Soldier Blue [Blu-ray]

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Veering from powerful to ridiculous, this little western continues the trend of telling "Indian stories" from the point of view of "white men" who enter the tribe. Like "A Man Called Horse", "Amistad", "Dances With Wolves", even the recent "Avatar", these films are really just exercises in white guilt. Film scholar Christopher Frayling described Soldier Blue as a "much more angry film" than its contemporary Westerns, which "challenges the language of the traditional Western at the same time as its ideological bases." [20] Frayling also praised its cinematography and visual elements in his 2006 book Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone: "most critics succeeded in missing the really inventive sections of Soldier Blue, which involve Nelson's use of elaborate zooms, and of untraditional compositions, both of which subtly explore the relationship between the 'initiates' and the virgin land which surrounds them." [20]

Soldier Blue is somewhat notorious, and even to this day 23 seconds have been cut by the BBFC. My review copy, however, was uncut, which gave me an opportunity to see the film as it was intended and find out for myself if its notoriety is justified.

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BBC2's print was in an approximate 1.85:1 widescreen ratio, and ran for about 112 minutes (TV speed, though). However, the BBC could not tell me if any material had been censored or cut by them, or by the distributor of the movie. liberating, the most honest American films ever made.” I hope that my book does justice to – in

Cashing in on this trend was "Soldier Blue", notorious for its "massacre sequence" in which boys are shot, children are trampled by horses, squaws are beheaded, men are impaled, women are stripped, breasts are cut, civilians are mutilated and all manners of sadistic evil and re-enacted, all in the name of "keeping the country clean". It's nauseating. Waymark, Peter (December 30, 1971). "Richard Burton top draw in British cinemas". The Times. London. A couple hiking in the great outdoors being kidnapped by a sadistic thug and having to run for their lives News of the My Lai Massacre caused anti-war protesters to grow even more vocal. Support of the Vietnam War was at an all time low, horrific images were all over the news and horror reports flooded the radios. In this era of bloodshed, cinema likewise became increasingly violent, films like "The Wild Bunch", "Straw Dogs", "Blue Soldier" etc, venting their rage on screen. a b Ebert, Roger (January 1, 1970). "Soldier Blue". Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved March 28, 2018– via RogerEbert.com.I'm just saying that it's easy to be pro-Native sitting on the comfort of your sofa, but not so much when you and your loved ones are threatened with torture & slaughter. In a 2005 article on the film in Uncut, Kevin Maher deemed it "a bloody 1970 exploitation western ... [which] has a gore-count worthy of Cannibal Holocaust." [5] TV Guide awarded the film one out of five stars, writing: " Soldier Blue suffers from Bergen's weak performance and Strauss is bland, but the parallel between the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and Vietnam's My Lai incident is disturbing and the film's depiction of Native American life is an explicit attempt to move past Hollywood stereotypes." [19] The central section of the film, when Honus and Cresta are wandering through the wilderness enduring trials and falling in love, is thoughtful, eventful, gentle and exciting. But the raison d'etre of this movie - stated, if obliquely, in Buffy St Marie's opening theme song - is the massacre at the end, which is genuinely horrific (if rather dated in terms of special effects). But what made "Soldier Blue" popular were its allusions to the Vietnam War. The film was released in 1970, several months after news of the My Lai Massacre (and its attempted cover-up) was leaked to the public. The My Lai Massacre, of course, occurred in 1968, and involved a United States Army task force which marched into My Lai, a hamlet in South Vietnam, and killed over 500 civilians.

It looks like a bloodbath down there! What the hell is going on?" – Hugh Thompson (helicopter pilot hovering over My Lai)UK release is the original uncut version at 114 minutes, excludes all 'toned down' material from USA "PG-rated" version and includes all director's material in climatic scene, except for 36 seconds cut from a scene showing the rape of an Indian woman during the massacre of the village." Recalling the film, star Candice Bergen commented that it was "a movie whose heart, if nothing else, was in the right place." [7] In culture [ edit ] Well, I'd actually quite like to get it on DVD, although I'm having problems locating a fully uncensored version. The German DVD release looks to run only 110 minutes, and is cut. Soldier Blue premiered in New York City on August 12, 1970, and opened in Los Angeles two days later on August 14, 1970. [1] Box office [ edit ] Released in August 1970, the film drew attention for its frank depictions of violence, specifically its graphic final sequence. Some film scholars have cited Soldier Blue as a critique of America's "archetypal art form [the Western]," with other interpretations ranging from it being an anti-war picture to an exploitation film. [5] Plot [ edit ]

Curious to know what the movie's about? Here's the plot: "After a cavalry group is massacred by the Cheyenne, only two survivors remain: Honus, a naive private devoted to his duty, and Cresta, a young woman who had lived with the Cheyenne two years and whose sympathies lie more with them than with the US government. Together, they must try to reach the cavalry's main base camp. As they travel onward, Honus is torn between his growing affection for Cresta." But what was worse was the wave of denial that promptly followed. Politicians, generals and congressmen began to downplay the incident, doing their best to keep the massacre under wraps. They succeeded at first, but eventually letters circulated to the press and the incident went public in 1969. Soldier Blue" often gets touted as a "revisionist western", but its actually got more in common with exploitation cinema, of which it's one of the genre's best.

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The film "Soldier Blue" aired on BBC2, late at night on Friday 16th August, between 00:20 and 02:15 hours. The timeslot was kind of understandable, bearing in mind the ending, and the nature of the film itself. Shaun - it's the final 20 minutes of the movie, that give the film its "18" certificate, and also the problems with censorship in most parts of the world. (Even the US still doesn't have an uncut version legally available!)