The rediscovery of black American cinema continues with the rerelease of Sidney Poitier’s directorial debut from 1972: a terrifically gratifying western journey bromance, filled with brio and breezy, unreflective power and tilted to the lighter finish of the tonal spectrum. This (together with cultural ghettoisation) has maybe meant that it hasn’t beforehand been thought-about a critical basic. However the time could nicely come when Buck and the Preacher are spoken of in the identical breath as Butch and Sundance.
Buck is Sidney Poitier: a frontiersman who after the civil warfare makes a dwelling as a wagonmaster for black folks from Louisana who need to head out west and farm the unclaimed territories, dreaming of the promised lands of Kansas and Colorado, with their nice soil and local weather. Buck’s job is to conduct the wagon practice and parley with the Native American tribes to permit them peaceable passage. Buck’s powerful, succesful girlfriend Ruth is performed by the formidable Ruby Dee. However the settlers are harassed by a sinister white posse led by Deshay, in tatty Accomplice garb, performed by exploitation veteran Cameron Mitchell. Deshay’s males are theoretically “labour recruiters” from Louisiana, right here to steer the pioneers to desert their plans and return dwelling to select cotton. In reality, he’s operating a psychopathic hate marketing campaign, intending merely to homicide and rob the settlers, assured of by no means being caught and (maybe) meaning to publicise his victims’ unpunished destiny as a deterrent to these black folks again in Louisiana additionally pondering of leaving.
Buck is Deshay’s sworn enemy, however he additionally finds himself in battle with a infamous itinerant opportunist and thief, carrying a Bible and spouting scripture, nicknamed “Preacher”, a slippery grinning particular person who could need to promote out Buck to the white posse for cash. He’s performed with great gusto by Poitier’s well-known modern and rival, Harry Belafonte. Buck and the Preacher at first cordially detest one another, however then make frequent trigger in opposition to the dangerous guys – and perhaps the Preacher’s spiritual religion isn’t as phoney as all that.
Poitier fired the white director he initially employed, Joseph Sargent (of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three fame), for his perceived lack of curiosity within the materials. However Buck and the Preacher in actual fact has a white author: Ernest Kinoy, who had written Poitier’s earlier movie Brother John (and went on to put in writing episodes of TV’s Roots in addition to Gordon Parks’ Leadbelly biopic). The forthright, punchy screenplay exhibits Kinoy’s TV background, however there’s a galloping power to the entire drama, particularly when Buck and the Preacher plan to rob a financial institution to get better the cash that Deshay’s males stole from the settlers – Ohio banknotes which we see being paid into the financial institution by the native bordello mistress, gloating at her 3% curiosity.
Most likely the movie’s most heartfelt second comes when Buck has to barter with the Native Individuals and persuade them that they’re “brothers”, each oppressed by the white folks, despite the fact that the tribes keep in mind Buck in military uniform, imposing the white man’s regulation. These characters, it must be stated, aren’t performed by Indigenous folks: Julie Robinson (Belafonte’s spouse) performed tribeswoman Sinsie and Mexican-American actor Enrique Lucero performed the chief. However there’s a fervency and conviction in these scenes and an amazing chemistry between these two heavyweights, Poitier and Belafonte.
