Carter's Army (1970)

So-so wartime movie deals with captain Carter (Stephen Boyd ) , a tough but racist commandant , he is assigned by General Matt Clark ( Paul Stewart) a dangerous mission whose aim is avoid to blow up a dam vital to the Allied in 1944 . Carter is parachuted and contacts ¨B¨ company formed by Africo-Americans who dedicate labors on kitchen , cleaning and latrines in trenches. The outfit is formed by a motley group , as the leader lieutenant (Robert Hooks) , a coward ( keep an eye out Richard Pryor) , a hight and corpulent (Grier), , an intelligent professor and cooker ( Moses Gunn ) who knows the German language , a N.Y. Harlem young (Billy Dee Williams) expert on knifes , an idealist and imaginative young ( Glyn Turman ) who writes in his bloc the following : ¨ The company fought magnificently , killing 23 of the enemy before taking the machine gun nest . Lieutenant Wallace cited 3 men , myself included for bravery under fire . I am continually awed by the heroism of this company , under the severest of battle conditions . I will receive medal of honor when we reach Berlin . The fighting has been hard , the strain almost exhausting . I will receive the medal of honor from General Eisenhower but the heroism of ¨ B ¨ company will be preserved by the men who have seen the fight and die ¨. Captain Carter along with Lieutenant Wallace as leaders of the all-black commando assigned to the suicide mission behind enemy lines must prepare the useful unit . After that , the saboteurs contact their allied partisan (Susan Oliver) at a farm . They wreak havoc and kill Nazis to earn the respect of military higher-ups in an exciting final .This low-budgeted and short-runtime warlike Telefilm concerns about an incredible lesson of courage set in WWII ; retelling the racial background problem in the US army . The TV movie produced by Aaron Spelling packs thrills, suspense , lots of action sequences and climatic ending , but doesn't quite hang together . The film belongs to Commandos sub-genre whose maximum examples result to be the classics as ¨Dirty dozen¨ , ¨Guns of Navarone¨ , ¨When eagles dare ¨, ¨ and ¨Kelly's heroes¨ and group of movies that were made during the 60s and 70s regarding warlike adventures about special forces in risked missions . The motion picture is badly realized by George McGowan . He's an usual television director ( Returns to Fantasy island , Murder on flight 502 , Savage run ) and occasionally for cinema ( Frogs , The magnificent seven ride ) . Rating : Below average .

I bought this for a dollar at a local chain store and was a little surprised by the good storytelling in this. The reasons I happened upon buying this was because A, I'm trying to own 1000 movies, and B it had great actors on the cover. When i saw that Billy Dee Williams was in this all I could think was how cool it was going to be to see a young Lando Calersion type fighting in the second world war. But he really had no vigor in him in this film. He was serious and to the point which is probably more real life as what this film needs to be showcased proper. Richard Pryor was the second actor who influenced me into buying this because I thought his comedy would shine through the move. Again it did not. He is the cut up of the unit but he is still serious in this which I believe is one of first roles. Robert Hooks who is an actor I had never heard of and have still yet to see any follow ups to this is very good in his performance of a red neck put in charge of an all black squad only to realize that they fight just as hard as any white man for what the believe in. The film does a good job of showcasing racial tensions during a 1940's setting. It is hard to take that we actual segregated that little back in our history. If your on the look out for a film that will grow your mind this is it. I recommend it for war buffs.

The writers probably had no experience in the army, and probably never glanced at a history book, but I still give this cheaply produced war film some credit for taking a long-needed look at the role of black soldiers in the second world war.The action is confused and unbelievable--any episode of Combat! has better production values, but the cast is interesting. Seeing New York Giant Rosie Greer was worth the buck I paid for this. The art direction is fifth rate--the men wear Korean War uniforms, and it was pretty lousy weather by the time the U.S. Army reached Germany in 1944, not sunny as they show here, and I don't think the terrain resembled Northern California. The script never does make clear why the black support troops are used as combat soldiers. There is a nice touch that shows some of the men carrying Springfield rifles instead of M-1s, which second rate troops probably would have been issued with.This basic story idea(racist southern officer commanding black troops) should have been expanded into a big budget production back then, and its not too late to try it now. You have to take this for what it is, and I admire the creators of this film for making the effort.I remember seeing this a while ago and thinking it was set in Italy, which would have made more sense because there were black combat troops operating there in 1944.

I rented this movie as a joke a while back, and boy was I glad I did... this film is hilarious... if you can even find a copy of it, rent it and watch it and laugh and then watch it again. It's also great to see a young Richard Pryor playing a serious role in a film that in the end will probably be one of his funniest.