A Look At A Sad Chapter In U.S. History

NOTE: This review applies to the uncut version of the film that was released in 2006 on DVD by Lionsgate, and not the 'PG'-rated version that had been in circulation for so long.

Released in 1970, director Ralph Nelson's western epic SOLDIER BLUE was one of three films released that year (the others being A MAN CALLED HORSE and LITTLE BIG MAN) that attempted to direct the age-old white man/Indians conflict on the big screen away from the blindly pro-American John Wayne mentality to something closer to historical truth.

A loose retelling of the 1864 Sand Creek, Colorado massacre of Indians by the U.S. Cavalry, the movie stars Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss as, respectively, a white woman and a disenfranchised cavalry office who are the only survivors of a savage attack on an Army payroll by Cheyenne Indians. Incredibly, they wind up falling in love, though they conflict over the behavior of the Cheyenne. Bergen had been raised for two years with the Cheyenne and believes them to be the ones being wronged in the Cavalry-versus-Indians conflict. Strauss, however, does not see it that way, until the two of them, having escaped from a sadistic gunrunner (Donald Pleasance), make it to an Army fort and discover the plans of a Custer-like general (John Anderson) to wipe out the Cheyenne in retaliation for the payroll attack.

At this point, Bergen rides off to warn the Cheyenne of Anderson's grand designs on them, while Strauss rides in to advise Anderson not to wipe them out. But Anderson will not listen. As Anderson's troop comes to the outskirts of the Cheyenne village, the Cheyennes' chief raises the American flag, as if in supplication. Sadly, however, the gesture is too little, too late; and the result is the wholesale destruction of the village and its inhabitants--and by wholesale, I mean not just fire, but rape, pillage, and almost unprecedented and extreme prejudice.

The film's attributes are many. The performances by Strauss and Bergen are very good, and the cinematography, done on location in the mountains near Durango, Mexico during the winter of 1969-70, does capture the vast Colorado territory in its virgin glory. The story is also very pointed. Some would regard its attempt to equate Indian suffering with the horrors of the Vietnam war as being a little bit too pretentious, but the similarities are there, even if they are separated by about 100 years of history and several thousand miles.

But there is one indisputable fact of this film that cannot be ignored anymore thanks to Lionsgate's re-release of it. Anyone who has only watched the watered-down version of SOLDIER BLUE better be prepared for the climax of this original and uncut version, because it is upsetting, unsparing, and extremely violent--almost the sagebrush equivalent of a horror film, in many ways. The destruction of the Cheyenne is one of the cruelest things ever captured on film, with much in the way of blood, gore, rape, dismemberment, and a hideous decapitation.

So why do I recommend a film that exceeds even THE WILD BUNCH's climax and rivals SAVING PRIVATE RYAN's opening in terms of violence? Simply, because SOLDIER BLUE forces us to confront a very sad and terrible chapter in our history. It's very easy for us as Americans to point out the horrors that Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Saddam, and other foreign tyrants have meted out on others throughout history (not to mention Osama Bin-Laden ordering the killing of 3,000-plus on 9/11), but not as easy to look at our own dirty laundry. The native American population has been terribly wronged throughout our history, and we have yet to seriously acknowledge that fact.

Roy Budd's music score, punctuated by Cree Indian folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie's title song, gives SOLDIER BLUE its frequently poignant atmosphere. Admittedly, it is skewed severely against the government (making it perhaps the FAHRENHEIT 9/11 of the Western genre); and undoubtedly, others will still have a tough time with the horribly violent climax. But SOLDIER BLUE can now finally be judged fairly and accurately through this uncut version; and perhaps we can finally come to terms with our past history, which is not necessarily as great as we've made it out to be.