Soldier Blue Reviews

Using the US Cavalry's Indian wars to mirror America's then-current morass in Vietnam, SOLDIER BLUE re-creates Cavalry atrocities in brutal detail. Cresta Maybelle Lee (Candice Bergen), a white woman who once lived with the Cheyenne, and Pvt. Honus Gant (Peter Strauss), the only survivors of an Indian attack on his Cavalry detachment, struggle to make their way back to the safety of an Army outpost, falling in love in the process of their perilous journey. When the Cavalry prepares to enact vicious revenge on the Cheyenne, Cresta tries to warn the Indians, but is unable to prevent the awful slaughter. SOLDIER BLUE suffers from bergen's week performance and Strauss is bland, but the parallel between the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and Vietnam's My Lai incident is disturbing and the film's depiction of Native American life is an explicite attempt to move past Hollywood stereotypes. SOLDIER BLUE opened the same year as A MAN CALLED HORSE and Arthur Penn's complex LITTLE BIG MAN, all of which re-examine the relationships between Native Americans and the descendents of European settlers with a jaundiced eye.