A very dense film about the black soldiers in 1944-45 waiting to be sent to Europe. They had been recruited in great numbers by Roosevelt's administration but they were kept in separate units with only white officers at their head. The Blacks though could be promoted to non- commissioned officer positions which was already a great improvement on what they called the first war. Waiting too long in Tynen, Louisiana, some rivalries appear among the Black men, especially since the sergeant of this unit, Sergeant Waters, is using his position and this long wait to get rid of those he does not like as representative of the Black "race" because he considers this second war is going to change the fate of the Blacks in America and those who are just fools, clowns, those who sing to make people happy and entertain them are not and should not be legitimate members of the "race." By using his power to victimize one soldier he considered such a clown, on his own recollection of how a black soldier was mistreated in Café Napoleon in Paris in the first war into playing the black monkey, half nude with a tail attached to his bottom and eating bananas for the fun of the customers, he manages to bring this black soldier here in Tynen to breaking point and committing suicide.One night this very sergeant gets killed when drunk and on his way back to the base. Everyone says it is the Ku Klux Klan. But it is not. Too simple.Washington DC sends a lawyer with the rank of Captain to investigate. He is the first black officer everyone sees, and I should say to emphasize the occasion for the first time. Reaction are tremendous joy among the black soldiers and very dubitative if not hostile reactions from the white officers since the unit works on a de facto segregated basis with the officers' club only hosting white men since all officers are white. But the Captain sent by Washington is black and that is a shock to the local officers, and what's more to have this investigating officer, accompanied by the local captain responsible for security, coming to the club to interrogate two white officers in the billiards room, or pools room if you prefer. We are thus led to the belief that these two officers had something to do with the death of the sergeant. But that's where we are wrong of course. Too simple.I won't tell you who did it but it has to do with judging who is fit to be a "negro" and who is not fit to be one. Sergeant Waters did it first and before anyone and others decided that they had the same right and that Sergeant Waters, as a black man, had to be eliminated from the racial plate as unfit for the future. When we look back at the history of Blacks in the USA after the Civil War and their emancipation (amendments 13 and 14 to the US Constitution), we find out that on both sides of the racial divide, the main question is always who or what type of black man is fit to be a black man in the present situation and for the future. The Ku Klux Klan wanted to control the Blacks at least politically by using frightening violence. But you find out that Booker T. Washington was supporting one type of Black people, though he did not reject the others and just suggested they should get educated his way. Marcus Garvey is very expansive on his vision of what black people should be and how they should behave and he rejects, at times very vociferously, those who do not fit his model. The various black movements, NAACP, Nation of Islam, Black Panther Party, Black Nationalists, etc, all have a clear definition of what Blacks should be and how they should behave, what religion must be their inspiration, what objectives they should have and how they should advocate them and reach them, etc. That's exactly the point here: some then have the tendency to reject those who do not fit their definition, reject them by ostracizing them, victimizing them, hassling them, or even killing them. Who has the right, black or white, to decide who is fit to be a black man or not?The film is a little bit old. This question is today slightly obsolete, but the question can be generalized and taken away from the racial divide. As soon as there is a clear cut divide that creates some antagonism, on both side of the divide they pretend they know who is fit to be on their side or on the other side. On both side of a divide people live with clichés. Even if today the question of gay rights is pretty active along that line, the Case of Ferguson, Missouri, and the killing of unarmed Michael Brown by a police officer who shot at least six bullets shows the racial divide is still not erased in the USA, still on August 9, 2014. That makes the film still valuable, even though I find the end too close to another cliché. That's the element that has aged. But I can't tell how without telling you who is the culprit.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

This movie tries to do two separate and distinct things; one it does very well, the other is a so-so effort. As regards the latter, frankly, this isn't the most compelling murder mystery you're ever going to come across. On a US Army base made up of mostly black troops in Louisiana in 1944, a black sergeant is murdered, and the question is who did it. Many think it was local Klansmen who didn't like seeing a black man in a position of responsibility, but that theory is quickly rejected and in steps Captain Davenport (played by Howard Rollins) - a black lawyer/officer charged with solving the mystery. Most of the movie is told in flashbacks as Davenport questions the various soldiers on the base to try to unravel the mystery. Rollins was good in the role, and the movie paints a complex (and sometimes confusing) picture of Sgt. Waters, giving reasons for both liking and disliking him, and opening up the possibility that virtually everyone he came into contact with might have had some motive for wanting to kill him. The mystery around the killer's identity is indeed a mystery right up to the very end. There was no reason given to suspect any one character over another. Still, I wasn't especially drawn in by the murder mystery, and if that was all that was going on here this would have been a real disappointment. My sense, though, is that the murder mystery was really background to a bigger issue.What's interesting here is the racial study. What's interesting is watching the pride black soldiers felt in seeing a black officer for the first time. What's interesting is seeing the discomfort of white officers around how to react to a black officer. What's interesting is seeing the interactions between the black soldiers themselves, all trying in their own way to find a way to fit in and to advance at the same time - some asserting their racial identity, some feeling that to get ahead they had to become more like whites, and not always getting along with each other as they approach the racial issues in different ways. This was, indeed, an interesting look at what life might have been like on such a base at the time, and it was that part of the story that was really most interesting to me. The murder mystery was worth watching only insofar as it helped to highlight those racial issues that were ever-present.Of note, I suppose, is that this is one of the earliest roles played by Denzel Washington, as a private on the base who's one of the suspects in the murder because of a confrontation he had with Rivers. It's an important although not a huge role. Rollins was really the star of the movie, and he was very good. Adolph Caesar as Sgt. Rivers was good - perhaps a bit of a caricature of an army sergeant in some ways, but still quite good.

