Frederic Remington immortalized the brave, hard-working, unsung Buffalo Soldiers.
To use the name on this movie is highly insulting.
Posted on 07/13/2003 2:52:14 PM PDT by Paul Atreides
"Here in the UK no one gets upset, but over there, where the President is fighting these military campaigns in the name of democracy, the first casualty seems to be freedom of speech, the cornerstone of any democracy." - BUFFALO SOLDIERS Director Gregor Jordan
The WALT DISNEY CO. is set for maximum controversy when it releases a "warts-and-all" portrait of U.S. Army life with the fuss-film BUFFALO SOLDIERS.
As American men and women put their lives on the line in Iraq and other locations throughout the world, DISNEY and its subsidiary MIRAMAX have set a July 25 opening for the story of enlisted man running a profitable drugs and stolen goods business out of an Army base!
[A promo snap for the film -- "Steal all that you can steal," a riff on the US Army's own pseudo-empowering "Be all that you can be" slogan, while below actor Joaquin Phoenix stands before an American flag -- comes just days after TIME magazine alleged in a cover story that American troops looted and vandalized the Baghdad airport after it was secured.]
The film's director Gregor Jordan describes SOLDIERS a robust satire illustrating the corruption, drug use and violence that goes on in US Army bases.
At the film's open, a painted US flag is on the ground and is stepped on by marching soldiers.
The film features an excessive amount of profanity by senior officers, suggestive sex [oral sex in bed, sex in a car, sex in a swimming pool], theft of government property, and rampant drug use by soldiers.
Actor Phoenix explains, "I don't know why anyone would be offended. It wasn't a movie that was intended to offend. And if we don't show things as they really happen, then what's that about? Censorship!"
The movie studio has been receiving complaints from military insiders, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
One letter written by a retired Army Colonel warns of the film's racial overtones.
"Scenes show MP's, who are black, committing acts of violence and engaging in corruption," writes Col. Franklin J. Henderson. "These scenes, intentionally or unintentionally, provide a bad image of black soldiers and degrade the sterling service of the real 'Buffalo Soldiers' who were mostly black men."
Director Jordan was so concerned by the mood of the country during the most recent military activity in Iraq that he asked for the movie's release to be delayed.
"I thought, This is not the time to be putting this movie out. If we leave it a couple of months, the war'll be over and off all the front pages. Then we'll go."
Developing...
Gregor Jordan (Two Hands) returns to Sundance with Buffalo Soldiers, a high-pitched romp that teeters between drama and farce, delivering a welcome antidote to the onslaught of recent glorifications of all things military.
It is 1989 on an American base in Germany, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Special fourth class soldier Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix) and his gang of GI accomplices are heavy into a regular regime of pilfering supplies, haggling on the local black market and keeping a thriving drug business by cooking up drugs right under the base commander's (Ed Harris) nose. When they accidentally stumble onto two truckloads of highly sophisticated weaponry worth millions, the opportunity is too good to pass up. The only fly in the ointment is the new top sergeant (Scott Glenn), who takes one look at the flashy Rolex a soldier sports and decides to kick butt. Elwood, in return, takes one look at the sergeant's hot daughter and decides to fight back.
Jordan has crafted a brilliant piece of subversion with clever, robust characterizations that are nailed by the distinguished cast. Phoenix and Glenn are wildly entertaining as adversaries, but it is Harris who turns in an amazing performance that epitomizes military ineptitude and career torpor.
This movie was made in 2001, but put on the shelf after Sept. 11. If the reviewer for the Sundance festival loved it, you know the movie is crap.
Anyone with even an ounce of common sense of history knows of the nobility and patriotism of the black buffalo soldiers of old. And how that particular platoon lives on in today's US Army, with a recent deployment to Iraq.
The one time that Jesse Jackson SHOULD be raising his voice, he's silent.
Is it because he's in bed with Disney? Is it because the NAACP receives significant money from Disney?
When you think the notion of "Hollyweird" could sink no lower...
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Amazing that our military can STILL kick the ass of anyone on earth! What does that say about the others?
Apparently following in his illustrious older brother's footsteps, at least in attitude. S**t, why would anyone be offended by a movie that depicts tne military as a dishonest gang of sleazy drugtaking thieves? I guess sleazy drugtaking thieves wouldn't.
The moral relativist leftists who rule the media want to subvert and pervert everything that is honorable and decent. This is just another example.
1989? Oh so Hollywood, that would be Bill & Hill "don't ask don't tell" military you on the left were hoping for
Funny you said that. I was just thinking the other day about the old BBC's documentary of Hillary Clinton and some female friends from college. They showed them when they were in college and up to the time Clinton became the First Lady. It showed how unhappy they all were except for one.The only happy one was the Lesbian that 'came out' of the closet. The other ones stayed miserable and in need of a shrink. Anyone remember that?
Frederic Remington immortalized the brave, hard-working, unsung Buffalo Soldiers.
To use the name on this movie is highly insulting.
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