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Howard E Rollins Jnr investigates a racially motivated murder with a difference in A Soldier's Story |
Jewison’s adaptation of a notable stage success by Charles
Fuller is a professionally mounted, sharp film – nominated for Best Picture in
1984, but largely forgotten since – that while never quite inspired, does
provide plenty of insightful racial commentary on America. It never quite
manages to come together as a film – and at times its pace is still
better suited to the theatre than the movies –but it counterbalances this with its
strength of good acting and an underplayed anger at divisions in America.
Racism is at the heart of the film. Many types of it.
Jewison’s opening sequence – depicting Davenport’s arrival on the bus –
provides us plenty of sightings of America’s apartheid, segregation being
clearly visible in shops, benches and the bus itself. Davenport is addressed as
“boy” and instinctive racial unease and disgust is in the eyes of every
townsperson we meet. The officers range from paternalistic to patronisingly
contemptuous of their men. Every element of the base is designed to remind the
soldiers of their second-class status. Davenport is only with great reluctance
allowed the trappings of his fellow officers. The film ends with a march of the
soldiers towards war – a war they are volunteering to fight in, to protect a
country that sees them as less-than-human.
But at its heart this is a film about the real insidious
horror of racism. How it can turn someone against themselves. Because the real
racial villain, it becomes clear, was actually Sergeant Walters himself. Played
with a tightly-wound, self-loathing resentfulness by Adolph Caesar (repeating
his stage role and Oscar nominated), Walters loathes the black men under his
charge. He sees them as embodying the elements of black culture that (he
believes) has led to them being treated so poorly by the whites. He hates their
choices in music, in food, the way their talk. Most of all he hates the late
Private CJ Memphis (Larry Riley), a good-natured, music-playing, sweet soldier
who he believes embodies all the casualness and simplicity that he believes his
people need to put them behind them to gain respect.
It’s Fuller’s brilliant insight that the most insidious
thing about racism is that it is about creating barriers and hatreds – and it
can lead to a black man loathing himself and his own people for not being
white. Bad enough that the rest of society is against black people: worse that
it is also secretly encouraging them to turn on each other. The tensions in the
company all stem from Walters barely concealed unease at his colour, and his
fury that his men don’t feel the same way.
Unwrapping in a series of flashbacks as Davenport
investigates, the film reveals a fascinating series of tableau that
demonstrates the confusion in Walters’ psyche and the impact it has on others.
In a society where everything is all against them – as Jewison’s film is at pains
to show – these are people who should be sticking together. Instead Walters
crusade is to turn them against themselves and each other – to deny who they
are in an attempt to become their oppressors. The quest for an acceptance that
Walters eventually realises will never happen.
Because, as he bitterly states, no matter how much blood a
black man sheds for America, no matter what sacrifices he makes – to many he
will still be an “other”. Someone who the people of Louisiana are happy to have
fight for them, but wouldn’t share a park bench with. These destructive
attitudes are there as well in Davenport’s attempts to investigate, butting up
against resentment from junior officers who can’t stomach being spoken to like
this by a black man. Howard E Rollins Jnr plays the role with a terrific cool
underneath which lies a tightly-controlled fury (he rather effectively channels
Poitier in In the Heat of the Night).
A Soldier’s Story is crammed with some wonderful and
challenging insights into race. It has a wonderful cast – Art Evans and a young
Denzel Washington also stand-out – and a real sense of moral outrage at the
evil of racism. What it sometimes lacks is the energy and dynamism the story
needs to carry more immediate impact. Too often the film feels a little too
safe, a little too conventional to really grip. It wraps up things with a
rather conventional feel-good position (with Davenport and Dennis Lipscomb’s
Captain Taylor coming to a soapy ‘mutual respect’ position). With the pace
slightly off, it can drag at times. However, it’s insight can’t be doubted: it
will certainly make you consider that the impact of racism can be even deeper
and more damaging than the obvious, initial signs.
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