An army officer is given a dangerous mission to go behind German front lines . What makes this WW2 different ? Well it involves some funky black dudes kick some Nazi ass and we are talking right on funky bro , so much so it's almost like the black anti-thesis to THE ETERNAL JEW but that would be a compliment and the first ten minutes are patronising as to be insulting not only to black people but anyone watching THE BLACK BRIGADE . Try and imagine Richard Pryor in a relatively semi serious role and you can see where the film's flaws lieThis is a pity because despite being far from a classic WW2 actioner or even a classic TVM THE BLACK BRIGADE is a much better film than I thought possible once I got past the dreadful first ten minutes . Okay it's not great , it's made on a very limited budget in some woodland in California somewhere and it has that seen it all before usually done better . That said it does make some important points about soldiering . Soldiering isn't all about charging machine gun nests and wiping out the enemy single handed , soldiering you see often involves long period of boredom and mundane tasks like digging latrines . A jobs a job and a soldier is a soldier and someone wearing an army uniform is worthy of respect regardless of what regiment he belongs to and what his tasks are . THE BLACK BRIGADE occasionally touches upon these points and one wishes it had concentrated on these points more rather than being a bit too funky for its own good

In commenting on African-Americans in film and television in chronological order for Black History Month, we're now at 1970 with the TV movie Carter's Army (a.k.a. The Black Brigade which is the title on my double-sided $1 DVD which has Bill Cosby's To All My Friends on Shore on the other side). A racist white army captain played by Stephen Boyd is assigned to recruit several black men to guard a bridge that the Germans want to take over. Of course, he changes through the course of the movie. Robert Hooks is the Leutenant who has among his men: Moses Gunn, Glynn Turman, Billy Dee Williams, Rosie Grier, and Richard Pryor. Susan Oliver is the German lady who brings out the worst in Boyd after he sees Hooks plant her a kiss in thanking her for advice and compliments. The other men have some good scenes and lines before their fates are revealed. I was amused at some of the comedy between Grier and Pryor with Pryor making us wonder after a while what kind of man he really is. Co-written and produced by Aaron Spelling, he does what he can in presenting a compelling dramatization of a World War II event in less than 90 minutes with commercial breaks. Worth a look for both as a depiction of a historical event and in seeing Pryor and Williams before their roles in feature films like Lady Sings the Blues, Hit, and The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars & Motor Kings.

Producer Spelling was quite an amazing person. Somehow, he always seemed to have his finger on the pulse of whatever TV and social trends were happening or were about to happen. His list of hit television series (despite a few misses as well along the way) is staggering. Here, he proves himself ahead of the curve in that he co-wrote and produced a form of Blaxploitation before that genre had fully erupted into being. (Spelling's 60's and 70's series tended to be racially-integrated affairs, though that did taper off as the 80's were underway.) Boyd (utilizing a bad southern twang) plays an Army Captain in WWII Germany who is assigned to save a dam from being destroyed by the retreating Nazis. His only aid comes in the form of seven black soldiers who belong to a troop that's been placed in charge of trench-digging and clean-up duty. Their Lieutenant (Hooks) selects six of them (at random!) to join himself and Boyd in the mission. Demonstrating another one of Spelling's talents, which would be using actors who are either famous or on the verge of becoming so, every one of the six soldiers is a black actor of some note. Burly Grier, veteran Gunn, inexperienced Turman, insolent Williams, goof-off Pryor and deaf (!) Whiting make up the unit. The preposterousness of selecting an old, deaf man for a mission of this nature is short-lived as Whiting (best-known as the Barkley's butler on "The Big Valley") is dispensed with early on. The remaining men make their way to Oliver's farm house where she gives them access to a radio for the next installment of their orders. Oliver, sporting an atrocious accent and making no attempt whatsoever to disguise her patently 60's hair and makeup, then has to entertain a Nazi officer in a bid to distract him while the US soldiers move out. The team faces a sniper and full-on German assault as it attempts to secure the dam while racist Boyd butts head with its black members until a grudging respect is finally won (with those who survive the mission!) Although this TV-movie is clearly aimed at showing the ugliness of racial inequality and the benefit of harmony, it still offers up some unattractive qualities within the characters. Practically Hooks' entire platoon is made up of sloppy, lazy, dice-throwing, chain-smoking, buffoonish "soldiers". Yes, they act that way because they are considered second-rate men who aren't given a chance to see combat, but even after they are assigned to an important mission, one of them threatens to desert and two of them get drunk on some pilfered bottles of wine. Another has cigarettes in his belt in lieu of ammunition! Fortunately, some of the men prove their valor by the end of the story. This isn't Blaxploitation proper as the language is toned down for TV (although the "N-bomb" is dropped at least once!) and the clothing and subject matter aren't on par with the later crime/drug/hooker types of flicks that would help define the genre, but it's an interesting precursor that goes down easy thanks to it's all name brand cast and it's brief running time.

The writers probably had no experience in the army, and probably never glanced at a history book, but I still give this cheaply produced war film some credit for taking a long-needed look at the role of black soldiers in the second world war.The action is confused and unbelievable--any episode of Combat! has better production values, but the cast is interesting. Seeing New York Giant Rosie Greer was worth the buck I paid for this. The art direction is fifth rate--the men wear Korean War uniforms, and it was pretty lousy weather by the time the U.S. Army reached Germany in 1944, not sunny as they show here, and I don't think the terrain resembled Northern California. The script never does make clear why the black support troops are used as combat soldiers. There is a nice touch that shows some of the men carrying Springfield rifles instead of M-1s, which second rate troops probably would have been issued with.This basic story idea(racist southern officer commanding black troops) should have been expanded into a big budget production back then, and its not too late to try it now. You have to take this for what it is, and I admire the creators of this film for making the effort.I remember seeing this a while ago and thinking it was set in Italy, which would have made more sense because there were black combat troops operating there in 1944.