A Soldier Story (1984)
The Quintessential African American film
I saw “A Soldier’s Story” for the first time in 1984. It is based on the great dramatic play written by Philadelphia playwright Charles Fuller. It was a highly successful play before it hit the big screen and over time, the work of cinematic, historic art gets better and better.
The story is a mystery. An unpopular but hard nosed dedicated African American sergeant in the U.S. Army is murdered near an army base in the deep South. The setting in the film in Tynan, Mississippi. The U.S. army is still segregated at the time of the killing and the victim, Sergeant Vernon Waters, is in charged of the “colored troops” on the base. To investigate the murder, the federal government dispatches an African American lawyer to the scene of the crime — Captain Richard Davenport. There is so much at work in the film even without a murder, it is my contention that the film should be required viewing for our public school children.
When Davenport arrives, he is immediately influenced by where he is and what the other Black troops tell him about racism in the Deep South. Mississippi is racist to the core, the locals don’t like the sight of Black soldiers, so the KKK probably killed Sergeant Waters, is their assertion. Davenport is also curtailed in what he is able to do by the white commanders of the…
