A Soldiers Story 1984.

A Soldiers Story, 1984, Norman Jewison.

Still a powerful viewing experience, with a brilliant ensemble cast.

Set in the 50s on an army base, where black soldiers are used for menial tasks and not given the opportunity to fight. Tensions run high as a tough black sergeant (a superb Adolphe Caesar) belittles and undermines the black soldiers and treats them with utter contempt.

What's key to the story is the motivation of the sergeant. A conflicted individual who tries to please his white superiors and curry favour with them, yet equally hates the black men in his platoon as he believes they are ignorant and low class, and perpetuate the stereotype of white peoples opinion of black people in those times.

Without giving too much away, basically it's a kind of whodunnit, with Howard Rollins black army lawyer brought in to solve the mystery of who murdered...well, that would be spoiling.



The cast is superb...a young Denzel Washington, David Alan Grier, Wings Hauser, Dennis Lipscombe, Scott Paulin, Art Evans, Robert Townsend.

Its one of those movies where there is not a wasted line of dialogue, and every scene is compelling.

But the standout performance is definitely Adolphe Caesar, a complex and conflicted character that you hate and feel sorry for in equal measure.

And Larry Reilly as CJ Memphis is also incredible, though, one of those actors that sadly did not do much of note afterwards, save for a few TV shows and TV movie roles.