20 May 2013

walk down memory lane

I had'nt seen that movie since I was 18, now I am 50...wow! It remains as poignant for me as when I first watched it. Candice Beren is probably not the greatest actress ever nor was Peter Strauss,however the message is still string and that we should never forget.

20 May 2013

Widescreen vs. Full Screen

This review is from: Soldier Blue (DVD) After attempting to physically hold a copy of "Soldier Blue" in my hand to see what picture format it's in, I gave up trying to find a copy in three "box stores" local to my area. I was told by one store (after waiting three weeks for it to show up) that their distributor had run out of copies and it would be another 3 to 5 weeks before they could order anymore copies. So, I took a chance and ordered this DVD from Amazon. I ordered it Thursday and it came today. Here is what I found listed on the back of the DVD under "Special Features".. English and Spanish Subtitles. Closed Captioned. Scene Selection. Digitally Mastered. Dolby Monaural Audioand the final word on picture format: . 16 X 9 Widescreen!"Widescreen" is also shown on the front of the DVD at the very top.Thank you Lion's Gate and thank you Amazon!Oh, yeah. Did I mention this DVD is shown in the Widescreen format rather than the Full Screen format? Well, it is!HJJ

20 May 2013

Soldier Blue gives a Different Perspective

A harrowing film, which portays a side of the Union Forces led by misguided, blood-lust Commanding Officers such as Colonel John Chivington (massacre of the Cheyenne at Sand Creek) and Colonel James Forsyth (massacre of Lakota women and children at Wounded knee). Soldier Blue is a counterpoint to the plethora of Cowboy & Indian stories and more, fed to us in the West.

latsblaster

20 May 2013

Soldier Blue Powerful concept but bad execution

The acting, direction and the score (not including the title song) isnot more than mediocre in "Soldier Blue" and the dialog could easilyhave been better. But it is still a film worth seeing, about a youngsoldier's growing knowledge and understanding about truth, justice andvengeance. I think that the general concept with the film works. Itdoes have a brutal end and that is what this film needs. This is trulyanother version of how the west was "won". I recommend it if you areinterested in old fashioned Hollywood "anti-films".Donald Pleasence makes a rather misplaced appearance, it is not one ofhis best roles. A cool thing is the ultra-athletic Jorge Rivero as oneof the indians. Best thing with the film is the famous main title song"Soldier Blue".Rating: 6 of 10.

bumsidaisy

04 May 2013

Wonderful insight into America

Little has changed with the American way of treating those that theydeem as lesser beings. The violence depicted in the film was typical ofthe America of the 21st century. There is still the underlying tonethat America wants to rule the world just as they wanted to rule theAmerica they took by force. The violence depicted in the final scenesof this film brings home the nature of the beast and I find in of greatinterest that this and other scenes that put the general image ofAmerica in a bad light have been censured in a country that is big onputting forward democracy and free speech. Why this is so can only besurmised as being a political stunt to keep the truth from the Americanpeople and this is also echoed in this day and age. The government wantto appear nice and sweep away, under the carpet, the truth.

TM-2

03 May 2013

Gory, ultra violent western released in USA in highly edited form as a love story.

As released in the UK, this movie pushed the limits of movie violence to thevirtually unwatchable. People literally were sick in thetheatres.I saw the movie several times in the theatres and on video. It lost noneof its impact on repeated viewing.My research indicates that since the movie depicted the massacre of anIndian village, it was thought not politically correct for viewing inunedited form in the US. It does show the horror of war in a most graphicway. I have not seen anything since that is even remotelyclose.The highly edited US version shows the power and degree of censorship thatexisted in the US. To my knowledge, the movie is still not available in theUS in unedited form.

Neil Welch

28 April 2013

Very good

I saw Soldier Blue several times at the cinema when it first came out,covered in notoriety, and have watched it a number of times since.The story is simple. A cavalry detail is wiped out by Indians. The onlysurvivors are cavalryman Honus Gant (Peter Strauss) and "rescued" (fromIndians) Cresta Maribel Lee (Candice Bergman). As they trek back tocivilisation, encountering further Indians as well as creepy gunrunnerIsaac Q Cumber (geddit?) (Donald Pleasance), they argue because Crestaseeks to challenge Honus' preconceptions of the Indians as murderoussavages and, gradually, fall in love. When they finally reach the"civilisation" of a forward army camp, they are just in time to witnessthe horrific slaughter of a peaceful Indian settlement by the cavalry,making it clear to Honus (and the audience) that not only was thesavagery far from one-sided, in the cavalry's case it was backed up bysuperior weaponry.The central section of the film, when Honus and Cresta are wanderingthrough the wilderness enduring trials and falling in love, isthoughtful, eventful, gentle and exciting. But the raison d'etre ofthis movie - stated, if obliquely, in Buffy St Marie's opening themesong - is the massacre at the end, which is genuinely horrific (ifrather dated in terms of special effects).The opening attack is set in order to align the audience's sympathieswith Honus, so that we travel on the same journey as him, starting byregarding the Indians as murderous barbarians, and ending up forced toconfront the idea that maybe it is we who are barbaric.Peter Strauss and Candice Bergen both give perhaps their bestperformances ever.An over-sensationalised and under-rated movie.

