Review: Soldier Blue 4K UHD
4K UHD Blu-ray: Soldier Blue (1970)
My Dad would sit me down next to him as a kid and any Western on TV (no video/DVD then) we would watch. I can remember 2 cinema visits he had and came back so excited at what he’d seen. One was The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (which must have had a re-release in our local cinema in the mid 70s) and Soldier Blue in the early 70s.
It was on UK TV in the late 70s/early 80s late at night (and it must have been heavily cut). I watched it with my dad and can still remember being shocked at what I was seeing. Not just the violence and rape, but the actual theme of the film, where the bad guys were the soldiers and NOT the Indians.
Watching this new 4K release of the film was so interesting as I remembered bits of the story.
You could definitely call it an early ‘revisionist’ Western that was inspired by events of the 1864 Sand Creek massacre in Colorado, made in 1969 it’s also a glaring allegory for the then contemporary Vietnam War.
In 1877 Colorado Territory, a young woman, Cresta Lee (Candice Bergman), and Private Honus Gant (Peter Strauss) are joined together by fate when they are the only two survivors after their group is massacred by the Cheyenne.
Gant is devoted to the army, his country, and duty, while Cretsa is a white woman who has lived with the Cheyenne for two years (it’s never explained how – was she ‘stolen’?) is scornful of Gant calling him Soldier Blue derisively) and tells him that she sympathizes with the Indians.
Lost in the wilderness the two must now try to make it to Fort Reunion, the army camp, where Cresta’s fiancé, an army officer, waits for her. As they travel through the desert with very low supplies, hiding from various bad men (one is Donald Pleasance with amazing false teeth).
As you can imagine this is an old film, so it’s filled with stuff that would NOT be included today – like all the indigenous Indians are played by Mexican actors, and although Cresta is a great character, in fact one of the best capable female ‘fuck you’ characters in cinema, shame she goes all misty eyed over Honus.
The main thing about this film is its reputation for being brutal. Its U.S. poster boasts that it was ‘The Most Savage Film in History’, and for that time, it was. Amputees were used as victims of the end massacre, heads are on sticks, women are raped and in one scene it’s obvious a woman’s breast is about to be cut off to make a bag, and perhaps worst of all, many children are slain.
This end battle must have been horrifying back in 1970, and is still powerful, but unfortunately 4K UHD is unforgiving with details and the hammer horror RED blood and fake body parts and heads look SOOO fake I did laugh at one point. But this doesn’t detract from the central message, whether it be Vietnam or America’s indigenous peoples. Needless to say this was a massive hit all around the world, except America.
I’d say this is a true (Blue) classic western, with a cracking performance off Bergen, an exploitation film worthy of inclusion into the cannon.
(I will mention the beginning of the film, a beautiful golden vista and sprawling Mexican hills… then Buffy Marie Saint starts wailing a song over it, OMG she is a horrible singer).
SPECIAL FEATURES:
●NEW Interview with actress Candice Bergen
●Audio commentary by film critic Steve Mitchell and Howard S. Berger
●NEW Trailer
The Blu-ray edition will include four art cards.
SOLDIER BLUE is available to buy on 4K UHD SteelBook, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital.
Review by Tina from a disc kindly supplied by Studiocanal via Fetch Publicity.