Soldier Blue (1970) – Film Review

Director: Ralph Nelson
Cast: Candice Bergen, Peter Strauss, Donald Pleasence
Certificate: PG

By Sarah Morgan

The Western… a genre in which men were men, women were women, and it was easy to tell the good guys from the baddies, right?

Well, that may have been the case up to the 1960s, but after that, the romantic view of the Old West largely disappeared, to be replaced by the world of the revisionist Western, something far grittier and harder hitting, where the lines between heroism and evil were blurred.

One of the best entries in this sub-genre is 1970’s Soldier Blue, directed by Ralph Nelson, who’s perhaps best known for making such hits as Lilies of the Field (for which Sidney Poitier won an Oscar) and the Cary Grant comedy Father Goose.

“Marauding gang of Cheyenne”

Loosely adapted from TV Olsen’s novel Arrow in the Sun, a retelling of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, it begins with a group of US cavalry attempting to escort a young woman across Colorado to a rendezvous with the officer she’s due to marry.

However, the trip proves short-lived – the troops are attacked by a marauding gang of Cheyenne; only one soldier, the naive Private Honus Gant (Peter Strauss), and the woman, Cresta Lee (Candice Bergen), live to tell the tale.

Gant thinks, as the man, he’s going to be in charge as they make their way to civilisation, but Cresta is no shrinking violet – in fact, she’s a much tougher and world-weary character than he is, one who understands the Native American ways, having lived alongside them as the wife of a chief.

It’s she who drives Gant forward as they deal with numerous issues, including a memorable encounter with a corrupt trader, played with scene-stealing glee by Donald Pleasence.

The duo’s arrival at the US Army fort isn’t a happy one. They discover that Cresta’s fiancé and his troops plan to mount a raid on a peaceful Cheyenne village nearby, which she and Honus, now educated in the bloodthirsty ways of the white man, feel compelled to stop.

“An allegory of the Vietnam War”

The film has been described as an allegory of the Vietnam War and it’s easy to see why – both deal with needless violence against an indigenous population. The final scene as the US attack begins is hard-hitting and brutal, with Cresta and Honus’s horrified reactions mirroring those of the audience.

Tonally, the film is rather awkward. There are moments when it feels like a knockabout buddy movie, and then others where the tragedy is almost overwhelming. But perhaps that’s the point – the amusing, lighter moments make the horrible ones darker and more poignant.

Hugely popular on its release, the film is largely forgotten now; other tales from the same era, such as Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter or The Outlaw Josey Wales, are better known. Here’s hoping this release turns that around.