Product Details

• Actors: Peter Strauss, Candice Bergen, Donald Pleasence
• Format: NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Nelson Entertainment
• VHS Release Date: August 26, 1992
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300147363
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,855 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Item Name: Soldier Blue; Studio: Lionsgate

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

142 of 150 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good As It Is, And Now It's UNCUT!, July 18, 2001

By 

Erik North (San Gabriel, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Soldier Blue [VHS] (VHS Tape)

NOTE: This review of SOLDIER BLUE applies to the uncut version released by Lionsgate in 2006 and not the 'PG' version that had been on video for years.

Released in the late summer of 1970, SOLDIER BLUE concerns itself with a disenfranchised U.S. cavalry officer (Peter Strauss), one of only two survivors of a savage attack on an Army payroll train by Cheyenne Indians in Colorado, who falls in love with the other survivor, a white woman (Candace Bergen) who had been raised by the Cheyenne. Although cut off from his unit, Strauss refuses to believe that the U.S. Army is acting with undue harshness towards the Indians, until his experiences with Bergen show him otherwise. Making their way across hostile territory, and for a moment in the clutches of a deranged gun runner (Donald Pleasance), they reach an Army fort where they learn of a plan by a vengeance-minded general (John Anderson) to destroy the Cheyenne.

Bergen and Strauss warn the Cheyenne villagers of this possibility. When Anderson's troop appears on the outskirts of the village, the Indians raise an American flag as if in supplication. Anderson, however, is unmoved; and all Bergen and Strauss can do is watch as the Cheyenne and their village are totally annihilated.

SOLDIER BLUE, directed by Ralph Nelson (CHARLY, LILIES OF THE FIELD), is unique because it was the first western of its kind to really paint the Army as inherently evil. Given that it was based on the infamous 1864 Sand Creek massacre and that it equated mistreatment of the Cheyenne with the revelations of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam at the time of its release, this is not surprising--though contrary to what some might say, it is also not politically (let alone realistically) correct.

Until Lionsgate, the studio responsible for FAHRENHEIT 9/11, restored the and re-released the film on DVD last year, however SOLDIER BLUE could only be seen in a severely cut form, allowing for the 'PG' rating it had for so long. In reality, in its original form here, it was considerably notorious because of its extreme violence, particularly the horrific final massacre. As such, it exceeded even the levels of violence in THE WILD BUNCH and would almost certainly challenge the opening of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN for sheer war-related carnage. It nearly got an 'X' rating, but came away with an 'R'. It was then edited for re-release down to a 'PG', with much of the violence cut.

That said, however, Bergen and Strauss, who were practically unknown at the time, deliver fairly good performances; and the on-location shooting in central Mexico is breathtakingly panoramic when it's not focusing in on the violence angle. Roy Budd's score is also appropriate, with noted folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie (a Cree Indian) contributing songs to the soundtrack.

Now that it is in its uncut form, it is up for the viewer to judge the merits of this, the FAHRENHEIT 9/11 of the Western genre. It still isn't an easy film to like, and almost certainly there will be those that loathe it not only for its violence but also its admittedly hyperbolic view of the Army. Nevertheless, it can and should be seen now in its original form so that people can come to terms with its painful message about our genocidal mistreatment of the Native American.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, and timely docudrama, July 3, 2008

By 

Timothy P. Scanlon (Hyattsville, MDUSA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Soldier Blue (DVD)

I first saw this film while I was a college freshman, and at the time volunteering to tutor Indian kids in central Wisconsin. Another reviewer referred to it as an "anti-Vietnam War" film. It was that only in that it was timely, i.e., while we heard that the great US forces were freeing the Vietnamese peasants from commie tyranny, we were actually slaughtering them.

The story is based on a novel. That, in fact, is why I can only give it four stars. It's about the Sand Creek massacre, one of many slaughters of the red man, that occured in the 1860s. Many have challenged the historical accuracy of the story. I reiterate, it's based on a novel. But novels can be based predominantly on fact.

"Conventional wisdom," a leading myth of the American mind, has been that everything we do is benevolent. We were making the lives better for the Indians when we took over their land, we did the same in Vietnan--that mythology extends to what we're doing in the Middle East today! But the reality is very different.

Sure there are weaknesses of the story. If you're looking for historical accuracy, you'll find more in this than you will with most "war movies." Yet all leave something to be desired.

At the risk of being labeled and "American hater," I'll point out that this film's story needed/needs to be told. That's why I recommend it so strongly. In short, we're not as benevolent as we'd like to think.

The acting was great, the story not for the weak of stomach. But see it if you want the less conventional view of how we really "moved West," and why the US is challenged as a purveyor of "democracy."

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Flawed, if Unflinching Look at Genocide in the U.S. West, November 10, 2003

By 

Stephen Kaczmarek "Educator, Writer, Consultant" (Columbus, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soldier Blue [VHS] (VHS Tape)

With its stark re-creation of the massacre of Native Americans at the hands of a volunteer U.S. Army during the American Civil War, it's no surprise that "Soldier Blue" has been largely buried by cable and broadcast TV. When a local station was brave enough to air it--uncensored, no less--years ago, I was stunned at the depiction not only of sadistic violence, but overt racism and genocide that most westerns have chosen to whitewash or ignore to avoid offending mainstream audiences. That said, it's not easy to watch "Soldier Blue" without recoiling at the visciousness of so-called civilized people who defended their actions by labelling everyone else "savages." Peter Strauss plays a wayward cavalry soldier who teams up with a frontier-savvy immigrant (Candice Bergen) on the eve of a brutal attack by the army (based loosely on Chivington's massacre of the Cheyenne at Sand Creek) He quickly comes to realize who the real savages are but is nonetheless powerless to prevent the gleeful slaughter that includes rape and dismemberment. "Soldier Blue" may remind viewers of "Little Big Man" and "Dances with Wolves"--and there are striking similarities--but despite their higher production values, neither film seems to capture the sheer venom of actions and attitudes against Native Americans. (The film itself stops short of depicting the full range of brutality.) Still, "Soldier Blue" is far from a perfect film--the acting at times is over-the-top and the parallels to the Viet Nam War (think: My Lai Massacre) detract from the film's focus. Watch it not as great cinema but as a glimpse of an American West we usually don't get to see.