Rent Soldier Blue (1970)

Shocking even today. Watch this film and weep. - Soldier Blue review by RP

Until the last 15 minutes or so you might find this to be a fairly run-of-the-mill Western: Indians attack US cavalry troop, two survivors (naive private + woman who has been freed from Indian captivity) trek across country making for Fort Reunion.

But the final 15 minutes shows the hideous slaughter of defenceless women and children as they cower in tepees while the cavalry bombard a Cheyenne village with cannon fire and charge with sabres drawn. The ensuing massacre and mutilation is shown in gruesome detail.

I saw this at the cinema waaaaaaaay back in 1970 and was shocked - and it's still shocking today. Recently, a friend who worked at a cinema at the time said that of all the hundreds of films she had seen there, this was the one that she simply couldn't watch.

It is a re-telling of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre (look it up on Wikipedia) when some 30 men and 100 women and children were killed and seeing this film led me to take an interest in native American history and to read historian Dee Brown's book 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee'.

The film is beautifully photographed, the songs from Buffy Sainte-Marie (herself of Cree Indian stock) are evocative, and while Candice Bergen's acting and the character she plays are somewhat anachronistic, this does not detract from the power of the film.

It is perhaps a commentary on today's sensibilities that this film is still cut - but today, the cuts are not to spare us from the bloodshed and killings and the depiction of man's inhumanity to man, but according to the BBFC, "to remove the presence of cruel, dangerous and illegal horse falls". Words fail me.

5/5 stars - a little high perhaps, but this reflects the impact the film had on me. Watch it and weep.

Very badly dated 'shock' revisionist western - Soldier Blue review by sb

Clearly intended as a contemporary allegory for atrocities in the Vietnam war and based on a horrific real life massacre of native Americans by US Cavalry, this is exploitation masquerading as an issue film. If it was actually interested in the historical crushing of indigenous Americans in the name of 'manifest destiny' then it might have avoided the insulting casting of mexican actors in principle native american roles. Whilst bookended by two sequences of carnage, the majority of the film is a limp romance between a simpering dolt of a soldier played with a Haight AShbury haircut by Peter Strauss, and Candice Bergan's liberated free spirit. The finale is a 15 minute massacre sequence with US cavalry raining first artillery fire then charging a mostly defenceless Cheyenne encampment. It is still shocking to this day due to the sexualised violence and killing of children, but it's graphic nature is undercut by the use of thick Hammer Horror blood and director Ralph Nelson is a journeyman and absolutely no Sam Peckinpah (a Peckinpah version of this story could have been the most unwatchable film ever made and does not bear thinking about. 

Rent Arthur Penn's Little Big Man for more complex and thoughtful exploration of these themes. 

Tender Romantic Western With A Very Bloody Message - Soldier Blue review by GI

A really quite typical 1970s western that pushed the envelope for screen violence and gained itself a reputation as a result. The trouble with Soldier Blue is that in there is a decent film trying to get out and in the hands of a better, more nuanced director it could have been a masterpiece but Ralph Nelson litters the film with blood squib violence sometimes with slow motion added all rather pointlessly and the films structure at times feels clumsy and childish. But where the film works well is in its central narrative which is a surprisingly tender romance mixed with a survival story. Candice Bergen, in what is probably her most famous role, is Cresta, a former Cheyenne captive, 'rescued' by the cavalry and who is now being escorted back to her fiancé, an army officer. Her escort is massacred in an exciting set piece battle and she escapes along with Honus (Peter Strauss), a naive and prudish soldier. They have to make it across hostile wilderness pitted against the land, Indians and a nasty Indian trader (Donald Pleasance in a wonderful performance) and of course they eventually fall for each other, rather surprisingly actually as they are thoroughly ill matched in every way, and their love changes Honus' attitude to the Indians who he has previously viewed as violent savages and his comrades as noble and morally sound soldiers. The eventual final massacre is the controversial one with the US Army attacking a peaceful Indian village and murdering women and children and dismembering bodies in a blood frenzy. It's clearly an allegory to the Vietnam War and reported American atrocities but the scenes of violence here, designed to shock, are so poorly edited and structured that any emotional impact is lost. Besides the film was heavily cut and that too has weakened its intent. On a more positive note this is an important addition to the revisionist westerns of the 70s despite its controversies. Today it's worth watching for its attempt to reposition the Native American in a genre that has made them nearly always the villain even though other films have done this far better. There's an absolutely marvellous theme song and in the final analysis the film does highlight the genocide of Native Americans more so than any other film I can think of. Worth seeking out if you've never seen it and rewatching if you just remember the nasty bits and have forgotten the overall story.