Buffalo Soldiers: Is a Bored Soldier a Dangerous Soldier?

More than any other movie in recent memory, the film Buffalo Soldiers (based on the Robert O’Connor novel of the same title) suffered from poor timing. The film was scheduled to be released in 2001 and, in fact, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival just days before the tragedy of 9/11. Shelved for several months, the film was again postponed in 2002 when military activity began to escalate in the Middle East. Finally, in late 2003, the film received a limited theatrical run. Now, with the recent release of the film on DVD, a wider audience has the opportunity to see what all the studio hand wringing was about.

The controversy centers on the film’s harsh depiction of a group of American soldiers. Set on an American Army base in Germany in 1989, just days before the Berlin Wall fell, the film follows the exploits of supply clerk Ray Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix), a smart-ass, Ferris Bueller-type who completely lacks a moral compass. Elwood and his cronies are forever chasing the big payday, dabbling in everything from selling jugs of Mop-and-Glo on the German black market to supplying fellow soldiers with home-cooked heroine. When a smacked-out tank crew accidentally blows up the drivers of a couple of supply trucks carrying millions of dollars in guns and missiles, Elwood sees an opportunity to get his hands on some serious greenbacks. He strikes a deal with a local gangster to trade the truckloads of weapons for a huge cut of the thug’s next heroine shipment.

But, of course, complications arise. In between cooking up batches of heroine and writing letters to the families of dead soldiers, Elwood is charged with constantly stroking the fragile ego of his commanding officer, Col. Berman (Ed Harris), whose wife (Elizabeth McGovern) he happens to be porking on the side. Further hurdles pop up when hard-ass Sgt. Robert Lee (Scott Glenn) arrives and starts sniffing around Elwood’s operations. Never one to leave authority unchallenged, Elwood openly pursues Lee’s voluptuous daughter, Robyn (Anna Paquin), and not surprisingly, Lee is less than pleased with the romance. Within the course of it all, director Gregor Jordan also manages to reveal scenes of extreme, system-wide corruption and ugly racial tension between men who wear the same uniform. Overall, it’s a bleak snapshot of soldiers who are out of control and living with no regard for the consequences that their actions might bring.

Article Author: S.E. Shepherd

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