Sergeant Rutledge

Plot synopsis:
The film revolves around the court-martial of 1st Sgt. Braxton Rutledge (Strode), a "Buffalo Soldier" of the 9th U.S. Cavalry. His defense is handled by Lt. Tom Cantrell (Hunter), Rutledge's troop officer. The story is told through a series of flashbacks, expanding the testimony of witnesses as they describe the events following the murder of Rutledge's Commanding Officer, Major Dabney, and the rape and murder of Dabney's daughter, for which Rutledge is the accused.
Circumstantial evidence suggests that the first sergeant raped and murdered the girl and then killed his commanding officer. Worse still, Rutledge deserts after the killings. Ultimately, he is tracked down and arrested by Lt. Cantrell. At one point, Rutledge escapes from captivity during an Indian raid, but later, he voluntarily returns to warn his fellow cavalrymen that they are about to face an ambush, thus saving the troop. He is then brought back in to face the charges and the prejudices of an all-white military court.
Eventually he is found not guilty of the rape and murder of the girl when a local white man breaks down under questioning and admits that he raped the girl.

Tags: murder

Review:
REMAKE A JOHN FORD CLASSIC like Sergeant Rutledge?????
As another reviewer said,it is NOT a typical John Ford film,but it has to be one of his best.
Woody Strode,one of the most under rated black actors of his generation is superb as in the title role.
Jeffrey Hunter as defense attorney Tom Cantrell also turns in an excellent performance,caught between the proverbial rock and hard place when he is 'forced' to defend Rutledge.
As I said in a previous review, if it ain't broke,don't fix it.....Bearing in mind that Ford, Hunter and Strode are all gone, it just wouldnt be right..
John Ford, ever the director of the under dog creates another masterpiece of forgotten American history.Ford, who called himself a social democrat creates another film of nobility and personal convictions, both his and his characters.
What we do have is Fords beautiful colour camera in Monument Valley, ala "The Searchers ( 1956 )", broad humour, defined characterizations and attention to detail both individual and historical.Jeffrey Hunter, always an underrated actor, is fine as the lead, but it is Woody Strode as the title character that is a stand out.
It was also incredibly brave to show how the protagonist, Sergeant Rutledge, (beautifully played by Woody Strode) was helped by a white woman; again very rare at that time.
Judging by his performance when under oath, Woody Strode is up there with the best of the marvellous Black actors that have changed the face of social America.
I first caught the tail end of this John Ford masterpiece on AMC during Black History month, and couldn't wait for it to pop up on the schedule again so I could see the whole thing.
This is a marvelous Western starring Jeffery Hunter and Woodie Strode--thanks in large part to the always wonderful direction of John Ford and the fact that this film dared to take a big risk.
The film attacks racism without being preachy or ridiculous (something that makes me hate GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT due to its very heavy-handed way of dealing with antisemitism).Woody Strode, as usual, plays a very dignified and wonderful role as a soldier on trial for rape and murder.
Excellent and landmark Western with a complex structure by means of flashback , being one of the best Ford films .
It deals with a respected black cavalry Sergeant Brax Rutledge (Woody Strode) who saves a damsel in distress (Constance Towers) who is besieged by Indians .
Later on , he stands court-martial for raping and killing a white woman and murdering her father , his superior commanding officer .
As Rutledge on trial for rape and murder , as a tribunal presided by a good judge (Willis Bouchey) , there he is defended by a lieutenant lawyer (Jeffrey Hunter as defense attorney) and accused by a stiff prosecutor (Carleton Young) .
The tale of a court-martial told in flash-back , about a black cavalry officer on trail , well handled by master filmmaker Ford .
Support cast is frankly awesome , such as : Juano Hernandez , Willis Bouchey , Carleton Young , Rafer Johnson , final film of Billie Burke and Mae Marsh ; many of them are Ford's ordinaries .
Ford puts on the highest pedestal of human honor to an African-American , which by that time when the film was made , it resulted to be a heroism .
John Ford openly displays his poetry in this magnificent film "Sergeant Rutledge".
