movingwater
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. My main complaint is a terribly annoying, invasive soundtrack, featuring a Jew's Harp of all things. (Like blues harmonica, a little goes a long way!)
Trombonehead
I just saw this movie for the first time on Turner Classic Movies tonight. I had heard about it, but missed it. It's just another shoot-'em-up horse opera, but this time with a difference. 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. It's unbelievable how ridiculous this music is. Hollywood has a lot to answer for in its racist treatment of minorities throughout its early history, which has never been fully addressed. 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.
khemet
I don't understand how someone could classify this film as a "comedy". It did have it's comedic moments, but no more than any other Western or Drama. Then that false comment ends up on the front page of the IMDb? Weird. This was a first rate Western by any standard. 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. The one fair and honest White man was the town Sheriff, who was quickly killed off by another White man for this very reason.
manipool
I remember my parents taking me to see this film when I was 11. I loved it. 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!
AD
