My Romance with Movies: From the 1970s: Buck and the Preacher

1972 Western

From Columbia Pictures

Directed by Sidney Poitier

Starring

Sidney Poitier

Harry Belafonte

Ruby Dee

Cameron Mitchell

Denny Miller

Nita Talbot

John Kelly

James McEachin

Clarence Muse

Enrique Lucero

Julie Robinson

Lynn Hamilton

Tony Brubaker

Belafonte came across Drake Walker's western story and bought it, thinking it would be a good vehicle for him and Poitier. They had yet to work together and at one point had been looking for the right property.

The two men had known each other since the height of the Civil Rights marches and both were friends with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After King's death they had a falling out and didn't speak for a few years.

But hey, this is commerce. Belafonte thought that Poitier had the clout to attract a major studio to a western starring black actors and he hoped Poitier would agree. And he did. By the time the film was in the can, the two had a solid friendship that would last until Poitier's passing.

In some ways it's an ordinary story and in some ways not. I was attracted to it precisely because it told of blacks in the Old West and starred these two giants. In that regard I was certainly not disappointed.

Both actors had production companies and agreed to co-produce. They hired Joseph Sargent to direct. He was quite the prolific director but largely on television projects. Early on he and his two stars differed greatly on the direction the film was taking and they fired him. Poitier took over as director, the first time he would do so. Sargent received no screen credit.

Poitier as Buck

The guys also hired a number of people who had worked with one or both of them before, chief among them, Ruby Dee, as the film's leading lady. She had previously worked with Poitier in No Way Out (1950), Go Man Go (1954), Edge of the City (1957), Our Virgin Island (1958) and most prominently in A Raisin in the Sun (1961) in a role she'd originated on Broadway. I loved her role in Buck.

The film opens in the late 1860s in Kansas Territory with these words: the Civil War was over and by law the slaves were freed. But when the promise of land and freedom was not honored, 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 black wagon masters who 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 the fields.

Poitier is Buck, a wagon master who is hired to escort 40 or so men, women and children to a valley they have dreamed about out west. Buck is in thick with local Native American tribes who ensure safe passage and food. He pays them for allowing him to kill buffalo. The agreement is Buck and company will pass through the area quickly.

Before they start on their journey a savage night rider (Mitchell) and his gang of thugs and murderers come upon the camp of the black travelers (Poitier is off somewhere) and kill many of them and advise the others to go back to where they came from, telling them there's no place for them in the west.

Afterward the raiders go to Poitier's cabin with the intention of killing him... one might say they're obsessed with killing him. Again he is not there but they hide in the house and around the property while holding Dee, his wife, captive. When Poitier arrives, Mitchell has a gun in Dee's back on the front porch as she's told to call him to the house. The couple knows one another well and she is able to warn him by simple facial expressions. An exciting gunfight ensues.

Belafonte as the preacher

Buck rides off and encounters Belafonte, an amusing con man posing as a preacher. There's a gun inside his rather large Bible. Poitier takes Belafonte's horse and leaves in return his beat-up one. They meet up later when Belafonte wanders into the group's camp. Again Mitchell and gang invade and steal all their money, some $1400. Poitier is enraged.

He and Belafonte ride into the nearest town, knowing the thugs are probably there, with the intention of stealing their money back. However after a shootout with several of them at Madam Talbot's house, they discover the men don't have anything close to $1400. So, with Dee's wily help, the guys rob the bank and get a lot more than $1400.

Ruby Dee

The bank robbery is one of my favorite parts as is the entire episode in the town. It's also a fairly long segment and unfortunately the story stays too long away from the settlers. And with it, the film's message is lost for too long. The movie, while still good, turns into an adventure yarn of the good guys against the bad guys. There is no doubt Columbia Pictures required a great big, blowsy, shoot-em-up segment because apparently the hardship of people who've already experienced too much hardship is not satisfying enough.

Soon Belafonte, Poitier and Dee are being chased all across the countryside by a determined sheriff (Kelly) and his newly-appointed deputies. Coming to their aid in the nick of time is a Native American chief (Lucero), his English-speaking wife (Robinson) and a slew of braves. Again, it's a great segment, a chase so popular in westerns, but it keeps the story away from the people being helped.

After its fair share of needless bloodshed and cruelty the film ends on a happy note with the caravan on its way west.

According to Poitier's autobiography, the dissatisfaction with Sargent was that he wanted to turn the film into a typical western while Poitier and Belafonte wanted the story to focus on the black travelers and the troubles they had on their journey west.

Poitier said, Harry and I wanted black people and minorities in general to find in Buck and the Preacher a certain substance, a certain nourishment, a certain complement of self. We wanted black people to see the film and be proud of themselves, be proud of their history. However dishonest, unpleasant and inhuman had been the depiction of that history by those white men who had written most of the history books that tell us about ourselves, as we wanted this film to say: Hey, look, there were those of us, and not just a few, who were people of great courage, of great stamina, of great personality, of great conviction, people who should be a powerful influence on our sense of ourselves.

Relationships between blacks and Native Americans had never been explored before and it was demonstrably better than between Native Americans and whites.

Julie Robinson & Enrique Lucero

There is some honest and touching dialogue among the black travelers. One felt great empathy for people who suffered such great tragedies before and during the Civil War only to have their new, so-called freedom touched with more of the same. In this regard here is a revisionist western that draws parallels to the 1960s' Civil Right Movement along with life in 2022. The substance of the film in this regard spoke of the forces that drove these people, their hardships and their perseverance.

It seems to me the negative reviews came out of the same complaint I had. Okay, Columbia (and the public) wants some great sequences of gunplay and such but why leave the black people to have it? Why go into town? Let's see blacks in the heart of the melee and winning. I thought Poitier and Belafonte missed the boat on this one. I could see that it could have been a great western. As it is, it's still good.

Belafonte only wanted to play the preacher and his performance, largely a comic one, is the best in the film. He always was a wonderful character actor. Poitier's acting was fine but many put their attention on his directing. While the overall results were mixed on this score, he went on to direct eight other films with more success.

Dee, always so adorable to me, is good as Poitier's trusted and competent wife. Mitchell is scary as the vicious leader of the night riders. Robinson is strong and forthright as the Native American chief's interpreter-wife. In real life, at the time, she was Belafonte's wife. In the camp is another strong black character actress, Lynn Hamilton, whom I've always so enjoyed.

Here's the trailer: