Written and directed by Dru Holley, co-directed by Jerome Young and Jerry Bell Jr., co-written by Dan Evans and Barbara Multer-Wellin. It tells the story of Buffalo Soldiers, the name given to African-American regiments who fought in the U.S. military in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Starring: Ryan Booth, Marcus Boston, Lenard Howze, Shelton Johnson, Darrell Millner and Anthony L. Powell.
When you’re dealing with not one but two heavy topics combined, race and war, and doing it within an hour runtime, it comes with a lot of limitations so instead of a deep dive, it’s an overview, made to encourage you to want to learn more. That’s what Buffalo Soldiers Fighting Two Fronts does, it has a host of different accounts and adds in the modern perspective, it’s a starting point which genuinely does make you want to go read, or listen to podcasts, about the subject. The tone and style is very typical of its type of documentary, it’s simple but highly accessible, it strongly follows the formula but it does work.
The aspect which can offset those limitation with its runtime, is its talking heads and Buffalo Soldiers Fighting Two Fronts made some great choices. Most notably with Shelton Johnson, a park ranger with the U.S. National Park Service, who works in Yosemite National Park. He’s a genuine pleasure to watch at work, he clearly has such an avid passion for the subject and he’s extremely charming. He may take the spotlight but everyone involved has clear, inviting voices that help to bring the subject to life.
Undoubtedly, there’s going to be a certain amount of this topic that’s not going to be a surprise to anyone, with racism what it is today, you can only imagine how much worse it was in the 1800s. Yet, the documentary still has a few surprises in store, including one particularly interesting exploration of a woman who managed to pass as a man long enough to actually make it into the army. The writers chose some great material to work with, that both gives that overview you’re looking for, but also has a few more specific, unexpected examples to pluck at your curiosity. Especially those that colour outside of the lines, giving you the good with the bad.
Buffalo Soldiers Fighting Two Fronts is a great jumping off point for discussing these men of history, their successes, how they were treated and their complicated existence. Stylistically it may be decidedly by the book, simple and looking like every other made for TV style documentary you’ve ever seen but it’s not hard to look past that. Primarily because there’s some superb talking heads, it’s also a very interesting topic and is some easy educational viewing.
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