SOLDIER BLUE
Directed by Ralph Nelson
Written by John Gay
Starring Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss
Directed by Ralph Nelson
Written by John Gay
Starring Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss
Today's film, Soldier Blue (1970), absorbed its cinematic influences from John Ford, William Hart, and John Sturges. Its morality, however, emerges directly from the spirit of the preceding decade, one which challenged the pre-existing order, sometimes offering that challenge with a peace sign in the face, other times with a closed fist. Co-mingling these influences can serve as satire, homage, or simple artistic choice. On the levels of which this movie fails, the most stark is that the audience will be unable to answer that particular set of questions. All the old elements present themselves: an Indian attack on a confused cavalry, a woman rescued from the clutches of the Cheyenne, music that cues the proper emotional response from the audience, wide opened spaces that take the breath from even the black-hatted villain.
And yet where the movie does work, it works well. Those small victories begin with the casting of Candice Bergen as the female lead, Cresta Lee. I can think of no one else who could have played the role of the woman freed from her presumed captivity with the native Americans. Cresta is at once angry, sentimental, cynical, lascivious and ornery. By the end of the film's first fifteen minutes, during which most of the bad actors are happily killed off, Bergen proves herself brilliant at initiating the role reversal that will captivate us for the rest of the film. Her foil is Honus Gent, played well by Peter Strauss. His character is slightly deluded, prudish, loyal, merciful, and fastidious. This gender role reversal is tough to play straight and audiences lulled into accepting the traditional accouterments of a John Ford western (which director Ralph Nelson clearly emulates) probably won't know whether to laugh or be suspicious. And while certain comic flourishes pop up from time to time, Soldier Blue is a tragedy, plain and simple. It was also considered ultra-violent in those days and near the end you may even agree. While this movie doesn't warrant much more commentary than this, if I were Ebert I'd give it at least one up-turned thumb just because Strauss has such great hair and because Bergen conveys a set of emotional strengths at a time when she was only twenty-four years old that actors twice her age would have murdered to possess. But even a nice bit of theme music sung by Buffy Sainte-Marie still can't quite save this movie from being relegated to the "made for TV" dustbins of the period. Still, if you want to see the framework for a class where promising young actors are pitted against old-and-in-the-way hacks, this'll be right up your totem pole.
And yet where the movie does work, it works well. Those small victories begin with the casting of Candice Bergen as the female lead, Cresta Lee. I can think of no one else who could have played the role of the woman freed from her presumed captivity with the native Americans. Cresta is at once angry, sentimental, cynical, lascivious and ornery. By the end of the film's first fifteen minutes, during which most of the bad actors are happily killed off, Bergen proves herself brilliant at initiating the role reversal that will captivate us for the rest of the film. Her foil is Honus Gent, played well by Peter Strauss. His character is slightly deluded, prudish, loyal, merciful, and fastidious. This gender role reversal is tough to play straight and audiences lulled into accepting the traditional accouterments of a John Ford western (which director Ralph Nelson clearly emulates) probably won't know whether to laugh or be suspicious. And while certain comic flourishes pop up from time to time, Soldier Blue is a tragedy, plain and simple. It was also considered ultra-violent in those days and near the end you may even agree. While this movie doesn't warrant much more commentary than this, if I were Ebert I'd give it at least one up-turned thumb just because Strauss has such great hair and because Bergen conveys a set of emotional strengths at a time when she was only twenty-four years old that actors twice her age would have murdered to possess. But even a nice bit of theme music sung by Buffy Sainte-Marie still can't quite save this movie from being relegated to the "made for TV" dustbins of the period. Still, if you want to see the framework for a class where promising young actors are pitted against old-and-in-the-way hacks, this'll be right up your totem pole.
