Like Little Big Man, this film was part of the learning process that challenged the demonisation of ‘injuns’ in countless cowboy movies.īesides trying to set the record straight on native America, Soldier Blue was also an early Vietnam allegory, targeting the My Lai massacre at a time when it was too controversial to tackle to portray – it took Hollywood until the 1980’s to do that. In fact, Soldier Blue is an early revisionist western, told more from the Native American side as well as the anti-war movement.

On paper, the story looked more like an old-school western, 'cowboys and indians'.

In addition, the fuss in the press at the time made it sound like a violent atrocity of bad taste. From accounts I'd read about the stuntwork and particularly the gruesome prosthetic make-up effects (like in John Brosnan's book Movie Magic), it sounded like the British censors had made many extensive cuts. When it was released in 1970, the film's title and the original 'nude squaw' poster made this look like it was going to be softcore porno.

Pieces 1982 widescreen dvdrip uncut