Soldier Blue

The R-rated cut of SOLDIER BLUE (1970) contains 100 minutes of a G-rated romance, bookended by 15 minutes of graphic, blood-soaked atrocities. Director Ralph Nelson doesn't pull any punches; disfigurement, immolation, decapitation, and impalement (amongst other acts of barbarity) splash across the screen - often in Sam Peckinpah-style slow motion. These opening and closing scenes have power; the problem is the 100 minutes we have to spend with the one-dimensional survivors of the initial Indian assault. Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss are given generic, facile characters to interpret; one is naive, one is worldly (of course); one is prudish, the other permissive (surprise); they gradually develop feelings for one another (if you didn't see...

Playful Western Romance sandwiched between two brutal massacres

After a paymaster cavalry unit is slaughtered by the Cheyenne in 1877, a surviving soldier and Indian sympathizer team-up to get back to the nearest fort (Peter Strauss and Candice Bergen). The young man struggles with contempt for what he considers a treasonous attitude along with his growing affection for the brash woman. Then he sees the awful truth firsthand.

"Soldier Blue" (1970) is an entertaining, but odd Western. At heart, its a fun romance between a patriotic military man and a profane free-spirit who is able to survive the challenges of the American wilderness precisely because she has shed Victorian inanities. This is bookended by a Cheyenne-led massacre ...