27 April 2013

Heady western

This review is from: Soldier Blue (DVD) Graphic even by today's standards. With each of these movies about theAmerican West, you see the cavalry and the established tribes, interact.Actually no good guys, no bad guys...just one group stronger at the sceneat the time. Sure, there are good people on both sides but crowd mentalityreigns when sabres are rattling, arrows are flying, tomahawks are threatening and gunpowder is exploding. A sobering movie about a differentscenerio but the violence is still existing today.

ray.brad

16 April 2013

a great film

1 saw soldier blue when it first came out,before all the cuts,and stillenjoy watching it today even on the censored video that i own.i would loveto see it re-released again on the cinema restored to all its glory. thisfilms got it all romance comedy drama plus a great sound track 10 out of10

Woland

16 April 2013

Great anti-war movie butchered by US censors

I have seen this movie in Poland in '70s. It ran it is entiretyincluding shocking final scene where brave US Cavalry massacres entireIndian village - women and children included - after village chieftainmakes a peaceful gesture and tries to meet soldier wearing "medal thatGreat Father in Washington gave him". Violence in this movie has veryfew parallels - soldiers cutting women's breasts off and impaling kidson their sabers - trying to get several of them on - as a shish kebabmacabre. All that was shown in Poland - communists country where therewas no freedom of speech or freedom of press. Yet in a "free" UnitedStates that movie is not available except for highly edited version.What is WRONG with such picture? Why are American scared of their ownhistory? Why do we allow a complete fairytale fabrications to pass ashistorical facts? If we do not LEARN from past mistakes we are doomedto endlessly ask "why do they hate us?".

The_Void

30 March 2013

One of the most potent anti-war films ever made!

Soldier Blue is a rather odd film. It's a mixture of a war film and awestern; it's a film about war, but instead of focusing on the war, wefocus on just two characters and their conflicting ideologies anddespite it's reputation for having a high shock value, most of itactually plays out like something you might see in one of thosewesterns/war flicks that gets played on TV on a Sunday afternoon. Thisis a well made film, but for all the conflicting elements; I'm notsurprised that the film has been banished into obscurity. The filmtakes place during the American civil war and focuses on the warbetween the US Army and the native Indians. At the start of the film,we witness a US cavalry group get slaughtered by Indians, leaving onlythe naive private Honus and a world-weary young girl named Crestaalive. Despite their differences, the pair band together to try andreach a US fortress where they will be safe and in the process developan understanding. We follow the two of them as they make their waythrough the Wild West...Soldier Blue is actually a really clever film and packs a hell of a lotmore of a punch than many other anti-war movies out there. The majorityof the film focuses on the two central characters and everything feelsrather light-hearted. We get to know the pair of them and watch themsquabble and it's all rather fun and amusing to watch. The anti-warideology comes through by way of the character of Cresta; ananti-American native Indian sympathiser whose beliefs are the directopposite of the young soldier she is travelling with. She makes goodpoints throughout, but director Ralph Nelson never shoves anything downthe audience's throats; it's not until the end that the real point ofthe movie comes through, and while the violence is strong (this filmfeatures one of the greatest beheading sequences ever filmed!), it'spoint is clearly defined and the anti-war message is so much morepotent than it would have been if the idea was enforced with a sledgehammer. The film is excellently produced and acted, with Candice Bergenthoroughly convincing in the lead role and getting good support fromPeter Strauss; and the film also features a memorable role for thegreat Donald Pleasance. Overall, this is a bizarre movie but it is onethat is definitely worth seeing and while the climax may be too strongfor some, it's hard to deny its power. Highly recommended viewing!

30 March 2013

Soldier Blue

It is the Roy Budd's first film music work. We never listen to its brilliant title song in other media, such as soundtrack cd...It's one of the best Roy Budd fan's collector item.

