Soldier's Story

This is one of my all time favorite movies. The thing that I find so amazing is that few people have ever heard of it much less seen it. The acting and story line is excellent. This is one of those great whodunits with a great twist that compels us to examine our stereotypes and presumptions. If you find yourself looking for a great tip at the video store check this movie out. I think you'll enjoy it.

There's much to recommend about this film. First it is refreshing to see a story about racism not done in the typical fashion where 'good' and 'bad' are so clearly delineated (ie. this a story about racism within the black community). Socially conscious director Jewison (In the Heat of the Night) also does a wonderful job (with the help of the scriptwriter of course) in authentically capturing the social climate of that bygone era. The acting is superb throughout. The only faces I recognized were Denzel's and David Allan Grier's but the unknowns (at least to me) were more than competent in their roles, especially Caesar's portrayal of the trouble Sgt. Waters. This film is not only fine cinema but it is also important history. Recommended, 8/10.

"A Soldier's Story," directed by Norman Jewison, tells a very powerful and tragic tale of black racism in WWII America. It is equally puzzling and disturbing and will leave you thinking about it for a long time to come.

The story takes place at a military base in the American South during the last full year of the Second World War, in 1944. Sergeant Vernon Waters, a Black man, is shot to death. The locals, as well as the Black enlisted men at the base, believe it to be the work of the Ku Klux Klan. Captain Davenport, also a Black man, as well as the first Black officer most of the men at this base have ever seen, is asked to investigate this. The White officers all want to see this matter brought to a swift and tidy conclusion in order to prevent what they see as a potential race riot between the Black soldiers and local Whites around town.

Davenport (deftly played by the late Howard E. Rollins Jr.) questions the enlisted men at the base, and begins to learn that the murdered sergeant(Adolph Ceaser in an Oscar-nominated performance) had no shortage of enemies, White and Black.

Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Waters is a man of great personal pride and dignity, a man who believes that the African-American race has great potential to "take it's rightful place in history" alongside the White race in America. But his pride is also fueled by a terrible hatred of Black men, mostly Southern men, who he believes are hurting the race by presenting themselves as lower-class bumpkins; the stereotypical shiftless, lazy, ignorant types; the smiling, singing clowns; the "yassah-boss niggers."

One soldier, C.J. Memphis, a simple but charming, illiterate, guitar-strumming man, comes to personify these character traits in Waters' eyes. The clash between those two personalities is a crucial centerpiece to this movie's message.

Ceaser is astonishing as Waters, a man so full of loathing and bile towards his own people, you can feel it oozing off the screen. His best moment occurs in a bar where he stares into a mirror and talks in a dark tone about his unit's heroic efforts in France in the First World War, and how one Black soldier destroyed that sterling image in the minds of many White Frenchmen.....and what Waters did in response. It's chilling.

An undervalued film that you may have to look a little harder in your local video store to find, but well worth the effort!

This is an excellent film, at it's heart a case study in human psychology, but also a mystery and an intriguing one at that. The cast, mostly unknowns at the time, is fantastic and contains many now-familiar faces, most notably Denzel Washington and David Alan Grier. Adolph Caesar was nominated for an Oscar and Howard Rollins, Jr. probably should have been. Another highlight (at least for me) are the songs sung by Larry Riley and Patte LaBelle. This is a gem of a film, one that is most highly recommended.

Canadian director Norman Jewison once took a tour of the U.S. south in the mid-1940s following his high school graduation and was shocked to see the way that black people were treated by white people. Jewison's intense hitch-hiking journey led to a career which includes credits like "In the Heat of the Night" and "The Hurricane". However his best film is probably "A Soldier's Story", an intense character-study that deals with African-American soldiers in Louisiana during World War II. Master Sergeant Adolph Caesar (Oscar-nominated) has been murdered. Enter investigator Howard E. Rollins (also African-American) who tries to figure out the case. What follows are intense flashbacks and the realization that Caesar was despised not only by white people (the primary suspects at the start) but also his own men (all African-American). The mystery twists and turns into chaos and in the end it is not a sure thing if the crime will ever be solved. A really chilling film that is top-notch in all cinematic departments. Robert Townsend, Larry Riley, David Allen Grier and yes the Denzel Washington are the soldiers that make the most lasting impressions in this brilliant piece of the cinema. Without a doubt one of the finest productions of the 1980s. 5 stars out of 5.