Soldier Blue — Soldier Blue(Blu Ray)
Soldier Blue is an early 1970s US revisionist western with a very troubling/extremely violent twist in its tail- as it recreates the infamous 1864 Sand Creek massacre in Colorado by the U.S. Cavalry on a Cheyenne Indian village. The film largely follows the plight of a loyal/naive soldier and a young white woman who is due to marry a cavalry captain- as they try & to get back to safety after being attacked by Cheyenne. The main of the film charts the pair's love/ hate relationship, and the various obstacles they face- with splatters of violence peppered throughout….but boy wait until you get to the last twenty minutes, as we see the rape, pillaging, and execution of a village of 500 native Americans. Here from Studiocanal’s Cult Classics Collection is a fully uncut version of the film, with a new restoration/ scan of the picture. And a small selection of new and archive extras.
Soldier Blue is from the year 1970 and was filmed in the ragged/ sunbaked landscapes of Mexico. It was directed by Long Island City, New York born Ralph Nelson. Between the late 40’s and late 70’s- he had eleven features and thirty TV credits. His features take in the likes of sporting drama Requiem for a Heavyweight(1962), adventure comedy Father Goose (1946), and blacksploitation drama A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich (1977).
The film opens with a group of Cavalry soldiers coming to pick up Cresta (Candice Bergen) a young white woman dressed in a big flowing white dress- we’re told she has been in capture by the native Indian tribe for some months, and now is due to be transferred back to her intended officer boyfriend. After not long on their way, they are attacked by a group of Indians- who gun down most of the group of about ten- the only two survivors are Cresta and by-the-book/ fairly timid soldier Honus( Peter Strauss).
The first hour or so of this one-hour and fifty-five-minute film follows the trials and tribulations of the two as they try & make it back to ‘civilizations’. They are beaten on by the sun, nearly washed away in the nighttime rain storm, have hand-to-hand combat with a group of native Indians, and most memorable meeting the buck-teethed, ragged top-hated, singing, and slightly creepy Cumber( Donald Pleasence).
In the final quarter or so of the film- we get to meet the decidedly arrogant & pompous Col. Iverson( John Anderson) who with his men carry out the attack on the Cheyenne Indian village. And this is a deeply troubling study of a military slaughter- just before they attack their chief waves the white flag of surrender - Iverson ignores this, opening fire with cannon fire first- then raiding the village, with blood kills of women and, a decapitation, rapes, and general brutal depravity- with a very downbeat resolve.
The main of the film is fine for what it is- though at points the score/ tone feels a little like an old-school western, even though there is a clear revisionist leaning. Both leads are fine Strauss as the initial by the book/ very moral black & white. And Bergen as the gutsy/ knows her own mind Cresta.
The shift in tone in the last part of the film is very drastic & shocking- really been a daring, and unexpected twist. The problem is, that if you’ve come here for the film's more extreme/ shocking side- you have a long time to wait, sure there are fleeting touches of gore and death throughout the film- but it’s just that fleeting. Equally, if you’ve come here for a surviving in the wilds/ bickering western with a hot- but largely mild feel, you're going to be very upset/ unsettled by the brutal & grim resolve. So all in all this makes the film difficult to recommend.
The Blu-ray features a largely nice bright & clean scan- though some of the nighttime shots are a tad murky. The audio element is well-defined & full of clarity and depth. On the disc we only get one new extra- a onscreen interview with lead actress Candice Bergen(12.03). She starts off by mentioning that the film's original title was Broken Arrow. Moving on she talks about having to glue on rubber breasts each morning before shooting- as the director wanted her character to have more of a chest. She says it was a fun shoot and that fellow lead Peter Strauss was a very focused actor. She talks about riding in a car with him, as her rescue dog Leonard was throwing up everywhere. She discusses the troubling massacre, and how a bus full of amputees was brought in- with the actor's prosthetics being wired to twitch so as to look more realistic. Finally, she talks about the film being too violent for the US, but went down well in Italy.
On the archive side of things, we get commentary track from film critic Steve Mitchell and Howard S. Berger. And a trailer. The finished release comes with four art cards.
As Soldier Blue sits between being a more run-of-a-mill western, and something more extreme/ troubling it’s certainly not going to be a film for everyone- but I’d say if you’re an open-minded western fan, give it a go. It’s wonderful to see this new release of the film, in its fully uncut form. Score wise I wanted to give this a two and a half, but as we only deal in whole numbers here I've gone for a two.