actors during that period of time, it is Woody Strode who stands out— particularly in the films of
John Ford—and whose career deserves closer examination. In fact, within many of the roles
which Strode played, there are these “indelible moments,” when the actor’s performance
transcends his physique and background and the stereotypes attached to such, and gives the
audience the “hints of reality," of which Baldwin writes.
Sergeant Rutledge opened in 1960, during which the United States of America was
going through a great social upheaval in the form of the civil rights movement. Of course, after
1960, there was more upheaval to come. In the book Pappy: The Life o f John Ford, written by
Dan Ford, the famed director’s grandson, the younger Ford observes: “Warner Brothers,
sensitive about possible criticism from the black community, screened the picture for a number
of civil rights leaders at various stages of its completion. Their reactions were almost
unanimously positive. But when Sergeant Rutledge was released the following spring, it was
poorly received by critics both black and white" (286). Contributing to this and other criticisms
Sergeant Rutledge is a misreading of the film. It is a historical drama of a special kind,
belonging to a sub-genre which one might call the “historical tribute movie." Earlier in the book,
Dan Ford makes this comment, which I think is informative in terms of the making of Sergeant
Rutledge: “The mood of the country was changing, and Hollywood was changing with it. There
was a new, more liberal, more permissive spirit in the air. Minority groups were clamoring for
their piece of the American Dream, and there was a new generation of political leaders who
seemed willing to give it to them. John was confused and ambivalent. He liked the new
liberalism— particularly the struggle for black civil rights, which in his mind was not unlike the
struggle for Irish freedom. But he also knew that he was an old warhorse with set ideas, and
that his ability to respond to change was limited” (284). Given these factors, then, what John
Ford offers the nation in Sergeant Rutledge is his response, as a director who had given
American “the West” on celluloid, a film which expands the view of how the West was won, by
introducing a view of that saga which includes, as opposed to excludes, the black presence. At
one point, John Ford is said to have told Woody Strode, “I cannot make you a star.” Well, he
didn’t make Woody into a star. Instead, he made him into a symbol. Sergeant Rutledge
represents John Ford’s homage to the Black as soldier and American, and is also his blow for
civil rights.
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