Daywalker

22 March 2013

A hushed up sad chapter in the American history

Well, nearly the whole film tells the love story of a woman who has grown upat the Indians and an American soldier as well as their survival in thewilderness. The last 15 minutes however have the same shocking effect othercontroversial films like "Cannibal Holocaust" or "I spit on your grave" havegot: it is shown how the US-cavalry massacres/slaughters an innocent andpeaceful Indian tribe, how children get killed or even beheaded, women getraped and tortured to death, how genocide was done in the name of freedom,democracy and liberality. Extremely graphic, shocking and disturbing!!! Apositive aspect of "Soldier Blue" is, that this film doesn´t deal with thetypical "good Americans/bad Indians"-cliché: in this movie you won´t see aglorious hero like John Wayne riding into the sunset at the end, because"Soldier Blue" shows the darkest side of the American glory..!

Erewhon

21 March 2013

Crass, crudely manipulative garbage

A badly-acted two-character comedy-drama abruptly transmogrifies into aweren't-we-awful-to-the-Indians polemic, with lousy special effects,exploitative use of nudity, and ugly violence. It's as sincere as apolitician's handshake, as obvious as a car salesman's pitch, one of theworst movies in the history of the universe. Absolute and utterdreck.

13 March 2013

In agreement with condemnation of the fullscreen release ...

I want to add my voice to the other reviews, slamming Lion's Gate for the decision to release this fine film in full-screen. I had been waiting for several years for a North American DVD release of "Soldier Blue," and now that it's here, I won't go anywhere near it. Get real!

jtboyd

13 March 2013

PC Police strike again

It's unfortunate that this landmark film is not available in the US. PeterStrauss and Candice Bergen were phenomenal displaying incredible presenceduring their early careers. The attack scene on the Cheyenne village was alittle too much for most viewers but I think accurately depicted some oftheatrocities committed against Native Americans during the frontiersettlementperiod. If you have a chance to see this film don't miss it. It's muchmoreimportant than anything the likes of Sam Peckinpah turned out during thesame timeframe. 9/10

GrandpaBunche

05 February 2013

Proof that you cant have your cake and eat it too.

