“Carter’s Army” (also known as “The Black Brigade”)
was a made for TV movie that tried to tap in to the success of the “Dirty
Dozen”. It is set in WWII Germany and
features an almost all-African-American cast.
The mission is to save a dam behind enemy lines. This is, of course, crucial to the war
effort. Spoiler alert: Since I highly recommend you do not watch
this movie, I will cover the whole plot.
The movie begins as though it was produced by the Ku
Klux Klan. A redneck officer named
Carter (Stephen Boyd) parachutes in to take command of a black supply unit. He sneaks up on a sentry who does not know
the password … or much of anything else.
Carter calls him “boy”. Carter is
surprised that the unit is all-black.
Apparently he is not aware that the Army is segregated. When he meets the men, they are all playing
craps. Because that’s what black people
do. Their commander Lt. Wallace (Robert
Brooks) is drinking wine and does not salute.
They get off on the wrong foot.
Surprise! Will they become
buddies by the end of the film? Or will
this film be unlike every other film made since 1950 where there are
antagonistic black and white main characters?
The unit is stereotyped in general and
specifically. It is full of
misfits. Unlike the Dirty Dozen, they
are not criminals…yet. When he is made
aware that the men are a service company, Carter opines: “Black men doing what they know how to do
[i.e. loading stuff]. The Army just gave
them a job doing it.” At this point, you
would have to agree with him. Is that
the theme of the movie? Maybe once we
meet the men we’ll realize they are fine human beings.
Carter and Wallace pick six “volunteers” for the
mission. Will it be a heterogeneous unit
or will all the men be crap-shooting winos?
Both. Let’s meet them. Lewis (Billy Dee Williams) is the belligerent
black. Crunk (Richard Pryor) is the jive
class clown. Big Jim (Rosie Greer) is
the big, dumb one. “Doc” Hayes (Moses
Gunn) is the old guy. Brightman (Glynn
Turman) is the intellectual (note the name!) who is keeping a journal. And some deaf guy who is brought along to be
killed. This motley crew goes strolling
into the woods like they are on “Soul Train”.
That red beret is covering one fine
Army-approved Afro
Since this movie is from the “who will survive the
suicide mission?” subgenre, it doesn’t take long for the deaf guy to get
strafed. He did not hear the plane
coming – ha! ha! They don’t bury
him. They reach a farmhouse because the
producers were told a sexy blond woman lives there. Anna (Susan Oliver) may be a dumb blonde, but
even she knows that seven men capturing and holding a dam is crazy. Anyway, it’s not going to come to that
because a force of Germans arrive at the farm and … leave. WTF?
They move on.
We have to assume Anna was left very satisfied. Crunk panics and starts shooting into the
trees while ranting that “I don’t want to die”.
Big Jim shames him into bravery by using the n-word. (Script approved by Carter.) They stop at a winery (even though it is
miles off their path – just kidding).
Big Jim is mortally wounded by a German hiding in the winery. Big Jim and Crunk find some wine, but they
refrain because they know the honor of their race is at stake. Just kidding – they get drunk, of
course. Lewis and Doc are sent to scout
the dam and discover that the Germans have rigged it for destruction. On the way back, Lewis steps on a mine and
dies. Crunk deserts because he is a
shiftless black and to confirm the stereotype.
Carter, Wallace, and Brightman go after the dam. I won’t tell the ending except to say it
involves a ridiculous fire fight, the redemption of a wiseass wino, the death
of the only intelligent person, and a walk into the sunset by a racist and his
boy.
I generally avoid really terrible war movies because
there are still so many good ones that I have not reviewed yet, but sometimes
one will sneak up on you. Usually I am
aware of the buzz behind a movie so I know what to expect. This movie took me a little by surprise. I was expecting something similar to “The
Devil’s Brigade” – an entertaining Dirty Dozen knockoff. TDB is not a good movie, but “Carter’s Army”
makes it look like a masterpiece. I also
had hopes it would be on a camp level with “The Secret Invasion”, but no such
luck there either. It is just a piece of
crap – a crapterpiece. Unlike those
other two movies, “Carter’s Army” is furthered weighed down by terrible acting. Boyd embarrasses himself and his Southern
accent is distractingly faux. Speaking
of which, try to listen to Susan Oliver attempt a German accent without
cringing. The cast is not bad, but all
of them fare poorly. Shame on them for
allowing themselves to be used to perpetuate racial stereotypes.
The
movie could not have been worse. The
plot is unrealistic, even for this subgenre.
It is also painfully predictable.
What was not predictable is the offensive portrayal of
African-Americans. Instead of having the
men being the unfair victims of the Army’s racist policies, the film makes a
strong case for those policies. Even
when given a chance to distinguish themselves, the behavior of the mission
members confirms their incompetence and inferiority compared to regular
soldiers. It is hard to imagine what the
director and screenwriter had in mind.
Either they were clueless about the impression the movie would make or
they agreed with Carter.
P.S. Note how the poster does not even mention Boyd who is the main character.
hi,, just visit this site,, have a nice day :)
ReplyDelete