Buck and the Preacher

Plot synopsis:
Buck and the Preacher opens with a deep rhythm and blues soundtrack reminiscent of a John Wayne Western that was given deep soul and harmony from the 1970s. The camera switches scenes to a camp of African-Americans who have been just freed from slavery and are heading West for a better life. A band of men on horseback terrorize the camp by burning wagons and tents and killing men, women and children. The leader of these white bandits, DeShay (Cameron Mitchell), is wearing an old cavalry jacket hinting at his military past.
Buck (Sidney Poitier) enters the scene and dismounts his horse to walk up to his home. DeShay makes Buck's wife, Ruth (Ruby Dee), wave to him as if everything is all right. Buck begins to approach the house and is then caught in a firefight between DeShay's outlaws. Buck remounts his horse and flees after being chased by the bandits. He then stops at an apparently empty campsite with a burning campfire, food and a horse. A naked man, the Preacher (Harry Belafonte), is bathing at a nearby stream and approaches the campsite to dress, but Buck steals the Preacher's horse and his breakfast at gunpoint.
The Preacher dresses and takes Buck's horse to the nearest town where he grabs a drink and finds out the location of the nearby camp from an African-American boy working at the general store. The Preacher is approached by DeShay and told that any information helping him to find Buck or bringing Buck in dead or alive will be worth a five hundred dollar reward. The Preacher is excited about this because he has a good feeling Buck is at an African-American wagon camp of which the little boy spoke.
Buck returns to the camp and is told by the men that an elderly Indian wise man thinks they should continue West and not turn back. The elder is shown throwing animal teeth on a towel, which the audience assumes to be a prediction of the future. Buck agrees to further help the group as the Preacher appears and punches Buck in the face. Buck then agrees to feeding the Preacher and giving him his horse back - after which the Preacher must depart and leave their camp. Buck does this because he fears the Preacher's motives for wanting to stay after he is caught looking at the women folk and wondering aloud where the money was kept.
The Preacher leaves the group and stalks Buck when he leaves to make a deal with the Native Americans. The Native Americans pursue the Preacher and Buck bargains with them for protection of the wagon group. The Native Americans are portrayed as shrewd bargainers who constantly haggle for a better deal with Buck. After reaching an agreement, the Preacher has a new-found respect for Buck because of his hard work effort and desire to help the traveling freed slaves.
While the two protagonists are negotiating, DeShay and his men raid the camp again and do more damage. The Preacher turns cheek at this point in the film and stops attempting to corner and kill Buck for the reward because of Buck's compassion towards the wagon camp. The Preacher then tells Buck where DeShay and his men are camped and suggests an ambush.
Buck agrees to the Preacher's plan, and together they ambush DeShay's campsite - killing him and most of his men. The sheriff from a nearby town pursues the pair, but they escape on horseback. The two men - along with Buck's wife - then decide to rob the bank at the town where they murdered DeShay's men in hopes of gaining more money for the African-Americans in the camp so they have a better chance of surviving the winter. The three unsuccessfully rob the mail office first and then cross the street to rob the bank. The sheriff returns to town during the robbery and chases the three robbers - along with their bags of loot - out of town.
Buck, the Preacher and Ruth ride hard for the Indian Territory and reach it just in time. A Native American war party is defending the boundaries of their territory and does not permit the sheriff and his posse to cross into their lands. The sheriff continues the search and finds the wagon camp but decides not to attack it. One of the men in the posse suggests they attack the camp to bring out Buck, but the sheriff disagrees arguing that the African Americans did no harm.
In anger, the man kills the sheriff and orders the posse to attack. Buck approaches the wagon camp and lures the posse into the mountains. A gunfight ensues, and the Preacher is wounded but the posse is defeated. The Native Americans who said they would not fight Buck's battle send several warriors to help and end up being the force that turns the tide of the shootout in Buck's favor.
The movie ends with Buck, the Preacher and his wife riding happily into the prairie.

Tags: blaxploitation

Review:
Buck and the Preacher was the first movie I ever saw about the black experience after the civil war that was centered on their migration west.
I've seen this movie three times since it was originally shown, and have enjoyed it as much each time, while Buck, a no-nonsense Wagon Master played by Sidney Poitier takes his responsibilities very seriously.
That is what makes the meeting of Buck with the Preacher, played by Harry Belafonte Jr. so poignant.
They are at opposite ends of the cultural trust scale, but they are forced to team up against a common enemy to secure their individual survival.The Preacher, shiftless and scheming, and the only stereotypical character in the movie, is very well known to blacks, and not really as funny to blacks as non-blacks may sometimes think.Buck and the Preacher was one of the first modern movies about black people to provide any depth to the characters, and also to present characters and subject matter that are not normally associated with the black experience.