When Sam Peckinpah's superlative THE WILD BUNCH (1969) opened the doorto outrageous displays of graphic cinematic ultra-violence, it did sowith a talented (if whisky-marinated) hand guiding the camera and had acompelling story with characters who had actual depth, but in no timeflat there were scores of imitators that fell far from the benchmarkset by Peckinpah's epic, and SOLDIER BLUE definitely falls into thatcategory.SOLDIER BLEW, er, BLUE tells the story of foul-mouthed New YorkerCresta Lee (Candice Bergen) a blonde proto-hippie chick who's been"rescued" from two years of "captivity" among the Cheyenne and is nowbeing sent to a fort where she'll be reunited with the fiancée she onlywants to marry for his money. Also on board the wagon she's travelingin is a shipment of government gold, cash the Cheyenne need to buy gunswith, so in short order the soldiers are wiped out and Cresta flees tothe hills, accompanied by Honus Gant (Peter Strauss), the lonesurviving cavalryman. Calling Gant by the snarky nickname "SoldierBlue," Cresta demonstrates that her years among the "savages" was timewell spent, outstripping Gant in survival skills, common sense, andsheer balls, and over their journey toward the fort they must persevereagainst the elements, a band of hostile Kiowa, an unscrupulous trader —played by Donald Pleasance, here giving one of his most ridiculousperformances, and that's saying something — and, in the tradition ofmany previous western-set romantic comedies, each other.During the course of their misadventures the two opposites areinevitably — and predictably — attracted to each other and eventuallyend up getting it on — while Gant has a freshly- treated bullet woundthat went clean through his leg, no less — in what was surely the onlyconveniently located cave for at least a twelve mile radius that wasn'tfilled with rattlesnakes, mountain lions, or who knows what, to saynothing of the Cheyenne, who could have done something really spiffywith such a primo apartment (there I go, thinking in NYC real estateterms again). Realizing that their love could never flourish outside of the cave,Cresta leaves Gant and makes it to the fort by herself only to discoverthat the moron in charge won't spare a couple of men so they can rescueGant; the regiment needs all available personnel to launch an attack onthe nearby Cheyenne village, and once Cresta gets wind of that sheslips past her obnoxiously horny hubby-to-be and makes a beelinestraight to the Cheyenne to warn them of what's coming. What happens next is what gained the film its infamy; it turns out thatall the wacky misadventures and squabbling were all just a lead-in to ahideous reenactment of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, an orgy of rape,torture and general sadistic evil perpetrated in the name of "keepingthe country clean," and almost forty years after its release thissequence still disturbs and nauseates for its sheer cruelty. Childrenare trampled beneath the hooves of charging horses or impaled onbayonets, unarmed people are beheaded — a nice effect, I have to admit— women are stripped and pawed by gangs of slavering brutes, then rapedand mutilated — in one truly sickening instance a naked native womanputs up too much of a fight, so her rapist instead decides to cut offher breasts, which we thankfully only see the start of before thecamera moves on to chronicle some other hideous act — and scores ofinnocent people are shot and dismembered, their compone nt partsimpaled on pikes and waved about in victorious celebration or kept asthe most ghoulish of souvenirs. No joke, this scene would instantlygarner an NC-17 rating if released today, to say nothing of possiblyspurring Native American interest groups to riot in the streets overthe incredibly exploitative manner in which the atrocities aredepicted.I'm all in favor of westerns that don't shy away from honest portrayalsof how the west was won, or stolen if truth be told, but this film hasno idea of what kind of movie it wants to be; one minute it's aheavy-handed pseudo-hippy lecture about how the treatment of thenatives was totally effed up (well, DUH!), then it's a light-heartedbattle of the sexes farce wherein Cresta proves herself five times theman Gant is and manages to look hot in her tasty red calico poncho(with no undies), but that all goes out the window when DonaldPleasance shows up with an unintentionally (?) hilarious pair ofbuck-toothed dentures and our heroes must figure out how to escape fromhis murderous clutches in a sub-plot that goes nowhere, all of whichculminates in the aforementioned apocalyptic climax. Any one of thosetacks would have been okay for a coherent film, but the end result is aslapdash mess that milked the horrors of its final ten minutes for allthey were worth in the film's promotion and poster imagery. But by trying to be all things to all audiences, SOLDIER BLUE ends upas an incoherent, preachy Mulligan stew of presumably well-intentionedpolitical correctness, but if they were going to tell the story of theSand Creek Massacre, wouldn't it have been a good idea to have someIndian characters who were more than just walk-ons with Murphy Brownacting as their mouthpiece? We get to know absolutely nothing of thepeople who get wiped out solely for what appears to be a crass ploy tolure gorehound moviegoers into seeing "the most savage film inhistory." If you, like me, were intrigued by the provocative ads andreviews that shower almost endless praise upon it for its "daring totell it like it was," take my word for it and let SOLDIER BLUE slowlyfade into cinematic obscurity.

05 February 2013

How the West was really won

Soldier Blue was made as a biting allegory of the Vietnam war. It divided critics at the time of its release and indeed, continues to do so. It is extremely brutal but not gratuitously so. The appalling acts depicted are shown from the point of view that this actually happened, as opposed to well lets give the audience some gore. People seeing the film tend to be shocked from the former point of view as opposed to the latter.The film opens deceptively with a Cheyenne massacre of a US Cavalry troop guarding a pay chest. The survivors of the massacre are one naive boy soldier and a savvy, young frontier woman, played superbly by Peter Strauss, and Candice Bergen respectively. Their adventures and subsequent romance are then chronicled. Along the way they encounter Donald Pleasance's superbly sinister arms smuggler. The film's climax is a savage massacre of a Cheyenne village by the US Army - based on the real life events at Sand Creek, Colorado. In an orgy of blood lust, women and children are slaughtered and body parts are taken as trophies. By this time the film has swung 180 degrees from its opening, and has established the root cause of the suffering which is the white man's treatment of the native american. During all this, Strauss' character has changed from naive volunteer soldier to conscientious objector while the character of Candice Bergen remains the hope of reconciliation and co-existence.The film is brutally honest and makes its point more effectively than other bigger budget films of the same genre eg. Dances With Wolves. Sadly (until the Lions Gate release)the film was not readily available in the USA. I would hope that this re release of the film on dvd, is in its completely uncut version. The film is available on both dvd and vhs here in the UK but it is the cut version. In the current climate, this re release of a brutally honest recreation of a bloody piece of American history, is timely and should be well received. I strongly urge people to see this film and form their own conclusions, however.As a footnote, should the Lions Gate release turn out to be the cut version then be aware that the film was released on dvd, in its completely uncut version in Germany, as of July 2004. The film looks absolutely fantastic on dvd, picture and sound quality are incredible for a film of this age. Having seen this version, has made me realise that the 'uncut' version I saw in the UK years ago was in fact slightly cut. Therefore, be warned, this version is very strong viewing, indeed. Any previously 'uncut' version that you saw in the past probably was in fact censored to some degree. This version of the film is titled 'Das Wiegenlied Vom Totschlag' and is available from Amazon De, which is where I got my copy from. It is a Region 2/Pal dvd, so just be aware that your dvd player may not be able to play this format. Definitely a film worth upgrading to multi region play though. Fans of the film who would prefer to see the film in an Anamorphic 16.9 picture (as opposed to full screen on the Lions Gate dvd) will be delighted to know that this particular dvd is released in the 16.9 format.Technical details as follows:- Title is Das Wiegenlied Vom Totschlag- Sound is Dolby Digital mono.- Format is 16.9 anamorphic- Area is Region 2/Pal- Extras are a theatrical trailer- Running time is 110 mins.- Languages available are English, German, Italian, and Spanish

