Plot
Conflicted, light-skinned Sergeant Waters (Adolph Caesar) ruthlessly heaps abuse upon his men. He calls them names, but he especially relishes torturing the jovial and highly talented C.J. Memphis (Larry Riley). Sergent Waters especially cannot stand the light-hearted behavior from the fellow black men in the platoon.
When Waters is killed, there are plenty of suspects for Captain Davenport (Howard E. Rollins, Jr.) to investigate. Some soldiers also believe that Sergeant Waters was killed by the Ku Klux Klan.
Art Evans plays Private Wilkie, a nervous man too acquiescent for his own good. David Alan Grier plays C.J.'s closest friend, bonded by their Mississippi roots. Denzel Washington, in one of his earliest motion picture roles, portrays the deeply embittered Pfc. Peterson.
Read more about this topic: A Soldier's Story
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—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
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—John Ashbery (b. 1927)