A Soldiers Story

A Soldiers Story is a 1984 American drama lm directed

by Norman Jewison, based upon Charles Fuller's Pulitzer
Prize-winning O Broadway production A Soldiers Play.
A black ocer is sent to investigate the murder of a black
sergeant in Louisiana near the end of World War II. It is a
story about racism and segregation in a black U.S Army
regiment with white ocers deep in the Jim Crow South,
in a time and place where a black ocer is unprecedented
and bitterly resented by nearly everyone.

busted to private. Wilkie admits his part in a cover up to

get revenge on Waters and Davenport has him arrested.
Waters then learns Pvt. Smalls and Pvt. Peterson had
guard duty the night Waters was killed. Both, coincidentally, have gone AWOL just after it is announced the
platoon will be shipped out to ght the Nazis. Smalls is
caught rst and admits to Davenport that he was with Peterson when Peterson shot Waters. Peterson is caught and
confesses. The lm ends with the platoon marching in
The lm was rst shown at the Toronto Film Festival. preparation for their deployment to the European TheIt won the New York Drama Critics Award, the Outer ater.
Critics Circle Award, the Theater Club Award, and three
Village Voice Obie Awards. It won the Golden Prize at
the 14th Moscow International Film Festival.[2] It was 2 Cast
also nominated for three Academy Awards: for Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Adolph Caesar), and Screenplay
Art Evans plays Private Wilkie, a nervous man too acquiAdaptation (Fuller).
escent for his own good. David Alan Grier plays C.J.'s
closest friend, bonded by their Mississippi roots. Denzel
Washington, in one of his earliest motion picture roles,
portrays the deeply embittered Pfc. Peterson.
1 Plot
Howard E. Rollins, Jr. as Capt. Davenport

Conicted, light-skinned Sergeant Waters (Adolph Caesar) ruthlessly heaps abuse upon his men. He calls them
names, but he especially relishes torturing the jovial and
highly talented C.J. Memphis (Larry Riley). Sergeant
Waters especially cannot stand the light-hearted behavior from the fellow black men in the platoon.

Adolph Caesar as Sgt. Waters

Art Evans as Pvt. Wilkie
David Alan Grier as Cpl. Cobb

When Waters is killed, there are plenty of suspects for

Captain Davenport (Howard E. Rollins, Jr.) to investigate. Some soldiers also believe that Sergeant Waters was
killed by the Ku Klux Klan.

David Harris as Pvt. Smalls

Dennis Lipscomb as Capt. Taylor

In the beginning, Davenports investigation is dicult.

Not only do white ocers oppose him, but black soldiers deride him. And he receives dishonest answers from
those he questions about the murder. Eventually, Davenport begins to put the pieces of his investigation together
and discovers two white ocers saw Waters drunk on a
road shortly before he was discovered dead at that scene,
shot with two 45 caliber bullets. Davenport questions the
white ocers who admit they confronted Waters after he
insulted them, but deny they killed him. Captain Taylor
thinks the ocers are lying and Davenport should have
them arrested. Davenport refuses after learning that the
ammunition used to kill Waters was not issued to those
ocers. Davenport learns Waters despised C.J. because
C.J. acted like the stereotypical blacks of the Old South.
Waters sets up C.J. on a false charge and C.J. hangs himself in jail awaiting trial. Waters then has Sgt. Wilkie

Larry Riley as C.J. Memphis

Robert Townsend as Cpl. Ellis
Denzel Washington as Pfc. Peterson
William Allen Young as Pvt. Henson
John Hancock as Sgt. Washington
Patti LaBelle as Big Mary
Trey Wilson as Col. Nivens
Wings Hauser as Lt. Byrd
1

Production

EXTERNAL LINKS

Charles Fuller

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, Best

Jewison and many of the cast members worked for scale
Supporting Actor Adolph Caesar
or less under a tight budget with Columbia Pictures. No
one really wanted to make this movie... a black story, it
14th Moscow International Film Festival Golden
was based on World War II, and those themes were not
Prize[2]
popular at the box oce, according to Jewison. Warner
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion PicBros. turned it down, as did Universal's president, Ned
ture
Tanen, and UA and MGM followed suit. Columbias
Frank Price read the screenplay and was deeply interested, but the studio was hesitant about its commercial
5.2 Nominated
value, so Jewison oered to do the lm for a $5 million
budget and no salary. When the Directors Guild of Amer Academy Award for Best Picture
ica insisted he must have a fee, he agreed to take the lowest possible amount. The lm ended up grossing $22.1
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture million.[3]
Drama
Howard E. Rollins, Jr. had just received an Oscar nomination for his role in Ragtime and was cast as the lead.
Most of the cast came from Broadway careers, but only
Adolph Caesar, Denzel Washington, and William Allen
Young appeared in both the movie and the original oBroadway play with the Negro Ensemble Company in the
New York version.
A Soldiers Story was shot entirely in Arkansas. The
Tynin exterior scenes were shot in three days in
Clarendon. The baseball sequence was lmed in Little
Rock at the historic Lamar Porter Field.[4]
Bill Clinton (then Governor of Arkansas) dropped by during the shooting. He became very enthused about the
project and later helped by providing the Arkansas Army
National Guard in full regalia for a grand scene, since
Jewison could not aord to pay an army of extras. Production was completed with their help at Fort Chaee
United States Army Ready Reserve base at Fort Smith
(where Elvis Presley entered the military and received his
rst haircut).

Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding

Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Norman Jewison
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Adolph Caesar
Golden Globe Award Best Actor in a Supporting
Role in a Motion Picture Adolph Caesar
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay
Charles Fuller
Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - Motion
Picture Charles Fuller
Writers Guild of America for Best Screenplay Based
on Material from Another Medium Charles Fuller

6 References
[1] A Soldiers Story (1984)". Box Oce Mojo. Retrieved
June 19, 2013.

Musical score

Herbie Hancock delivered an interpretative impromptu

score. Patti Labelle and Larry Riley, who plays guitar,
wrote and performed their own songs. The blues played
a large role in the lms music.
Unfortunately there was no known consideration given to
the production of an ocial soundtrack due to the aforementioned budgetary restraintsthis, despite the lms
relative box oce success.

Awards

[2] 14th Moscow International Film Festival (1985)". MIFF.

Retrieved 2013-02-08.
[3] A Soldiers Story - Box Oce Data, DVD Sales, Movie
News, Cast Information. The Numbers. Retrieved June
19, 2013.
[4] Gordon, William A. (1996). Shot on This Site. Citadel
Press. p. 146. ISBN 0-8065-1647-X.

7 External links
A Soldiers Story at the Internet Movie Database
A Soldiers Story at Rotten Tomatoes

5.1

Won

Edgar Award, Best Motion Picture Screenplay

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

A Soldiers Story Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%20Soldier's%20Story?oldid=639761324 Contributors: Zoe, Olivier, Gdarin,

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