Buffalo Soldiers [DVD] [2001]

A satire of the blackest hue featuring a raft of great performances, most notably Ed Harris, hilarious as a henpecked, incompetent officer. Not to be taken too seriously as a portrait of the US army (think Bilko on acid), but nonetheless hilarious viewing.

Buffalo Soldiers was made in 2001, infamously acquired by Miramax on September 10th 2001 (...or so the story goes). It's without dispute that the climate of Bush Jr's neo-con America & the McCarthy-exhumation that has been the so-called 'War on terrorism,' made it impossible for this film to exist. It was much easier to use Black Hawk Down as a balm instead- & a rise in dull-right-wing military adoration: Collatoral Damage, DC9-11: Time of Crisis, would the right win out in Hollywood? Buffalo Soldiers, like Gangs of New York & (bizarrely) Hero would be sat on anyway...

Which is a shame as there's much to commend Buffalo Soldiers, which shares the same edgy approach towards America and much of what it stands for as The Doom Generation,Fight Club, Natural Born Killers,The Rules of Attraction, & Three Kings. Buffalo Soldiers is the kind of film that doesn't have an issue with criticising a certain kind of America: one that is in thrall these days.

It also belongs to a classic American-genre, across the mediums, one that shows the other side of war to that glamorous militarist-ideology peddled by distant generals, or more distant chickenhawk-politicians. So it can be filed alongside texts such as Catch 22, The Naked & The Dead, Dog Soldiers/Who'll Stop the Rain, Biloxi Blues, the first half of Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Tigerland & a whole lot more (& yes I did think about saying something like,"Sgt Bilko on amphetamines!")

The film is a little plotless, then again so is Withnail & I and that's fine, thank you very much. The always watchable Phoenix is ideally cast here as our hero- stuck at the end of the Cold War in West Germany, bored out of his idiot-head over the lack of actual war. The film seems a bit ridiculous at the end- then again, Bill Hicks' noted the army were in "hog-heaven" a few years later with Gulf War I/1991 and there's nothing more ridiculous than "precision strikes with weapons of mass-destruction," or the belief that the army are "the good guys."

Buffalo Soldiers has a great soundtrack from David Holmes/Tommy Boy (Holmes scored several Soderbergh films)& like Three Kings features a Public Enemy-song circa Fear of a Black Planet (pity all that political consiousness didn't sink in...). There are some other great moments- Phoenix & the gorgeous Anna Pacquin x-ing to New Order's Blue Monday (there should have been some Kraftwerk played on the soundtrack- it didn't seem right showing an autobahn, but not hearing any Kraftwerk!). It's sometimes a bit of a mess, but sometimes bits of messes make perfectly fine films (have you seen Touch of Evil?). The cast is excellent- Phoenix, Pacquin, Glenn, Harris, McGovern - the characters were well drawn: Buffalo Soldiers seems like the pilot for an anti-Hogans Heroes TV programme at times!

So...I liked it & it deserves to be seen...

In a summer crowded with huge scale blockbuster movies desgined to 'wow' you with spectacle, it always refreshing when a small scale film comes along and lays all the blockbusters to bed because basically, its just better.
Buffalo soldiers is a black comedy of the highest calibre, set on an American base in Germany around the fall of the Berlin wall. However, rather than taking the usual path of portraying american soldiers as patriotic ultra-commandos, we get an image of some very bored layabouts with some VERY big drugs problems.
Focusing around the central character of Ray Elwood (a career best for the fantastic Joaquin Phoenix), the soldier who will deal in absolutely anything to get himself some money, the plot quickly turns nasty. When a new First Sergeant arrives on the base and starts to take a dislike to Elwood (not helped by the fact that he's going out with his daughter, the lovely Anna Paquin). What follows is an escalating spiral of spite and revenge as Elwood begins to realise the dangers of his chosen professions, both dealer and soldier.
With a superb supporting cast (including Ed Harris playing, for once, a soft-hearted military man, and Scott Glen as Elwood's nemesis) and razor sharp wit, this film takes you into army life as you've never seen it before. Frequently swinging between hilarity (a tank full of junkies mindlessly plowing a German town into the ground), and horrific (said tank eventually plowing into a petrolo station and killing a fair few people doing so), its not suprising that this film didn't perform too well in America. The script brings a lot of quite dark issues such as drugs, murder and mindless violence into stark focus, but by keeping its tongue in its cheek for the most part, what could have been a very depressing affair transforms into one of the best films of the year (despite being made for 2001 it was delayed in its relase).
There are some faults, the script does drag in places (the romantic scenes in particular) and this film could be offensive if you have a high opinion of our stateside cousins. The presentation of the lazy and bored Elwood in opposition to the militaristic, and probably a little psychotic First Sergeant ("the secret to Vietnam was simple, I f***ing loved it) always has you rooting for Elwood and feeling sorry for him not being allowed to deal drugs and weapons in peace. This is perhaps testament to the brilliance of the script and as it reaches its thrilling climax your perception of the US military and the anti-blockbuster may be changed forever.
Without doubt one of the most intelligent, funny and dramatic films of the year with all of the cast at the top of their game, this is an essential purchase for anyone who's ever wondered what would happened if M*A*S*H had gotten the Trainspotting treatment. Superb