The Red, White, and Black

The film takes place in 1871 with a womanizer by the name of "Eli Brown" (Robert DoQui) attempting to avoid various jealous husbands by enlisting in the 10th Cavalry Regiment of the U. S. Army. Although he thinks he is quite clever, he quickly meets his match when he gets to Fort Davis, Texas and is introduced to "First Sergeant Robertson" (Isaac Fields) who immediately gives him extra duty to go along with his exhaustive basic training. Eventually, Private Brown adjusts to military life and it's then that he happens to see an attractive woman named "Miss Julie" (Janee Michelle) who works as the local seamstress. One thing leads to another and they are soon married. The problem, however, is that there are very few women at Fort Davis and the news of this marriage is not received well by a jealous non-commissioned officer named "Sergeant Hatch" (Lincoln Kilpatrick) who has little regard for his men and is not respected by them. Now, rather than reveal anymore, allow me to say that I happened to like this film by and large. Unfortunately, it had a number of flaws that were simply too obvious to be ignored. For starters, the plot seemed somewhat disjointed with some scenes lacking harmony with the others. And while I won't say that the film fell apart at the end, I must admit that the final scene could have used some improvement. Likewise, the character known as "Walking Horse" (Robert Dix) wasn't very convincing either. That being said, while I don't consider this to be a bad movie necessarily, in view of the obvious faults just mentioned, I cannot in good conscience rate it any higher than I have. Slightly below average.

I saw this when it first came out and liked it. Probably because I love westerns and westerns about the cavalry. So when I saw it available on DVD under the title of "The Buffalo Soldiers", I had to have it. When I watched it I couldn't believe that I liked such schlock! Terrible! Saw that it was filmed at the actual Fort Davis in Texas, but that didn't help the lousy script, acting, directing, filming, editing and whatever else there is to rate. The actual Buffalo Soldiers must be rolling in their graves at this one. What an embarrassment. Save your money and bypass this piece of garbage! If you want to see a better movie about these heroes called Buffalo Soldiers, get yourself a copy of Danny Glover's film. Yeah, yeah it ends on a lame note, but it is sure better than this waste of film!

There is no getting around the fact that this is a low budget movie, but having said that I think the other reviewers are being way to harsh. The thing I really like about the movie is that it looks and sounds like it takes place when and where it does. The soldiers look like soldiers on frontier duty, instead of coming straight from the wardrobe department. The combat is more realistic than heroic and at the heart of the movie is a morality play. It is a slice of life movie than anything else and I find that interesting. One final note is that it is a movie where race is important, but it has no axe to grind.

Surprisingly, though its packaging might make you think this is an exploitation movie, this western (concerning the real-life Buffalo Soldiers) actually takes itself very seriously, despite instances concerning action and sex. Though the movie had serious intentions, it feels like it was made by exploitation filmmakers, and the movie still has a weird feeling of exploitation to it (possibly due to the low production values.) It isn't very compelling, but it may have enough curiosity value for fans of drive-in movies of the time.

Blaxploitation western stars DoQui as a happy go lucky army recruit who finds love and tragedy as part of the respected 10th cavalry division during the Civil War.

Charming DoQui is well suited to his role of serial philanderer attempting to make good of his situation, whilst athlete turned actor Rafer Johnson, Isaac Fields and Lincoln Kilpatrick stand-out as his more disciplined fellow cavalrymen who treat the uniform and its obligations with pride (albeit with some personal conflict).

Interesting to see both Cesar Romero and Barbara Hale appearing in minor supporting roles playing the moderate Colonel and his concerned wife, whilst Robert Dix darkens up to play the local Indian chief who's forged a friendship with Johnson's character in particular whom he initially treats like a brother.

Attractive Janee Michelle gets an 'introducing' credit despite being active in television for many years, here playing the part of the local seamstress torn between two lovers, a subservient role that seems to offer little more than eye candy for the male characters to consume. Ironic that the character who makes the clothes is also the one seen disrobing forthwith, but then it's preferable to Isobel Sanford (soon to become a household name on 'The Jefferson's') whose pointless incidental part as Sergeant Kilpatrick's local ladyfriend is well below her talents. So whilst there's a decent female cast assembled, their characters haven't much substance.

The action scenes with the Indians and settlers are handled with skill, but otherwise Cardos' directorial debut is clumsily edited and generally quite bland. The 74-minute edit I saw looked like it had been severely hacked with continuity errors and characters who disappear without explanation yet despite the pruning, it's doubtful I missed much worth seeing. This isn't 'Take a Hard Ride' and even blaxploitation fans might struggle to be entertained despite DoQui's natural charisma.