After a cavalry patrol is ambushed by the Cheyenne, the two survivors, a soldier and a woman, must reach the safety of the nearest fort.After a cavalry patrol is ambushed by the Cheyenne, the two survivors, a soldier and a woman, must reach the safety of the nearest fort.After a cavalry patrol is ambushed by the Cheyenne, the two survivors, a soldier and a woman, must reach the safety of the nearest fort.
Aurora Clavel
- Indian Woman
- (as Aurora Clavell)
Ralph Nelson
- Agent Long
- (as Alf Elson)
Marco Antonio Arzate
- Kiowa Warrior
- (uncredited)
Barbara De Hubp
- Mrs. Long
- (uncredited)
Ron Fletcher
- Lt. Mitchell
- (uncredited)
Alfredo Tarzan Gutiérrez
- Kiowa indian
- (uncredited)
Conrad Hool
- Lieutenant
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOriginal work print of the movie was 135 minutes long. When it was test-screened to an audience, they almost started a riot after watching this version. This was the only time that the full uncut version was shown, and it caused the studio to decide that it was unreleasable unless massive cuts were made to the film's violent scenes. Some of these cut and never included in any official version scenes include shots of Indian women's breasts being sliced off and thrown around; children's limbs graphically severed (real amputees were employed for these shots); a little girl's legs cut off by wagon wheels; a soldier gleefully cutting an Indian's arms off before shooting another Cheyenne in the eye; the fate of Spotted Wolf, who is beheaded and his head is hoisted as a trophy by a soldier before he tosses it to another soldier, who then throws it off camera. Spotted Wolf's head attached to the stirrup of a cavalryman was not cut and is shown in the release print, and there are stills showing his mutilated body lying on the ground without the head and four cavalrymen running around with his severed head in their hands, howling and laughing while blood is spurting from the neck stump.
- GoofsThe voice-over at the end of the film describes the events we have just witnessed as taking place in 1864.However,earlier in the movie Honus tells Cresta that his father was killed at the battle of Little Bighorn which occurred in 1876.
- Quotes
Col. Iverson: When I see young people today behaving like that I just... I can't help wondering what this goddamn country's coming to.
- Alternate versionsThe movie was originally rated "R" by the MPAA. In 1974 a new version was rated "PG" which removed the most graphically violent parts from the massacre as well as a toned down rape scene, but the scene still contained full frontal nudity of a native woman.
- ConnectionsFeatured in JFK II: The Bush Connection (2003)
Featured review
Anti-US military Western with Peter Strauss and Candice Bergen
Released in 1970 and directed by Ralph Nelson, "Soldier Blue" is a Western starring Peter Strauss and Candice Bergen as a soldier and Native sympathizer, the only two survivors of a cavalry group Massacred by the Cheyenne. As they travel together to get back to the soldier's unit he struggles with his affection for the woman and a revulsion for her anti-US government outlook. Then he sees the awful truth.
This controversial Western showcases the atrocities of the US Army against Native Americans wherein the average US Cavalry solder is depicted as a shifty, droop-eyed, unwashed, stupid cracker idiot with flies buzzing around his head. The opening Indian attack is set in order to align the audience's sympathies with Honus (Strauss, the 'Soldier Blue' of the title), so that the viewer travels on the same journey as him, starting by regarding the Indians as murderous barbarians, and ending up forced to confront the idea that maybe his kin are just as barbaric when the occasion is 'right' (or, should I say, wrong).
The final massacre is shocking, but hampered by the film's insistence on stacking the deck so completely in terms of depicting the US military as savages dripping with ee-vil. In other words, it loses its impact because it's so overdone.
