Outrage in Foreign Fields (Buffalo Soldiers (2003) (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Buffalo Soldiers (2003) (DVD)
Date:	01/06/04 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stylish, Very Different, Captivating

Disadvantages: Violent at times

When Bob Marley warbled his classic ?Buffalo Soldiers?, he must have had the screenplay from the 2001 movie in mind. A Film 4/Good Machine collaboration, a diverse and talented cast are brought together to tell an unusual but highly entertaining tale of black marketeering and corruption based in a US Army base in Germany.
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Director: Gregor Jordan
Run Time: 98 minutes
Cert: 15

Main Cast:

Joaquin Phoenix ~ Ray Elwood
Ed Harris ~ Colonel Berman
Scott Glenn ~ Sergeant Lee
Anna Paquin ~ Robyn Lee
Elizabeth McGovern ~ Mrs. Berman
Michael Pena ~ Garcia
Leon ~ Stoney
Gabriel Mann ~ Knoll
Dean Stockwell ~ General Lancaster
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Joaquin Pheonix (Gladiator, Signs) plays Ray Elwood, an administration clerk who knows everything about the comings and goings at the base by day and trades in drugs and commodities by night. He has it made with the 3 loves of his life: his Mercedes Benz car, no speed limit on the autobahn and his mastery of the black market.

This all changes when a new Sergeant arrives. Scott Glenn (Training Day, Backdraft) is a mean, Vietnam veteran who takes an instant dislike to the wheeling and dealing of Elwood. However, in an attempt to show he is in control, Elwood decides to date the new Sergeant?s daughter, Anna Paquin (X-Men). Needless to say, this isn?t well received by her father who watches them from a window making love in Elwood?s car after the date.


In the meantime, the camp impressario has gone one step further with his drug dealing by taking a cache of arms and trading them for a consignment of drugs with a local German drug baron. The problem is that the set up at the base has started to fall apart with drug pick ups being intercepted and the black, vegetarian head MP starting to get frustrated at his supply line failing to deliver (He works closely with Elwood at the top of the camp drugs ladder).

Elwood?s control over the situation has started to spiral downwards with a psychopathic commanding office on his case, the local army base drug set up disintegrating into chaos and things in general starting to turn nasty.

Buffalo Soldiers is a stylish movie. Set against the backdrop of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gregor Jordan captures that late 80?s feel (this is 1989) with a mainly bored group of soldiers who turn to drugs to relieve the tedium of the prevailing peace. Jordan is yet another export from the land of Oz who has since gone on to direct Ned Kelly. In Buffalo Soldiers he seems to have borrowed a little from Tarrantino in both the depiction of stylised violence whilst managing to capture a hip feel to the whole thing. A trendy back track that brings an up to date feel, coupled with the odd 80?s song (New Order amongst others) lend a modern punch to a very inventive army tale.

There is more than a suggestion of black comedy, especially when a couple of soldiers shoot up on illegal substances while on manoeuvres resulting in them running amok in their tank. In a few minutes of madness, they run through the middle of a German market, flattening several stalls, completely crush a VW beetle (greeted by a spaced out ?We?ve just crushed a beetle? from inside the tank) and eventually blow up a petrol station! This is just one example of the U
3; army being shown in a less than complimentary light in a movie that was also called ?Army Go Home? on the DVD release in Germany.

Pheonix excelled as the thoroughly corrupt Caesar in Gladiator and, here again, he rises to a very different challenge. His laid back, cool approach to life is carried well, helped to a degree by the surreal imagery that runs throughout the film of him falling from the sky. These dreams do become significant both in his relationship with Robyn Lee (Anna Paquin) and the movie?s dramatic climax. His exchanges with the incompetent Colonel Berman (Ed Harris) are probably more typical of a more Sergeant Bilko-like "the inmates are running the asylum kind of thang" but Berman?s ignorance to what is going on around him just serves further to undermine the image of the Americans in occupation.

Anna Paquin has progressed since her willingness to freeze the male population in X-Men and looks decidedly sexy (particularly in a shot of her swimming underwater) as the E dispensing Robyn Lee and belies that initial butter wouldn?t melt appearance very nicely as her affair with Elwood takes off. The scene where the two are together on the diving board with Elwood clearly uncomfortable at the thought of diving off it whist his girlfriend looks more at home in an Olympic diving contest seems to symbolise both their involvement and Elwood?s unhappy background following his previous revelation in a German nightclub that the only reason he is in the Army is as an alternative to doing a stretch in prison for previous misdemeanours back in the States.

Drugs are central to the movie and provide the catalyst for most of the plot. The spiderweb of drug dealing both inside the camp and out is succinctly captured although the hazy imagery of the crack cooking
towards the end in a key phase of the movie is a little confusing. Maybe this was intended, I?m not sure but I did find events a little tricky to follow at points. Maybe I?d been stoned by the whispers of crack swirling in the atmosphere as the soldiers furiously tried to keep the mix at the right temperature throughout their all night cooking session?

This is a surprisingly strong cast with further contributions from Ed Harris, Dean Stockwell although Scott Glenn steals the show in a scary showing as a Vietnam vet who reveals just how much he enjoyed his killing sprees under the banner of the Stars and Stripes. Glenn looks every inch the rugged, psycho type whose violence appears to have no bounds as the story progresses. With Elwood and a black associate serving drinks at an officers function, a conversation carried out at a quiet pitch shows Glenn as the crazed bigot he really is.

Buffalo Soldiers is a real curiosity with a real departure from traditional story telling centred around the US army. It?s nice to see that almost perfect representation that Hollywood generally insists on systematically picked apart in a story that will keep the viewer gripped throughout. The movie operates on levels similar to Pulp Fiction so if you like black comedy with a penchant for violence then this will be for you. I loved this movie and would definitely recommend it but it?s certainly not family viewing and won?t suit everyone. After all these years, maybe it is time that the army did go home?

Thanks for reading

Marandina

Available on VHS & DVD via the usual outlets e.g. Amazon: DVD is retailing at £14.39 Video at £8.99.

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