Poitier plays Buck, one of few blacks who are qualified to be wagonmasters.
It is after the Civil War and he is helping escort former slaves into the west.
The movie is brutally honest with the hatred that these brave men and women faced, but the film has a strong sense of hope.
Harry Belafonte has the most colorful role as The Preacher - a reformed thief who befriends Buck when given no one else to trust.
Recommended to anyone who enjoys a fresh, historical angle with their westerns..
Sidney Poitier made his directorial debut with "Buck and the Preacher", in which he played a wagon-master leading freed slaves across the Old West.
The whole time, they have to battle night-riders trying to return them to slavery in Louisiana.
But then, Poitier joins up with Harry Belafonte, a reformed thief spreading the Gospel across the Old West, and they figure out a way to protect the freed slaves.Probably the most important aspect of this movie was that it came out around a time when Hollywood was releasing many blaxploitation movies portraying African-Americans as kick-ass brothers and sisters with hearts of gold.
A lively and good Western concerning a wagon train chased by bandits, being well played and directed by Poitier.
It regards a trail guide and a con preacher join forces to help a wagon train of former slaves who are escaping from cutthroats and seeking to homestead out the West .
They placed their hopes in the hands of the few black wagonmasters that knew the territories of the west .
This movie deals with a hard , long travel throughout the wilderness of a group of negroes and slaves freed after the end Civil War , being led by an intrepid wagonmaster (Sidney Poitier) along with a roguish preacher (showy acting by Harry Belafonte) wielding a peculiar Holy Bible .
And being harassed by marauding white nightriders (led by Cameron Mitchell) all the way down .Sidney Poitier performed and shot this picture , delivering it all the traditional ingredients of amusement : Riding pursuits , spectacular battles , croosfire , bank assaults , ambushes , fights with Indians , and many other things .
While at the same time inserting a thought-provoking issue of accusatory coment on the ill-treatment of the ancient slaves whose graves are as unmarked as their place place in history .
It has an interesting subject which is rather reminiscent of John Ford's Wagonmaster played by Ben Johnson in similar role to Poitier .
Nice , though , the idea of having Indians riding and coming to rescue of the wagon train besieged by bandits , it is a gem , instead of the ordinary Union cavalry .
Harry Belafonte steals the show giving an overacting and Poitier the player seems content to stand back and let the limelight falls on Harry .
Ruby Dee also provides a decent playing , she interprets the attractive spouse of Sidney .The motion picture was professionally directed by Sidney Poitier .
Poitier's talent, conscience, integrity, and inherent likability placed him on equal footing with the white stars of the day.
Sidney directed a few pictures , and most of them were comedies .
As Poitier made : Ghost dad , Fast forward , Hanky panky , Stir Crazy , Piece of action , Let's do again , Uptown Saturday night , and this Buck and the preacher .
Rating : 6/10 , passable and aceptable Western movie.
At a time when Hollywood had no interest in making such films.
Blaxploitation films and comedies were the rules of the day.
Poitier makes a great cowboy and fine director here.
I suspect the reason this film is/was not more popular is that there were so few good guys of the White persuasion.
It's one of the only westerns ever made that is a story about black people in the Old West, with black actors in the lead roles.
Harry Belafonte is excellent as the Preacher.
Sidney Poitier is also very good, and although the story contains the full compliment of standard cowboy movie clichés---shoot-outs, posse chases, bank robberies, whining ricochet sounds, etc.---, it's very entertaining.
The vast majority of Hollywood westerns are exclusively white, and feature virtually no black people at all.
Indians are almost always featured as pidgin-speaking cigar-store cartoon characters, with white actors usually in the speaking parts.
Some idiot composer came up with the pounding tom-toms, descending minor theme music played by trombones and low brass whenever Indians come into the picture.
So it's great to see a western like Buck and The Preacher that is different.
As a result, it's a lot better than your average western, even though it milks the same old clichés..
We tend to forget that in 1972, in the heart of the whole "blaxploitation" movement, that the very idea of casting African-Americans in traditional white roles was daring in and of itself.
As such, Buck and the Preacher, starring Sidney Poitier (who also directed) and Harry Belafonte in the titular roles must have created quite a stir upon its release.
The story is pretty standard for a western--a wagon train heading west, led by a tough-as-nails trail guide, is harassed by outside forces (usually bandits or American Indians), but in this case, the settlers are all freed slaves, and the "outside forces" are hired guns by the south, bend on stopping every black settler group, destroying their supplies (and murdering a few of their people), thus terrorizing them into returning to the plantations.
Former military sergeant Buck (Poitier) will have none of that, and the slick-talking con man "Preacher (Belafonte), whose initial intentions may seem questionable, mans up and does the right thing, joining forces with Buck for a typical final showdown.
