Buffalo Soldiers

Rolling Stone - 08/07/2003
"...Adapting Robert O'Connor's novel, director Gregor Jordan slaps us with keen wit and purpose..."

Total Film - 08/01/2003
"...The performances are uniformly excellent..."

Entertainment Weekly - 08/01/2003
"...Enjoyable..."

Movieline's Hollywood Life - 07/01/2003
"...Phoenix plays his part with a roguish charm...and Scott Glenn makes a compelling antagonist..."

USA Today - 01/16/2004
"[With] precise supporting performances by Ed Harris, Anna Paquin, Dean Stockwell, Elizabeth McGovern and Scott Glenn....A movie of merit."

Sight and Sound - 03/01/2004
"Jordan's film bristles with anti-establishment cynicism..."

Joaquin Phoenix stars in this dark service comedy as Ray Elwood, an Army clerk stationed in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Part of a company made up almost entirely of ex-convicts and high school dropouts, Elwood takes advantage of his daft commanding officer, Col. Berman (Ed Harris), by selling heroin and stolen Army supplies wholesale. However, when a member of the company dies and an autopsy reveals a remarkable amount of drugs in his bloodstream, far more intense scrutiny is brought down on the base in the form of Sgt. Lee (Scott Glenn), a tough and savvy Vietnam veteran who immediately surmises that Elwood is the brains behind the base's black market operations. Unfortunately, Elwood has just happened upon the biggest score of his tour and now must unload two trucks full of arms and 30 kilos of heroin just as Sgt. Lee has begun to orchestrate his downfall.

Based on Robert O'Connor's novel, BUFFALO SOLDIERS is cynical but not irreverent; it doesn't treat its characters irresponsible and often idiotic behavior lightly nor does it judge them. Director Gregor Jordan has done an excellent job of adapting the tone of the original novel to the screen, and, aided by excellent performances from Mr. Phoenix and Mr. Glenn, makes BUFFALO SOLDIERS a thoroughly enjoyable satire.

Buffalo Soldiers

Joaquin Phoenix (SIGNS, GLADIATOR) leads an all-star cast in a wickedly funny comedy that entertains in the edgy tradition of PULP FICTION. A U.S. soldier with nothing to fight but boredom as the Cold War winds down, Ray Elwood (Phoenix) enjoys the rush of trading anything he can get his hands on in West Germany's booming black market ... while his inept commander (Ed Harris, THE HOURS) is none the wiser. Everything is perfect ... until he starts dating the new sergeant's daughter (Anna Paquin, X-MEN 1 & 2). But before he can pull off one last big score, Elwood's escalating personal war with Sergeant Lee (Scott Glenn, TRAINING DAY) will send him deeper into a deadly mess ... that may not have a way out!

1980s | Based On A Novel | Black Comedy | Cold War | Drugs | Live-Action | Military | Mishaps | Satire | Soldiers | Theatrical Release | Weapons