12 Jan A Soldier’s Story
A Soldier’s Story, WWII Movie starring Howard E. Rollins, Jr. and Denzel Washington
The writer of the play that inspired it and this movie was Charles Fuller. He received a Pulitzer Prize for the off-Broadway play. According to Wikipedia, Fuller “vowed to become a writer after noticing that his high school’s library had no books by African American authors.”
He used the plot of a murder mystery (reminded me of A Few Good Men), weaving through the racist attitudes of almost every character in the story.
Even though Denzel Washington is sometimes billed as “the star” (it was one of his earliest films) Howard E. Rollins, Jr. as Captain Davenport carried the movie. He was outstanding as the impeccably dressed lawyer/officer.
My favorite line in the movie was the last one. The white Captain said to Davenport:
“I guess I’ll have to get used to Negroes with bars on their shoulders, Davenport. You know … being in charge.”
Captain Davenport answered, “Oh, you’ll get used to it, Captain. You can bet your ass on that.”
A Soldiers Story at amazon.com
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