Nihilism with a happy face is somewhat contagious and a little bit ridiculous.
If the people at Miramax hoped to bury this film away from criticism they sure picked an awkward time to release this devilishly critical of the boys in green type of film which was originally slated for release almost two years ago. With the troops in Iraq losing face with the public due to the big fat zero in weapons of mass destruction count and Buffalo Soldiers regrets to inform us that when there are no wars there are still plenty of conflicts.
With nothing to do but play card games and intrasquad football matches or sell just about anything on the black-market, this is a tale about trigger happy soldiers who find themselves in the position of wanting to get ‘high’ in all sense of the word. The aptly titled film in reference to the singer who we associate with soccer and reefers gives us a group of New York boys on a mission of mad ideas with Joaquin Phoenix (Signs) excellently cast here as the intuitive bad-ass soldier ring-leader who might be afraid of heights but is fearless about everything else.
The candy of the picture comes with sequences where we watch soldiers totally unaffected by the death of their peers and where callousness of the characters is discovered in a one-hour 40 minute session of opening odd narrative presents. My beef with this film is that on paper it sounds like great viewing medicine, but I wasn’t sure what to make of the constant shift in tone going from sickly funny noir comedy situations which branches out into dramatization of the events giving us this odd fruit basket of political and satirical ideas. Director Gregor Jordan’s debut definitely has bite, but it lacks direction and becomes a film commentary without a focus and presents daring ideas but gets side blinded by bloody noses and chemically challenged scenarios.
I won’t beat up on this film more than it already has been; I can only imagine being in the shoes of Jordan with the endless release date changes. For an untouchable film Buffalo Soldiers will barely make a mark but will find a niche market from the same people who like comedy noir type of films. Unfortunately, the ideas were but the delivery wasn’t.
