It's 1989 Stuttgart, W Germany. Specialist Ray Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix) is a schemer in the 317th Supply Battalion on Theodore Roosevelt US Army Base. As many soldiers at the time, he was given a choice between jail and the Army. He sells Army supplies to the black market. He cooks heroine as a middle man. His commander Colonel Berman (Ed Harris) is clueless. He sleeps with Berman's wife (Elizabeth McGovern). When drugged up tankers destroy a gas station killing two truck drivers, Elwood takes advantage by stealing the weapons in the trucks. Then a new Top Sergeant Lee (Scott Glenn) arrives and he zeros in on Elwood. Elwood tries to get back at him by dating his daughter Robyn Lee (Anna Paquin).This is an outlandish black comedy. For the first half, I was rooting against Elwood. It could be more fun if Elwood is a funnier character. Joaquin has a dead-pan delivery. This movie could be funnier. However, it's a good satirical poke at the military. Despite a couple of questionable moments with Robyn, the supporting actors are all great. I like the spiraling chaos around Elwood and what happens to him in the crazy ending.

The anti-American theme would appeal to Germans. I was there before the time of this move in the mid 80s in West Germany and I liked it. I was in the Air Force but we had Army on base and I went to Army bases too and there was no drug use in uniform or widespread black market selling of weapons or anything else! Drug use off duty by some and domestic abuse problems yes because enlisted were not paid much...kind of like living in a government housing project except in Germany! Yuk. There are fewer bases now but more or less the same thing. I know many people including myself who loved Europe. Too many ugly Americans and our dam fast food over there!

American directors tend to glorify their war movies by adding a lot of heroism and false American nationalism. Buffalo Soldiers is a nice change on these kind of movies. It tells the story of a group of American soldiers so thoroughly bored that they kill time by smuggling drugs, drinking booze and fighting each other. It kinda reminds me of my father's stories of his short yet turbulent time in the army. He keeps on telling about all the wrong things they did to have a bit of fun in their forced presence in these days. The movie doesn't really have a grand message to deliver to its audience, but it is most definitely good for a few laughs. And Joaquin Phoenix shows a bit of the strong charisma he has in store for us in later movies ( Walk the line- the Johnny Cash biography- as his strongest one )

Having been surrounded by a massive amount of media hyperbole since his A-list graduation performance in Walk The Line, now couldn't be a better time than to go back and re-evaluate some of Joaquin Phoenix's earlier work, especially Buffalo Soldiers, an edgy black comedy with a strong anti-authoritarian vein pulsing through it that has been more or less ignored. That could easily be put down to the fact it is a movie about American soldiers organising drug operations which was released two days prior to the September 11th atrocities but it would be a real shame if it were forever to be consigned to the drawer marked "forgotten." Coming across like a darker version of Sergeant Bilko, the film is set on an American military base in Germany just prior to the collapse of the Berlin wall and the end of the cold war. With no enemy to fight and little to do, Sergeant Elwood (Phoenix) the camp clerk and his motley crew (including a pre-Crash Michael Pena) pass their days running drugs on the black market and running circles around hapless camp commander Colonel Berman (Ed Harris). Everything seems safe and structured until the stoney-faced career soldier Sergeant Lee turns up and becomes determined to scupper all Elwood's plans...To label the resulting film as anti-American may be a tad harsh however. Elwood and his crew may be devious and self-centred but they are human nonetheless. The top brass come in for a kicking too; Harris's Colonel Berman being portrayed as so much of a career driven apple polisher he fails to notice the fact that his own clerk is in charge of a major drug operation and having an affair with his wife right under his nose but this certainly makes a change from the clean cut heroics or "We're just trying to do our job" determination of regular war films. Giving the characters so much depth also makes the drama more effective and while not everyone may disagree with Elwood's actions, it's hard not to feel for him when an underworld kingpin refuses to sympathise with the death of one of his men.Bleak as that scene may be it is all the more effective for what comes before it. The sight of a three man tank crew getting stoned then inadvertently causing havoc when they try to find the rest of their unit is a riot and Elwood's playful game of cat and mouse with Sgt. Lee provides many funny incidents, not least of which is a scene where Lee has an entire platoon unload machine gun clips into Elwood's prized Lamborghini.At the heart of it all is the main Phoenix himself. His acting abilities really shine and Buffalo Soldiers is a good indication of why he was handed the job of portraying Johnny Cash as he handles both the sombre and the humorous equally well. That he is backed up by a witty and edgy script helps things no end and in these days where the US is more keen than ever to have us believe their armed forces are comprised of square-jawed patriots, it is a tremendous relief to see someone give us a differing view; an army made up of individuals from every corner of life, each with their own attitudes to their profession, not all of which may be as tasteful as the top brass would like.