A Soldier's Story Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
In 1944, as a black army company waits at a Louisiana base to be sent to the fighting in Europe, a tough sergeant is killed while returning to the base. His men suspect the Klan, and the brass in Washington send an outsider to investigate: an African-American captain, the first such high-ranking officer anyone on the base has ever seen. Despite the opposition of the base's senior officers, all of them white, Captain Davenport is determined to find the truth.
A Soldier's Story is the film adaptation of Charles Fuller's drama, A Soldier's Play,
which won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize, but nothing about the film feels stage-bound. Fuller adapted the play
himself, and he and director/producer Norman Jewison used the resources of the big screen to
accomplish what could only be suggested in the theater. They conveyed the heat, the sweat and
the frustration of a 1944 U.S. Army unit forced to sit idly at a base in Tynin, Louisiana, waiting
for their chance to join the fierce battle against the Nazi war machine in Europe. Why were these
troops being held back? Because they were African-American, and unlike the Tuskegee Airmen,
they didn't have specialized skills that a canny molder of public opinion like First Lady Eleanor
Roosevelt could use to force the army to let them fight alongside white troops.
In this sweltering and volatile environment, a black sergeant is murdered, and the ensuing inquiry
shines a light into some ugly places in the white world, the black world and the hearts of
individuals of both races. One of the many virtues of Fuller's writing is his refusal to settle for
easy answers. As his story unfolds, the murder investigation becomes almost secondary to a
relentless inquiry into the character of every person involved, including the tough investigator
sent from Washington to compile an "objective" report (as if such a thing were possible in these
circumstances). Fuller's work is powerful precisely because it takes into account all of the social
forces that shape an individual's life, while still holding each person responsible for his choices
and actions.
Jewison saw A Soldier's Play during its successful off-Broadway run from November 1981
through January 1983 and immediately set about turning it into a film. He retained three of the
original cast members: Adolph Caesar in the central role of murder victim Sgt. Vernon Waters
(he would be nominated for an Oscar for the portrayal on film); Larry Riley as the popular
platoon member C.J. Memphis; and in the pivotal role of Private Peterson, the only member of
the platoon who dares stand up to the tough sergeant, a then little known actor by the name of
Denzel Washington.
On a hot night in Tynin, Louisiana, Sgt. Waters (Caesar), who is black, exits the rollicking night
spot run by Big Mary (Patti LaBelle) and staggers drunkenly through the white part of town back
toward the base. Later we see the sergeant, muddy and bleeding on the road, yelling something
about being hated just before an unseen hand fires a pistol, killing him.
Waters's commanding officer, Captain Taylor (Dennis Lipscomb), oversees a routine search of
the barracks of the sergeant's men, then restricts them all to base, cautioning them not to leap to
conclusions about the killer(s). Private Henson (William Allen Young) says they all know it was
the Klan. Captain Taylor, who has been commanding "colored troops" for his entire career,
knows he is sitting on the proverbial powder keg. Meanwhile, the base commander, Colonel
Nivens (Trey Wilson), who is a son of the South, takes the attitude that one shouldn't look too
closely at the death of a single "colored" soldier. Of course, the colonel also has a secret report
indicating that Sergeant Waters had some sort of encounter on the road with two white officers,
and he certainly doesn't want that information becoming public knowledge.
Into this den of intrigue arrives an outsider from Washington, an investigator with a law degree
and something else that no one on this base has ever seen: captain's bars worn by an African-American.
His name is Davenport (Howard E. Rollins, Jr.), and his arrival causes a general stir.
The corporal sent to meet his bus, Ellis (Robert Townsend), almost forgets to salute; when he
remembers, he salutes with new-found alacrity. White junior officers have to be reminded to do
so. Black troops doing calisthenics stop in midbeat. ("That's enough, soldier!" barks their
instructor. "Haven't you ever seen a colored officer before?" "No, sir!" comes the answer. "Have
you, sir?" Silence.) Colonel Nivens arbitrarily limits Davenport's investigation to three days.
Captain Taylor goes so far as to request Washington to recall him, because no one in Louisiana
will charge a white man on Davenport's say-so.
Davenport is undeterred. He proceeds directly to Sergeant Waters's former office and begins
interviewing the men. They are a diverse assortment of personalities. Private Wilkie (Art Evans,
best known as the air traffic controller in Die Hard 2) was a corporal, until Waters stripped
him of his rank for being drunk on duty. Still, Wilkie says he admired the sergeant for his
uncompromising devotion to duty. Private Henson, Corporal Cobb (David Alan Grier) and PFC
Peterson (Washington) all played baseball on the team that Waters coached—the finest in the
entire U.S. Army, according to Captain Taylor—but all of them had issues with the way he
treated the men under his command. As one after another tells his story, Sergeant Waters appears
in flashback, and an increasingly complex and disturbing portrait takes shape. A pivotal figure is
a private named C.J. Memphis (Riley), the baseball team's star player, who is no longer with the platoon
for reasons that gradually emerge.
