A Soldier's Story (1984)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Norman Jewison

Writers:

Charles Fuller (play)
Charles Fuller (screenplay)

Release Date:

28 February 1985 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | War

Tagline:

Alone, far from home, and far from justice, he has three days to learn the truth about a murder...and the truth is a story you won't forget.

Plot:

An African American officer investigates a murder in a racially charged situation in World War II.

Plot Keywords:

Captain | African American | Suicide | Vulgarity | Arkansas

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Howard E. Rollins Jr.	...	Capt. Davenport
Adolph Caesar	...	M / Sgt. Waters
Art Evans	...	Pvt. Wilkie
David Alan Grier	...	Cpl. Cobb
David Harris	...	Pvt. Smalls
Dennis Lipscomb	...	Capt. Charles Taylor
Larry Riley	...	C.J. Memphis
Robert Townsend	...	Cpl. Ellis
Denzel Washington	...	Pfc. Peterson
William Allen Young	...	Pvt. Henson
Patti LaBelle	...	Big Mary
Wings Hauser	...	Lt. Byrd
Scott Paulin	...	Capt. Wilcox
John Hancock	...	M / Sgt. Washington
Trey Wilson	...	Col. Nivens

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Singapore:PG | Iceland:12 | Netherlands:6 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Clarendon, Arkansas, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Samuel L. Jackson originated the role of Pvt. Henson in "A Soldier's Play", which was played by William Allen Young in the film version.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The film is reversed during a play at second base, evidenced by the mirror-image numbers on the uniforms of the players.

Quotes:

Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: See, the Black race can't afford you no more. There used to be a time, we'd see someone like you singin', clownin', yassuh-bossin'... and we wouldn't do anything. Folks liked that. You were good. Homey kind of *beep* When they needed somebody to mistreat, call a name or two, they paraded you.Reminded them of the good old days. Not no more. The day of the Geechee is gone, boy. And you're going with it.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Private Screenings: Norman Jewison" (2007)

Outstanding murder mystery centered around a different type of racism...

"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!