Soldier Blue: Film as a Reflection of Societal Values

Billed as "The Most Savage Film in History," Soldier Blue serves as an interesting cultural leftover from 1970, one that is often overlooked. Upon its initial release, the film received an "X" certification in Britain and an R-rating in the US, after which it was edited for a PG re-rating in the US (1974). Soldier Blue was notorious for its use of graphic imagery, especially the scenes involving rape, nudity, and extremely graphic (for the time) violence. However, the underlying theme of the film undoubtedly aided in its controversial reception.

The film serves as a pacifistic moral statement and condemnation of specific events of the Vietnam War in a time when directly addressing the matter through film would have proven impossible. The film was oriented in a way to specifically parallel the massacre at My Lai in 1968. BBC News describes the My Lai Massacre in this way:

"Soldiers went berserk, gunning down unarmed men, women, children and babies. Families which huddled together for safety in huts or bunkers were shown no mercy. Those who emerged with hands held high were murdered. ... Elsewhere in the village, other atrocities were in progress. Women were gang raped; Vietnamese who had bowed to greet the Americans were beaten with fists and tortured, clubbed with rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets. Some victims were mutilated with the signature "C Company" carved into the chest. By late morning word had got back to higher authorities and a cease-fire was ordered. My Lai was in a state of carnage. Bodies were strewn through the village" (BBC).

Though the actual number of film versions and their content remains unknown, the general events remain consistent throughout the various edits. Soldier Blue is, on the surface, a re-imagining of the events leading up to and eventual execution of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864. The film opens with an attack by the Indians on the Union troops. A lone survivor, Honus or "Soldier Blue," escapes from the battle unharmed, albeit with the help of the fiesty Cresta, an American who had spent the past two years living in a Cheyenne villaige. The story follows the couples travels, misadventures, and philosophical musings until the shocking final scene.

In an act of retaliatory brutality, the final scenes finds the Union troops mobilizing against an undefended Cheyenne settlement full of surrendering natives. Ignoring their cry for peace, the troops massacre the villaige, beheading the villaigers, slaughtering children, and raping the females. After the massacre, the commanding officer holds a ceremony in which he calls the attack a "proud moment" that the troops will "remember for the rest of [their] lives."

While it could be argued that the extreme nature of the film served more to shock than philosophize, this is most likely do to the films incredibly poor nature on a technical level. Representative of its era, it goes to great lengths in depicting a strong anti-war sentiment along with a self-assured sense of feminism. Sadly, the film is so terribly scored, scripted, acted, and shot that its moral center seems nearly disengenuous. However, to say that the film had no impact would be fallatious, as its reception, or lack thereof, speaks volumes of the social values of the era.

During the year of its release, revelations of the My Lai massacre were both new and shocking. The massacre would have gone unnoticed altogether were it not for the letter of an American soldier named Ron Ridenhour detailing the atrocities commited to then-President Richard Nixon. In 1970, charges were filed by the United States Army, bringing the massacre to the front of the minds of the American people.

Soldier Blue went to great detail to acknowledge its reflection of both the American anti-war movement and disdain for beurocracy. Such events as the congratulatory speech at the end of the film lined directly with the accounts of the My Lai massacre, leaving audiences with little doubt of the film's message. But aside from a general message of pacifism, the film reflects the societal values of its era in a way that is inescapably apparent to a modern audience.

The character of Crista most fully embodies the spirit of the peace movement, the hippie movement, anti-corporate mentality and second-wave feminism. Her long blond hair and Indian style dress speak to an obvious sense of the organic focus found in the hippie movement. She speaks in a way that is casual, somewhat profane, and incredibly abrasive. In fact, her manner of speech is so incredibly tied to the era that it bears not a shred of historical accuracy in regards to the period in which the film takes place.

Her sense of feminism is more based in populist sentiment than any serious sense of feministic thought or theory. She consistently chastises Honus for what she feels is behavior which she considers weak. During one rather transparent scene after their initial meeting, Honus asks Crista to cover her cleavage which has been revealed do to the commotion of the battle and travels. She responds dismissively while the audience is meant to laugh at Honus's lack of understanding.

During their escapades, Crista is explicity the character driving the action. While the film is titled Soldier Blue, Crista leads the journeys, carries the majority of dialog, and raises all of the talking points. One begins to wonder if Honus merely exists as a vehicle for Crista to express her oddly singular worldview. Much to the chagrain of Honus, Crista consistently sides with her native counterparts over the supposedly just Union soldiers.

