Savage Soldier
(1971)
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Savage Soldier
(1971)
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| Credited cast: | |||
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Joseph Kaufmann | ... |
Jud Carney
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Robert Deman | ... |
Bill Arness
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Alix Wyeth | ... |
Shirley Simon
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Norman Burton | ... |
Uncle Hornkel
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Claudia Jennings | ... |
Sunny
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Maurice Sherbanee | ... |
Salvadore Javelli
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Vic Dunlop | ... |
Vincent Barber
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Bonnie Bittner | ... |
Kathy
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Jolivett Cato | ... |
Ben
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| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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John 'Bud' Cardos |
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Bill Collins |
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Janice Dryer |
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Valerie Fitzgerald |
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Leigh Hemingway |
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Paul Heslin |
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A Vietnam vet returns to Los Angeles at Christmas time, finds out it's not how he thought it was going to be.
Mentally/emotionally damaged 'Nam soldier returns to the states to find that his fiancée is no longer his fiancée. He takes residence in a Los Angeles rooming house full of various maladroits and flashes back periodically to the horrors of war, has coffee in a diner, makes love on a beach, gets into a fight, and drives around the greater L.A. area in his convertible to avoid the needy(and implied homosexual)fawning of one of his housemates.
Unquestionably a film of its time, it's one of those indies from the early 70s which presents zero entertainment value in the name of art, relying solely upon character analysis, reverie, and a string of innocuous non-happenings for substance.
The film's infrastructural issues of post-Vietnam isolation are serious and very sensitive, but are approached in an offhand manner which makes them feel rather provisional, if not exploitive. "JUD" is eighty minutes of ceaseless blue funk which feigns concern for its own causation, and lacks sincerity in its crusade. It is, however, always nice to get an eyeful of the late Claudia Jennings, who was among the loveliest screen visions of her time. Her presence is to this picture as the rose is to the cesspool.
3/10