Carter's Army (1970)

Absolutely the worst movie.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Capt. Beau Carter (Stephen Boyd) is tasked with leading "B" Brigade to secure a dam. The group is unorthodox and ill equipped as soldiers.Perhaps the sell point of the film is the iconic cast of Pryor, Grier, Moses Gunn, Billy Dee Williams, and Susan Oliver. The film reveals the stereotypes and attitudes of the era. Decent film

I consider anything other than a rough plot outline a spoiler so... ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I liked this movie. I watched it twice, just to make sure. I'd never heard of it before acquiring it with a lot of WWII films in a 20 pack. Again, the theme of a white 'cracker' being put in charge of a group of soldiers he considers inferior, similar to Go for Broke but more outright racism. Said cracker grows to respect his men, only for this one he only takes seven men instead of the whole company. An odd choice, most likely made by the director, to either focus more on the 'talent', Grier, Williams and Pryor. Or just so he wouldn't have to pay a bunch more actors to be cannon fodder. Whatever the reason, trying to take and hold a dam with seven guys is stupid. As is the lieutenant allowing a deaf guy to go with. I can understand a deaf guy wanting to serve and somehow finding a way to sneak into the army, especially into a so-called service unit. But for the C.O., either one, to allow him on a real combat mission is again, stupid.Anyway, the unit is a mess. This is directly the fault of the commander, a black lieutenant. He's the one who let the men turn into a band of hobos. Lousy assignments or not, these men were supposed to be soldiers. Thus it makes the cracker captain's job that much harder. Still you can see him start to at least consider that he might be wrong as soon as he finds out that the second man he encounters (the first is a rather shiftless Richard Pryor) and threatens for not saluting, is actually an officer and the unit commander. Of course, the lieutenant is still out ranked and should have maybe saluted but since the captain was such a jerk, he didn't really deserve one.But I digress, this is a war movie and war movies should have action. This one does and it's pretty well done. But there's the getting to the mission part, where we encounter a German Frau who is a contact of sorts. She is also the girl from the Star Trek pilot, Vena. Still looking nice. She is wise about war and says stuff that makes the black lieutenant want to give her a peck on the cheek. Naturally cracker captain catches him and scolds him about touching white women. Said white woman proceeds to smack him in the mouth for acting like the racist Nazis she is opposed to. This is really the start of cracker boy's turn around. He apologizes to the black lieutenant and says 'I didn't ask (for this mission) but I expected soldiers'. And as well he should have. Why they assigned this mission to a service unit, who knows. Maybe they were the only unit close enough, maybe they were just expendable. It's never explained. At any rate, they did the job. They took it to the enemy and won the day. Most were lost. Being famous didn't save you in this movie, just like some of the biggies. All in all a solid war film.There is one LOL moment at the end, when Pryor is being helped to the medic jeep. Watch his right hand.

In this made for TV movie we get a mainly black cast with a few token white guys. The guy playing the white Major sent to take the unit to the dam, I've never seen before or heard of before.It's the black cast I knew. Billy Dee Williams (pre-Empire Strikes Back), Moses Gunn and Richard Pryor trying to play a straight version of himself.Basically this is a bigoted officer sent to command a brigade of black soldiers on a dangerous mission. So dangerous in fact 3 of them get killed before they ever get to the dam itself.The deaf guy was always going to die first, the big guy (who, it turns out used to be a pro footballer) is killed by a sniper and Billy Dee Williams gets blown up after stepping on a land mine.The same land mine injures Moses Gunn and Pryor looks like he deserts so only the black officer, 1 of his men and the white officer actually end up trying to attack the dam.Pryor uses a cart full of hay to get onto the dam and leads the attack only to be injured. The other black soldier is shot and killed during the skirmish with the Germans. Pryor throws the detonator for the explosives over the side of the dam.This is a film about 1 man who comes to change his point of view about black people, it's a good exploration of the themes of racism and bigotry.The film itself isn't very long and might have benefited from being at least 20 minutes longer and them having taken the entire brigade only for 2 men to survive.Still worth a look though to see Richard Pryor playing a more serious role for a change.

The writers probably had no experience in the army, and probably never glanced at a history book, but I still give this cheaply produced war film some credit for taking a long-needed look at the role of black soldiers in the second world war.The action is confused and unbelievable--any episode of Combat! has better production values, but the cast is interesting. Seeing New York Giant Rosie Greer was worth the buck I paid for this. The art direction is fifth rate--the men wear Korean War uniforms, and it was pretty lousy weather by the time the U.S. Army reached Germany in 1944, not sunny as they show here, and I don't think the terrain resembled Northern California. The script never does make clear why the black support troops are used as combat soldiers. There is a nice touch that shows some of the men carrying Springfield rifles instead of M-1s, which second rate troops probably would have been issued with.This basic story idea(racist southern officer commanding black troops) should have been expanded into a big budget production back then, and its not too late to try it now. You have to take this for what it is, and I admire the creators of this film for making the effort.I remember seeing this a while ago and thinking it was set in Italy, which would have made more sense because there were black combat troops operating there in 1944.