Buck and the Preacher (1972)

Buck and the Preacher (1972)

starring Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee

directed by Sidney Poitier

Buck (Sidney Poitier), not long after the American Civil War, helps a wagon train of formerly enslaved people who are traveling west across the plains in search for a better place to live. They are pursued by a band of White men who are intent on convincing them, by whatever means needed, to turn around and go back to the misery they left behind in Louisiana. 

Buck crosses paths with Preacher (Harry Belafonte), a man who claims to be a be a wandering preacher. They get off to a bad start but wind up teaming up to try and protect the wagon train.

Thoughts

This is not a perfect movie or even an excellent one but there are aspects of it that I really like. I like the way it is shot and the fact that things aren't overexplained. I really like the moments where the story is told visually rather than vocally. I like the tension in scenes such as the bank robbery. The best scenes were the ones where the story slowed down and gave the viewer time to absorb what was going on, like the bank robbery and the moment where Buck agonizes over whether to be true to his word to wagon train or true to Ruth (Ruby Dee), his woman.

Extras

I watched the movie on Tubi. I turned to Amazon a few days later. There I found an interview with the two stars from 1972. It was part of an episode of Soul! The interview lasted almost 30 minutes and was conducted by Ellis Haizlip. The interview was bookended by musical performances by Novella  Nelson. The interview is about more than just the movie.