Non predicare... spara!

I just saw this movie for the first time on Turner Classic Movies tonight. I had heard about it, but missed it. It's just another shoot-'em-up horse opera, but this time with a difference. It's one of the only westerns ever made that is a story about black people in the Old West, with black actors in the lead roles. Harry Belafonte is excellent as the Preacher. Sidney Poitier is also very good, and although the story contains the full compliment of standard cowboy movie clichés---shoot-outs, posse chases, bank robberies, whining ricochet sounds, etc.---, it's very entertaining. The vast majority of Hollywood westerns are exclusively white, and feature virtually no black people at all. Indians are almost always featured as pidgin-speaking cigar-store cartoon characters, with white actors usually in the speaking parts. Some idiot composer came up with the pounding tom-toms, descending minor theme music played by trombones and low brass whenever Indians come into the picture. It's unbelievable how ridiculous this music is. Hollywood has a lot to answer for in its racist treatment of minorities throughout its early history, which has never been fully addressed. So it's great to see a western like Buck and The Preacher that is different. As a result, it's a lot better than your average western, even though it milks the same old clichés.

It regards a trail guide and a con preacher join forces to help a wagon train of former slaves who are escaping from cutthroats and seeking to homestead out the West . The civil war was over and by law the slaves were freed . But when the promise of land and freedom was not honored , many ex-slaves journeyed out of the land of bondage in search of new frontiers where they could be free at last . They placed their hopes in the hands of the few black wagonmasters that knew the territories of the west . None of this came easy , for not only did they have to overcome hostile wilderness , but nightriders and bounty hunters were hired by persons unknown to hunt them down and turn them back to the Southern fields . This picture is dedicated to those men , women and children who lie in graves as unmarked as their place in history . This movie deals with a hard , long travel throughout the wilderness of a group of negroes and slaves freed after the end Civil War , being led by an intrepid wagonmaster (Sidney Poitier) along with a roguish preacher (showy acting by Harry Belafonte) wielding a peculiar Holy Bible . And being harassed by marauding white nightriders (led by Cameron Mitchell) all the way down .

Sidney Poitier performed and shot this picture , delivering it all the traditional ingredients of amusement : Riding pursuits , spectacular battles , croosfire , bank assaults , ambushes , fights with Indians , and many other things . While at the same time inserting a thought-provoking issue of accusatory coment on the ill-treatment of the ancient slaves whose graves are as unmarked as their place place in history . It has an interesting subject which is rather reminiscent of John Ford's Wagonmaster played by Ben Johnson in similar role to Poitier . Nice , though , the idea of having Indians riding and coming to rescue of the wagon train besieged by bandits , it is a gem , instead of the ordinary Union cavalry . Harry Belafonte steals the show giving an overacting and Poitier the player seems content to stand back and let the limelight falls on Harry . It is agreeable , enjoyable , and pleasant enough , but somewhat it never quite clicks , despite awesome interpretations from Belafonte and Poitier . Ruby Dee also provides a decent playing , she interprets the attractive spouse of Sidney .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Sidney Poitier . Being his fiilm debut that he took over the job from Joseph Sargent who left the filmmaking . Poitier is a fine actor and filmmaker . Poitier's talent, conscience, integrity, and inherent likability placed him on equal footing with the white stars of the day. He took on directing and producing chores in the Seventies, achieving success in both arenas . Sidney directed a few pictures , and most of them were comedies . As Poitier made : Ghost dad , Fast forward , Hanky panky , Stir Crazy , Piece of action , Let's do again , Uptown Saturday night , and this Buck and the preacher . Rating : 6/10 , passable and aceptable Western movie

Sidney Poitier made his directorial debut with "Buck and the Preacher", in which he played a wagon-master leading freed slaves across the Old West. The whole time, they have to battle night-riders trying to return them to slavery in Louisiana. But then, Poitier joins up with Harry Belafonte, a reformed thief spreading the Gospel across the Old West, and they figure out a way to protect the freed slaves.

Probably the most important aspect of this movie was that it came out around a time when Hollywood was releasing many blaxploitation movies portraying African-Americans as kick-ass brothers and sisters with hearts of gold. This one focused seriously on a part of black history in the United States, and did a very good job at it. I certainly recommend this movie. Also starring Ruby Dee and Denny Miller (a character actor who appeared twice on "Gilligan's Island").

This is a fictional movie inspired by how things really were back in the 1800s, in the years following the Civil War and granting slaves their freedom. The white supremacists wanted the black to stay on the farms and work there and would sometimes take drastic, and illegal, means to drive them back.

I found it on a nicely restored version, a Criterion Collection movie from my public library.

Sidney Poitier, who also directed, is Buck, a cowboy who gets paid to lead wagon trains towards their destination. The featured group of migrants are from St. Anne Parish in Louisiana. (While there are many "Saint" parishes in Louisiana, there is no Saint Anne.)

Harry Belafonte, long time Poitier friend, both with Carribean roots and born less than two weeks apart, is Preacher. He travels with a Holy Bible he is quick to display, but as the movie goes on we see that he isn't really a preacher but a rascal that eventually serves a good purpose.

The action of the movie has a band of rogue white supremacists on horses periodically attacking the black migrants, wrecking their wagons, killing some men, all in an attempt to get them to return to their former homes. Buck and the Preacher band together to protect the migrants and get rid of the bad guys.

An entertaining movie, especially for his place in history. As the DVD extras clarifies, the original "cow boys" were black, they were called that to differentiate them from the white "cow hands."

It's shortly after the abolition of slavery and Black people all over the south seek greener pastures where they don't have to be subjected to Jim Crowism. Some would head west with a wagon master showing them the way. And sometimes the greedy white people of the south wouldn't want to let their labor go so they'd send night riders after them to bring them back.

Buck (Sidney Portier) is a wagon master leading a group west. The Preacher (Harry Belafonte) is an opportunistic shuckster who finds himself a part of the Buck-led wagon train. The two of them have to be heroes in a sense in order to get this wagon train west.

I really appreciate this movie being made in the 70's when so many blaxploitation films were made. Instead of pimps, hoes, hustlers, and drug dealers, this movie is about positive black male figures in a western. Besides the terrible movie, "Posse," with Mario Van Peebles, I hadn't seen a Black western. I liked the history this movie presented (however dramatized), what it stood for, and the actors in it. Yes, I have seen better westerns--meaning more entertaining--but I can't readily recall a more significant western.