Review of Sergeant Rutledge (1960) by Gregory W — 27 Jun 2010

John Ford made some of the best Western movies ever made, but every once in a while he had to try to make a political statement in his movies. in 1959 and 1960 the country was in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement so old John Ford decided to make a movie about it.

Only he set it in the Old West to take some of the edge off it. The story is about a black soldier accused of raping and murdering a white girl. As usual with a John Ford Western the heros are 20th Century characters transplanted into the 19th Century.

Jeffery Hunter plays an Army lieutenant who is both the defense attorney and the commanding officer of Sergeant Rutledge. His attitude is not that of a 19th Century soldier but a 1960's liberal. Sergeant Rutledge is a member of the 9th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers.

He is accused of killing a superior officer and raping and murdering a white girl. As a Western it's good. It's set during the Apache Wars. There are some good fights with renegade Apaches. As a crime drama and a court room drama it's little weak.

The original story was set in post World War II Germany not the Old West. In the Old West if a black man so much as looked at a white woman he'd be lynched. There would be no trial. As for the trial itself the procedures were all wrong.

The trial was just a dramatic device to tell the story in flashback. Also the murder of a civilian would have been in a civilian court not a military courts martial. He did kill the superior officer which would have been handled in a military court but he wouldn't have been defended by combat officer and he would still have been punished even if it had been self defense.

Then in the end there is a court room confession by the real killer like a Perry Mason story. The Sergeant is then restored to his former rank as if nothing had happened.