Maybe the great director and artist was annoyed that many did not get the anti-racist messages that permeate all his works (starting with "The Searchers": ever noted it?) and decided to make a definite, open statement.To be as clear as possible, Ford willingly shows his art, poetry and trade-mark techniques in the most evident way.
We see Woody Strode (Sergeant Rutledge) constrained in a small chair, his never-ending shoulders covering half of the screen.
And then we see Woody Strode standing out, the Monument Valley on the background, like John Wayne in many other Ford's movies.
Woody Strode makes an outstanding, deeply touching job as the black cavalry sergeant.
His acting is sober, poised but intense, with no melodramatic sides, and he physically dominates the screen (by the way: what an amazing athlete Strode was, at age forty-six!).Rutledge is the Hero, the Legend of the movie.
Maybe some day, but not yet!John Ford's Sergeant Rutledge tells the story of a black man, 1st Sgt. Braxton Rutledge, a Buffalo Soldier of the 9th U.S. Cavalry who was up before a court-martial for the rape and murder of a white girl, Major Dabney's daughter, Lucy.Taking place in the court room the story is told in flashback as Rutledge's (Woody Strode) troop officer, and defence council, Lt. Tom Cantrell (Jeffrey Hunter) attempts to piece together the evidence.
From the outset Ford is on biting form as the case is being tried in a biased and corruptible court, we as the viewers are left in no doubt that Rutledge could be at the mercy of obnoxious white racists.
This was after all two years before the critically acclaimed To Kill A Mockingbird, thus making it one of the flag bearers for early acknowledgement of race relations in America.As the sharp narrative moves forward, cloaked in visual excellence with Bert Glennon this time being Ford's cinematographer of choice, the film always keeps us guessing as to the outcome.
We really can never be sure, such is the stench of racism that hangs heavy, a stench that is counter pointed by Woody Strode's wonderful and powerful performance as the on trial man.
Hunter is handsome and strong in vocal delivery as the council in the middle of a real tricky trial, and Constance Towers as Mary Beecher is the glue binding them, and the story, all together.It's a first rate picture from Ford, one that is largely (and wrongly) forgotten when talk of his oeuvre comes around.
Sergeant Rutledge is one of John Ford's more underrated films.
The title character is played by Woody Strode who is African-American and as such is on trial for the actions involving a dead white girl and her father.
And two more players worth mentioning are Billie Burke-in her last film role-as Bouchey's wife who provides some comic relief and Juano Hernandez-perhaps best known as the lead in Intruder in the Dust-as another ranking officer.
Otherwise, he gets fine atmospheric drama and action and brings a good social message without heavy-handing it making Sergeant Rutledge one of his more underrated works.
Former decathlete athlete and football star Woody Strode plays Sergeant Rutledge accused of raping and murdering a young girl.
Woody who plays a black Sergeant in the U.S. infantry, sits strong and proud of his military career and although there are many doubters in the courtroom as to his innocence of the crimes of rape and murder, the film's illustrious director, John Ford, provides Woody Strode with a terrific movie vehicle to shine in.
And shine Woody Strode does.I wouldn't dare to compare Sergeant Rutledge to the better known classic 1962 three time Academy award winner "To Kill A Mockingbird" starring Gregory Peck as the defense lawyer of the accused black man of rape played by Brock Peters.
I do feel though that Sergeant Rutledge stands up well some 58 years later as a decent court room western, which utilizes flashbacks by the various court witnesses to explain why Sergeant Rutledge is either guilty or innocent.We the audience can play judge and jury in this decent western, and I judge Woody Strode's and actress Constance Towers who plays Mary Beecher the love interest of Lt. Tom Cantrell (played by Jeffrey Hunter) performances as more than passing the smell test.
I enjoyed Sergeant Rutledge as a full drama and action filled western.I give the film a 6 out of 10 rating.
I wonder which movie the other reviewers saw because the "Seargeant Rutledge" I watched was so bad it was good.
"Sergeant Rutledge" places the now-familiar trial of the noble Black man accused of raping a White woman in Mr. Ford's western setting.
The timely story has some problems, but should be appreciated for its effort.First of all, the title presumes the picture to be about "Sergeant Rutledge" (Woody Strode), who couldn't have been familiar to the vast majority of filmgoers - so, the more symbolically representative "Captain Buffalo" would have been a preferable title.
