The first big budget Western to feature a black hero, this military courtroom drama from director John Ford starred his long-time stock player Woody Strode. When a cavalry commander and his daughter are discovered murdered, racism amidst the 9th Cavalry immediately leads to suspicions that Sergeant Braxton Rutledge (Strode), a black man, is responsible for the crime. Arrested by Lieutenant Tom Cantrell (Jeffrey Hunter), Rutledge escapes from captivity during an Indian raid but voluntarily returns to warn his fellow cavalrymen that they are about to face an ambush by hostiles, saving the detachment from certain doom. At first among those who accept Rutledge's probable guilt, Cantrell and his love interest Mary Beecher (Constance Towers) become two of the accused man's scarce defenders as he is put on trial and faces testimony from prejudiced "witnesses." ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
Taking on Western racism just as the civil rights movement was gaining strength, John Ford's Sergeant Rutledge (1960) explores the case of an African-American cavalry soldier accused of raping and murdering a white girl. Part courtroom drama, part Western, the film reveals the facts about the crime in flashbacks as witnesses take the stand. Even as Woody Strode's formidable Rutledge proves his sterling character in taut sequences of cavalry clashes against the Apaches, the expressionistic use of light and color, particularly during Rutledge's encounter with a sympathetic female witness, points to the repressed sexual terror that drives the case against him. Strode's masterful performance imbues Rutledge with dignity as he defends himself in the courtroom scenes, and Ford also gives him a John Wayne-type star moment as he rides into Ford's signature Monument Valley to do his duty as a Western hero. Though Sergeant Rutledge was not one of Ford's popular successes, Strode's place as a breakthrough Western icon was confirmed by his brief yet evocative appearances in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Posse (1993). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Eddie Imazu - Art Director, Marjorie Best - Costume Designer, Russ Saunders - First Assistant Director, Wingate Smith - First Assistant Director, John Ford - Director, Jack Murray - Editor, Howard Jackson - Composer (Music Score), Mack David - Songwriter, Jerry Livingston - Songwriter, Gordon Bau - Makeup, Bert Glennon - Cinematographer, John Ford - Producer, Willis Goldbeck - Producer, Patrick Ford - Producer, Frank M. Miller - Set Designer, M.A. Merrick - Sound/Sound Designer, Willis Goldbeck - Screenwriter, James Warner Bellah - Screenwriter, James Warner - Screenwriter, James Warner Bellah - Book Author
Sergeant Rutledge is a 1960 film directed by John Ford, with Woody Strode in the title role. The film, controversial for its time, stars Strode as a black sergeant in the United States Cavalry accused of the rape and murder of a white girl.
The film revolves around the court-martial in the later 1880s of 1st Sgt. Braxton Rutledge, a "Buffalo Soldier" of the 9th U.S. Cavalry,[1] with Jeffrey Hunter as Lt. Tom Cantrell, Rutledge's troop officer and counsel for the defense. The story is told through flashback, expanding the testimony of witnesses as they describe the events following the murder of Rutledge's Commanding Officer, Major Dabney, and the rape and murder of Dabney's daughter, for which Rutledge is the accused.
It was all right for Mr. Lincoln to say we was free. But that ain't so! Not yet! Maybe someday, but not yet!
—Sergeant Rutledge
Cast
Jeffrey Hunter as 1st Lt. Tom Cantrell, 9th Cavalry (counsel for the defense)
^ Ford's use of the 9th was an anachronism. At the time of the story, with Gen. Nelson A. Miles in command, the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th U.S. Cavalry served in Arizona, not the 9th.
