Soldier Blue (1970)
Westerns about someone selling weapons to the natives is a common theme. I saw one, The Man From Laramie, just last week. Soldier Blue uses this to turn it around to the natives point of view. Even though the seller is just doing it for money, for them it is about survival end self defense. The movie has a very clear and outright stated motive of showing the viewer the atrocities committed against the American natives by white settlers. In that sense it is an important movie with an important message. I am sure not the first to challenge this period in American history, but definitely a milestone when it comes to going all in on showing the brutality. The problem is however, that an important movie isn’t necessarily a good movie.
The frame of the story with a woman recently freed from captivity from Cheyenne and a young soldier, both the only survivors of an attack, is a solid one at establishing two different world views. The young soldier is devastated seeing all his comrades killed but the woman doesn’t show much empathy, because after a couple of years as part of a Cheyenne tribe, she has experienced it from the other side. All this leads up to the final Sand Creek massacre which the movie is infamous for.
The issue lies with the execution, because the two main actors doesn’t really give a convincing performance. I found their acting artificial and exaggerated. The whole tone of the movie is mostly serious, but with some odd silly moments and score that sometimes feels out of place. The final massacre is brutal, I mean it is never nice to see dozens of children being beheaded, maimed and slaughtered, but I am sure people used to gore movies wouldn’t count this as “the most savage movie of all time”.
Rating: 3.5