And, it often seems like the title character is more like a prop, with romantic defenders Jeffrey Hunter (as Tom Cantrell) and Constance Towers (as Mary Beecher) taking center stage.
Watch for fluttering Billie Burke (as Cordelia) in her last featured role.Also, Ford "extra" Mae Marsh (as Nellie) gets a relatively good amount of screen time playing (obviously) a fluttery friend of Billie Burke.
So, to have Marsh bracketing two great directors' attempts to redress past racist images is grand ironic counterpoint.****** Sergeant Rutledge (5/18/60) John Ford ~ Woody Strode, Jeffrey Hunter, Constance Towers, Billie Burke.
Unlike most of Director John Ford's Westerns that feature much action, "Sergeant Rutledge" is mainly a courtroom drama told mainly in flashback.
The gist of the story is a black Ninth US Cavalry sergeant accused in the rape and murder of a teen-aged white girl Lucy Dabney (Toby Michaels) and also the murder of her father.
Woody Strode ably plays the role of the sergeant, Braxton Rutledge.
Rutledge's capable courtroom defender is Lt. Tom Cantrell (Jeffrey Hunter), whose job is to piece together the facts, despite constant badgering by the prosecutor, Captain Shattuck.
Sgt. Skidmore (Juano Hernandez) has a funny line, "Trouble come double, sir." Rutledge has the best line in the movie when he tells Mary Beecher: "Lady, you don't know how hard I'm trying to stay alive."Billie Burke (Glenda the good witch, 1939) was at 76 years, as usual too old for her part as Cornelia, the wife of Col. Otis Wingate (53 year-old Willis Bouchey).
The idea of a troop of black soldiers fighting as well as white ones would no doubt have been satisfying to many well-intentioned people, as would Woody Strode's portrayal of a noble warrior with a strong sense of integrity.
It was a far cry from the demeaning stereotypes of black people that one found in the movies only a few years earlier--including Ford's own "The Sun Shines Bright." Today it's a different story.
We see Woody Strode in several poses designed to portray him as an almost mythic character.The movie alternates between courtroom scenes that are not very exciting and outdoor sequences that, in true John Ford fashion, are beautiful.
Rutledge in a Rut. Woody Strode is the title character but the film stars Jeff Hunter and Constance Towers.
Strode was in a couple of the aging directors last films Two Rode Together he played an Indian warrior, and in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance he played John Wayne's faithful western Stepin Fechtit.
I have never liked John Ford's westerns but this one finally does him justice and offers an African American audience some long overdue credit.We have a Black man as hero but of course the Native Americans still had to be presented as savages, and that is the main problem with this film.
Those points are hammered home by John Ford as the court must ask itself is he being accused because of his being in the wrong place at the wrong time ?
But even so it drags the movie in the scenes where the two leads are playing romance then with Dealing with Woody Strode's Rutledge.
John Ford once again returns to Monument Valley to give us a tale of soldiering, military justice, and who-done-it, with a strong racial overtone.
Jeffery Hunter and Constance Towers are fine in their roles, Juano Hernandez is believable as an old soldier whose friend has been accused of a heinous crime, and Woody Strode handles the title role with dignity and appealing intensity.
Strode once remarked that in this film John Ford "put some good words in my mouth," and he certainly did.
Ford, who had approached the subject of racism four years earlier in "The Searchers," is less subtle in his approach here, but handles the subject expertly, telling the story of the Ninth Cavalry's "Buffalo Soldiers" with the respect that their place in history deserves..
Sergeant Rutledge (1960) *** (out of 4) Extremely well-made and dramatic film from John Ford about a black soldier (Woody Strode) accused of killing his superior officer and raping and murdering his daughter.
SERGEANT RUTLEDGE, for some reason, never really gets mentioned when people discuss the films of John Ford and that's a shame because it's certainly one of the best films of his later period.
I really enjoyed the way Ford told the story as we start off in the court room where we hear the charges and then through flashbacks we see all the events that led up to the murder and the aftermath.