A traditional western with an African-American cast is daring as it gets in 1972, but don't let that keep you away.
The original score by Benny Carter, heavy on the mouth harp and that weird pig-sounding instrument they use on Green Acres, will annoy the hell out of you yet stay with you for days..
This might possibly be the first Western to feature two black leads with white characters largely relegated to peripheral roles  or stereotypically villainous parts.
Sidney Poitier  who replaced Joseph Sergeant as director one week into the shoot  and Harry Belafonte play the leads.
Poitier is Buck, a former cavalry man now acting as a wagon-master guiding former slaves to a new life in the west.
Belafonte is the preacher, a semi-reformed con man who briefly considers betraying Buck and his charges to the evil nightrider Deshay (a squinting, cigar-chomping Cameron Mitchell) before throwing in his lot with him.This being a film of the early 70s, there isn't much of a moral code here.
The good guys steal from one another and rob banks, a character defect shrugged off with the explanation that the town folk  who are pre-occupied on a posse-ride to catch the duo as they rob the bank  deserve to be robbed.
This was Poitier's directorial debut and it shows in some glaring narrative gaps and a strange kind of painstaking attention that somehow transmits itself onto the screen so that the film rarely seems to flow the way it should.
Poitier never really convinces as an actor either, although Belafonte is a standout as the sneaky, morally dubious preacher..
buck and the preacher.
this movie goes down as one of the best westerns..
buck(sidney poitier) helps a group of black settlers....
the preacher(harry belafonte)....
and solid acting amonst poitier-belafonte-ruby dee and cameron mitchell...
both poitier and belafonte(very funny man)....
Fine western, well-acted.
Hollywood would have us imagine the western migration as an all-white experience.
This picture tells the story with black actors, although facing the same menace they flee, racism.
The antagonists are a gang of "night-riders" both hunting Buck, but also terrorizing the black wagon-train.
I still remember there's a scene with Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier, and I think, a snake...along with Car Wash, Uptown Saturday Night and others of that era, it is one of the funniest films I've ever seen as a child...Brava!.
Buck and the Preacher is directed by, and stars, Sidney Poitier.
It's written by Ernest Kinoy and Drake Walker and joining Poitier in the cast are Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee and Cameron Miller.
Music is by Benny Carter, with notable contributions from Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and cinematography is by Alex Phillips Jr.The Civil War was over and by law the slaves were freed.
But when the promise of land and freedom was not honoured, many ex-slaves journeyed out of the land of bondage in search of new frontiers where they could be free at last.They placed their hopes in the hands of the few wagon masters that knew the territories of the West.None of this came easy, for not only did they have to overcome a hostile wilderness, but night-riders and bounty hunters were hired by "persons unknown" to hunt them down and turn them back to to the fields.This picture is dedicated to those men, women and children who lie in graves as unmarked as their place in history.Quite an opening statement that, a real attention grabber, then the throat grabbing ups still further as we land in a camp of African Americans, freed from slavery, ready to travel West for a better life.
As the camp burns and the distaste in the throat refuses to leave, we feel we are in for something special with Poitier's directing debut, a peek at a part of history rarely shown in the movies.Sadly the film never hits these heights again....
In some ways it feels like kicking a man when he is down, for Buck and the Preacher is well directed, very well acted, expertly photographed by Phillips (Durango, Mexico and Kenya standing in for Kansas Territory) and features a very untraditional, but pleasing, score by jazz man Carter and blues men Terry & McGhee.
With Belafonte providing great chemistry as well, whilst gleefully stealing the film from his more illustrious acting brother, there's still much for the Western fan to feast on here.
There's the unusual but much appreciated sight of the Indians painted as saviours, a dignified and intelligent race riding in cavalry style, the chief (Enrique Lucero) negotiating with Buck (Poitier) like a royal master of his creed.
For a while into the movie I thought it might be an all-Black cast Western but that changed when the night riders showed up.
There actually was a series of all-Black Westerns back in the late Thirties starring cowboy crooner Herb Jeffries, who's singing sounded as good as guys like Gene Autry.
One name I was surprised to catch in this film's credits was that of Clarence Muse as the old black fortune teller Cudjo.
He had a lot of roles portraying dignified black characters in the Thirties and Forties, and since I brought it up I had to take a look, but he didn't appear in any pictures with Herb Jeffries.Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte team up in this one following a less than friendly first impression between their characters.
Poitier is wagon master Buck, leading freed black slaves across the West to destinations they might call home following the end of the Civil War. Preacher Willis Oaks Rutherford is more of an opportunist than a Man of God, but he did have the Bible thing down pretty well when he needed it.
