MovieChat Forums > Soldier Blue (1970) Discussion > Hardly seen in U.S. theaters?

Hardly seen in U.S. theaters?

posted 15 years ago by DrLao-2
8 replies | jump to latest

At Buffy Sainte-Marie's website, she discusses Soldier Blue a little (link below). She says that while it was pretty popular in Canada and Europe, it was fairly obscure in the U.S.

http://www.creative-native.com/lyrics/soldier.htm

As I was watching the film for the first time recently, I was surprised that this movie was apparently widely released in the U.S. back then--for that matter, it's hard to imagine it getting a wide release even today--but apparently the release wasn't so wide.

I'm guessing that there were probably some parts of the country where it didn't play at all.

I wonder if there were political reasons for Buffy Ste.-Marie not getting an Oscar for her song (and apparently not even being nominated)? The gov't had (and continues to have) a fair amount of pull over TV/movies. She described in one interview (viewable on You Tube) that President Johnson's administration leaned on TV producers to prohibit her from playing certain songs.

[–] bijou-2 15 years ago

This movie was widely released in the US. Some smaller town theatres passed on it since it did not do very well at the boxoffice in the larger cities.

Distributor AVCO Embassy did not have much pull in the market and could not convince all theatres to play their flop films the way the major studios did.

[–] AlbertTheFlasher 15 years ago

Yeah, AVCO Embassy was known for releasing some rather unusual movies during this period, especially those anti-establishment films like The Ski Bum and The Sporting Club. And of course Soldier Blue, which is the very definition of revisionist western. And yes, they were all pretty much box office flops, weren't they?

Then in the late 70s/early 80s era, AVCO shifted their focus on the horror and action genres (mainly horror, I'd say) before finally going out of business.

[–] WoodstockMojo 14 years ago

in 1970. It's an excellent film and well worth seeing. It's hard to find on DVD, I understand, because of controversial reasons. I taped it from a rental in the '80's so I have it on VHS, but would much prefer to own it on DvD.

Just. . . . . IMAGINE

[–] apache67 14 years ago

Hey There,

You can find it unedited on amazon.com Lions Gate released it about three or four years ago. It's in widescreen and beautiful picture.

[–] DrLao-2 13 years ago

I rented it from Netflix last year.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ofumalow 12 years ago

I was actually under the impression that it did quite well in its original U.S. release...

[–] Tabbycat (748) 7 months ago

It must have, as it got a re-release on a double bill with “Rider on the Rain” in 1975.
They don’t usually rerelease flops.

Both “R”-rated films were edited to “PG” for that rerelease.