Develiker
terrible... so disappointed.
Nonureva
Really Surprised!
Grimossfer
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
Clarissa Mora
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
teban63
... I did notice that a same scene was used twice in vert two different time & space scenes ... when an "apache" is hidden behind giant rocks shooting/firing (0:36:07) and then again when in distant place from that scene : another "apache" shooted from the very same rocks (1:08:13) ... is akward due to the many places that the film was supposed to be filmed ....
Heather
Anyone who says this is 'revisionist history' is in denial. The movie is about Victorio's War, which was part of the Apache Wars. To see how the Apache Wars ended, see the movie Geronimo (1993). The dialogue is less Victorian and more like Western movies, but it has a lot of jokes that serve to show the characters' personalities outside of their jobs as soldiers, so it works. My only disappointment is that the opening credits run during the best part of the movie - the religious ritual that the Apache are performing before they flee from their poverty-stricken reservation. It strikes me as disrespectful to run credits during any religious content. However, the Native Americans are played by Native American actors and the Mescalero-Chiricahua language is spoken, so Native Americans are portrayed in a positive way, not a stereotypical one. In the movie, the buffalo soldiers variously respect and mistreat the Apache, because if they fail to arrest the Natives, black people in general will look like unfit soldiers. It's simultaneously harsh and uplifting.
8-Foot
From the title, I expected a good overview of the Buffalo Soldiers. Instead, we get a drawn out, soap-opera-ish tale of hunting down a single Indian villain. Since I missed the first minute or two of opening credits, this script may have been pure fiction for all I know. As one complaint, there is no mention of John Pershing's (of World War I fame) association with these troops.As could be expected, the wrongs and conflicts from racism are well set forth. Nonetheless, the Buffalo Soldiers, many ex-slaves, proudly risk their lives and stay in the cavalry by choice.The acting is commendable, particularly that of Danny Glover as the central character. Some '90s idioms (the 1990s, that is) find their way into the dialog.Given the title and the general ignorance (myself included) about the Buffalo Soldiers, this tv movie was very disappointing. Surely, these men did a lot more on the frontier than they are credited with here.
sbox
This film held my interest for quite a while. All the ingredients were present to make a fine film. First, the topic of the Buffalo Soldiers is highly interesting. In real history, these men were a tribute to the uniform they fought for. In the movie. . . well things kind of fall apart.The good guys are just too darned good. And the bad guys are really bad. Indeed, almost if not completely psychotic. And geez, it turns out the bad guys are the white officers under which the valiant Buffalo Soldiers serve.On the other hand, the Indians are really good as are the black soldiers. These two oppressed peoples are so good in fact, that when the Buffalo Soldiers are about to kill an entire tribe of Indians that they've been looking for the whole time, the karma in the air kind of magically makes them change their minds. Remarkable! Like any enlightened person of the 1990's they let the Indians go. Something tells me it wouldn't have gone down that way in the 1870's.The makers should have called this film, "Politically Correct Buffolo Soldiers from the 1990's Go Back to the Future."
