Buffalo Soldiers

It's difficult to sum Buffalo Soldiers up. On one hand you have the comedy aspect, particularly from Ed Harris, on another you have the romance, from Anna Paquin, and then you have the violence...from just about everybody. The story is set in Germany, 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and is based on a unit of the US army called the Buffalo infantry (Or something) who aren't exactly above board and legal with what they get up to. Truth is this movie really isn't to do with army combat, it's to do with the corruption of the vast majority of the soldiers who'll do anything to make a buck, such as drugs and weapons.

Dark comedy in many places, it seems many have taken great offence to Hollywood's portrayal of their 'heroes' - for goodness' sake don't take it so seriously. I'm jewish and don't care when I see my religion mocked on screen. So why should anyone be offended by this?

It's funny in places, dramatic in places, dark in places and risque. But what it is is a good movie which *will* entertain.

This is my favourite film of 2003. Why they waited two years before releasing this superb movie in the UK is anyone's guess - although it may have had something to do with its total lack of respect for the U.S. Army. I'm not sure this would have went down too well in the aftermath of 9/11. Regardless, Buffalo Soldiers is an absolute gem. It is nasty, intelligent and hilarious. It is critical of American values, specifically capitalism in the 80s and it takes no prisoners. This is an outsider's perspective on the American occupation of West Germany in 1989: Jordan is Australian and as a result he brings an Australian aesthetic to his work. But it is also a tender film that is structured around a touching central romance between Elwood and Robyn. I love their scenes in the pool, it is such a warm, intimate location - a perfect setting for the heart of an otherwise deeply cynical film. Jordan is a director of considerable talent and Buffalo Soldiers is magnificent.

American directors tend to glorify their war movies by adding a lot of heroism and false American nationalism. Buffalo Soldiers is a nice change on these kind of movies. It tells the story of a group of American soldiers so thoroughly bored that they kill time by smuggling drugs, drinking booze and fighting each other. It kinda reminds me of my father's stories of his short yet turbulent time in the army. He keeps on telling about all the wrong things they did to have a bit of fun in their forced presence in these days.

The movie doesn't really have a grand message to deliver to its audience, but it is most definitely good for a few laughs. And Joaquin Phoenix shows a bit of the strong charisma he has in store for us in later movies ( Walk the line- the Johnny Cash biography- as his strongest one )

Some films just suffer from bad luck, and `Buffalo Soldiers' is one of them. Not that the movie is all that bad, nor all that terrific; it just deals with a subject that Americans might not be comfortable about today: a less-than-glowing depiction of the American military.

The film made its debut at the Toronto Film Festival, three days before Sept 11, 2001, under great fanfare. It was billed as being a dark satirical look at the military, but after the attacks on 9/11, its future was buried. Now, almost two years later, `Buffalo Soldiers' is finally being released, but it's not clear that the climate will be any more accommodating.

The movie starts by presenting a criminal subculture operating among U.S. soldiers stationed in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin wall. The satirical billing is merely a backdrop for the film, and it does present just about everyone rather hyperbolically. Joaquin Phoenix plays Ray Elwood, a la Radar O'Reilly from MASH. He is the company clerk for a U.S. supply base, making most decisions for his oblivious colonel to rubber stamp. Like Milo Minderbinder from Catch-22, he goes about his normal routine of making money and duping the system, but in this case, Elwood is a small-time drug dealer who sometimes dabbles in black market booty. Things turn on him quickly when he happens across some heavy weaponry, and his plan for unloading the equipment puts him way over his head, getting him into far more trouble than what he can handle as the lightweight and inexperienced paper-pusher that he is. By the time the plot line is established, the backdrop of satire is abandoned, witty observations undone, and philosophical quips erased.

Indeed, the true essence of the film lies beyond the plot, but it doesn't go as far as it tagline philosophy: `Where there is peace, the warlike man attacks himself.', a quote from Nietzsche, whose keen observation was the original inspiration for the film. At most, `Buffalo Soldiers' depicts how people behave when they get in over their heads, and only a dash of commentary on anything military or philosophical.

As for the controversy around American soldiers doing bad things, it would be a stretch to feel this is commentary on the good ol' US of A. Only those looking to pick a fight would find any form of offense or unpatriotic flavor to this film. Still, all one has to do is suggest the notion, and people will simply adopt that view anyway, regardless of what's on screen. Ironically, that's the movie's fault, not the public's. If the movie were better at delivering a more profound message - one that it clearly wanted to make - or if the story line were multi-dimensional, rather than a straightforward crime caper, people would easily overlook its superficial qualities. To be sure, Joaquin Phoenix does an excellent job at portraying a frat boy who doesn't take the army seriously, and who learns the ropes the hard way, just before he gets busted down to hell.

In the end, `Buffalo Solders' is entertaining, has a splash of romance, and is certainly a good enough movie in its own right, but is not the cynical, anti-war, anti-patriotic movie that people will be told it is. Oddly, the film's perception may be disproportionately diminished and reviewed poorly because of the attention it's getting, but it doesn't deserve undue praise either.

Ray Elwood is a soldier stationed on a base in West Germany. With no war to fight the men become bored but Elwood has enough going on the side to keep him busy, whether selling off excess cleaning supplies or dealing drugs. When he lands two trucks worth of weapons he thinks his day has come, however at the same time a tough new officer, Sergeant Lee, is stationed on the base with the aim of cleaning it up - starting with Elwood dealings.

Of course, we all know that this film practically vanished after 9/11; suddenly America didn't want anything that seemed to be attacking America or the dedicated American soldier. This was unfortunate as the film isn't as blatantly anti-war or anti-American as I had been led to believe. Rather it is a dark comedy that looks at the reality of army life during peacetime. In fairness though it does show the soldiers out for cash, high on drugs and certainly not fitting the image that made Time magazine pick `the American soldier' as man of the year for 2003.

The basic plot makes MASH look like some sort of kids game - where Hawk-Eye made drink in his tent, Elwood cooks coke and deals in stolen weapons. The story works quite well although some of it didn't totally work and some of the characters and action didn't really make sense. It was amusing without being laugh out loud funny, although this wasn't so much of a problem as I certainly didn't expect it to be an out and out comedy. The drama works better than the comedy and it is for this reason it is a better attack on the ideal of the military. The upper levels of the military also take a knock; being shown as focused on rank climbing rather than keeping a sharp military machine well oiled!

The cast is good on the whole - both on paper and on the screen. Phoenix leads the film really well and delivers a likeable character that is still abhorrent enough to be seen as an attack rather than a spoof. Harris is OK but he only has a small role and it doesn't totally fit in with the main narrative very well - likewise McGovern. Pacquin is pretty cool but her character was a bit of a mystery to me but Glenn is well cast and he is able to deliver the goods in a borderline nuts character; only problem with his performance was that I didn't totally understand his character's aims by the end of the film. Both Leon and Pena were good in support and Dean Stockwell has an OK cameo.

Overall this was a good film despite the fact that it had a plot that was a little weakened by the side issues and characters who aren't totally clear in terms of what they're all about. Aside from this the film is pretty entertaining and is actually quite matter of fact in it's portrayal of military life rather than being scathing - coming from Northern Ireland, I have seen all sorts of stuff done by squaddies and am well aware of how true this can be! But to label it anti-American is just plain daft!