, with enlisted Black soldiers falling under the command of white officers.
Freeman was grateful that he got to be a part of it, and ever since, it’s remained lodged firmly in his mind as his most cherished film.
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