Editing A Soldier's Story

{{Short description|1984 film by Norman Jewison}}
{{About||the 2015 Nigerian film|A Soldier's Story (2015 film)}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = A Soldier's Story
| image          = Soldiers story poster.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Norman Jewison]]
| producer       = {{Unbulleted list|Norman Jewison|Patrick Palmer|[[Ronald L. Schwary]]}}
| screenplay     = [[Charles Fuller]]
| based_on       = {{Based on|''[[A Soldier's Play]]''<br>(1981 play)|Charles Fuller}}
| starring       = {{plainlist|
* [[Howard Rollins|Howard E. Rollins, Jr.]]
* [[Adolph Caesar]]
}}<!--per poster-->
| music          = [[Herbie Hancock]]
| cinematography = [[Russell Boyd]]
| editing        = {{Unbulleted list|Caroline Biggerstaff|[[Mark Warner (film editor)|Mark Warner]]}}
| studio         = [[Columbia Pictures]]
| distributor    = Columbia Pictures
| released       = {{film date|1984|9|14}}
| runtime        = 101 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = $6 million
| gross          = $21,821,347<ref>{{cite web|url=https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=soldiersstory.htm |title=A Soldier's Story (1984) | publisher=Box Office Mojo | accessdate=June 19, 2013}}</ref>
}}

'''''A Soldier's Story''''' is a 1984 American [[Mystery film|mystery]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama film]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=AFI{{!}}Catalog|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/57197|access-date=2021-12-06|website=catalog.afi.com}}</ref> directed and produced by [[Norman Jewison]], adapted by [[Charles Fuller]] from his [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning ''[[A Soldier's Play]]''. It is a [[murder mystery]] set in a [[racial segregation|segregated]] regiment of the [[United States Army|U.S Army]] commanded by White officers and training in the [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow South]]. In a time and place where a Black [[commissioned officer]] is bitterly resented by nearly everyone, an African-American [[Judge Advocate General's Corps|JAG]] captain investigates the murder of an African-American [[drill sergeant]] in [[Louisiana]] following [[American entry into World War II]]. As the investigation proceeds, the events leading up to the sergeant's murder are shown in [[Flashback (narrative)|flashback]]s.

The cast is led by [[Howard Rollins]] and [[Adolph Caesar]]. Other actors include [[Art Evans (actor)|Art Evans]], [[David Alan Grier]], [[Larry Riley (actor)|Larry Riley]], [[David Harris (American actor)|David Harris]], [[Robert Townsend (actor)|Robert Townsend]], and [[Patti LaBelle]]. [[Denzel Washington]], still at the beginning of his career, appears in a supporting role. Several actors reprise their roles from the stage version.

The film premiered at the [[1984 Toronto International Film Festival]] and was both a critical and commercial success. It received three [[Academy Award]] nominations: [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]], [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Adapted Screenplay]] and [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best Supporting Actor]] for Adolph Caesar. The film was ranked by the [[National Board of Review]] as one of the 10 best films of 1984, and it won the Golden Prize at the [[14th Moscow International Film Festival]].<ref name="Moscow1985">{{cite web|url=http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1985 |title=14th Moscow International Film Festival (1985) |accessdate=2013-02-08 |work=MIFF |url-status = dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130316084353/http://moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1985 |archivedate=2013-03-16 }}</ref>

==Plot==
In 1944 during [[World War II]], Vernon Waters, a [[master sergeant]] in a company of Black soldiers, is shot to death with a [[.45 caliber pistol]] outside Fort Neal, a segregated [[United States Army|Army]] base in [[Louisiana]]. Captain Richard Davenport, a Black officer from the [[Judge Advocate General's Corps]], is sent to investigate. Most assume Waters was killed by the local [[Ku Klux Klan]], but others are doubtful.

Even Captain Taylor, the only White officer who wants the killers prosecuted, is uncooperative and patronizing, fearing a Black officer will have little success. Davenport soon discovers that whenever the Klan murders Black soldiers, they strip them of their military insignia, whereas the body of Sgt. Waters was found wearing an intact uniform.

