Buffalo Soldiers

Set in West Germany in 1989, shortly before the Berlin Wall falls, Buffalo Soldiers follows Ray Elwood, a U.S. Army clerk stationed near Stuttgart. Elwood is a charming schemer who has turned his posting into a profitable black market, selling off military property and running quiet deals while serving as clerk to a well-meaning but ineffective colonel. His operation grows more ambitious when he and his fellow soldiers come across a stockpile of missiles and warheads. At the same time, a new sergeant major arrives on base with no patience for the soldiers' rackets, and Elwood becomes involved with the sergeant's daughter, setting the two men on a collision course.

The film is a comedy-drama with crime and thriller elements, directed by Gregor Jordan, who also wrote the screenplay with Eric Weiss and Nora Maccoby. It was Jordan's second feature, arriving after Two Hands and before Ned Kelly. Joaquin Phoenix leads the cast as Elwood, alongside Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Anna Paquin, Elizabeth McGovern and Michael Peña.

Buffalo Soldiers was released in 2002 and runs 98 minutes. It was produced on a budget of about 15 million dollars and returned roughly 2 million dollars worldwide, a weak result. Its ratings sit in the middle range and are consistent across sources: 6.7 out of 10 on IMDb from around 26,000 votes, 6.3 out of 10 on TMDB from 359 votes, and a critics' rating of 6.7 out of 10 from 115 reviews.