"War is hell but peace is fucking boring" is the powerful phrase that opens Buffalo Soldiers - Australian director Gregor Jordan's black comedy about drug dealing and corruption in the US Army. This adaptation of Robert O'Connor's edgy cult novel certainly pulls no punches in its demonstration of the hell that can ensue when boredom sets in among a group of angry young soldiers on an army base in West Germany during the cold war.
Robert Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix) is the film's anti-hero -- a reluctant soldier by day, dutifully serving the good-hearted but ineffectual Commander Berman (Ed Harris) as a clerk, and a wheeler-dealer by night. His scams range from selling Army supplies to the locals to acting as a drug dealer's middleman and cooking up smack at the base to sell to his peers.
However, things begin to get tricky for Elwood when Sergeant Lee (Scott Glenn) arrives to clean up the base and clearly has his eye firmly fixed on the loveable rogue. To complicate things further Ellwood falls for Lee's daughter Robyn (Anna Paquin) and the plot culminates in a gripping showdown between the Sergeant and our anti-hero.
The first half of the film successfully captures the reckless hedonism enjoyed by the soldiers but threatens to become a little shallow. However the mood darkens in the second half as the characters begin to expose vulnerability and depth of feeling as the relationships intensify.
As Elwood, Phoenix delivers a multi-layered performance. He accurately conveys the many sides of the complex character from the way he manipulates his commander to his sheer arrogance around Sergeant Lee to his vulnerability after the death of a friend. Phoenix successfully rises to the challenge of making the audience sympathise with his character without losing his bad boy edginess.
Ed Harris adds excellent comic value as the nice-but-dim Berman, while Scott Glenn's performance contrasts effectively as the borderline psychotic Lee. Playing Lee's daughter, Paquin demonstrates that her career's unlikely to fall into the fluffy romantic comedy trap by showing that the females in this film have as much balls as the men.
There was some striking imagery in the film. In particular the shot at the beginning with camouflage soldiers marching over a US flag was both powerful and significant. At a time when the US army needs all the positive PR it can get, this film tramples all over the army's image.
It is not difficult to see why this film nearly didn't see the light of day. Aside from the usual distribution troubles and the closure of UK distributor Film Four, the change in the world's political climate since the initial filming in 2000 has caused the film to be shunted around the schedules.
Thankfully though due to the commitment and perseverance of the team involved it has finally been released. And it has been worth the wait. For those who are looking for an action-packed movie with a successful blend of humour and depth, Buffalo Soldiers will provide a refreshing change from the usual diet of summer blockbusters.
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