So how exaclty does Honus play into this narrative? We're introduced to Honus as a genuine yet naive individual. His sincere speech obviously affected by the overriding influence of his commanding officers, Honus expresses frustration and offense at Crista's musings. As the film progresses, Honus comes to realize the hypocrisy of the Union position.

During the final massacre, Honus all but suffers a nervous breakdown on-screen, screaming (along with Crista) for the soldiers to cease their attacks. In disbelief, he seems now incapable of comprehending the their violent actions. This marks his final break with the American army, after which the audience is left to assume he has assumed Crista's ideological perspective. Given the black-and-white nature of the film, it would be hard to imagine any character with even a shred of empathy not siding with Crista.

This sense of moral non-ambiguity seemingly pervades the film on all fronts, reflecting much of the young populist sentiment of the era in which both corporations and government were entities of maliciously dictatorial values and practices. In fact, by the time of this film's release, over half of the population was now opposed to the Vietnam War (Pew Research Center 2002). While the values of pacifism are certainly philosophically sound, Soldier Blue paints a picture in which all soldiers (with the obvious exception of Honus) are not only morally errant, but are intentionally malicious.

Given the historical context of the Sand Creek massacre, and the corresponding one in My Lai, this portrayal is not particularly inaccurate in the literal sense. However, the blatant exclusion of any code of honor or value system echoes the public frustration over the war more than any objective reality. While Soldier Blue does present a message of non-violence, it is quite clear from the presentation that the soldiers violence is markedly more evil than the Indian violence, as the final attack is infinitely more perverse than the opening sequence.

Also present in Soldier Blue in a more subtle manner is a sense of human universalism. The American flag motif is a recurrent one throughout the film as it serves to display an anti-nationalist sentiment. This becomes most readily apparent during the massacre scene in which an American officer commands an attack in spite of the Indian chief waving his American flag as a sign of both surrender and peace.

Nationalism is used throughout the film to represent both greed and oppressions. Crista is the prime example of non-nationalism, as she occupies to cultural spaces, both the American and Indian cultures. She effortlessly navigates between the two as if there really was no difference at all, which is most likely the point. The film even represents this cultural fluidity in her sexuality, as she is perceived to have sexual relations with the Chief, an American officer, and Honus, who could be considered a gateway individual between the two cultures.

On the opposing side, Soldier Blue could also be viewed as a cinematic venture into exploitationism. The 1970's saw a rise in exploitation cinema related to the loosening of puritanical values and the rise of unrestrained expression. Films began tackling matter that was increasingly violent, sexual, and profane, with Soldier Blue leading the pack in the first two categories.

The film's advertising mistakenly lead some audience members to mistake it for an erotic film, as the initial posters for the film (see below) contained a nude Cheyenne woman kneeling with her hands tied behind her back while an inset photo show the lead characters in a passionate embrace. Other materials capitalized on the shokcingly violent nature of the film declaring Soldier Blue to be "The most savage film in history!" Clearly one wishing to make a profound moral statement would take into account using such blatantly exploitative tactics to increase box office revenue.

The films content itself shows signs of a certain level of exploitationism, as the incredibly violent scenes rarely, if ever, feature a tone that even borders upon somber. The music is consistently light and upbeat, at worst taking on a certain sound of adventure, surely not the score of an atrocious massacre. Violent scenes often seem to exist for shock value much more than narrative necessity, as the majority of violent scenes consistently go one stabbing too far, so to speak. The decapitation scene in particular felt engineered for shock as the shot's framing was one similarly seen in such decapitation scenes as portrayed in horror films such as The Omen. Clearly the periods exploitation, or "grindhouse," cinema had an effect upon the production of this film.

In the end, Soldier Blue was not a successful film. As previously discussed it wasn't even a particularly good film, on the contrary it was an often very poorly produced work. But Soldier Blue does serve a sort of cultural purpose to a modern audience, allowing viewers a window into the era through this cinematic interpretation of these nineteenth century events.

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References

Hurst, P.B. "The Most Savage Film: Reliving 'Soldier Blue'." April 29, 2008. CinemaRetro. http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php?/archives/1840-THE-MOST-SAVAGE-FILM-RELIVING-SOLDIER-BLUE.html >

Hodgeson, Mark A. "Soldier Blue (1970): Widescreen and Uncut at Last." March 25, 2007. Black Hole. http://blackholereviews.blogspot.com/2007/03/soldier-blue-1970-widescreen-and-uncut.html>

"Murder in the Name of War - My Lai." BBC. July 20, 1998.

"Generations Divide Over Military Action in Iraq." October 17, 2002. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

"Soldier Blue." IMDb. 2009. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066390/>