Neil Welch

29 January 2013

Very good

I saw Soldier Blue several times at the cinema when it first came out,covered in notoriety, and have watched it a number of times since.The story is simple. A cavalry detail is wiped out by Indians. The onlysurvivors are cavalryman Honus Gant (Peter Strauss) and "rescued" (fromIndians) Cresta Maribel Lee (Candice Bergen). As they trek back tocivilisation, encountering further Indians as well as creepy gunrunnerIsaac Q Cumber (geddit?) (Donald Pleasance), they argue because Crestaseeks to challenge Honus' preconceptions of the Indians as murderoussavages and, gradually, fall in love. When they finally reach the"civilisation" of a forward army camp, they are just in time to witnessthe horrific slaughter of a peaceful Indian settlement by the cavalry,making it clear to Honus (and the audience) that not only was thesavagery far from one-sided, in the cavalry's case it was backed up bysuperior weaponry.The central section of the film, when Honus and Cresta are wanderingthrough the wilderness enduring trials and falling in love, isthoughtful, eventful, gentle and exciting. But the raison d'etre ofthis movie - stated, if obliquely, in Buffy St Marie's opening themesong - is the massacre at the end, which is genuinely horrific (ifrather dated in terms of special effects).The opening attack is set in order to align the audience's sympathieswith Honus, so that we travel on the same journey as him, starting byregarding the Indians as murderous barbarians, and ending up forced toconfront the idea that maybe it is we who are barbaric.Peter Strauss and Candice Bergen both give perhaps their bestperformances ever.An over-sensationalised and under-rated movie.

ma-cortes

28 January 2013

Nice western film with great load of blood and gore

The movie talks on a soldier (Peter Strauss) and a woman(CandiceBergen) abducted by Indians and now freed. Later on, they are attackedand will have to face off deal dangers and taking on a cutthroat armssmuggler (Donald Plesence) until a final massacre.In this Vietnam-era Western there are noisy action ,shootouts, fights,a love story ,extraordinary landscapes and a big deal of gratuitousviolence. The film is based on real deeds regarding to ¨Sand Creekmassacre¨ and there are some remembrance about some Vietnam killingsand hardship on racial themes by that time. The highlight of the movie,of course, is the Cheyenne massacre with lots of blood and guts, itresults to be an authentic butchery and was censorship, prohibited,cut, and severely trimmed in some countries. The motion picture isclassified ¨R¨ for the cruel murders and isn't apt for boys, neithersqueamish . The violence of its Indian slaughters , in which seeminglyevery part of the bodies were slice off and blood fountained all overthe screen , brought worldwide queues and much criticism in thenewspapers. The picture obtained much success, in spite of violence andcrude theme and excessive final brutality. The ending confrontationamongst the cavalry and and the hapless Cheyennes is breathtaking andoverwhelming. Peter Strauss interpretation as naive and innocent ¨Soldier Blue¨ istop notch and Candice Bergen as the reckless and impulsive girl ismagnificent. Robert Hauser cinematography is excellent, the landscapesare glittering and spectacular. Roy Budd musical score is atmosphericand imaginative. The motion picture is well directed by Ralph Nelsonthough he develops an extreme ¨exploitation violence¨ in the finalepisode. Nelson traveled the world to defend the film, his biggestbox-office hit, , insisting that the violence was utterly necessary andit was sincerely meant . Rating: Good, though very criticized for goryscenes . Well Catching, a read met for action-starved Indian Westernbuffs who will enjoy the action and themes.