I don't think I'm overstating things when I say this was without question one of the strongest roles for a black actor at this period in time and Strode certainly did everything he could to make it so memorable.
With that said, the incredibly strong performances and strong story are good enough to overcome this one flaw and SERGEANT RUTLEDGE is worth viewing..
John Ford who was among many who perpetuated black racial stereotypes, notably in Judge Priest and The Sun Shines Bright, got a chance to redeem himself with the making of Sergeant Rutledge.
A year before in the Robert Mitchum film, The Wonderful Country, Negro League baseball legend Satchel Paige played a black cavalry sergeant in a supporting role.
But in Sergeant Rutledge the story centers around such a character and the ordeal he goes through when accused of rape and murder.
The victims are his commanding officer and his daughter.The leads are Woody Strode as the accused Sergeant Braxton Rutledge and Jeffrey Hunter as the lieutenant who defends him in a court martial.
The story is told in flashback through the accounts of the many witnesses at the court martial and in some of those scenes, John Ford got to revisit his beloved Monument Valley for some good old Indian fights.The murders at the fort take place simultaneously with an outbreak from the Apache reservation.
Constance Towers who discovers both the results of an Indian attack and the fleeing sergeant at the railroad station, becomes both Rutledge's biggest champion and the object of Jeffrey Hunter's romantic intentions.The dilemma that Strode faced was that by so many black people, especially in the south.
The father might not have fired on a white man either.Woody Strode had he come along ten to fifteen years later might well have become an action hero star like Wesley Snipes for instance.
These became his career roles, too bad he didn't build on Sergeant Rutledge to get better parts like black actors did in the next generation.Two of John Ford's stock company regulars shine in Sergeant Rutledge, Carleton Young and Willis Bouchey.
This was her farewell screen role and she went out in scatterbrained style.Jeffrey Hunter turns out to be a pretty good lawyer himself and he brings the trial to a sudden end with a bit of fast thinking on his feet worthy of Perry Mason.This very first film dealing with the black buffalo soldiers of the U.S. Cavalry is great viewing for those who like both courtroom drama and westerns.
Granted this is the largest black cast ever assembled for a Ford film, but that does not really mean he was trying to make a civil rights message here.
The (sort of) running gag with the judge and his wife was wearing a little thin at some point, though.The cast members play quite well, with Wooody Strode as the stout-hearted Sergeant Rutledge as my personal favorite.
John Ford's grandson, Dan, wrote of "Sergeant Rutledge" that Pappy was really feeling his age on this one and I guess he's right.
Not just that it was made by John Ford, but that it's a courtroom drama with enough outdoor action scenes to keep a viewer interested.
Normally, a movie about the trial of a man accused of rape and murder would be suspenseful.
But since the movie was made in 1960, and the accused was a black man who supposedly raped a white girl, it was a given that the man was innocent.
But that is still thin gruel, for even if Sergeant Rutledge had been white, the trial is a flop, dramatically speaking.In place of suspense or dramatic value, the movie delivers, or is supposed to deliver, a sense of moral worth, in which the audience is allowed to take pride in the way it is above racial prejudice.
Well, Woody Strode was finally given the opportunity to act in this 1960 film and acted he did in an especially emotionally charged court scene.As for the picture itself, it's routine fanfare.
It's 1881 in the Arizona territory and the good sergeant has been accused of raping a young girl and killing her father.
While this has occurred, the Apaches are on the attack.Jeffrey Hunter played Rutledge's fellow soldier who defends him at his trial.
My best friends are black; Woody Strode and my servant who's lived with me for thirty years.
I consider the blacks as completely American!" - John FordSet in the late 1880s, John Ford's "Sergeant Rutledge" stars Woody Strode as a black sergeant in the United States Cavalry.
Strode's character is wrongfully accused of raping and murdering a young woman, a charge which he attempts to overturn.Released in 1960, "Sergeant Rutledge" was one of several attempts by director John Ford to address a very specific accusation: that many of his previous westerns presented racist, whitewashed versions of the Old West (by 1870, approximately 290,000 African Americans lived in the sixteen territories comprising the West, approximately twelve percent of the population).
In this regard, "Rutledge" finds Strode playing an archetypal "strong, righteous black man".