A Soldier's Story

TCM's Dave Karger introduces A Soldier's Story, 1984.

Introduction and comments following A Soldier's Story, 1984, with TCM's Ben Mankiewicz and guests Juliet Taylor and David Rubin.

Joining director Norman Jewison’s opening, Patti LaBelle the maybe implausibly excellent vocalist in fictional Tynin, La, 1944, and Adolph Caesar the intoxicated African American Army drill sergeant whose murder forms the premise, Wings Hauser the white officer debriefing troops including Denzel Washington and Larry Riley, in A Soldier’s Story, 1984.

Robert Townshend is Corporal Ellis, enthusiastic driver for Captain Davenport (Howard E Rollins), the prosecutor sent to Louisiana to investigate the murder of a black sergeant, and who must report to Colonel Nivens (Trey Wilson), who has an attitude, in A Soldier’s Story, 1984, directed by Norman Jewison from Charles Fuller’s play and screenplay.

Prosecutor Captain Davenport (Howard E. Rollins Jr.) questions Private Wilkie (Art Evans), leading into a flashback sequence further exposing the character of murder victim Sergeant Waters (Adolph Caesar) in 1944 Louisiana, in A Soldier's Story 1984.

Investigating the murder of Sgt. Waters (Adolph Caesar), Captain Davenport (Howard E. Rollins Jr.) deposes Private Peterson (Denzel Washington) who recalls a baseball game starring CJ (Larry Riley), in Norman Jewison's A Soldier's Story, 1984, from Charles Fuller's play and screenplay.