Director John Ford left behind large shoes to fill after filming the first and finest portrayal of America’s legendary Buffalo Soldier troops.
The Buffalo Soldier and his crucial role in the post-Civil War West went unacknowledged for so long in history annals that his story was rarely told on film. Just shy of a century, from the 1866 formation of the black cavalry units, John Ford made the first and finest film on the subject, 1960’s Sergeant Rutledge.
A courtroom drama as well as a Western, the movie was a complex and incendiary story— the court-martial of black Sgt. Braxton Rutledge (played by Woody Strode) for the brutal rape and murder of a child, and the murder of her father, all of which were portrayed with flashbacks of the 9th Cavalry’s fight against the Apaches. Ford’s film dealt bravely with subjects few movies of the time dared. When another soldier asked Rutledge why he ran if he was innocent, he replied, “Because I walked into something none of us can fight: white woman business.”
The leading lady of the film, Constance Towers, tells True West, “It was a project that John Ford wanted to make for a long time. He was a great champion of the men who became the most heroic unit in the United States Cavalry.”
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