Soldier Blue (1970)

Dir: RALPH NELSON

Country: USA

For anyone interested in the history of screen violence and the minefield of debates surrounding censorship, the western Soldier Blue will be an inevitable stop on the journey. Soldier Blue was a film dogged by controversy due to the brutality and sadism of its denouement, but it has much to thank Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969) for. Peckinpah’s revisionist lamentation for the old west was marked by a hitherto unseen relationship to violence, and thus opened up the territory for a slew of filmmakers itching to push the boundaries of taste and decency within the confines of commercial filmmaking. In both the US and the UK Soldier Blue was heavily cut, and its only in recent years that audiences have been given the opportunity to se uncut prints on DVD. As well as offering a none too subtle allegory of a much publicised American military atrocity in Vietnam, the film also fed into a mini movement at the time which sought to remedy the regressive stereotypical depiction of native Indians. Although Soldier Blue is clear in its sympathies, there is an exaggeration and over statement in relation to its anti-war stance, and it totally lacks the depth, character, and pathos of its immediate contemporary Little Big Man (1970).



Based on the novel Arrow in the Sun by Theodore V. Olsen, the screenplay by John Gay is a major failure. The film is book ended by two major set pieces, and in between these bloodthirsty moments there is very little to recommend. The bulk of the film is a journey across the American landscape by Cresta Lee (Candice Bergen) and Honus Gent (Peter Strauss) as they make their way to the relative safety of Fort Reunion. After seeing his company massacred by a band of Cheyenne, whose leader is intent on reclaiming Cresta as his wife, Honus is not particularly well disposed to the indigenous peoples. He also has an absurdly idealised vision of the conflict between the military and the Indians which borders on gullible. Cresta on the other hand has lived with the Cheyenne, knows their customs and values, and is sympathetic to their cause. Her character traits as a result of this close interaction with the Indians includes a foul mouth and a general coarseness - very progressive. The journey across the land is basically a device by which Cresta indoctrinates Honus into her pacifist and pro-Indian sentiments. This wouldn’t be a bad thing, were it not for the fact that part of the reason for ‘soldier blue’s’ eventual change of mind is that he wants to fuck Cresta. This whole middle section of the film plays out like a romantic comedy, with a series of misadventures that includes a duel to the death with a Kiowa brave which oddly is played for laughs. A cameo by Donald Pleasence as the ridiculously named Isaac Q Cumber is mystifying, and although the film raises the issue of arms dealing, it fails to follow through with any meaningful conclusions. The tone is wildly uneven which results in the final massacre of a peaceful Cheyenne village feeling as though its been tacked on specifically for the purpose of shocking the audience.

There is no doubt that these final moments are harrowing, but they eventually become so embellished and amplified that it begins to lose all meaning. We are treated to gang rape, decapitations, and the merciless slaughter of women and children. But the characters caught up in this chaos are so unbelievable and the violence so arbitrary, that it becomes utterly hollow and pointless. For example we are asked to believe that Colonel Iverson (John Anderson) acts purely out of a vanity for his place in history, his determination to secure this leads him to ignore the flag of truce. The writer aims to make the character the distillation of pure evil, but the casting of Anderson means we have a mindless sadist who is also charming, witty, and charismatic. Honus transforms from a simpering and feeble weakling whose belief in the army is total, to a man willing to risk court martial to save Indian lives. This may be a pro-Indian film, but the film offers us no access to Indian characters - the point of view is unbendingly that of the white man. The Indians mouthpiece is a white woman -  the whole thing stinks of hypocrisy.

Soldier Blue is also hopelessly miscast, and the director Ralph Nelson is unable to tie up the moral and racial hypocrisies of the film. I’m sure the motives of all involved were pure, but the film also had to sell. The promotional material which emphasises the shocking nature of the content illustrates precisely what was intended to lure audiences in. This is why the final massacre sequence which distils the liberal, anti-war, pro-Indian sentiment is so problematic. The fact that the film is based on true events that occurred in Colorado in 1864 is a total irrelevance, by this point the filmmakers are fully committed to their juvenile attitude to the issues. Soldier Blue is a film that purports to have liberal and pacifist intentions, it wishes to communicate an anti-war message, but it does so within a commercial framework that celebrates war, violence, and misery. Were it not for the ravishing and beautiful cinematography of Robert B. Hauser, and the out of place and jaunty score by Roy Budd, this insulting and aolescent western would be unwatchable.

© Shaun Anderson - 2010