Who was going to argue with the Reverend of the High and Low Order of the Holiness Persuasion Church.As a revisionist Western this one works to show a different side of the Old West experience though it doesn't set any new standards by my estimation.
The inclusion of the Indian tribe on the side of the black settlers was an interesting element, helping them out in the final shoot out against the night riders even after stating they wouldn't get involved.
The serio-comic African-American western "Buck and the Preacher," starring Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, certainly wasn't the first black horse opera, but it may reign as the most prestigious.
For the record, the earliest known African-American western was a silent movie, "The Crimson Skull" (1922), that dealt with a cowboy who thwarted rustlers by wearing a skeleton costume.
Fifty years later, "Buck and the Preacher" came out.
Not only does it qualify as a good, entertaining western, director Sidney Poitier and co-star Harry Belafonte sought to make an oater that chronicled the tribulations facing African-Americans who had uprooted themselves from the post-antebellum South and were heading westward to start new lives that had nothing to do with slavery.
Cast as a former Union soldier with the rank of sergeant, Buck became a wagon master who escorted freedom seeking slaves to new lands.
The conflict in "Buck and the Preacher" grows out of this exodus from Louisiana, and the appointed representatives of those plantations that dispatched desperadoes, such as evil Beau Deshay (Cameron Mitchell of "Garden of Evil"), who gathered a small army to terrorize blacks and compel them to turn back and pick up where they had left off.
The sheriff of Copper Springs (John Kelly of "The Revengers") warns Deshay to 'walk softly' in his town because the migrating blacks are committing any crimes.
Instead, the sheriff is intent on hunting down Buck (Sidney Poitier of "Lilies of the Field") and the Reverend Willis Oakes Rutherford (Harry Belafonte of "The World, the Flesh, and the Devil") after they shoot up Copper Springs and rob the bank.
Although they are breaking the law, Buck and the Preacher have struggled to recover the money that Deshay's mob has stolen from them.
Buck is fleeing from Deshay and his rabid gun hands, and Deshay knows that he has been leading the African-American settlers.
The screenplay by Ernest Kinoy, who scripted an earlier Poitier movie "Brother John," slickly pits our two protagonists against each other until they can become as thick as thieves.
Deshay and his gun hands encounter the Reverend Rutherford in the hamlet of Frenchman's Ford since they have been trailing Buck's horse.
Instead of killing the silver-tongued Reverend, Deshay dangles the prospect of $500 in the Reverend's face for word about the whereabouts of Buck.
The Preacher administers a blow to Buck and rightfully claims his horse.
Buck swaps horses before he sets out to lead the newest caravan of pioneers.In case it isn't clear, Deshay and his despicable gun hands are prepared to kill some of the settlers and burn their wagons with their sole possessions in order to turn them around.
Eventually, Buck and the Preacher catch up with Deshay and his hooligans.
They find these murderous cutthroats in Madame Esther's bordello and a gunfight ensues, with Buck demonstrating the power of his special arsenal of hand guns.
Floyd rides with the sheriff's posse to catch Buck and the Preacher.
In a sense, Buck and the Reverend Willis Oakes Rutherford aren't conventional heroes.
"Buck and the Preacher marked Sidney Poitier's debut as a film director.
Poitier and Belafonte had hired Joseph Sargent, director of "White Lightning" and "Colossus, the Forbin Project," but Sargent and his two leading actors had a difference of opinion.
They fired Sargent, and Columbia Pictures couldn't find a replacement on such late notice, so Poitier took the helm.
"Buck and the Preacher" is as western as all get out..
There's a combination of tragedy and triumph here as Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte combine their light-hearted personalities into emotional drama with this story of two men who, at first on opposite sides of the spectrum, find a common cause in fighting against bigotry.
Poitier is a former Northern soldier who has been helping newly freed slaves go west with little help from the vigilantes hired by plantation owners in getting what they still believe their property back so they can continue living "their right way of life".
Robinson's Dathan, and Moses being seen in the forms of Buck and his reluctant partner, a traveling preacher who initially agreed to be informer for the white vigilantes.There's a lot to like about this moving drama with a western setting, and when Ruby Dee, as Poitier's long-suffering wife, reveals how she longs to raise her children far away from even any memory of slavery, you really feel what the millions of slaves must have felt after they were allegedly freed but could not get what was promised to them, still facing adversity for decades after the end of the civil war.
Poitier and Belafonte make such a great team and give such a light-hearted performance that at times, it doesn't seem like they are acting.
There's a lot of sadness in the light-hearted structure of the story, including the attacks on the innocent people striving to find a new land and their dealings with the Native Americans who are fighting their own struggle against the racist white men determined to steal everything from these people that they can get their hands on.