Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker (1994) (TV)

Director:

Harry Moses

Writer (WGA):

Harry Moses (written by)

Release Date:

27 February 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

The story of Johnson Whittaker, one of the first African-American cadets admitted to West Point. Tied down and beaten by his fellow cadets...

Plot Keywords:

West Point | Racism | Told In Flashback | Courtroom | Rutherford Hayes

Cast

Samuel L. Jackson	...	Richard Greener
Sam Waterston	...	Daniel Chamberlain
Mason Adams	...	Henry D. Hyde
Val Avery	...	Gen. Sherman
Eddie Bracken	...	Maj. Charles T. Alexander
Gene Canfield	...	McIntosh
Robert Clohessy	...	Dan Broyles
Al Freeman Jr.	...	Old Johnson Whittaker
Ken Garito	...	Cadet Lewis Ostheim
Greg Germann	...	Vernon Bailey
John Glover	...	Maj. Asa Bird Gardiner
Brad Greenquist	...	Dr. Beard
Peter Maloney	...	Captain William Smith Michie
George Martin	...	President Rutherford B. Hayes
Scott Paetty	...	Cadet George Burnett

Also Known As:

Assault at Westpoint (USA) (short title)

Runtime:

Brazil:95 min | USA:98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | Australia:M | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Buena Vista, Virginia, USA

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The Garand rifle on the cover picture wasn't designed till the 1930s.

Quotes:

Maj. Asa Bird Gardiner: They shouted, "This is how we mark hogs down South". How do they mark hogs down South?
Cadet Johnson Whittaker: I don't know, I'm not a hogs marker.

Excellent Piece of History

This is an important piece of history imaginatively staged. Sam Waterston executed a bravura performance as the abolitionist and civil war hero Daniel Chamberlain who liked emancipation but was unwilling to accept equality. The spencerian social darwinianism which infected upper caste society was accurately presented, even though as we reach the twilight of the American era it sounds so childishly stupid. To people of the time what they said stemmed from scientific fact, the novel doctrine of evolution which had devolved into a belief that, if the existing order were not to have been ordained by a Supreme Being, it was dictated by natural forces over which man had no control.

The cast and writers paid careful attention to the diction of the civil war era which to us today sounds so stiff and formal yet capable of concealing much wry, introspective humor.

The film also brought to the fore an interesting character Asa Bird Gardiner little known out of the limited circles of military law scholars.

Well done!

Comparable films: Courtmartial of Billy Mitchell, Courtmartial of Jackie Robinson, Caine Mutiny, Hart's War