Woodyanders 1989. Impudent and incorrigible American soldier Ray Elwood (an excellent and engaging performance by Joaquin Phoenix) is involved in West Germany's black market while serving on an army base during the last days of the Cold War. Complications ensue for Ray when he begins dating rebellious teenager Robyn Lee (a winningly brash portrayal by Anna Paquin), who's the daughter of tough no-nonsense new top Sergeant Lee (Scott Glenn in splendidly steely form). Director Gregor Jordan, who also co-wrote the bold and subversive script with Eric Axel Weiss and Nora MacCoby, maintains a gutsy'n'edgy tone and delivers a wickedly funny sense of gloriously irreverent humor as he bravely takes barbed satirical potshots at the desperate measures folks will resort to in order to alleviate boredom, the disintegration of military morale and discipline during times of tedious peace, the winding down of the Cold War, and the quintessentially American spirit of capitalism and opportunism run amorally amok. Moreover, this movie makes a strong and provocative central point that man's greatest enemy is himself during peacetime eras. Phoenix's Elwood makes for a charming anti-hero; the battle of wits he has with the formidable Lee leads to a tense and exciting climax. The super acting by the first-rate cast keeps the film humming: Ed Harris as the naive and inept Colonel Berman, Gabriel Mann as the eager Pfc. Brian Knoll, Leon Robinson as the laid-back Stoney, Dean Stockwell as the hard-nosed General Lancaster, Elizabeth McGovern as the unhappy Mrs. Berman, and Michael Pena as the antsy Garcia. Kudos are also in order for Oliver Stapleton's polished cinematography and the cool rocking score by David Holmes. A real spiky delight.

foxwood9 i served August 61 to August 63. there was no shooting war at that time, however when i was drafted there was something called The Berlin Crisis going on, where pre-Berlin wall, we had American tanks facing down Russian tanks at Checkpoint Charlie, so we had an "quickie" Basic Training. may i add that everything was up in the air, so anyone who walked into the induction station, was deemed "fit for service", no matter what. there were a bunch of lame and halt servicemen during my time. then of course there was the Cuban Missle go around where we all held our collective breath. Viet Nam was bubbling, but would not be brought to a boil until after my release from active duty. this film, The Buffalo Soldiers was certainly not within my military experience. i was stationed at a army general hospital in France for the final eleven months of my tour of duty. it would seem that at a hospital there would be many opportunities for all kinds of hanky-panky but i can state from my position in hospital headquarters, there was not even a hint of any wrong doing such as was outlined in this film. we had our share of drunks among the enlisted personnel. i can't speak for the officers,but as i said, i was in the hospital headquarters, so i would have heard of seen any type of such major or minor wrong doing.to tell the exact truth, i viewed my time in service as something akin to a two year tooth ache. as the years piled up however, i came to the conclusion that my service did have a purpose and was something to be very proud of. maybe i mellowed, or perhaps just grew up.at any rate Buffalo Soldiers was not a film i could enjoy or identify with. no matter how i look at this film it was a bad work of fiction. if you are interested in a truer picture of military service, i would suggest Gardens of Stone. if a factual view of actual wartime combat is wanted, Saving Private Ryan can show the real face of combat and being in the military during wartime. a more sanitized version of combat is shown in Band of Brothers. people are shot or hit with major explosives, but not a lot of blood is shown as spilled.

ExpendableMan Having been surrounded by a massive amount of media hyperbole since his A-list graduation performance in Walk The Line, now couldn't be a better time than to go back and re-evaluate some of Joaquin Phoenix's earlier work, especially Buffalo Soldiers, an edgy black comedy with a strong anti-authoritarian vein pulsing through it that has been more or less ignored. That could easily be put down to the fact it is a movie about American soldiers organising drug operations which was released two days prior to the September 11th atrocities but it would be a real shame if it were forever to be consigned to the drawer marked "forgotten." Coming across like a darker version of Sergeant Bilko, the film is set on an American military base in Germany just prior to the collapse of the Berlin wall and the end of the cold war. With no enemy to fight and little to do, Sergeant Elwood (Phoenix) the camp clerk and his motley crew (including a pre-Crash Michael Pena) pass their days running drugs on the black market and running circles around hapless camp commander Colonel Berman (Ed Harris). Everything seems safe and structured until the stoney-faced career soldier Sergeant Lee turns up and becomes determined to scupper all Elwood's plans...To label the resulting film as anti-American may be a tad harsh however. Elwood and his crew may be devious and self-centred but they are human nonetheless. The top brass come in for a kicking too; Harris's Colonel Berman being portrayed as so much of a career driven apple polisher he fails to notice the fact that his own clerk is in charge of a major drug operation and having an affair with his wife right under his nose but this certainly makes a change from the clean cut heroics or "We're just trying to do our job" determination of regular war films. Giving the characters so much depth also makes the drama more effective and while not everyone may disagree with Elwood's actions, it's hard not to feel for him when an underworld kingpin refuses to sympathise with the death of one of his men.Bleak as that scene may be it is all the more effective for what comes before it. The sight of a three man tank crew getting stoned then inadvertently causing havoc when they try to find the rest of their unit is a riot and Elwood's playful game of cat and mouse with Sgt. Lee provides many funny incidents, not least of which is a scene where Lee has an entire platoon unload machine gun clips into Elwood's prized Lamborghini.At the heart of it all is the main Phoenix himself. His acting abilities really shine and Buffalo Soldiers is a good indication of why he was handed the job of portraying Johnny Cash as he handles both the sombre and the humorous equally well. That he is backed up by a witty and edgy script helps things no end and in these days where the US is more keen than ever to have us believe their armed forces are comprised of square-jawed patriots, it is a tremendous relief to see someone give us a differing view; an army made up of individuals from every corner of life, each with their own attitudes to their profession, not all of which may be as tasteful as the top brass would like.

MagicStarfire There's something wrong when the villains are more likable than the ones who are supposed to be the good guys.Makes me wonder what kind of message these type of films are sending.The only likable good guy was dorky Knoll, Elwood's roomie, and even THAT was questionable.The story mainly revolves around the very handsome Joaquin Phoenix's character, Ray Elwood, who is a real rascal.It seems some criminals were given the choice of doing time in prison or doing time in the army. Those that chose the army have now been stationed in Berlin, where to no big surprise they're doing - guess what - criminal activity.Elwood, a previous car thief, has a pretty sweet little set-up. His officer, played by Ed Harris, is so dumb he hasn't a clue what's going on. Elwood is in supply so he's able to order extra things and then sell them on the black market.As a result Elwood's driving a black Mercedes, and has his room fixed up like a hotel suite.Then comes the fly in the ointment - he gets a new top - Sgt. Lee - tough as nails and mean as a snake.Tensions build when Elwood decides to date Sgt. Lee's daughter and ends up liking her for herself and vice versa.It's "war" between Sgt. Lee and Elwood, along with some other adversaries Elwood's got on his hands - when he decides to go for a bigger black market deal then he's ever done before.7 stars out of 10.