Buffalo Soldiers

In the kingdom of the brand, the one-syllabled marketing device is king. ‘Cult’ is just such a ploy – a big, old semantic umbrella used to shelter everything from Italian horror flicks to Japanese anime to gay porn. Hey, if Starbucks can take unidentified fluid that tastes for all the world like two day old dishwater, and pass it off as coffee, then marketing Dude, Where’s My Car? as a cult classic should be a sinch, or so the logic goes.
Buffalo Soldiers is a witty, satirical swipe at the US Army abroad, and it’s surely as destined for student worship and ‘cult status’ as French movies with the word ‘Blue’ in the title or the Monty Python back catalogue. In years to come, young gentlemen everywhere – in particular the brotherhood of the weed – will be flicking through various scenes, and providing commentary for the benefit of any Buffalo virgins present – “Here’s the bit where the tank squishes the anarchist’s volkswagon” and so forth. And for once, such bedsit veneration is deserved.
Set on a US air force base in West Germany at the tail-end of the Cold War, Buffalo follows the fortunes and misfortunes of battalion secretary Ray Elwood (Phoenix). ‘War is hell’ reasons this anti-hero, ‘but peace is fucking boring’. He manages to fill the void with a lucrative sideline knocking out Turkish smack, and between his equally corrupt, none-too-bright fellow soldiers and his Heller-esque commander (Harris), everything’s going swimmingly until the appearance of hard-arsed sergeant Lee (Glenn). This Vietnam vet is not only unbribable, but his appearance coincides with Elwood’s attempts to offload a large consignment of weaponry to some rather unsavoury Turkish types. And then there’s the small matter of Elwood’s relationship with Lee’s teenage daughter (Paquin).
Between 9/11 and George the Younger’s empire-building programme, it has taken two and a half years of postponements for the roguish charms of Buffalo Soldiers to see the light of day, but it was certainly worth the wait. Scenes wherein American soldiers watch the Berlin Wall come down on TV, only to scratch their heads and wonder where Berlin is, and whether they’re stationed in West or East Germany, are an unbridled joy, and while the film isn’t quite dark or caustic enough to be a contemporary MASH or Catch 22, it’s still a supremely entertaining yarn in the lighter, more mischievous mould of Three Kings, Bilko or, whisper it, 1941.
See it before students start quoting all the good bits at you.
94mins. cert – 15pg. opens august 22nd