Davenport learns that Waters's company was officially part of the 221st Chemical Smoke Generator Battalion. They are kept on the Home Front and assigned menial jobs. Most are former players from the [[Negro baseball league]], grouped to play ball with Waters as manager.

Private James Wilkie, a former sergeant Waters busted for being drunk on duty, describes Waters as a combat veteran who was awarded with the [[Croix de guerre 1914–1918 (France)|Croix de Guerre]] by the [[Third French Republic]] during the [[First World War]]. He also says that Waters was a strict disciplinarian but a fair NCO who got on well with his men, especially baseball pitcher and [[Jazz music|jazz]] musician C.J. Memphis.

Private Peterson reveals Waters's tyrannical nature and his disgust with Black soldiers from the rural South who lacked education, or who spoke in [[Gullah language]]. Peterson also recalls how he beat up Waters when the sergeant berated the men after a winning game. Interviewing other soldiers, Davenport learns that Waters charged Memphis with the murder of a White MP after a search conducted by Wilkie turned up a recently discharged pistol under his bunk. Waters provoked Memphis into hitting him, and while the murder charge was dismissed, he was charged with striking a superior officer.

Davenport next interrogates Memphis's best friend Corporal Bernard Cobb. Cobb recalls visiting Memphis in the [[military prison|brig]], where he told Cobb of a visit in which Waters admitted the planted gun was part of a [[frame-up]]. Waters viewed "[[Gullah Geechee|Geechees]]", as he termed uneducated southern Blacks like Memphis, as an obstacle to [[racial equality]] and the success of the future [[African American upper class]]. Davenport also learns from Cobb that Memphis, who suffered from [[claustrophobia]], hanged himself while awaiting his [[court-martial]]. In protest, the baseball team threw the season's last game. Taylor disbanded the team, and the players were reassigned to the 221st.

Davenport learns that racist White officers Captain Wilcox and Lieutenant Byrd had an altercation with Waters shortly before his death. While being interrogated by Davenport and Taylor at the officer's club, Wilcox and Byrd admit to assaulting a guilt-ridden Waters after he confronted them in a drunken tirade. They admit that they would have killed him, but only men on guard duty are issued .45 ammunition when the unit is on bivouac. Immediately after learning of Waters's murder, both officers turned in their side-arms, and [[Forensic firearm examination|ballistics testing]] cleared them.

Davenport interrogates Wilkie, who admits he planted the gun under Memphis's bunk on Waters's orders. Wilkie also reveals that Waters had told him the real reasons for his hatred of Gullah-speaking southern Blacks like Memphis. While serving with the [[American Expeditionary Forces|AEF]] in [[Third French Republic|France]] during [[World War I]], a Black soldier in Waters's unit had, at the urging of racist White [[Doughboys]], humiliated them all by dressing up and acting like a monkey in front of the French girls at a [[cabaret]]. In retaliation, Waters and his enraged fellow Black Doughboys slit the soldier's throat.

Davenport demands to know why Waters did not also frame Peterson after their fight. Wilkie explains that Waters liked Peterson, as he spoke proper English and stood up for himself. Davenport has Wilkie arrested just as the 221st is about to be shipped out to join the fight overseas.

Realizing Peterson and Smalls were on guard duty the night of the murder and thus had been issued .45 ammunition, Davenport interrogates Smalls. He confesses to watching as Peterson [[fragging|fatally shot]] Waters, claiming it was "justice" for Memphis and for all Black people.

Taylor congratulates Davenport on the arrests of Wilkie, Peterson, and Smalls, admitting that he will have to get used to Negroes being commissioned officers. Meanwhile, the platoon marches in preparation for their deployment to the [[European theatre of World War II|European theater]] of war.

