BUCK AND THE PREACHER

US, 1971, 101 minutes, Colour.
Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Cameron Mitchell.
Directed by Sidney Poitier.

Buck and the Preacher is entertaining and strong in message, but not quite a success. As a story of negroes, cowboys and Indians it will pass. As a message film, specifically dedicated to blacks persecuted by defeated Southerners after the Civil War, it will also pass. But somehow or other it does not quite gell. Whether this is the fault of Sidney Poitier in his first directing role, or whether it is the fault of the screenplay which has the principal characters chasing and racing all over the screen and countryside, is difficult to say.

1. In what way was this a different Western?

2. How did the dedication of the film to slain Negroes affect your appreciation of the film?

3. Did the fact that it was directed by black actor, Sidney Poitier, affect appreciation?

4. The film was clearly intended as a message Western. What was the message? Was it intensely communicated? Effectively?

5. Were the Negroes made too heroic and the whites too villainous?

6. What was the impact of seeing the Indians help the Negroes? (Yet the Indians saw the Negroes as dark whites).

7. What impact did the sequences of the bounty hunters massacring the Negroes and burning and looting the camps make on you? Why?

8. Was Buck, Sidney Poitier, a satisfactory hero? Many critics and audiences find Poitier too noble. Was this the case here?

9. What kind of man was the Preacher? How sincere, heroic? How much of a charlatan? Did you like him? Did he provide good humour? How did he compare with Buck? Did the contrast of the two help balance the film and its theme?

10. Much of the film was devoted to chases. Was too much time given to them?

11. Was the film too brutal, especially Buck and the Preacher's killing of the whites in the town? How did this contrast with their attempts to rob the bank?

12. Was the final chase and shoot? up too contrived (especially with the Indians), or did it fit in well with the whole film?

13. Was it evident from the film and its style that this was Sidney Poitier's first film as director?