Buffalo Soldiers Reviews

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.

WHAT A NASTY MIXTURE

With a cast including Ed Harris, Scott Glen and Dean Stockwell I thought it must be worth watching. Wrong. Not their fault but what you get is an unpleasant mish-mash of keystone cops, mindless cruelty and pathos.

This film tries to be a black comedy set in army camp but fails because blood splattered bodies and soldiers portrayed convincingly as vicious racists, stoned idiots and sadistic bullies are simply not funny.

A few hilarious moments of inspired knockabout farce can't compensate for nastiness masquerading as comedy.

The Ed Harris storyline is moving but out of sync. Joaquin Phoenix tries to inject some charm into a corrupt bone-headed soldier on the make, but I found myself rooting for the sergeant (Scott Glenn) hell bent on bringing him to justice. Which he does spectacularly well ? if you press Stop before the silly ?look ma no legs? bit tagged on the end.

My advice is put this in the trash bin.

A joy to watch, a homage to M*A*S*H

Phoenix plays Elwood - the guy who can get things. Selling army materials to Germans has paid for his brand new Mercedes and a top level way of life - until they get a new Top. Things soon change, as Elwood does his very best to wind him up.

A comic tale which is well-performed all around, and one that harks back to the good old days of M*A*S*H, bored soldiers in the middle of a war "with nothing to kill but time".

Very funny, extremely enjoyable - one to watch, definitely.

9/10. Excellent.

Cynical, touching and uplifting

Although it was made way back in 2001 Buffalo Soldiers was held back from release for its negative portrayal of American soldiers. In 2003 it finally hit screens and this cutting satire about the exploits of peace time soldiers is now available to rent on video and DVD.

Buffalo Soldiers tells the story of Elwood, played by Joaquin Phoenix, an American GI stationed in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Elwood is an opportunist, using his favoured position with the base commander to make as much money selling off army equipment as possible, but gets way out of his depth when he comes across abandoned weaponry and a tough new sergeant enters his life.

Phoenix is great in his role, giving Elwood a much needed innocence and naivety and making him a truly sympathetic character. Scott Glenn, as psychotic Sergeant Lee, is a fearsome presence, while Anna Paquin turns in a lovely performance as Lee’s daughter and Elwood’s love interest.

This is an acerbic satire, with some wonderfully funny set pieces and some truly tragic and shocking moments. From the first scene, the film sets out to surprise and discomfort its audience, and at its most impressive, it is a witty, cynical yet strangely touching and uplifting tale.

Although it slows a little in the second half and the satire gives way to drama, this combination of Catch 22, Mash and The Phil Silvers Show is certainly one to see.

dont just stand there gawping like you've never seen the hand of god before!

This film has been way over rated. True, it has some interesting things to say about bored American soldiers misbehaving because they have no war to fight, but the initial promise is never built upon. Instead it relies on a twist in the ending and the sort of shootouts and explosions you would expect to find in a lazy hollywood actioner. Joaquin Phoenix and Ed Harris give decent performances though. Rent it if you dont believe me, just dont expect too much.

Set in the 1980's on an American Army Base in Germany, Buffalo Soldiers presents us with a satirical view of life in the military at the end of the cold war. At times it may come across as a drama but there are undeniable moments of dark, but good quality, humour.

Joaquin Phoenix puts in one of his best performances as Ray Elwood, the slighty sideways criminal entrepreneur, who joined the military to avoid going to jail. Old habits die hard though and we can watch and enjoy as Ray grabs every opportunity that comes his way.

A thoughtful and intelligent dark comedy, Buffalo Soldiers is a film for those who want something a little bit unusual. Be entertained by it, but also be absorbed by it - Buffalo is very atmospheric, with a few good laughs to boot.

Modern day Sergeant Bilko

Excellent film! Not the usual American War Movie. More like a modern day Sergeant Bilko. I would highly recommend it.

Not Bad

Certainly not the worst film I've seen, although a little over rated

Considering its less than glowing depiction of the American military, it's little surprise this film went M.I.A. in the wake of 9/11. Buffalo Soldiers probably deserved a better fate, but it's not the cult gem I've seen some people describe it as.

The film's starting place is the same as 1999's 'Three Kings': the odd quirk by which American kids (who would otherwise be flipping burgers, nicking cars, and getting stoned in their parent's basements), through the simple task of joining the military, instead find themselves abroad, in charge of high-tech killer hardware, and with near-endless stretches of empty time to fill.

Like 'Three Kings' the best moments of Buffalo Soldiers are in the first half hour, when the blackly comic elements of its situation are explored. Unfortunately, unlike the classic of the genre, M*A*S*H, the makers of Soldiers don't realise the boredom of army life - and the increasingly stupid attempts to fill it - should be the point of the film.

So instead we set off on a half-hearted story line about illegal gun sales, drug deals, and the conflict between Joaquin Phoenix's clerk-on-the-make and Scott Glenn's vietnam-vet drill sergeant.

There are times, admittedly, when this threatens to get interesting. Then, however, in another lurch, the film makers decide that they'd better wrap things up quickly and neatly: cue a final twenty minutes in which interesting characters suddenly become cardboard cut-outs, and an odd denoument that stinks of test-screening feed back.

This sounds damning, so best to say quickly that the film is still entertaining, and worth watching for its two central performances: a nice light comic turn from Ed Harris, and another excellent piece of acting by Phoneix. It's just a shame that with the cast and the setting (of which little is made, except an obligatory burst of 'Blue Monday' and a few clips of the wall coming down) more could not have been done.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Grabs the bull by the horns

A refreshingly idiosyncratic movie in these blockbuster dominated times “Buffalo Soldiers” is a mix of “Mash,” “Catch 22 “and “Three kings“. It’s set on a U.S. army base in Germany just before the fall of the Berlin Wall and follows the illegal cavorting of Ray (Phoenix) who trades in; well just about anything he can get his hands on.

When Ray and his misfit buddies stumble upon a consignment of hi-tech trucks abandoned in a situation so farcical it may well are true, the dollar signs start flashing like fireworks on the fourth of July.

The only obstacle is a hard nosed Sgt, played superbly by Scott Glenn, who’s taken an almost pathological dislike to Ray, compounded by Rays burgeoning relationship with his daughter (Paquin) There’s further complications because Ray is involved with the Base Commanders wife (McGovern).

The Commander played with a neat air of vacousness by Ed Harris is the one person Ray really has the measure of.

This film had trouble getting a distributor and it’s easy to see why as it parodies the American armed forces with a scalpel like precision and it fizzes with morbid wit via the feisty script.

It’s good to see the military get a good kicking instead of being portrayed as heroic paragons of virtue as they so often are by the major film studios. And “Buffalo Soldiers” certainly puts the boot in with relish.