==Cast==
{{div col}}
* [[Howard Rollins|Howard E. Rollins Jr.]] as [[Captain|CPT.]] Richard Davenport
* [[Adolph Caesar]] as [[Master sergeant|MSG.]] Vernon Waters
* [[Art Evans (actor)|Art Evans]] as PVT. James Wilkie
* [[David Alan Grier]] as CPL. Bernard Cobb
* [[David Harris (American actor)|David Harris]] as PVT. Tony Smalls
* [[Denzel Washington]] as PFC. Melvin Peterson
* [[Dennis Lipscomb]] as CPT. Charles Taylor
* [[Larry Riley (actor)|Larry Riley]] as PVT. C.J. Memphis
* [[Robert Townsend (actor)|Robert Townsend]] as CPL. Ellis
* [[William Allen Young]] as PVT. Henson
* [[John Hancock (actor)|John Hancock]] as SGT. Washington
* [[Patti LaBelle]] as Big Mary
* [[Trey Wilson]] as COL. Nivens
* [[Wings Hauser]] as LT. Byrd
* [[Scott Paulin]] as CPT. Wilcox
* [[Mike Williams (boxer)|Mike Williams]] as PFC. Oscar
*[[Bob Swanson]] as boy on raft
{{div col end}}
{{small|Sources:<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=A Soldier's Story (1984)|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6e321367|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181230023321/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6e321367|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 30, 2018|access-date=2021-12-06|website=BFI|language=en}}</ref>}}

==Production==
{{more citations needed section|date=June 2018}}
Jewison and many of the cast members worked for scale or less under a tight budget with [[Columbia Pictures]]. "No one really wanted to make this movie... a black story, it was based on [[World War II]], and those themes were not popular at the box office", according to Jewison. [[Warner Bros.]] turned it down, as did [[Universal Pictures|Universal]] and [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]. Columbia's [[Frank Price]] read the screenplay and was deeply interested, but the studio was hesitant about its commercial value, so Jewison offered to do the film for a $5 million budget and no salary. When the [[Directors Guild of America]] insisted he must have a fee, he agreed to take the lowest possible amount. The film ended up grossing $22.1 million.<ref name="boxoffice">{{cite web|url=https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1984/0SLST.php |title=A Soldier's Story - Box Office Data, DVD Sales, Movie News, Cast Information |publisher=The Numbers |date= |accessdate=June 19, 2013}}</ref>

[[Howard E. Rollins, Jr.]] had just received an Oscar nomination for his role in ''[[Ragtime (film)|Ragtime]]'' and was cast as the lead. Most of the cast came from [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] careers, but only [[Adolph Caesar]], [[Denzel Washington]], [[Larry Riley (actor)|Larry Riley]] and [[William Allen Young]] appeared in both the movie and the original off-Broadway play with the [[Negro Ensemble Company]] in the [[New York City]] version.

In a 1985 interview with the [[Los Angeles Times]], Caesar stated, while crafting the character of Waters, he drew on his frustrating experiences with both [[racism]] and ignorance in [[Classical theatre]], "I’d studied [[Shakespeare]] to death. I knew more about Shakespeare than Shakespeare knew about himself. After I did one season at a Shakespearean [[repertory company]], a director said to me, ‘You have a marvelous voice. You know the king’s English well. You speak [[iambic pentameter]]. My suggestion is that you go to New York and get a good colored role.' Waters has tried his best, but no matter what you do, they still hate you."<ref name="amandlajournal">{{Cite web|last=Little|first=Dylan K.|title=Adolph Caesar: The Iconic Actor With The Iconic Voice|url=https://amandlajournal.com/999/reviews/adolph-caesar-the-iconic-actor-with-the-iconic-voice/|access-date=2020-10-26|website=Amandla!}}</ref>

''A Soldier's Story'' was shot entirely in [[Arkansas]]. The "Tynin" exterior scenes were shot in three days in [[Clarendon, Arkansas|Clarendon]]. The baseball sequence was filmed in [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] at the historic [[Lamar Porter Field]].<ref name="arealbook">{{cite book | last = Gordon | first = William A. | title = Shot on This Site | publisher = Citadel Press | year = 1996 | page = [https://archive.org/details/shotonthissitetr00gord/page/146 146] | isbn = 0-8065-1647-X | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/shotonthissitetr00gord/page/146 }}</ref>

[[Bill Clinton]] (then Governor of [[Arkansas]]) dropped by during the shooting. He became very enthused about the project and later helped by providing the [[Arkansas Army National Guard]] in full regalia for a grand scene, since Jewison could not afford to pay an army of extras. Production was completed with their help at [[Fort Chaffee]] United States Army Ready [[Military reserve|Reserve]] base at [[Fort Smith, Arkansas|Fort Smith]].

