Keep it Oldskool Presents 

Oldskool Movie of the Week

A Soldier's Story is a 1984 movie directed by Norman Jewison. The movie that was based on the stage play of the same name starred  Howard Rollins Jr,Adolph Caesar,David Alan Grier, Robert Townsend, Larry Riley and Denzel Washington.

"They still hate you" Is the last thing Sgt Waters (Caesar) says before he is shot to death. African American Capt. Davenport (Rollins) is sent by the Army to investigate the murder in the south on a segregated Army base. Davenport having to deal with racists officers and a tight lipped base has to try to figure out what happened in just 3 days. We find out that Sgt Waters who managed the baseball team was very conflicted regarding race. He despised the "yasa boss" shucking and jiving Negro. He believed the only way to get the respect of the white man was to act the same way as the do/did. The object of Waters scorn was C.J Memphis a great baseball player but as a product of his deep south roots was not the kind of Negro that Waters liked very much. Also Waters had problems with Private Peterson (Washington) a militant 

authority challenging soldier. 

Davenport initially believes that the murderer is of course white especially after hearing that there were 2 white officers on the road with Sgt Waters. This story deals with self hatred as much as it deals with racism. We watch and marvel at how one mans desire to be accepted begins and ends with the tearing down and brutal treatment of another man of his own race.  At the end you are surprised as to who actually killed Sgt Waters and why they did it

This movie is full of impeccable performances by the actors 3 of whom starred in the original Negro Ensemble Company off-Broadway play (Caesar, Washington and actor William Allen Young)  Like today Hollywood did not rush to get this movie made. The director (Jewison) was so eager to get this movie made that he offered not to take a salary.Warner Brothers,Universal,MGM and United Artist all turned the movie down. Columbia agreed to do the movie but only with a $5 million dollar budget. With that small of budget the actors were only paid to scale(meaning the bare minimum) The movie did however make over $21 million dollars.  The movie was nominated for 3 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Adolph Caesar) and Best Screenplay. Many have never heard of this movie let alone seen it. I implore any and all to find and watch this movie. It has recently been making the rounds on the Encore cable TV channel.

KEEP IT OLDSKOOL