-Do you ever have dreams where you are falling?- Elwood asks Robyn.

-Yes.- She answers.

-Do you ever hit?- He asks.

-No, I wake up.-

-Well, I hit, and I don’t wake up.- Elwood tells Robyn in a crowded nightclub in West Germany. Her response is so natural, you may have mouthed the words yourself. This exchange, paraphrased from my notes, is a magic moment from the exciting new film “Buffalo Soldiers” opening in limited release this weekend.

“Buffalo Soldiers” is a film with the hip somewhat heavy introspection of “Pulp Fiction” and the kind of fantastic strangeness of “Fight Club.” It is one of the best films I have seen this year and will invariably be one of most controversial because of the ultimate year of its release. On the shelf since 2001 when release was postponed due to 911, “Buffalo Soldiers” is now opening during the same week the Bush Administration scored a big victory by killing Saddam’s allegedly demon seed. Timing is everything, they say, them’s the breaks, I guess.

Elwood (Joanquin Phoenix) is a corporal stationed at a military base in West Germany in 1989 prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. He is the secretary for the naïve Col. Wallace Berman (Ed Harris). Elwood uses his youthful innocent appearance to manipulate Berman, bagging his sexy wife (Elizabeth McGovern all slinky with a mischievous smile) in the process. Elwood further abuses his position to procure military surplus that he sells on the German black market—anyone need 5000 gallons of Mop-N-Glo?

In time, Elwood’s life-style draws the attention of a new top sergeant (Scott Glenn) whose questioning immediately shakes Elwood’s crew. Soon, the sergeant, aptly named Robert E. Lee, puts the screws to Elwood by prying into his sideline affairs. One scene involving Elwood’s Mercedes cannot be forgotten quickly.

Elwood doesn’t back down to Lee, rather, chooses to mess with Lee by dating his daughter, Robyn (Anna Paquin). Their relationship, while quickly intimate, is sincere. Both Elwood and Robyn are damaged souls. Robyn shows Elwood a terrible burn that covers a large portion of her body, and Elwood reveals to her that his falling dreams are not the typical variety.

Elwood’s falling dreams are a kind of science fiction magic. I remember how Roger Ebert described the falling jet engine in “Donnie Darko” as a masterstroke. This made me want to see “Darko.” The falling dreams of “Buffalo Soldiers” should make you want to see the film. Director Gregor Jordan who with screenwriters Eric Weiss and Nora Maccoby adapted Robert O’Connor’s book adding dream sequences featuring Elwood falling as if delivered by a bomber. It is this effect that helps make “Buffalo Soldiers” exceptional. The screenplay intelligently never forgets the device using it throughout the film reminding us that bad deeds are not committed in a vacuum.

Critics of “Buffalo Soldiers” focus on politics polarized in this nationalistic climate. Of course, actor Joaquin Phoenix’ peace symbol flashing poster combined with a tag line that can be unpleasantly interpreted hasn’t helped things. But the story of the black market has some basis in truth, and, to be fair, Elwood is depicted as living a glamorous, and very un-military-like (therefore un-American), life-style reveling in the black market trade, cooking up Turkish heroin for his fellow soldiers. But Elwood isn’t happy and his dreams are nightmares, guilt chipping away until little humanity is left. Somehow, he tries to justify his actions by telling us that the government decided to put criminals and high school drop-outs in the military, what did they expect?

Although I have the highest respect for our soldiers now serving abroad, I have negotiated more than one plea in criminal cases involving termination of probation upon enlistment into the military. These things really happen. However, those that don’t wash out become wonderful soldiers and are part of our effective forces now active in Iraq. Mistakes in one’s past can be overcome. But bad apples exist, and court marshal is not uncommon. Hasty generalizations are unfair and “Buffalo Soldiers” is a narrow story that happens to take place on an American military base of yesteryear, not to be confused with our forces now in place in Iraq.

Politics aside, “Buffalo Soldiers” is extremely entertaining on the twisted pop culture level of “Three Kings.” Comparisons to “MASH” while inevitable are not fair because unlike the Robert Altman classic, writer/director Gregor Jordan has not made his central characters endearing and likeable forced into shady dealings because of the horrors of war. Oh no, Jordan uncompromisingly populates his film with bad people who just happen to be members of our military against the backdrop of one of last century’s most positive geopolitical events.

What makes Elwood different and likeable is that he cares about folks, but these are the same folks for which he cooks up all that heroin. And he actually falls in love with Robyn even though he only went out with her to make her father mad. Director Jordan smartly makes Robyn instantly aware of Elwood’s motives, and, further, uses Robyn to foreshadow events later in the film.

So much of “Buffalo Soldiers” is about the style and angst of the end of the 80s decade punctuated by the fall of the Wall. Drug use and excess was a reality as painful as it might be for all of us. And that falling nightmare, hitting bottom is never pretty but it helps if you understand that once there, you have nowhere to go but up.

Jonathan W. Hickman, 2003