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MOVIE REVIEW
Buffalo
Soldiers
(2003)
Starring:
Joaquin
Phoenix, Ed Harris, Anna Paquin
Director:
Gregor Jordan
Rating: R
Studio:
Miramax
Release Date: 7.25.03
Review
Posted: 7.25.03
Spoilers:
Minor
By
Sara Michelle Fetters
Frenzied,
Messy "Buffalo
Soldiers" a Scathing Military Satire
Ray Elwood
(Joaquin Phoenix, “Signs,” “Gladiator”) isn’t exactly sure why
he’s in the military, he just knows come hell or high water he’s
definitely going to make a profit out of the experience. Not
character-wise, mind you, but profit-wise. War may be hell, but
peace is boring, and Elwood is sure as heck going to make this
time as an Army grunt worth his while.
Set at a
nondescript US Army base in Germany before the fall of the
Berlin Wall, director Gregor Jordan’s “Buffalo Soldiers” has had
a long road to the big screen. Taken from the novel by Robert
O’Connor, “Soldiers” is a slightly daft military satire in the
vein of “M.A.S.H” or “Catch 22.” Needless to say, of all the
films Miramax has sitting in their vaults waiting release, this
one is by far the easiest to understand why it has taken two
years for the studio to get it out to theaters.
Completed in
2001 and shown to much adoration at the Toronto Film Festival,
the movie had the audacity to be screened just days before the
September 11th Twin Towers tragedy. After about a
year, Miramax finally thought they could release the movie last
fall, but then the United States up and started talking about
going to war with
Iraq,
not exactly the perfect moment to let out a movie with such a
nihilistic viewpoint of the military. Now, just a little over a
month before the 2003 Toronto Film Festival and the film’s
original debut, Miramax is finally letting “Buffalo Soldiers”
out. And even if the movie isn’t exactly completely worth the
wait, it’s still one of the more gutsy and risk taking motion
pictures to be released by an American studio this year.
At the core
of the piece is a battle of wills between Elwood and his new top
Sergeant Robert Lee (Scott Glenn, “The Shipping News,” “Training
Day”). It is Elwood that is the do-nothing Bilko of his outfit,
participating and facilitating nearly every illegal activity
(including drug making and arms dealing) going on at the army
base. Lee, a sadist of unimaginable proportions at heart, wants
to see the secretive and brash Elwood not just stopped, but at
the end of a rope. If the army won’t do it, then he sure as heck
is going to find some way to make possible such actions himself,
especially now that the soldier is romancing his only daughter
Robyn (Anna Paquin, “X2: X-Men United,” “The 25th
Hour”) as a way to get under his skin.
Only problem
– the clock is ticking on Elwood and the biggest sale of his
entire career. Not only does he have to cook more heroin in a
24-hour period than he’s ever done before, he also has to keep
the local arms dealer happy as he gets all the man’s arms and
munitions together for sale. Even worse, the inept base
commander Col. Berman (Ed Harris, “A Beautiful Mind,” “The
Hours”) has challenged base co-commander to a giant war game in
order to impress the visiting Gen. Lancaster (Dean Stockwell,
“The Rainmaker,” “Air Force One”). Not only that, he’s actually
falling in love with Robyn, and that’s starting to get him to
think maybe all of this amoral activity isn’t such a good thing
after all.
There isn’t
too much here that hasn’t been covered before in both “M.A.S.H”
or “Catch 22.” Still,
Jordan
has a delicate eye for detail, and the slightly off-kilter
whimsy inherent in the story is played out to just about it
fullest, most effervescent peak. I wasn’t sure for a while if
the movie had me hooked or not, and then the director stages a
deliriously inspired bit with an out-of-control tank careening
through the streets of the local German village that is so out
there it has to be seen to be believed. It’s frantically and
terrifyingly funny, and it is no wonder the military wants
absolutely nothing to do with this picture.
Amazingly
well cast, the real standout of the piece is Phoenix. Forced to
be in almost every scene of the film and playing a character
nearly unlikable, the actor won me over with his charm and
cocksure grace, getting me to care for Elwood far more than the
jerky soldier rightly deserved. In a way, I almost wanted to see
him get away with it all, winning the girl and defeating the
sadistic Sgt. Lee in the process. It is a performance of pure
contumacious abandon, and with a winking eye at the audience and
a quivering upper lip, the deeply sexy Phoenix really struts his
stuff with unabashed abandon.
Don’t get me
wrong, for all the huff and puff “Buffalo Soldiers” is far from
being a great film.
Jordan
takes things too far during the film’s frenzied climax, letting
the satire and dark humor of the piece escape in a smorgasbord
of violence and mayhem that just doesn’t fit. I also didn’t
really care for a subplot involving Col. Wallace’s wife
(Elizabeth McGovern, “House of Mirth”), a fine actress who
deserves much more than to be serving as sex-starved window
dressing. It doesn’t help that some of the vignettes can’t help
but ring hollow, their sting muted by the reality of on-going
current events, making for long stretches where “Buffalo
Soldiers” is uncomfortably flat.
But that’s
just bad timing. Who knew we’d actually be at war when a film
like this was released? The director couldn’t have planned for
such an event, and lord knows none of us were asking for it.
Still, in that context it is hard to think that “Buffalo
Soldiers” can’t help but find itself more than a little bit
dated. But even then, a little discontent and anarchy isn’t a
bad thing, especially in an age when we’re asked by leaders to
just sit back and keep our mouths shut if we disagree with them.
And even if I can’t follow the movie all the way to the end, I
certainly applaud its audacity and the willingness of Jordan and
his film to speak their mind. After all, isn’t that the right
our soldiers are off fighting for, anyhow?
Rating:
êêê
(out of 4)
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