I was damn near ready to turn this movie off when I saw that "B" company, the Black Brigade, was a bunch of back alley fools shooting dice, drinking wine, and acting foolish. Did I mention that this was at an outpost in Europe during WWII? Oh, I forgot to mention that? Now you know. They were so uncouth and ignorant they couldn't behave like soldiers during the war. They looked like F Troop except dumber and lazier. Pretty much every negative stereotype that you'd have about a black soldier: too old, too fat, too scared, too dumb, too shiftless, too lazy, and overall incompetent.
A company of clowns. But, the blame wasn't entirely on them. They were ill-prepared from the start. They never went through basic training, never given duties other than manual labor, they were never even properly screened (one soldier was deaf and another was well over 270 pounds)! So, even though they were a company of clowns it was almost as if they were set up to be so.
Finally, they were given a captain and a mission. Their new captain was a white Georgian named Captain Carter (Hence the movie title Carter's Army). Their mission: take a dam and hold it for reinforcements.
Their captain was a racist to be sure, but he definitely had some valid complaints. He wasn't given soldiers he was given a circus. Nevertheless, he was responsible for taking this band of unprepared personnel on a suicide mission.
This movie wasn't a total waste though. It needed to be longer with more character development, but this is what we got. With actors like Richard Pryor, Billy Dee (sans mustache, lye, and relaxer), Glynn Turman, and Robert Hooks I was expecting something better. They were given so little to work with though. There was a slight redemption for the movie at the end, yet nothing enough to completely rescue this film. The movie plot was a noble one and I can only assume that intentions were good. Still, I think Glory did a lot better with the same concept.
