Customer Reviews

Sergeant Rutledge [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I dont remember when I first saw this excellent film, but I would imagine that it was on television,complete with commercials,so as soon as it came out on video I rented it.
It is on my top ten list of films. Woody Strode is magnificent as Rutledge,and Jeffrey Hunter as his court appointed lawyer gives one of the best performances of his (at the time the film was released)young career. I have said before and will say again
that he was one of the most underated actors that ever graced the silver screen.Wont get into the romance in the film because it is really rather irrelevant to the main body of the story,except when Mary( well played by Constance Towers)becomes Cantrell's
conscience when Rutledge tries to run away. You can just feel the tension as Cantrell struggles to come to grips with his own prejudices to defend Rutledge to the best of his ability. The
courtroom scenes are excellent,and I appologize for forgetting the name of the actor who plays the prosecutor. Trivia fans will recognize Billie Burke(Glinda the good from Wizard of Oz) as the
commanders ditzy wife!) Terrific film!

I have seen this film called a "minor Ford work" many times. That may be; however, it rises above much else that is available. The story of Braxton Rutledge,former slave and U.S. cavalry sergeant is captivating and Ford was ahead of his time in making such a story. The film was released in 1960 and the climate of those years was not as it is today. As a result, the film had a rather limited release.

Woody Strode was wonderful in the title role (note though in the credits he receives minor billing); bringing a quiet strength and dignity to the accused man. The scene in which he responds to the battering of a race-baiting attorney is powerful and makes one think that Strode could have been put to better use during his long career.

Sergeant Rutledge deserves reevaluation.

This film is further evidence that John Ford is one of the great film makers of all time. The story is gripping--a black cavalry sergeant, a Buffalo soldier--is accused of killing the white daugther of his commanding officer. Telling the story by flashbacks throughout Rutledge's court martial, Ford keeps the suspense and slowly reveals the soldier's pride in his service and his race. The film is filled with many John Ford regulars, the same faces you see in The Horse Soldiers & other John Wayne westerns. Great movie whether you are a western fan or not.

What stands out for me about this film is not simply that it deals with racial prejudice at a time when blacks were still struggling for their basic civil rights (there were at the time other films that already dealt with this racism), but rather that it unflinchingly confronted perhaps its most sensitive and poisonous manifestation, namely the fear of whites, especially white males, of the black man ravishing the white woman. In this film, we are set up with the classic stereotype of such fantasies, young, blonde and virginal, and then confronted with the fear and hatred that the accusation against the benighted Sergeant Rutledge of having committed a brutal rape and murder against such a victim evokes in all of its raw ugliness. Moreover, I think that the film is still relevant in this regard in that it suggests that we should ask ourselves how much of a role this fantasy continues to play in the racism against the black male that remains today.
Although I do not consider this to be one of Ford's greatest films, it was, especially for a major and established film director like Ford, a profoundly courageous undertaking.

Too many Americans are still ignoirant about the role of the Black "Buffalo Soldiers" that did a great deal to tame and build the West. This is a very good movie with stout portrayal of the position the black soldiers were in, fighting the Indians on the plains and their own fellow soldiers and the prejudicial system of the day.

As a white American and combat vetran who fought beside black Marines, I am not only proud of the history these black Americans wrote, but of the way they wrote it.

See the movie. It's well done and is definately worth the effort.

I dont even remember the first time I saw this stunner of a film,but I am sure it was on TV.... So as soon as it came out on video, I rented it to see it intact. This is an amazingly contemporary film considering its age. One of John Ford's best efforts. Woody Strode and Jeffrey Hunter give great performances! I have always felt that Hunter was one of the best and most underrated actors around.His Cantrell has just the right edge of doubt and underlying racial predjudice as he undertakes Rutledge's defense. There are not enough superlatives to discribe Woody Strode's performance in this film. A top ten film for sure!

Length:: 4:34 Mins

Any John Ford western has to be held to the highest standards of movie making.

I had previously watched this movie when it was on television. Of course, that was some years ago. I have always been a sucker for a happy ending.

I believe the movie was controversial when it was made because segregation was prevelant back then.

Other than that, I always liked Jeffrey Hunter. He plays a lawyer in the Army defending a soldier accused of violating and killing the daughter of the commander of the Army post.

Director John Ford's strident civil rights drama, set among a troop of African-American "Buffalo Soldiers" in the post-Civil War frontier, is more than a little heavy-handed, but has its heart in the right place. Woody Strode plays a veteran cavalryman falsely accused of molesting a white woman, and facing a legal lynching at the hands of a kangaroo court presumably typical of the times. The script is relentessly one-sided, but is aided by an innovative narrative structure, with "Ran"-like flashbacks that lead backwards to the whole big picture that absolves Rutledge (yet still may not be enough to save his life). Strode, typically stolid and reserved, coolly unfolds his character's emotions, coming to a rousing crescendo at the film's end. Interesting Hollywood "issue" film made as the Civil Rights Movement was still doing a slow simmer in the American South.

John Ford's Sergeant Rutledge is a fine combination of the standard cavalry western with a murder mystery. Added to the mix is the social commentary of racial prejudice and you have a fine movie for 2001 but this was released 40 years ago at a time when I imagine few had ever heard of buffalo soldiers.

The lead charecters are exceptional from Jeffrey Hunter and Woody Strode to the lesser charecters without which this would have been almost impossible to film. Sergeant Skidmore is a case in point. Constance Towers does double duty as the romantic (after awhile) interest and also the focal point by which a great deal of the story is told.

Ford makes excellent use of his people and terrain to present a breath-taking view of the southwest. The courtroom scenes have just the right touch of lynch-mob mentality competing with the need for fairness.

This is a little heard of film that is a must for any western fan or one interested in social commentary via movies. I recommend it to everyone as an examination of prejudice.