The lullaby of manslaughter

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Movie
German title The lullaby of manslaughter
Original title Soldier Blue
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1970
length 112 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Ralph Nelson
script John Gay
production Gabriel Katzka
Harold Loeb
music Roy Budd
camera Robert B. Hauser
cut Alex Beaton
occupation

The lullaby from manslaughter (original title: Soldier Blue ) is an American late west from 1970. Directed by Ralph Nelson .

action

22 soldiers are killed in an attack by the Cheyenne on a gold transport; only the young soldier Honus Gant and Cresta Lee, a former prisoner of the Cheyenne and fiancée of an army lieutenant whom she intends to marry for financial reasons, survive. Honus and Cresta try to make their way to an army base , Cresta trying to convince Honus that the Indian way of life is morally superior to that of the whites. The two come into conflict with Kiowas and with the arms smuggler Isaac B. Lemmert (pun in the German film version; original name: Isaac Q. Cumber), whose delivery of rifles and ammunition destined for the Cheyenne destroys Honus. Honus is subsequently wounded in the leg by the arms dealer, but Cresta takes care of him, and the two get closer.

When they finally reach the army, they plan a campaign of revenge against the Cheyenne. Cresta tries to warn the Indians. Although the Cheyenne chief rides towards the soldiers with a white flag, the army opens fire on the Indian village with cannons and then razes it to the ground, with no consideration for women and children and terrible atrocities being perpetrated. The protesting Honus is arrested and chained, Cresta and the few surviving Cheyenne are taken away.

background

The film's story is a visionary embodied story of the Sand Creek Massacre , the 1864 cavalrymen of the American northern states to the inhabitants of an unprotected settlement of Cheyenne and Arapaho - Indians in Colorado Territory perpetrated. The retelling of the massacre is embedded in a fictional, more extensive story that revolves around survivors of an earlier massacre that the Indians perpetrated on American cavalrymen.

Filmed at the height of the Vietnam War , just as the judicial review of the My Lai massacre was making waves in the United States, Soldier Blue provided the first cinematic retelling of one of the most shameful crimes in the history of the American conquest in the western part of the continent.

The film sparked controversy, not just as a revisionist western, but especially because of the previously unusually clear depictions of violence. Director Nelson, who also played a small part in the film, set a new standard for the explicit visual representation of violence by showing the nudity in scenes of rape and also "realistic" close-ups of projectiles tearing open human tissue. He anticipated what would become the trademark of later directors like Quentin Tarantino .

The screenplay was written by John Gay based on the novel Arrow In The Sun by Theodore V. Olsen . Candice Bergen , Peter Strauss and Donald Pleasence played the leading roles . The theme music was written and sung by Buffy Sainte-Marie .

The manslaughter lullaby was not a box office hit for a variety of reasons. Another western from 1970, which also tells of a massacre of American cavalrymen against Indians, turned out to be the greatest handicap: Little Big Man . This dealt with a similar topic, but put The Lullaby of Manslaughter in the shade in terms of acting and award success .

Reviews

Joe Hembus criticizes that "the harshness of the film, that is, the extensive and detailed portrayal of the massacre, (...) is not covered by its moral or formal qualities." Phil Hardy noted that the film was "a delayed response to the revelations of American war atrocities in Vietnam."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for The Lullaby from Manslaughter . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2004 (PDF; test number: 42 856-a V / DVD).
  2. ↑ Joe Hembus: Western Lexicon - 1272 films from 1894-1975. 2nd Edition. Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1977. ISBN 3-446-12189-7 . P. 698.
  3. ^ Phil Hardy: The Encyclopedia of Western Movies. Woodbury Press, Minneapolis 1984. ISBN 0-8300-0405-X , p. 327.