Jami Bernard
Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Doug Pratt
Ray Pride
Stu VanAirsdale

..Gary Dretzka
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Ray Pride

Buffalo Soldiers
Directed by: Gregor Jordan

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The buffalo soldiers I recall from history were the black cavalrymen of the post-Civil War era given that moniker by Native Americans of the plains. They are not the subjects of Buffalo Soldiers, the adaptation of a Robert O'Connor book set in Germany around the fall of the Berlin Wall. O'Connor's title characters are young men who were facing criminal charges and given the option of serving hard time or a hitch in the army. These guys took a tour of duty and, in this instance, wound up in Germany counting the days until they completed their sentence. Except …

The caveat here might best be embraced by the old saw about busy hands being happy hands. There is only so much for a peace time army to do. There are maneuvers and all manner of preparedness just in case a hot war breaks out somewhere on the globe.

I'm uncertain whether O'Connor and the creative talents behind the film adaptation mean to imply that the criminal mind, even one of a petty nature, is going to get into trouble when he has too much time on his hands. That might be a problem for anyone, even someone who under normal conditions wouldn't run a red light. Perhaps it is simply the military environment and that the difference between Sgt. Ernie Bilko and "The Scrounger" portrayed by James Garner in The Great Escape is a thin moral line determined by combat.

In any event, the portrait of a lunatic military environment has suffused such diverse works as Catch-22, M*A*S*H, Dr. Strangelove and The Boys in Company C. Where Buffalo Soldiers diverts from the earlier films (aside from the absence of military engagement) is in setting a balanced tone between the veracity of the situation and the surreal elements inherent in the madness. It's neither quite fish nor fowl and while individual moments are potent, hilarious, even chilling, the overall observation is muddled and inconclusive.

The focus of the piece is Specialist Ray Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix), a charming, invasive personality who's wormed his way into the confidence of base commander Col. Wallace Berman (Ed Harris). Berman is far too busy trying to figure out how he can finagle a promotion to be cognizant of daily operations on the base and that leaves Elwood with wide latitude. With the outfit's proximity to the Soviet bloc, there are enormous opportunities to be gained from surplus cleaning supplies, canned goods and the like in the vibrant black market of the arena. The trappings of Ray's life, a color TV in the barracks, a Mercedes Benz in the motor pool, are ample proof of his ingenuity.

He's also managed to requisition a storehouse and convert it into a lab where fellow felons can capitalize on their experience on the street and produce all manner of hallucinegic drugs. That operation will propel him to his biggest score when coked-out tankmen go seriously astray and cause a lethal accident with a truck transporting automatic weapons and grenade and missile launchers. He finds it by happenstance, stashes it away on a high security nuclear installation and proceeds to secure a buyer.

Admittedly, without or without September 11 (the film had its world premiere two days before that date), it would be an extraordinary sleight-of-hand to maintain an antic, humorous tone for the situation. Director and co-scenarist Gregor Jordan opts for something else again. The spanner in the works is the newly arrived Top Sergeant Robert E. Lee (Scott Glenn), a humorless lifer with a rule book that's the A to Z of hard knocks. He is the one person Elwood cannot charm and all efforts by the young man to win him over simply exacerbate their relationship. Punishing 50-mile obstacle courses become de rigeur and Elwood's prized auto is employed as the target when the troop is trained in the use of automatic rifles.

So, if the two cannot be friends, other means will have to be taken. Elwood sets his sights on the NCO's comely daughter Robyn (Anna Paquin) who realizes almost immediately that she's being used. However, she's attracted by his smile and sense of humor and not averse to raising her father's temperature. And Ray's initial manipulation turns into genuine affection.

Even though the yarn ultimately turns on the blackest of ironies, it rarely strays from an event or circumstance that strains credulity. And Buffalo Soldiers truly needs an outrageous, unthinkable thread to bring home its points. One can sense its presence just under the surface waiting to burst forth but the participants - all first rate actors - rein it in as if directed to keep it real. It is a well-made film that stops short of its potential to be memorable and original on the level of the comic inspiration of such films as the original In-Laws. As it is, the film is enjoyable and emerges as superior only on the marked curve of summer movies.

- by Leonard Klady

An Interview With Gregor Jordan

Release Date: July 25, 2003
Rated: R

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Starring: Joaquin Phoenix,
Scott Glenn, Ed Harris,
Anna Paquin, Brian Delate

Produced by: Rainer Grupe,
Ariane Moody

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Distributor: Miramax

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Review Date: July 25, 2003