Buffalo Soldiers (2001)

A criminal subculture operates among U.S. soldiers stationed in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin wall.

Director:

Gregor Jordan

Writers:

Robert O'Connor (book), Gregor Jordan (screenplay),

Stars:

Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn

1 win & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joaquin Phoenix	...	Ray Elwood
Ed Harris	...	Colonel Berman
Scott Glenn	...	Sergeant Lee
Anna Paquin	...	Robyn Lee
Elizabeth McGovern	...	Mrs. Berman
Michael Peña	...	Garcia
Leon	...	Stoney (as Leon Robinson)
Gabriel Mann	...	Pfc. Brian Knoll
Dean Stockwell	...	General Lancaster
Brian Delate	...	Colonel Marshall
Shiek Mahmud-Bey	...	Sergeant Saad (as Sheik Mahmud-Bey)
Amani Gethers	...	Kirschfield
Noah Lee Margetts	...	Rothfuss (as Noah)
Tom Ellis	...	Squash
Kick Gurry	...	Video

Storyline

1989. The Berlin Wall is about to fall, and the world is about to be made safe for the new world order. But outside of Stuttgart, West Germany, at Theodore Roosevelt Army Base, Specialist Ray Elwood of the 317th Supply Battalion is about to find his own cold war turn white hot. Elwood's a lovable rogue, a conscript who's managed to turn his military servitude into a blossoming network of black market deals, more out of boredom than ambition. Officially, there's his day job as battalion secretary to the inept but caring Commander Wallace Berman. On the side, there's everything from selling the locals stolen Mop'N'Glo to cooking heroin for the base's ruthless head of Military Police, Sgt. Saad. When a new top sergeant arrives, with the avowed intention of cleaning the base up, Elwood thinks the new blood is nothing he can't handle, especially after he lays eyes on the top's daughter, rebellious Robyn. But that was before he figured in the $5 million in stolen arms that just landed on ...

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Plot Keywords:

berlin wall | germany | black market | murder | sergeant | 

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Taglines:

Steal all that you can steal. A story so outrageous you couldn't make it up

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, drug content, strong language and some sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Odeon Film AG (german)

Country:

UK Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 October 2002 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Acemi askerler

Filming Locations:

Baden-Baden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$16,263 (Hong Kong) (19 March 2004)

Gross:

$16,263 (Hong Kong) (19 March 2004)

Company Credits

Production Co:

FilmFour, Good Machine, Gorilla Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The scene in the parking lot where Elwood is tasking Knoll with getting the food for the big cook, was filmed in the parking lot of the US Army Karlsruhe Shopping Center, part of Smiley Barracks and Paul Revere Village housing complex, which had been recently turned back over to the Germans at the time of filming. Directly behind them can be seen the base theater "Minute Man Theater" and while the shot pans around to reveal them entering a building marked "Commissary", this had actually been the base PX at the time, with the Commissary located in a more confined area.

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Goofs

Elwood disables the girl's car by disconnecting the battery link, but when she tries to start it you can hear the car turn over. If the battery was disconnected there would have been no response from the engine at all.

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Quotes

Colonel Berman: [reading a coroner's report] Heroin, cocaine, marijuana, lysergic acid, deithyl... whatever the hell that is, amphetamines, traces of barbiturates, estrogen. Estrogen? McCovey was on the pill? How could this be possible?
Ray Elwood: Well, he might have taken it by mistake, sir.
Colonel Berman: What?
Ray Elwood: The birth control pill. He might've thought it was something ele.
Colonel Berman: Well, fine, but he didn't take heroin, speed and cocaine by mistake, did he?
Ray Elwood: It seems unlikely, sir.

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Connections

Featured in Anatomy of a Scene: Buffalo Soldiers

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Soundtracks

"Slashers Revenge"
By David Holmes
Published by Universal/Island Music Limited
Performed by David Holmes
Courtesy of Go! Beat Limited
Licensed by kind permission from the Film & TV Licensing Division
Part of Universal Music Group

User Reviews

Bilko for the New Millennium

Without an enemy to fight, an army will fight itself or find its own enemies. In the tradition of "Sergeant Bilko" (the Phil Silvers TV show, not Steve Martin's ghastly remake) "Buffalo Soldiers" shows what happens when soldiers with nothing to do but wait for war begin to think for themselves and exploit the system.

In place of Bilko's poker games and lottery scams, Ray Elwood opts for black marketeering, drug dealing and gun running. However, the characters portrayed by Phil Silvers and Joaquin Phoenix respectively do have a lot in common.

The tone of "Buffalo Soldiers" is much darker than that of "Sergeant Bilko", but the film and TV series share the same absurd yet plausible vision. There are no chimpanzee conscripts like Private Harry Speakup in this movie, but there ARE characters who have clearly risen well above the level of their own incompetence. Ed Harris' Colonel Berman is a pathetic example of the uniformed, time-served bureaucrat, someone you could almost feel sorry for until you realise that one day he may have to lead men into combat.

Counterbalancing the Bilko-esquire vibe created by Elwood's wheeler-dealing is his nemesis, Scott Glenn's steely Sergeant Lee. Glenn clearly relishes his role in this movie and is very convincing as the model soldier with a true heart of darkness.

Joaquin Phoenix gives Elwood an understated charisma as he leads his troops from behind, rarely lifting the lid on the fear and frustration that simmers within him as the events he sets in motion go out of control.

To say that this film is anti-military is unfair as it contains portrayals of decent, honest and professional soldiers as well as the scammers, pimps and dopeheads that the plot focuses on. It is a film about human beings (with all their failings) in uniform, not soldiers. "Buffalo Soldiers" is anti-complacency, anti-indoctrination and anti-corruption, which is probably why its release was postponed after the September 11th terrorist outrage of 2001. In the light of recent despicable acts by a small group of US soldiers in Iraq's Abu Graib prison, this film seems eerily prescient. Without an enemy to fight in open combat, what happens to the aggression and contempt for that enemy that military training fosters?

Ignore the negative comments and give this under-rated film a chance. It was titled "Army Go Home" in Germany, where the film is set, echoing the feelings of German citizens who lived near foreign troops sent to defend them against Communism. The Beetle-crushing sequence (an absurdly comic high point of the film) is based on actual incidents involving bored, intoxicated British and American troops on manoeuvres, armed to the teeth and waiting for a war that never came.