Review: Buck and the Preacher

Post-Civil War western-comedy has wagon master Sidney Poitier reluctantly teaming up with roguish preacher/con-man/dentist’s meal ticket Harry Belafonte in taking on nasty bounty hunters (led by slimy Cameron Mitchell), who don’t agree with the recent move to free African-American slaves. In fact, they want Poitier and his wagon load of freed slaves to be back out in the fields. Ruby Dee is Poitier’s worried wife, in a throwaway role, whilst John Kelly plays the fair-minded sheriff who doesn’t especially care for the attitude of the bounty hunters.

Completely uninvolving, sluggish 1972 African-American western, the directorial debut of star Sidney Poitier, who would go on to direct several more uninspired films like the unequivocally awful “Ghost Dad” and the OK trilogy of action-comedies starring Poitier and Bill Cosby (beginning with “Uptown Saturday Night”. He takes a most interesting subject and...cocks it up completely by turning it into a subpar western-comedy that even Burt Kennedy would’ve passed on, and with only OK performances to show for it. And sadly, it isn’t even funny.

Belafonte comes off best, simply because he’s playing someone so far removed from his usual stuff, despite overdoing it quite a bit. Poitier is solid enough, but it’s hardly one of his more inspired turns. Dee and Mitchell (the latter seemingly under the impression that he’s Jack Palance’s long-lost twin brother) aren’t on screen long enough to really register.

Terribly disappointing film from a man who definitely should’ve known better. Scripted by Ernest Kinoy (“Brother John”, “Leadbelly”, and the all-time best TV miniseries “Roots”), from a story by Kinoy and Drake Walker (who has a small role in the film). Skip it, even if you’re a Poitier devotee, he’s come at this from the least interesting angle possible. I wasn’t expecting an important cultural artefact like “Roots”, necessarily, but this is still pretty superfluous junk.

Rating: C