Buffalo Soldiers Details

Brilliantly biting satire

Excellent and really funny black comedy set in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin wall. It concerns the goings on of American soldiers in peacetime: their black marketing, drug factories, selling of weapons which they keep hidden in a nuclear establishment. One magazine commented it was 'Sgt Bilko for the millenium, but with a body count'. Very accurate description. Performances are all first rate, especially Ed Harris as the weak commander and Scott Glen as the vindictive sergeant out to get Phoenix, another excellent performance here. All in all, a truly great movie.

One of the funniest moments is when a tank full of smashed soldiers go out of control and wreck cars, markets, a shopping precinct and finally a service station.

Completely unbelievable, totally implausible, utterly likeable. Buffalo Soldiers is a whimsical, satirical take on peace-time military operations based in Germany. The film centres on Ray Elwood (played with comical aplomb by the loveable Joaquin Phoenix) - military clerk by day, army wheeler dealer by night. Elwood has a finger in all the pies, anything from ordering in tonnes of Mop'N'Glo in order to sell it to gulliable locals, to cooking up insane amounts of heroine. It seems Elwood really is living the life, that is, until the new Top Sergeant (Scott Glen) arrives, taking an instant dislike to Elwood and determined to make his life hell. Not prepared to back down without a fight, Elwood embarks on a mission to out-do the Top which involves sleeping with his daughter, a feisty little minx named Robyn (Anna Paquin). This sets off a series of events which will have the audience crying with laughter and gazing in disbelief. Buffalo Soldiers isn't based on a true story, it's not even close to being something you might imagine happening but that makes the film even more enjoyable - a film about soldiers which has you in stitches - what a refreshing change!