Pros 1. Howard E. Rollins does a fine job commanding the center of this story. It reminds me a little of his work as Coalhouse Walker Jr. in Milos Forman' 1981 film Ragtime: another movie based on a play about an African-American man seeking justice in a racist world. Thankfully Captain Davenport is a lot more level-headed that Coalhouse. Though when you think about it: Peterson is more like Coalhouse in the sense that Coalhouse only became homicidal after his innocent wife was killed and Peterson would never have killed Sergeant Waters if Water had't have had a hand in CJ's demise.
2. No review of Soldier's Story is complete without praise for Adolph Caesar's wonderful Oscar-nominated performance as Sergeant Waters. He brings complexity to the role to make Waters more than just a self-serving a-hole. You can tell that his racial views are damaging him long before anybody every thought of killing him.
3. Coming from director Norman Jewison, it's not hard to see similarities between this film and "In The Heat Of The Night": an African American going down south and dealing with racism while he seeks justice for a crime. To avoid too much comparison with "In The Heat Of The Night", Jewison wisely focuses more on conflicts between African Americans than racial tension. Not that the racial tension isn't there, it certainly is.
4. The movie is a powerful exploration of how racism can cause disharmony even within a race. Sergeant Waters no doubt endured a lifetime of racism and rather than fighting back, he lashed out at other African Americans for making the race look bad and things only got ugly from there. Captain Davenport seeks justice but admits at the end that he was a little too quick to suspect that Caucasian soldiers did Waters in.
5. The music is superb. Patti Labelle was worth every penny. The fact CJ could play so well made it all the more tragic his talent never survived the war.
6. It's good that they do have decent Caucasians in the movie like the superior officer who forced the Caucasian soldier to obey Captain Davenport during his interrogation and the soldier who told his friend to leave Sergeant Waters alone since Waters was obviously drunk.
7. Best Line: Davenport: Who Gave You The Right To Judge? To decide who is fit to be a negro and who is not?
Cons 1. It's a little confusing because one moment it's established that Waters seemed to like CJ (they have a pleasant conversation in the bar) than the rest of the story claims Sergeant Waters has special scorn for him.
2. After CJ's death, the soldiers throw the last game in revenge for CJ. All it does is deny them a chance at playing The Yankees so it seems to hurt themselves more than the superior officers.
2. No review of Soldier's Story is complete without praise for Adolph Caesar's wonderful Oscar-nominated performance as Sergeant Waters. He brings complexity to the role to make Waters more than just a self-serving a-hole. You can tell that his racial views are damaging him long before anybody every thought of killing him.
3. Coming from director Norman Jewison, it's not hard to see similarities between this film and "In The Heat Of The Night": an African American going down south and dealing with racism while he seeks justice for a crime. To avoid too much comparison with "In The Heat Of The Night", Jewison wisely focuses more on conflicts between African Americans than racial tension. Not that the racial tension isn't there, it certainly is.
4. The movie is a powerful exploration of how racism can cause disharmony even within a race. Sergeant Waters no doubt endured a lifetime of racism and rather than fighting back, he lashed out at other African Americans for making the race look bad and things only got ugly from there. Captain Davenport seeks justice but admits at the end that he was a little too quick to suspect that Caucasian soldiers did Waters in.
5. The music is superb. Patti Labelle was worth every penny. The fact CJ could play so well made it all the more tragic his talent never survived the war.
6. It's good that they do have decent Caucasians in the movie like the superior officer who forced the Caucasian soldier to obey Captain Davenport during his interrogation and the soldier who told his friend to leave Sergeant Waters alone since Waters was obviously drunk.
7. Best Line: Davenport: Who Gave You The Right To Judge? To decide who is fit to be a negro and who is not?
Cons 1. It's a little confusing because one moment it's established that Waters seemed to like CJ (they have a pleasant conversation in the bar) than the rest of the story claims Sergeant Waters has special scorn for him.
2. After CJ's death, the soldiers throw the last game in revenge for CJ. All it does is deny them a chance at playing The Yankees so it seems to hurt themselves more than the superior officers.