One of the toughest tasks for playwrights and filmmakers is to create a piece that explores a known injustice without it seeming either like a moral sermon or a propaganda speech. "A Soldier's Story" adapted from the Pultizer-prize winning play ("A Soldier's Play") by Charles Fuller meets the issue of racism in such a way that you never feel like the producers were standing on soap boxes. Instead, Charles Fuller and Norman Jewison make their point through a thoroughly compelling murder mystery set on a "colored" or rather African-American army base in a southern rural community during the latter part of World War II. Or better stated, the story makes its own point without the writer or the filmmakers pushing the over-arching themes on the audience with a sledge-hammer. The point of the story is only gradually revealed, and not unlike an Agatha Christie mystery, the solution is unexpected, startling and simultaneously sobering. This is not just pure escapism, although much of the story is highly entertaining and thought-provoking, much like Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".The first scene is the murder itself, inflicted upon some kind of army sergeant who happens to be a "mulatto", someone of white and black lineage. While wandering from the local tavern completely "juiced" late one night, he is shot in cold blood. The base is convinced the murder was at the hands of the KKK who don't like the base comprised of African-Americans in their neck of the woods. A few weeks later, an African-American army officer, Captain Davenport (Howard Rollins) arrives from Washington DC to investigate the crime, which gets quite a stir as no one in this predominantly white community has ever seen a black commissioned officer before. The officer begins his investigation by interviewing the many soldiers of the platoon who had been under the leadership of the slain sergeant.We learn that the victim of the story, Sergeant Waters, played by Adolph Caesar in an academy-nominated performance in which he re-prised his role from the stage play, was a hard-driving non-commissioned officer who feels like his men can't quite measure up to his expectations. His African-American platoon was actually a baseball team, and no matter that they won nearly every game and might have had a chance to play the NY Yankees in an exhibition game, Waters seems unimpressed. After winning a big game against a white team, instead of allowing the players to celebrate, he wants them to work mundane detail. Even when one of the white captains insists the men can take the rest of the day off, Waters tries to change his mind. When Private Peterson (Denzel Washington) protests, he and the sergeant engage in hand-to-hand combat.As the investigation continues, we learn more and more about the victim as the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Underneath a veneer of detached and brutal confidence, Waters wants desperately to curry favor with the white community through the army hierarchy. And he seems to have some strange attitudes regarding members of the African-American race. Waters is enigmatic as he seems both an African-American and yet someone who disowns his race. Waters admonishes and demotes one of his underlings, Private Wilkie, because he had been drunk on guard duty. Not because of the dangerousness and incompetence of the act itself but because he feels it would reflect badly in the eyes of the white officers: "Coloured folks always talking' about what they'll do...if the white man give 'em a chance. You get it, and what do you do with it? You wind up drunk on guard duty." This is an absolutely brilliant film with first-rate acting. Much of the cast, except for Howard Rollins, re-prised their roles from the off-Broadway play including Denzel Washington, the late Adolph Caesar, and the late Larry Riley as C.J. Memphis. (Samuel Jackson actually played one of the roles in the original play but not the film.) The tour-de-force performance by Caesar as Sergeant Waters is one of the great screen performances of the century, in my humble opinion. Not to be missed.

Fear, pain and anxiety bottled up in one insurmountable scope detailing the plight of the black political journey in a time where radical thoughts are called on to produce positive change. Great examples of the changing of the times thru the eyes of the aggrieved. What was thought to be socially acceptable by those without vision is instead exploited and exposed as hindrance not glory. The details in this film are on display by brilliant actors. The actions are quite believable where a light is fixed on the quality of authenticity of military conduct buried deep in the south. The entire film is not sad, there are performances by Patti LaBelle and a genuine feel the south. Though loyalty is recognized as the standards of propriety or morality, betrayal is exposed thru the story for the sake of justice.