After a few false starts and some tense standoffs with several white officers (including the base
commander), Davenport does eventually close the case, but he's hardly satisfied by the result.
There's a remarkable moment near the end of A Soldier's Story that echoes the famous shot
devised (or, according to Hollywood lore, found accidentally) by Conrad Hall for the end of In
Cold Blood. Davenport has just learned the exact circumstances of Waters's death, and he's
alone at a window looking out into the rain. The raindrops coursing down the window cast
shadows on his face like tears, but suddenly a single tear of Davenport's own joins them. It's as
if, in that moment, Davenport has merged into the great cleansing flood that will be necessary if
Sergeant Waters's death is to have any meaning. For what Davenport has learned (though it
probably won't be in his official report) was that Waters had many murderers in addition to the
hand that pulled the trigger, and one of them, as with every true tragic hero, was Waters
himself.
The cinematographer for A Soldier's Story was Australian master Russell Boyd, who has shot
most of Peter Weir's films, winning an Oscar for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the
World. Boyd used a palette that heavily favored earth tones to complement the army tans and greens and
the lush southern locales (Arkansas stood in for Louisiana). Even in scenes shot at night, the
color scheme is warm, because it's always hot in this part of the world, and Boyd's photography
makes you feel it.
The 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is consistent with the other titles in this latest wave of Sony
catalogue releases from Image Entertainment, which is to say that it's superior and film-like with
solid blacks, natural-looking grain patterns and particularly good detail for a film of this vintage.
Fine elements in dust, smoke, vegetation and faces in crowds at a baseball game are readily
visible in daytime shots. Night shots are less detailed, because this was an earlier era with less
pervasive public lighting, and the cinematography shows essential story elements while keeping
the rest shrouded in shadow. (It is a mystery story, after all.) The Blu-ray transfer also
does
justice to Boyd's bravura effect when, in a flashback, Waters recounts a horrific and crucial
memory from his service in World War I. He's at the bar in Big Mary's, and as he turns to look
into the mirror while speaking, everything behind him vanishes, gradually reappearing as he
returns to the present. It's like a waking nightmare.
As is customary with Image/Sony transfers, there was no evidence of high frequency filtering or
artificial sharpening, and I saw no compression artifacts.
The film's original Dolby Stereo soundtrack is presented as PCM 2.0, and Herbie Hancock's
bluesy scores sounds terrific, as do Patti LaBelle's vocals when she's singing at Big Mary's. (I
wouldn't have minded more of her.) If the track is played through a decoder such as DPL IIx, it
provides a small degree of surround ambiance but nothing substantial. More notable are the
occasional left/right pans that are obviously part of the original sound design, especially in the
opening shooting sequence. The dialogue is clear and understandable, notwithstanding the
variety of southern accents. (I have to leave it to others to opine on their authenticity.)
If you have the 1999 Sony DVD of A Soldier's Story, hold onto it. None of the special features
has been included on the Blu-ray. The DVD had a commentary by director Norman Jewison; a
documentary called "March to Freedom", which was narrated by Paul Winfield and featured
interviews with Charles Fuller and retired African-American military men from World War II;
and the film's trailer.
Extras on the Blu-ray? None.
One of Norman Jewison's great talents as a director was assembling stellar casts, and A Soldier's
Story is no exception, but too many of its members were cursed with ill luck. The film's lead,
Howard E. Rollins, Jr., had already been nominated for an Oscar for Ragtime (1981), and would
go on to star for eight seasons in the TV version of In the Heat of the Night. He'd be well-known today if not for his untimely death in 1996 at
the age of 46. Adolph Caesar's memorable
portrayal of Sergeant Waters brought him an Oscar nomination, a role in The Color Purple and a
burgeoning film career that could have made him a household name if it hadn't been cut short by
a fatal heart attack on the set of Tough Guys; Caesar died in 1986 at the age of 52. Larry
Riley, who played C.J. Memphis, went on to co-star in Knots Landing until his death of AIDS-related
causes in 1992 at the tender age of 38.
Then again, the film did birth a superstar in Denzel Washington, but he's not the reason to see
the movie. This was a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble working with truly great material, and that
doesn't happen often. Highly recommended.
In addition to Friday's announcements of Adaptation and Stir Crazy, Image Entertainment also revealed plans to bring A Soldier's Story (1984), Nothing in Common (1986), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and The Toy (1982) to Blu-ray. All four of the Sony catalog ...