Fuller had said [[Herman Melville]]'s novella ''[[Billy Budd]]'' inspired the play.<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=41398468|title=American Theater Watch, 1981-1982|author=Weales, Gerald|year=1982|journal=The Georgia Review|volume=36|issue=3|pages=517–526}}</ref>

==Reception==
The film holds a 91% rating on [[Rotten Tomatoes]] from a sample of 22 critics. The site's consensus reads, "A meticulously crafted murder mystery with incisive observations about race in America, ''A Soldier's Story'' benefits from a roundly excellent ensemble and Charles Fuller's politically urgent screenplay".<ref>{{Cite web |date=1984-09-14 |title=A Soldier's Story {{!}} Rotten Tomatoes |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/soldiers_story |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=www.rottentomatoes.com |language=en}}</ref>

=== Awards and nominations ===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Institution
! Year
! Category
!Nominee
! Result
|-
| rowspan="3" |[[Academy Awards]]
| rowspan="3" |[[57th Academy Awards|1985]]
|[[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]]
|[[Norman Jewison]]
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Adapted Screenplay]]
|[[Charles Fuller]]
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best Supporting Actor]]
|Adolph Caesar
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Casting Society of America]]
|1985
|Best Casting in a Feature Film
|[[Reuben Cannon]]
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Directors Guild of America Awards|Directors Guild of America]]
|1985
|[[Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film|Outstanding Directing – Feature Film]]
|Norman Jewison
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Edgar Allan Poe Award|Edgar Award]]
|1985
|[[List of Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay winners|Best Motion Picture Screenplay]]
|Charles Fuller
|{{nom}}
|-
| rowspan="3" |[[Golden Globe Awards]]
| rowspan="3" |[[42nd Golden Globe Awards|1985]]
|[[Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama|Best Motion Picture – Drama]]
|{{N/A}}
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay|Best Screenplay]]
|Charles Fuller
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture|Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture]]
|Adolph Caesar
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Los Angeles Film Critics Association]]
|1984
|[[Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best Supporting Actor]]
|Adolph Caesar
|{{nom}}
|-
| rowspan="2" |[[NAACP Image Awards]]
| rowspan="2" |1985
|[[NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture|Outstanding Motion Picture]]
|{{N/A}}
|{{won}}
|-
|[[NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture|Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture]]
|Adolph Caesar
|{{won}}
|-
|[[National Board of Review]]
|1984
|[[National Board of Review: Top Ten Films|Top Ten Films]]
|{{N/A}}
|{{won}}
|-
|[[Moscow International Film Festival]]
|[[14th Moscow International Film Festival|1985]]
|Golden Prize<ref name="Moscow1985" />
|Norman Jewison
|{{won}}
|-
|[[Writers Guild of America Awards|Writers Guild of America]]
|1985
|[[Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Adapted Screenplay]]
|Charles Fuller
|{{nom}}
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0088146|A Soldier's Story}}
* {{TCMDb title|id= 53021}}
* {{AFI film|57197}}
* {{rotten-tomatoes|a_soldiers_story|A Soldier's Story}}

{{Norman Jewison}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for ''A Soldier's Story''
|list1 =
{{MIFF Main Award|state=autocollapse}}
{{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture}}
}}
{{Gullah topics|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soldiers Story, A}}
[[Category:1984 films]]
[[Category:1984 drama films]]
[[Category:1980s mystery films]]
[[Category:African-American drama films]]
[[Category:African-American films]]
[[Category:American films based on plays]]
[[Category:American mystery films]]
[[Category:Columbia Pictures films]]
[[Category:Edgar Award–winning works]]
[[Category:1980s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films about race and ethnicity]]
[[Category:Films about racism in the United States]]
[[Category:Films about the United States Army]]
[[Category:Films directed by Norman Jewison]]
[[Category:Films scored by Herbie Hancock]]
[[Category:Films set in 1944]]
[[Category:Films set in Louisiana]]
[[Category:Films set on the United States home front during World War II]]
[[Category:Films shot in Arkansas]]
[[Category:American World War II films]]
[[Category:1980s American films]]
[[Category:English-language mystery films]]