Sergeant Rutledge

The strongest part of this film is Woody Strode's Sergreant Rutledge character. While he has little screen time compared to Jeffrey Hunter's star turn as the defense attorney, the film is essentially a study of his character. And to the degree that it's about that, the film succeeds. However, other elements feel more uneven--recollections by witnesses that they couldn't have known and the whole love interest angle, for instance. Ford emphasizes subjectivity in the form, which works well.

It's kind of weird to make this anti racist picture but still treat Indians as savages. Hey John Ford, Do better!

Some of these scenes I still don't get how you shoot something to look so perfect. With a camera I suppose

A unique film in Ford's oeuvre, Sergeant Rutledge is now often the go-to Ford film recommended to those who insist that Ford was a racist. Oddly enough, it also served as an inspiration for Colossal Youth. Strode endows his character with a remarkable sense of pride and dignity in the most adverse circumstances, and Ford's use of flashbacks is undoubtedly sophisticated, especially for the time. Visually, it's arguably his most beautiful colour film along with She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.

Great courtroom drama.

A minor Ford, good nonetheless. Woody Strode gives the best performance of his career.

Overall, I didn't find this to be amongst Ford's best films. It's a good film, but I think the fragmented flashback structure harms it a bit, and I never had the feeling that there was any possibility that Strode was going to be convicted. The plot certainly gives plenty of reason to think that might happen, but I think the film consistently signals that that isn't so, and I didn't find the court proceedings that dominate the film to be very suspenseful.

Racial commentary done right - not in the contrived pseudo-moralistic fashion that is popular nowadays with racial quotas just for the sake of them and not for any artistic purpose whatsoever, surface-deep ideologised good/evil arguments, demonising of groups and dumbed down plots. But rather where the story is written and built around the racial issue, inspired and enacted in a way that doesn't feel like morality is shoved down our throats. Among the 2022 shite, it feels fresh.

Odd mix of a typical Ford story of Western heroism and a racial injustice drama. A couple powerful scenes taken from the perspective of white townspeople as they betray their prejudices against Rutledge. The rest is standard Ford with a romance, comedy, and flashbacks peppering violent confrontations and Western tropes in technicolor with general Ford quality. Interesting for its frankness about race and somewhat developed black characters for a mainstream film from 1960.

Strange contradiction of a film. Seems to prefer the aesthetics of racial injustice rather than actually explore it. It's used as a tool to amplify the mystery and create stakes for the love story. However, as it is used merely for manipulation, none of the characters feel complex. I appreciate the attempt, but (as many others have also pointed out) the creative intentions are undermined by the depiction of its titular character as an afterthought and Native Americans as savages.

Though Ford's personal politics shifted rightward as he got older (he was a Goldwater supporter in '64) he released one of his most progressive and daring films in 1960 in the form of this courtroom melodrama foregrounding white fears of miscegenation and race mixing. The eponymous Rutledge, the perfect Buffalo soldier, is wrongfully accused of the rape and murder of a white girl. His by the book superior officer arrests him, but also vows to defend him in court.

John Ford codifies the structure of To Kill a Mockingbird or Anatomy of a Murder into a context I can identify with. As one would expect from the maestro, it excels in visual composition, dramatic tension, and interesting characters all the way down to the fourth guy at the tribunal table. But on top of that, it's an imperfect but downright RADICAL testament on race and military tradition in America. Woody Strode's stoic heroism is my kind of propaganda.

The movie version of a person who just read White Fragility & now thinks they are Woke AF. It badly misses the mark on everything including an apocryphal explanation for the term "Buffalo Soldiers", no context on slavery, flimsy court martial rules, and a forced ending. Other films from the time (and beyond) do a better job merging a genre story with the era's racial climate. The marginal recommendation comes from the flashback staging, Monument Valley scenery, and Strode's strong performance.

87.50

Not convinced this isn't *the* best.

Star Rating: ★★★★

Ó céus, como detesto narrativas baseadas em julgamentos, mas dou um desconto porque esse é John Ford e um grande tratado contra o racismo, embora ainda peque pelos índios.

86.500