Buck and The Preacher one-sheet

Friday night, the eve before my birthday, I stayed in my tiny downtown Austin apartment and enjoyed a Sidney Poitier film retrospective on one of my favorite television channels, Turner Classic Movies (TCM). I just happened upon the fest, but it was exactly what I was looking for and I happened upon it at exactly the right time.

After watching A RAISIN IN THE SUN and his academy award winning turn in the sublime LILIES OF THE FIELD, I watched a film of his I’d never heard of…BUCK AND THE PREACHER. After an informative introduction from TCM host Robert Osborne, I got comfortable on the couch and strapped in for two (more) hours, but this time instead of Poitier’s brooding antihero or his amiable Christ-like everyman, he wowed me with an original action tale amid 19th century black activism.

Poitier deftly directs himself in the lead as Buck. And it must be noted that this was his debut turn as director, Osborne said that he took over as director only a few weeks before shooting began in the middle of Mexico…without the studio’s official consent when Poitier and co-producer, co-star Harry Belafonte realized that the man they’d chose to direct wasn’t the right fit.

Released in 1972, Poitier takes the “exploitation” right out of Blaxploitation. The story revolves around Buck, a “wagon master” that attempts to lead freed slaves from Louisiana westward so that they might receive their 40 acres and a mule. The freed slaves encounter genocidal night raiders (masquerading as plantation labor recruiters) as they try to make their way to Colorado. Amazingly the clan also encounters a con-man preacher (Belafonte) who they must also escape until he changes his ways and decides to help Buck and the freed slaves.

The pace is brisk and accelerated with a clever sub-plot involving native Americans, accurately portrayed (as opposed to the mumbo-jumbo spouting caricatures that Hollywood was well-accustomed to depicting).

I’d always dug Belafonte, but now I have a new appreciation for his acting prowess. Belafonte obviously relishes his role as the smooth-talking, rotten-teethed grifter who has a change of heart at exactly the correct time. Belafonte  is the court jester to Poitier’s kingly, Christ-like Buck. He is the Flavor Flav to Poitier’s Chuck D. And he is so much more…Belafonte character arc has a much larger pitch than any other character in the film. Poitier might have had the meatier, harder role with its subtle degrees of dramatic modulations, but Belafonte’s scene-stealing role should have been an Academy Award winning performance. Sadly the Academy’s blindness to great performances by people of color was still institutionalized despite Poitier’s undeniable winning performance in LILIES OF THE FIELD.

Action, adventure, comedy, drama, tragedy, pathos all rolled up into the story of freed slaves trying to make it to the promise land. It’s a thing of glory and much better than the trailer lets on.

Make sure to set your TIVO, iCal, Google Calendar or DVR for September 18, 2009 at 10:00 p.m. and/or October 03, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. as it will show again on Turner Classic Movies.

TCM’s timing for Friday night’s Poitier retrospective couldn’t have been more prescient: on Thursday President Barack Obama awarded Poitier with the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.