A Soldier's Story

Continuing to get through the backlog of movies on my DVR, another recent viewing was A Soldier's Story, which TCM ran as part of the Black Experience in Film spotlight in September.

Tynin, Louisiana, 1944. Sgt. Waters (Adolph Caesar) is stationed at the army base there. It's the height of World War II, but Waters is black, and the military wouldn't be desegregated until a few years after the war ended. In fact, Waters' men would like to go over to Europe to fight Hitler but feel the Army isn't letting them. Anyhow, Waters is getting drunk at one of the bars in town befor staggering back to base. Except that he doesn't make it there, as somebody with a gun accosts him, ultimately shooting him dead.

The higher-ups in Washington send Capt. Davenport (Howard E. Rollins) down to Louisiana to do more than the cursory investigation the locals have done. He's not just black, but an officer to boot, being equl in rank to the whites commanding the base. Capt. Taylor (Dennis Lipscomb) is very reluctant to let Davenport investigate, not so much because of whatever racist views he personally espouses, but because he knows the white locals are never going to accept a black guy trying to make an arrest in the case, and everybody knows it just had to be a racist white who shot Waters.

Undaunted, Davenport starts his investigation by interviewing the men who served under him. He quickly begins to discover that Waters was a difficult man, to put it politely, and that a lot of people had a good reason to hate him. Pvt. Wilkie (Art Evans) was formerly a sergeant like Waters, but busted in rank for a minor violation, giving him a grudge against Waters. PFC Peterson (Denzel Washington) is, like the rest of the men on in the platoon, on the all-black baseball team, and his questioning of Waters' discipline ultimately leads Waters to pick a fight with him. (All of these incidents are depicted as flashbacks, making Caesar as much the star as Rollins.)

Waters' issues stem from the fact that he served with distinction in World War I, but for all that service only received racism in reply. People like Oscar Micheaux who made race films in the era just after World War I were very active in the discussion on the best way forward for blacks to try to achieve full equality, and Waters is thoroughly on the side of the debate that blacks had better be the most morally upright, perfect people possible. Indeed, he's gone so far that he's developed quite the animus towards those southern blacks who seem to take a more gradualist approach. He's especially irritated with what he sees as the lazy blacks of the sort represented by Memphis (Larry Riley) who, in addition to serving under Waters is a talented musician -- but of the wrong kind of music.

As I was watching A Soldier's Story, I couldn't help but think of two other films: I Want to Live! and 10 Rillington Place. I've mentioned both of them on several occasions since they're both clearly making strong anti-death penalty points. But I Want to Live! is a stellar example of how not to do it, being heavy-handed and propagandistic, while 10 Rillington Place is not only more subtle, but also focused on the story and does a darn good job of doing it.

In that regard, A Soldier's Story comes off even better than 10 Rillington Place: at its heart is a good mystery that doesn't have a cop-out resolution and is extremely well-acted in addition to being well-written. And even though the racial issues are unavoidable and always on the surface, the complex issues are presented extremely thoughtfully and fairly. Everybody here is deeply human and understandable in their motivations, and the difficult question of who is right in his views is left for the viewer to ponder and come to their own decision.

A Soldier's Story is an outstanding movie that deserves to be better-known than it is.