In reality, utterly barbaric attacks applied to both uncivilized Natives and the civilized Europeans, but more so with the former, which is documented. Since the 60s-70s there has been an overemphasis on the injustices committed by the US Army or settlers and we get a handful of examples: Wounded Knee, Bear River and Sand Creek (the latter being what "Soldier Blue" is based on). Yet we never hear the other side of what caused these events nor do we hear of the atrocities of Natives committed against New Americans. For instance, we never hear of the Dakota "War" of 1862 (Santee Sioux went on the war path and murdered between 600-800 white settlers, which constituted the largest death toll inflicted upon American civilians by an enemy force until 9/11), The Ward Massacre, The Nez Perce uprising which killed dozens of settlers in Idaho and Wyoming, and the Massacre at Fort Mims. We never hear of the countless innocent settlers who were murdered by roaming bands of young "warriors": While a chief was signing a peace treaty on the tribe's behalf they were out robbing, raping and murdering.
I'm just saying that it's easy to be pro-Native sitting on the comfort of your sofa, but not so much when you and your loved ones are threatened with torture & slaughter.
The Europeans wanted the Native's land and resources while the Indians wanted the technology of the Europeans. Both sides used treaties to make peace while still trying to get what they wanted when war was too expensive. Both sides made war when they felt no other option.
I love Native American culture, but the whitewashing of Native atrocities and this revisionist history stuff is dishonest and unbalanced. "Soldier Blue" is guilty of this but, as a movie, it's entertaining and its message is necessary in light of all the movies that depict Indians as sub-human savages to be gunned down on the spot.
The film runs 114 minutes and was shot in Mexico.
GRADE: B
This controversial Western showcases the atrocities of the US Army against Native Americans wherein the average US Cavalry solder is depicted as a shifty, droop-eyed, unwashed, stupid cracker idiot with flies buzzing around his head. The opening Indian attack is set in order to align the audience's sympathies with Honus (Strauss, the 'Soldier Blue' of the title), so that the viewer travels on the same journey as him, starting by regarding the Indians as murderous barbarians, and ending up forced to confront the idea that maybe his kin are just as barbaric when the occasion is 'right' (or, should I say, wrong).
The final massacre is shocking, but hampered by the film's insistence on stacking the deck so completely in terms of depicting the US military as savages dripping with ee-vil. In other words, it loses its impact because it's so overdone.
In reality, utterly barbaric attacks applied to both uncivilized Natives and the civilized Europeans, but more so with the former, which is documented. Since the 60s-70s there has been an overemphasis on the injustices committed by the US Army or settlers and we get a handful of examples: Wounded Knee, Bear River and Sand Creek (the latter being what "Soldier Blue" is based on). Yet we never hear the other side of what caused these events nor do we hear of the atrocities of Natives committed against New Americans. For instance, we never hear of the Dakota "War" of 1862 (Santee Sioux went on the war path and murdered between 600-800 white settlers, which constituted the largest death toll inflicted upon American civilians by an enemy force until 9/11), The Ward Massacre, The Nez Perce uprising which killed dozens of settlers in Idaho and Wyoming, and the Massacre at Fort Mims. We never hear of the countless innocent settlers who were murdered by roaming bands of young "warriors": While a chief was signing a peace treaty on the tribe's behalf they were out robbing, raping and murdering.
I'm just saying that it's easy to be pro-Native sitting on the comfort of your sofa, but not so much when you and your loved ones are threatened with torture & slaughter.
The Europeans wanted the Native's land and resources while the Indians wanted the technology of the Europeans. Both sides used treaties to make peace while still trying to get what they wanted when war was too expensive. Both sides made war when they felt no other option.
I love Native American culture, but the whitewashing of Native atrocities and this revisionist history stuff is dishonest and unbalanced. "Soldier Blue" is guilty of this but, as a movie, it's entertaining and its message is necessary in light of all the movies that depict Indians as sub-human savages to be gunned down on the spot.
The film runs 114 minutes and was shot in Mexico.
GRADE: B
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- Wuchakk
- Sep 8, 2016
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
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- Also known as
- Das Wiegenlied vom Totschlag
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $510,520
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