Buffalo Soldiers
2.5/4
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Anna Paquin, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Gabriel Mann
Rated R for Violence, Drug Content, Strong Language, and Some Sexuality
"Buffalo Soldiers" was as much a victim of timing as it was anything else. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 9, 2001. Naturally, after the horrors that occurred two days later, the market for a black comedy about soldiers running a drug ring dried up almost instantaneously. The film would be slammed as being "unpatriotic," and two years later a woman in the audience threw a plastic water bottle at the filmmakers during a Q&A session in an outrage over the film's presentation of American soldiers.
While I can see that point of view, it's a little misguided and unfair. It's not so much that these guys are bad people, it's that they're stuck with nothing to do. Selling stuff on the black market simply fills up time.
Elwood (Phoenix) loves three things about Germany: his Mercedes, the fact that there's no speed limit on the Autobahn, and that he can sell anything on the black market. Because the base commander, a man named Berman (Harris) is a total moron, Elwood can do pretty much whatever he wants. This encompasses everything from decking out his private quarters with a TV and couch to cooking heroin for a drug dealer. When he and his friends find trucks filled with army weapons (including Stinger missiles) ripe for the taking, he intends to sell them for big bucks. Things get complicated when the base gets a new Top (i.e. commander), a tough cookie named Robert E. Lee (Glenn) that won't play ball.
There are a few things that I liked about the movie. First are the performances. Joaquin Phoenix, before he disappeared from the screen only to perpetrate a bizarre hoax on the public, was once one of the elite actors of his generation, appearing in movies such as the grossly overrated "Gladiator" and "Signs." Phoenix plays Elwood as a guy who has gone one step beyond prankster. He's not a bad guy. He's just taken his mischief to the next level. Anna Paquin is lovely as ever as Robyn, Lee's daughter. Initially, Elwood dates her just to piss Lee off (which Robyn figures out pretty quickly), but then he falls for her. Ed Harris is very good as Berman, who isn't a quarter as smart as he thinks he is. It's a definite change of pace for the actor. And Scott Glenn is effective as Lee, but no more than that. He's been better, and more intense, in other movies ("Vertical Limit" comes to mind).
The film's failures have to do with the film's director, Gregor Jordan. An Australian import, Jordan concentrates more on the daily life of the characters rather than their personal development or plot. That wouldn't be such a bad thing if it was better developed, but it's not. Subplots are constantly shortchanged to the point where it's easy to become lost, and relationships are under cooked (I for one would have loved to see more of Robyn). It's obvious that a lot of the footage ended up on the cutting room floor. Jordan has also directed the movie with the sensibilities of an art film. He takes things much more seriously than they are meant to be.
So the movie doesn't work. That doesn't mean it's a total loss; in point of fact, there is a part of me that thinks it's worth seeing. There are some amusing moments (such as the fate of a car), and the film is never boring. But there are too many problems for me to recommend it without reservations.
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Anna Paquin, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Gabriel Mann
Rated R for Violence, Drug Content, Strong Language, and Some Sexuality
"Buffalo Soldiers" was as much a victim of timing as it was anything else. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 9, 2001. Naturally, after the horrors that occurred two days later, the market for a black comedy about soldiers running a drug ring dried up almost instantaneously. The film would be slammed as being "unpatriotic," and two years later a woman in the audience threw a plastic water bottle at the filmmakers during a Q&A session in an outrage over the film's presentation of American soldiers.
While I can see that point of view, it's a little misguided and unfair. It's not so much that these guys are bad people, it's that they're stuck with nothing to do. Selling stuff on the black market simply fills up time.
Elwood (Phoenix) loves three things about Germany: his Mercedes, the fact that there's no speed limit on the Autobahn, and that he can sell anything on the black market. Because the base commander, a man named Berman (Harris) is a total moron, Elwood can do pretty much whatever he wants. This encompasses everything from decking out his private quarters with a TV and couch to cooking heroin for a drug dealer. When he and his friends find trucks filled with army weapons (including Stinger missiles) ripe for the taking, he intends to sell them for big bucks. Things get complicated when the base gets a new Top (i.e. commander), a tough cookie named Robert E. Lee (Glenn) that won't play ball.
There are a few things that I liked about the movie. First are the performances. Joaquin Phoenix, before he disappeared from the screen only to perpetrate a bizarre hoax on the public, was once one of the elite actors of his generation, appearing in movies such as the grossly overrated "Gladiator" and "Signs." Phoenix plays Elwood as a guy who has gone one step beyond prankster. He's not a bad guy. He's just taken his mischief to the next level. Anna Paquin is lovely as ever as Robyn, Lee's daughter. Initially, Elwood dates her just to piss Lee off (which Robyn figures out pretty quickly), but then he falls for her. Ed Harris is very good as Berman, who isn't a quarter as smart as he thinks he is. It's a definite change of pace for the actor. And Scott Glenn is effective as Lee, but no more than that. He's been better, and more intense, in other movies ("Vertical Limit" comes to mind).
The film's failures have to do with the film's director, Gregor Jordan. An Australian import, Jordan concentrates more on the daily life of the characters rather than their personal development or plot. That wouldn't be such a bad thing if it was better developed, but it's not. Subplots are constantly shortchanged to the point where it's easy to become lost, and relationships are under cooked (I for one would have loved to see more of Robyn). It's obvious that a lot of the footage ended up on the cutting room floor. Jordan has also directed the movie with the sensibilities of an art film. He takes things much more seriously than they are meant to be.
So the movie doesn't work. That doesn't mean it's a total loss; in point of fact, there is a part of me that thinks it's worth seeing. There are some amusing moments (such as the fate of a car), and the film is never boring. But there are too many problems for me to recommend it without reservations.
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